Use This Lockdown to Learn 5 Skills, That Will Power up Your next Vacation!

Is your freedom limited to venturing out to the balcony these days? While we understand that it’s difficult, yet now is when you can make the most of your time by up-skilling yourself for the next holiday⁠—once the quarantine ends!

Here are the 5 top skills that you can master and become a pro traveller.

1. Pick up a Foreign Language

We know waking up to lavish foreign views is what you crave for, but ever wondered how you are going to converse there? Not every country is English savvy and therein comes our first skill suggestion – learn a foreign language.

If it’s the famous Seoul palaces you plan to explore, buy yourself an online course on basic Korean; If it’s the pristine Alpine range you dream of skiing on, sign up for some basic French lessons and if you prefer museum hopping in Russia, then you definitely need to up the ante and learn basic Russian at least.

There are various benefits of being able to converse in the local language:

• You understand the local culture better and experience an immersive vacation.
• You can talk to the locals fluently and throw your ideas around, in group conversations.
• You make local friends swiftly, and who better to help you discover secret city gems than the locals!
• You can ask for directions and pathways when required, without mumbling and fumbling.
• Lastly, you can haggle hard and score good bargains at flea markets and street-stalls.

2. Buddy up with the Cooking Ware

Who wouldn’t want some time out with their partners or just by themselves after spending weeks with your extended family! And nothing better than a villa stay overlooking purple skies and smooth lakes. But did you know that many of these picture-perfect villas and accommodations are far off from city centres and restaurants, meaning you have to be the cook here? Well, Maggi is a survival kit, but you just can’t survive on those 2-minute packets forever. So why not head to the kitchen and learn whipping up deliciousness?

Start off with easy YouTube recipes and ask your family to help you out. Learn making daily essentials like rice, roti, dal and vegetable curries. The adventurous ones can also experiment with exotic pancake breakfasts, flavourful fried rice lunches and easy-to-do delicious snacks. Not only will this life skill take your villa vacation up a notch, it will also stay with you forever.

Benefits of donning the chef’s hat:

• As an essential life skill, cooking will make sure you never go to bed hungry if the house help doesn’t turn up.
• A solo holiday will exactly be that – solo, if you don’t need any cooking help to swing by at regular intervals.
• And the best part, you can travel the world from your kitchen when you cook delicious Italian pastas, simmer Thai-style seafood, shape up Asian dumplings and pepper Chinese noodles!

3. Dance Away Your Monotony​

Ever noticed what all cultures across the world have in common? Their love for dancing!

While swaying and shaking is something you must have definitely done in nightclubs, why not polish your skills further and learn an actual ballroom dance-form? Subscribe to popular dance channels on YouTube and learn the basics of Bachata, tear across your drawing rooms while doing the Tango, waltz with your mother (it sure will make her smile) and make your whole family do the Quickstep. Staying solo and don’t have anyone to accompany in your lessons? Don’t worry, the International Latin Samba is just perfect for you.

Wondering how ballroom dance-forms would help in your travels? Here’s how:

• You can socialise at local clubs and not just restrict yourself to the foreign crowd. After all, no way better to immerse in a local culture than interacting with the locals, right!
• If you are planning a long-term staycation, you can get enrolled in clubs and spend your evenings dancing away the day’s stress.
• Last but not the least, you can enjoy the local festivities and celebrations to the fullest if you are well-versed in the country’s dance forms.

4. Rejig Your Cupboards and Upcycle Daily Use Items​

Are you an avid trekker and miss the beauty of the great outdoors? Why not upcycle your goods and be ready to spring into action once things get back to normal? And the best part, all you need for being an outdoor pro is a YouTube subscription, basic essentials like a hot glue gun and a geometry box.

You can shape up your unused plastic bottles as backpack sippers, make your own outdoor lamp to light up the night, dig out easy-peasy methods of food preservation and even make your own tent using worn out clothes.

The myriad benefits of upcycling are:

• It helps lessen your waste, hence is great for the environment.
• What would have ended up in trash, soon becomes a hiking gear essential; you save money and the environment, both.
• In the long term, you can start your own mini-business and earn some cash with your skills.
• The best part, you keep yourself engaged in doing productive work!

5. Make a Study of Regional Movies​

The world is a fascinating place, with fascinatingly different cultures! One of the sharpest weapons a tourist can have in his gear box, is a total hang of the country’s local culture. What may seem normal at home, might not be the absolute normal in a foreign country. Hence, nothing better than to grasp the local culture of your next destination from the comfort of your sofa. How, you ask? By switching on great regional movies and experiencing the magic.

Be it the Oscar-winning Korean satire – Parasite, or the South-American cross-country epic – The Motorcycle Dairies, you can get a sneak-peek of the local culture in movies from around the world.

Why you should run a movie marathon? Here’s why:

• You will get a feel of the local way of life and take mental notes of to-dos and not-to-dos from these movies. Like it is not okay to refuse a drink from an elder in Asia, which is otherwise perfectly okay in the West.
• You will learn of quaint unexplored gems hidden in the city of your choice, which might otherwise not spring up on your tourist guide. Like Amelie or Letters to Juliet – both movies showcasing France and Italy like no other!
• You can get to know the local cuisine better visually, and decide if it appeals to your taste buds. After all, nothing worse than being surprised by wriggling sea-food when you are a vegetarian and spending your holidays munching on fried potatoes!
• You can plan your own itinerary after watching a popular series and chalking up the destinations you would like to visit – just like Malta’s tourist hotspots are mostly the famous scenic locations of Game of Thrones.
• The coolest part, you get to travel the world from the comfort of your sofa!

Fascinated? Delay not, chalk out your next holiday and start prepping up now.