An unique way of group traveling to go beyond tourism

“I want to see Lenin’s body!”
“No way! That’s just gross, I wanna go shopping!”
“What the hell are you thinking? You can shop in Amsterdam!”
“Forget it, I’m outta here. You guys all suck”.

I was chilling in the park of Eternal flame for the Unknown Soldier in Moscow, when my travel companions decided it was about time for a fight about the schedule. Once again, I had found myself in a study trip with stubborn companions.

Some human beings aren’t what you call group persons. Sure, everybody needs social interaction to prevent themselves from going mental – but some don’t find the right interaction in a group of say, ten. I consider myself one of them. Thus I’m not particularly fond of group traveling. Although I had a great time with the China 2.0 tour recently, most of the time I prefer to travel in small packs.

Much to my astonishment, I’ve recently discovered of way of group traveling which absolutely adds a lot of value to the trip. I highly recommend it to everybody and will therefor describe it in this post. And you know what? It perfectly fits with the life of bloggers.

In Kathmandu, standing before the Boudhanath Stupa.

Every attendee an own schedule

You might have noticed my coverage of a recent Nepal trip on The Next Web. This was definitely the best three weeks of traveling I’ve ever experienced. Not just because Nepal is ridiculously beautiful country, also due to the way the group trip was set up. The secret? All attendees had different goals.

• My girlfriend Carlien Helmink and her business partner Jitske Lundgren planned to start a fashion factory in Kathmandu.
• One of Jitske’s friends, whose a senior designer at a well-known Dutch brand, advised them.
• My sister Dorien Pfauth and her boyfriend Sacha Post were shooting a documentary about the entrepreneurial adventure.
• I wrote blog articles for The Next Web and met several people – like Ayush Bajracharya and Sujit Acharya – to talk about outsourcing web development.

All attendees had their own appointments and schedules. In fact, all of them are still in Nepal while I write this post in Amsterdam.

What are the advantages?

Let me break it down for you in four points:

• First of all: absolute freedom and no arguing about minor stuff;
• Hardly no waiting around, everybody has his or her own goals;
• When everybody does come together (e.g. dinner), it’s true quality time;
• Whenever you feel like it, you can join someone for an appointment. This gives you a different view of the country. How would I otherwise wind up at a knitting factory?

Show me your ideal day

I once was so lucky to attend a seminar about New Journalism given by twin brothers Nico and Jan Haasbroek – journalistic veterans with a wealth of experiences and wild stories about the old days. They had one major advice: see their world. How? “Ask somebody else to show you his ideal day in a certain city”. With this new and improved way of group traveling – you’re doing just that.

Final remark for bloggers

All probloggers should be digital nomads, since they’re generally not bound to a certain location. Find people who do business in another country and join them for a while. You’ll stay inspired, trust me.

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