When the next trip comes, I’ll be ready

Anna Hart maps out her own route to becoming a better traveller

For the past few years, one of my most cherished January traditions has been to roughly plot my travel plans for the year ahead. Right now, admittedly, plotting anything more ambitious than a trip to the supermarket sounds laughable. And I can still hear laughter ringing in my ears about the plans I made for 2020: this time last year, I was booking Amtrak train tickets across America, from LA to New York, stopping along the way to cover music and festivals such as Modernism Week in Palm Springs, SXSW in Austin, Jazz Fest in New Orleans and Boston Calling in London. (OK, Boston Calling is in Boston, I’m just checking you haven’t zoned out through travel envy, a powerful soporific force.) Anyway, very little of this trip happened; I made it to Austin in March the week they cancelled SXSW, and flew back to Britain just in time for Lockdown 1.

Despite this, I’m spending my January dreaming about adventures to come in 2021, elbow-deep in newspaper travel sections such as this week’s delightful cover story. Even if trips are delayed until later in the year, or even if they don’t happen this year at all, it’s still important to have clear travel intentions. Because I want to make sure that every travel decision I make in 2021 is a conscious decision, and not be swayed by some dazzling deal, or a friend’s Instagram post, or a last-minute invitation.

A few years ago, I adopted a single new year’s resolution: to not buy a single plastic bottle of water all year. It sounds simple, and, when I got into the swing of things, it was – but it did require me to a bit more organised. And a bit more assertive, asking cafés or pubs to fill up my bottle when I was on the go. Both these things made this a perfect resolution, because it did require a small degree of discipline and dedication, but it was also manifestly manageable.

I’ve since learned that this “be prepared” adage applies to other areas of careless consumption. Rushed packing before a trip would mean I’d have to buy cheap sunglasses in the airport, even though I have 10 pairs at home. But poor planning would also apply to entire holidays – when instead of thinking calmly about destinations I’d like to prioritise, friends and family I’d like to see, hotels I want to stay in, things I want to learn, courses I want to do – I’d let myself be dazzled by some fabulous deal, or pressured into accepting an invitation for a trip away with friends. Or, because of my job, I’d take an assignment that wasn’t really a good match for my expertise and interests, just because it looked shiny and exciting. It wasn’t a good strategy. I’m still rectify

ing it – Cartagena and Rome, for example, have been high on my list for years, but I haven’t been because I was distracted by something easier and more immediate.

I’m not talking about being inflexible or closed-minded to ideas and invitations – but I’m fairly sure most travellers have found ourselves on a holiday where we wondered why on earth we were on this trip rather than spending our money and time on the place we’ve always wanted to see. Given the challenges the global travel industry is facing, I’m determined to visit and support the people and places that deserve to survive and thrive. I’m also determined to prioritise the people and places that will help me survive and thrive – the past year has not been easy on any of us.

As I became more concerned about climate change and the impact of tourism, I realised that the first step towards responsible travel is to become the sort of traveller I most definitely was not: an organised one. The sort of person who plans trips months in advance, with the help of maps and charts and non-crazed Tripadvisor reviews. Dull as it sounds, the best thing we can do to build a healthier and more sustainable travel industry is not picketing Heathrow or haranguing politicians on Twitter.

Nope, this particular revolution is a quieter one. And it starts with me sitting down in January with a map, my fresh new diary, some newspaper travel sections, and digging into my daydreams to think about where I really want to go this year, when to visit, how best to get there and what local businesses to spend my money on. So far, I’m dreaming of a culinary tour of the Balkans, a cycling adventure around Bavaria and a city break in Buenos Aires. I am also considering destinations that don’t start with B…

Deciding what to buy and who to buy it from is all part of the travel process