I want a holiday but “my” holiday!

What does this really mean? After traveling the world with friends, family on holidays and corporate visits, I have realized one thing! The definition of travel is different for different people. When you are young, you are more flexible in your thoughts and definitions. You don’t have an absolute “yes” or a “No” but as you age (Or mature ??), you start defining your absolute “NOs” for sure because that’s what drains your energy. Making a travel decision goes through this exact same journey

When I look around my friends and family, there are 4 categories of travelers I can see:

• Physical Exhaustion Category: These are travelers, who want to be physically active when they travel. Let’s call her “PT Usha”. Usha wants to have a tight schedule when she travels. She doesn’t want to rest as she believes it’s a waste of time. She feels when I have spent money to come all this way, let me make the best use of it and visit all places I can. Usha has a ready-made list from Traveler’s blog and multiple travel sites. Usha has a prioritized list of places to visit, what to see, and what time to visit! Usha not only has a list of restaurants to visit but also a menu card and what to eat! Usha eats starters in one place, lunch is another, and dinner in a hotel that is completely in the opposite direction. Usha walks to most of these places and doesn’t believe in taking taxis. Usha usually needs another holiday after a holiday to recover!

• Physical Stillness Category: These are travelers, who want to be completely inactive when they travel. Let’s call him “Thattiraya”. Thattiraya’s definition of a holiday is sleeping. He wants to go to a place, check in to a 5-star resort, switch on the AC and TV and close the curtains, and sleep. All food is ordered to the room or Thattiraya wants to go to a beach resort and spend the entire day/evening on the hammock with a bottle of beer and junk food. The only exercise you can expect from Thattiraya during the holiday is his fingers changing the channels on the remote aimlessly. His day is divided into 8hr-8hr-8hr slots in which sleep takes 90% of each slot! The rest of the time is dedicated to changing the position of his sleep. It’s the movement from bed to couch to the hammock. Thattiraya spends very less time talking and the body gets the complete rest it deserves.

• Mental Exhaustion Category: These are travelers, who want to completely exhaust their minds. Let’s call him “Medula”. Medula is okay to either get physically exhausted or just camp in the resort but wants his brain to be working all the time. The holiday is a time when Medula works on those pending proposals or is working on a new startup idea. Even if he travels, he is constantly exploring new ideas, very observant of his surroundings, and constantly looking for opportunities to indulge in discussions with strangers for new scintillating information. Medula is hungry for new content and the holiday is filling those curiosity buckets in his head. Medula needs his laptop and internet connection when he travels. If the surroundings are not engaging, there is always google for many links in his bookmarks on his browser which is to be explored and exploited for new information. By the end of the holiday, Medula knows not just the names of the resort manager or the housekeeping staff but also knows their family, their income, their key care-about, and if they are ready to move to India or Bangalore for their next venture.?

• Mental Stillness Category: These are travelers, who want complete inactivity in their heads. Let’s call her “Shanti”. When Shanti travels, she believes in keeping her mind shut and not wanting to use even an ounce of thinking for anything. The food she eats, and the places she visits are not based on any list. She just goes with the flow. Either she wants someone to crack their head and plan the right places to visit and keep her occupied or if she travels alone, she travels to known places, so she need not worry about safety, or security or make hard choices about hotel or food. Shanti takes a break to shut down completely. Shanti is completely refreshed when she returns from a holiday.?

Some of you might identify yourself greatly with one of them – PT Usha, Thattiraya, Medula, or Shanti and some of you might be a blend of two but still have a prominent personality.?So, what’s your category?

Once you identify yourself in one of these 4 categories, let us look at your next inner travel personality.?Let’s do the onion peeling. So, the second round of peeling puts people in one of these 4 personality types:

• Friends Personality: Here the person wants to take holidays with friends and not with family. He thoroughly enjoys the meaningless discussions they have which are blended with deep philosophical talks depending on the time of the day! He doesn’t want strangers in the group and cannot enjoy the “Kesari Tour” kind of travel. He wants to plan and execute holiday planning with friends.?

• Family Personality: Here the person prefers to travel with family and enjoys the time shared with kids, parents, uncles, aunts, etc. She wants to be in the comfort zone of family and wants to build precious holiday moments with family members. Even extended family members are welcome and don’t mind a mixed holiday experience because of the diverse group.?

• Loner Personality: Here the person prefers to travel alone. She doesn’t even want her name tag on the bag. She wants to be herself and is usually well-planned when she travels. She enjoys creating new experiences with herself and wants to push the boundaries of her body and mind when she travels. She finds a new “ME” every time she travels. She comes back a new person every time she travels. She hates conversations and usually has conversations with herself or God

• Stranger Personality: Here the person prefers to travel with complete strangers – no friends and family. Ideal type to take “Kesari travel” to visit places to see or just board a flight to an unknown destination and live a life of a stranger. Irrespective of the travel category he falls into, he just will make friends on the go and is a great companion for anyone who meets him. He can enjoy an engaging discussion with a stranger or share beautiful silence with a stranger. Prefers to throw a different personality when he travels and experiments a lot with people to gain new experiences. He sometimes wants to remain a stranger himself when he travels.?

Once you identify your travel category type and personality, now the final peeling of the “Travel Onion profile”, highlights your preferences. Here also there are 4 preference types:

• Travel Preference: The definition of the holiday starts and ends with “travel”. A visa requirement for travel is a bonus. If the holiday doesn’t include travel, either by flight, car, or train, she does not consider this as a holiday itself! Going to the airport 3 hours prior to flying, spending time in the lounge, and taxi drive from the airport is all a part of the holiday. Travel is an essential and prime part of the holiday for her.?

• No Travel Preference: The requirement for a holiday for him is “No Travel”. The holiday is where home is for him. He prefers to have his friends or family in his house and avoids all modes of transport. Even if he flies to a place, he avoids traveling locally and prefers to go to places nearby to visit or for dining as a part of the holiday itinerary.?

• Familiar Place Preference: The preference of travel is to visit a familiar place again and again. This avoids planning and surprises. He likes to visit his regular bars and order without seeing the menu. He likes to see familiar faces in the reception and in the restaurants. He prefers familiarly to do something novel.?

• New Place Preference: A holiday is not a holiday if it’s not visiting a new place and a having new experience. Once she visits this place, it is off her list for life. Only a child’s graduation day in that place will make her go back to that place. Every year, the list to travel to the next exciting place is ready. Even if it’s the same city to travel to, the hotel she stays, the hotel she eats at, everything has to be different else it's not a holiday for her. She collects memorabilia from each of these places and her fridge will be filled with unique travel visit reminders

The earlier you identify your type, the better it is for you and everyone around you. The category match is important, but the personality type and preference is circumstantial and flexible depending on the partner or group dynamics. Your travel companion tends to misunderstand you if you don’t identify yourself and communicate your wants.

Now identify your category, personality type, and preference and travel with someone who is close to you else you are traveling with a demon, or you are the demon with the angel!