Going on Virtual Holiday
Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality? — Bernard Lowe, Westworld
I woke from my peaceful slumber, like the gradual rising of Christmas cookies before one removes them from the oven.
“We made it to Christmas,” I thought. Along with the thought, I almost wished that the day would stretch on endlessly before we moved on with our lives, our 2020, and eventually our 2021.
I called out to my brothers as I headed downstairs and we started video chatting with our relatives from abroad using Facetime, Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, you name it.
My brother poured us mimosas as we started in the kitchen each of us bringing our beverage and conversation topic of choice to the virtual family affair.
While the video chatting would last several hours that day, we were able to cook together, eat together, meet new members (babies) of the family, open and share gifts received, and take pictures. At different moments, I reminisced on how Christmases past, I would have been with said relative either in their home country, our home country, or spending the holiday together in a third place. Video chatting is certainly one form of spending the virtual holidays, another is virtual reality.
Virtual Reality — it may conjure up images of overly sized headsets, projected environments, or dystopian stories. It may include the confluence of surreal environments, much like my experience in Japan at teamLab Borderless.
teamLab is an art collective made up of artists and ultratechnologists who navigate the disciplines of art, science, technology, design, and the natural world to create an immersive environment.
You may think of books, such as Ready Player One or Hunger Games. Perhaps various shows such as the Netflix series Black Mirror and the HBO series Westworld, come to mind when thinking through the parameters of how ‘real’ a digital world can be.
With COVID-19 and new strains continuing to plague our present, many travelers have grappled with the uncertain realities inherent in a nomadic lifestyle, vacation, or international excursion. In travel’s absence, many have turned to what’s available on our screens for solace.
While many are still in favor, appropriately so, of in-person real-life experiences, there is promise in leveraging technology.
I’ve thought about how we can make virtual travel experiences more immersive, especially during these times. As of late, I myself have tested out various options: virtual tours, travel gift boxes, storytelling platforms.
There are aspects of documenting the travel experience that have been within arms reach before our global pandemic— such as videos and documentaries. These have resurfaced and expanded exponentially as national parks provide more virtual content to satisfy a wanderlust spirit in place of receiving visitors. Travel influencers on TikTok (~2.1 billion views on #vanlife) and Instagram have pushed out more video and live content. Airbnb has cultivated online experiences where one can meet the world from home. Museums like the Louvre have even created virtual 360-degree tours of their most prized art pieces, like Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
I recently discovered a non-profit, CyArk, which was founded to digitally record, archive, and share the world’s largest digital collection of cultural heritage artifacts, some of which manifest in immersive storytelling experiences. A year ago, CyArk received a prototyping grant from NEH Digital Projects to develop Resonant, a virtual game to connect people to cultural heritage. These projects represent the future of connecting us humans in authentic and meaningful experiences.
One adventurous family, the flashpacking family, is known for sharing travel tips, itineraries, and their experiences around the world. They recently curated a litany of virtual travel experiences that they can experience with their kids. They even supplemented homeschool with several of these online resources to teach their children geography, learning greetings and phrases in different languages, and making various cuisines from around the world. These virtual travel resources allow the family, and now us, the visit the world from the comfort of our homes. As an added bonus, most of these virtual travel experiences are free.
If you are looking for something more tangible to gift, buy, or experience, a new phenomenon known as travel subscription boxes or vacation in a box, might be more your style.
Travel subscription boxes are a great way to give the gift of a virtual vacation.
A fusion of experiencing a place through local goods and commodities cultivated from local artisans, farmers, chefs, and more, the travel gift box allows for a curated authentic experience that also fuels local economy, one of the world-changing forces to a sustainable travel mindset.
While this isn’t the only curated listing of travel subscription boxes, I was particularly impressed by the Haphazard Traveler’s list.
Universal Yums — you can learn to say yum in every language as snacks from different countries are delivered to your doorstep monthly
Little Passports — award-winning travel subscription boxes (souvenirs, activities, music, etc.) for kids that teaches them about other cultures
Atlas Coffee — taste coffee from around the world as coffee tour guides send you on a coffee world tour for a subscription of 3, 6, or 12 months
The Wanderlust Box — a little bit of style, beauty, fitness, and travel-themed boxes curated based on the destination that inspires the most wanderlust
The Nomadik — an adventure in a box, the Nomadik cultivates a monthly box theme based on your interests and the season which prepares and inspires you for future trips by sending the appropriate gear. They also include a gear and adventure challenge card with each box
If you like what you read here, check out Priyanka’s debut novel, Third Culture Kids of the World: Exploring Sustainable Travel Mindsets. You can pick up your copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, or where most online books are sold.
