Mid Life Travel Pro

Everything ’90s seems to be coming back around again. The music, the clothes, disposable cameras, baggy jeans – things I honestly never thought I’d see again! There’s obviously a lot of nostalgia for the decade that gave us everything from grunge to Britney, and I have to say, I’m here for it.

Especially when I think about how we used to travel.

It’s actually quite funny to think about now. We went on trips without Google Maps, Google Translate or being able to look up every restaurant, hotel and attraction before we got there. You bought a guidebook, picked up a paper map and actually talked to the locals to find out the best places to go! If you got lost, you figured it out. And if you wanted to know whether a restaurant was any good, you usually just went in and found out!

Even taking photos was completely different. You might have had a couple of rolls of film for the entire trip, so you certainly weren’t taking 20 photos of the same sunset. And you had no idea whether any of them were actually good until you got home and had them developed.

I’m not saying travel was better in the ’90s – there are plenty of modern conveniences I have absolutely no intention of giving up – but I do miss how much we just figured things out as we went along.

So, with everything else ’90s making a comeback, I thought it would be fun to bring a little of that back to travel too. Here are a few ways to travel like it’s still the 1990s, without actually giving up Google Maps when you really need it!

1. Buy a Paper Map

I can’t actually remember the last time I used a paper map, but I definitely have flashbacks of trying to navigate with one in the ’90s! I’d have this enormous map unfolded across my lap, trying to work out where we were while whoever was driving got increasingly annoyed because I’d missed the turn. And then, of course, you had to somehow fold the thing back up again!

I actually quite like the idea of picking up a paper map the next time I’m somewhere new and seeing how I get on. I’d still have my phone with me, obviously, because I’m not quite nostalgic enough to spend half my vacation genuinely lost! But I think it would be fun to circle a few places I want to see, work out my own route and try not to immediately reach for Google Maps every time I’m not completely sure where I’m going.

I’d probably take a few wrong turns, but then again, that used to be half the fun of it.

2. Buy a Disposable Camera

Remember coming home from vacation and having absolutely no idea whether your photos were any good?

You’d drop your film off to be developed, wait several days and then open that little packet of photos to discover that half of them were blurry, somebody had their eyes closed and there was at least one random picture you had absolutely no memory of taking.

But I loved getting those photos back! There was no taking 25 versions of the same picture until everyone looked perfect. You took one or maybe two because you only had 24 or 36 photos available for the ENTIRE vacation.

So next time you travel, pick up a disposable camera and use it alongside your phone on your next trip. Don’t worry about whether the pictures are perfect. Just take them.

3. Send Someone a Postcard

I still love postcards and always try to send a couple when I’m away. There’s just something fun about picking one out, finding a stamp (which can sometimes be harder than you’d think!) and sending it off to someone back home.

And you really don’t need to write much. Back in the day, most of our postcards probably said something like, “Having a great time. Weather lovely. Wish you were here!” and that was about it.

I also love receiving them. It’s so much nicer to find a postcard mixed in with the bills and junk mail than another message popping up on your phone. Although if you’re sending one from overseas, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll beat it home!

4. Take a Guidebook With You

There was a time when buying a guidebook was one of the first things you did after booking a trip.

You’d sit at home going through it, folding down pages and circling places you wanted to visit. Then you’d carry the thing around with you for the entire vacation.

I still think there’s something lovely about having a physical guidebook.

Buy one before you leave and actually take it with you. Highlight things. Write notes in it. Stick ticket stubs and receipts between the pages.

Years later, you’ll be able to pick it up and remember the trip in a way that scrolling back through Google searches doesn’t quite manage.

5. Ask Someone Where to Go

Instead of immediately pulling out your phone and Googling “best restaurants near me,” try asking someone who actually lives there. The person at your hotel probably knows a great place for dinner, or ask someone in a local shop where they go for coffee, drinks or lunch.

This is basically how we used to find places before we had hundreds of online reviews to scroll through. You asked around, took someone’s recommendation and gave it a try. Sometimes you ended up finding a little place you never would have discovered otherwise – and sometimes it was a complete dud! But that was all part of traveling before we could research absolutely everything in advance.

6. Stop Researching Everything Before You Go

I’ll admit, this one is probably aimed at me as much as anyone because I LOVE researching a trip. These days I can spend hours looking at hotels, restaurants and things to do before I’ve even booked the flight.

Which makes me laugh when I think about how I used to travel. Back in the ’90s, I flew all the way to Sydney, Australia having barely planned a thing. I knew I wanted to see the Opera House and go to the zoo, but beyond that, I really had no idea what I was going to do once I got there. There were no saved Google Maps, no endless lists of restaurants I wanted to try and no watching YouTube videos to see what everything looked like before I arrived. I just got on a plane and went.

