The Art of Travel

I spent one of our beach days reading The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton that I found in the apartment. This book has been on the periphery of my consciousness for a long time, but I’ve never read it. The author talks not just about where we travel but also about how and why. So many ideas in the book resonated with me.

The first chapter explores the anticipation of travel – how we imagine the perfect image shown to us in the brochure and ignore the practicalities of getting there. Having anticipated somewhere for so long, the reality of the place can sometimes disappoint. The anticipation is so delicious that we can sometimes start thinking about the next place we will visit rather than relishing the place we are in. We need to enjoy the moment.

I think the book struck such a chord with me because I have been interested in all things travel-related from a very young age. This was not just distant shores and exotic foreign cultures, but modes of transport and transport hubs. The romance of airports and train stations always fascinated me. This interest is described in the book.

Alain de Botton talks about curiosity – ‘that elusive stage where we are bored by nothing’. I recognise this in myself but have never put it into words before. I have always been curious and have never been bored!

The author devotes one chapter to John Ruskin, who encouraged people to draw. He wanted us to take notice, to take time. He also advocated writing about our travels, a process he called ‘word paint’. He said we should ask ourselves questions and be precise in analysing what we see and how it makes us feel. (He’s knocking on an open door with me – though I don’t always do what I know I should!)

Towards the end of the book, Alain de Botton talks about always having a travelling mindset, the chief characteristic of which is receptivity. It also means:

• Approaching new places with humility
• Carrying with us no rigid ideas about what is interesting
• Irritating locals by standing on traffic islands and in narrow streets admiring what they see as strange small details
• Risking getting run over because we are intrigued by the roof of a government building or an inscription on a wall
• Finding a supermarket or hairdresser’s unusually fascinating
• Dwelling at length on the layout of a menu or the clothes of the presenters on the evening news
• Being alive to the layers of history beneath the present
• Taking notes and photos

The author concludes by reminding us to explore what’s around us, even in our own neighbourhoods that we have walked through thousands of times.
‘Before taking off for distant hemispheres, notice what we have already seen.’

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Pictured below are some of the other books I read while we were in Zanzibar.Read more