And honestly, it ended up being one of the best vacations I’ve ever taken.

I figured things out as I went along. I wandered around, found places I hadn’t known existed and decided what I felt like doing each day once I was there. Looking back, I think part of what made that trip so much fun was that I really didn’t know what to expect. Everything was new because I was actually seeing it for the first time.

I’m not sure I could bring myself to do quite that little research now – old habits die hard! – but I do think there’s something to be said for not planning every minute of a trip. Leave an afternoon or even a whole day open and just see where you end up. Sometimes the things you never planned on doing end up being the things you remember most.

7. Make Yourself a Vacation Playlist

If you grew up in the ’80s or ’90s, you probably remember making mixtapes – and how much effort went into getting them just right. You only had so much space on each side of the cassette, so choosing the songs (and getting them in the right order!) was serious business.

Luckily, you don’t need to dig out an old cassette player to recreate that part of ’90s travel. Make a playlist for your trip before you leave and fill it with songs you love, songs that fit where you’re going and, of course, a few ’90s favorites for good measure.

I love how a song can instantly take you back to a particular place or time. There are songs I hear now that immediately remind me of certain trips, even years later. So give your vacation its own soundtrack. You never know which song will come on five or ten years from now and take you straight back there.

8. Bring a Book to the Airport

I sometimes wonder what we actually did at airports before we had phones to keep us occupied for hours! I seem to remember doing a lot of wandering around the shops, buying an overpriced magazine or two, people-watching and, of course, reading.

There was always something nice about picking out a book for a trip too. Sometimes I’d buy one at the airport and have half of it read before I even arrived at my destination. And if your flight was delayed, there was no endless scrolling to pass the time – you just had to settle in with your book and wait.

So bring something to read on your next trip and give your phone a break while you’re waiting at the gate. A paperback would be the true ’90s choice, but I’m not giving up my Kindle for the sake of authenticity!

9. Keep a Travel Journal

You don’t need to write pages and pages every night, but I love the idea of keeping a little notebook with you when you travel. Just jot down a few things from the day – where you went, somewhere good you ate, something funny that happened or even just a place you stumbled across and want to remember.

You can stick ticket stubs, receipts, postcards or anything else you pick up along the way in there too. It doesn’t need to look pretty or be some perfectly put-together travel journal. It’s really just somewhere to keep all those little bits and pieces from your trip.

It’s amazing how much you forget about a trip as the years go by, especially the everyday stuff you never thought you’d forget at the time. I’d love to have notebooks from some of the trips I took years ago just to read through now and see what I wrote about them.

10. Don’t Post Everything While You’re There

This is one I really need to get better at myself. It’s so easy when you’re traveling to take a photo and immediately think about posting it, especially when you’re somewhere beautiful.

But there’s really no reason everyone needs to know what you’re doing while you’re actually doing it. Take the photos, enjoy where you are and post them later if you want to.

Back in the ’90s, nobody had a clue what we’d been doing on vacation until we came home, got the film developed and made our friends and family sit through all our photos. And to be honest, I think I quite like the idea of going back to a little bit of that.

11. Bring Home a Proper Souvenir

I’ve always loved bringing something home from a trip, and it doesn’t have to be anything expensive or particularly special. Give me a fridge magnet, a Christmas ornament or a tea towel with the name of the place plastered across it and I’m happy!

There’s something fun about spotting those little souvenirs around the house years later and remembering where you bought them. I have things I’ve brought home from trips that probably cost me less than $10, but I’d never get rid of them because they remind me of being there.

And I still love a good souvenir shop. I nearly always end up coming out with something!

Maybe We Should Bring a Little ’90s Travel Back

I’m certainly not suggesting we give up all the things that make traveling easier now. I love having my boarding pass on my phone, being able to check whether my flight is delayed before I leave home and, most of all, having Google Maps when I’m wandering around somewhere I’ve never been before. I’m not sure I’m ready to give any of that up!

But I do miss the way we used to arrive somewhere without already knowing so much about it. We hadn’t seen hundreds of photos of the hotel, read every restaurant review or watched videos showing us exactly what to expect. You just got there and figured things out as you went along. Of course, that sometimes meant getting lost or ending up somewhere you hadn’t planned on going, but that was all part of the trip.

I don’t think we need to give up our phones and start traveling with nothing but a paper map and a guidebook again, but I do think it would be fun to bring a little of that ’90s way of traveling back. Send a postcard, pick up a silly souvenir, leave an afternoon with absolutely nothing planned or just wander around without checking your phone every five minutes.

I know I’ll still research my trips (there’s no way I’m giving that up!), but I’m definitely going to try leaving a little more room for the unexpected. After all, some of my favorite travel memories came from the days when I had absolutely no idea what I was doing until I got there!