More experimental travel ideas

by Ed Biado

Because last week?s travel edition of The Daily 10 simply couldn?t cover even a small fraction of experimental travel, I decided to make it a two-parter. So let?s jump right on it. Here are 10 more zany ideas to make traveling almost literally out-of-this-world:

1. Monopolized ? Go to a major city and buy their local version of Monopoly. Discover the ins and outs of that city by playing the game?meaning, you have to throw the dice and go to those places dictated by your playing piece.

2. Lost and found ? Fly to a city with a companion, but take different flights. Without the use of any communication device, designated meeting time and place, try to look for each other around the city. Make it more memorable by taking pictures of everywhere you go and put a timestamp on it. When you do find your friend, compare your pictures. You might have been at the same places and missed each other by mere seconds.

3. Long way back ? Take the fastest route to your preferred destination. Then, take the slowest route back home. Explore the places you?ll encounter on your way back?trekking forests, taking cheap public transportations, hitchhiking, boat rides, etc. That?s where your adventure lies.

4. Airporting ? Take connecting flights from your home country to a country with a beautiful airport to another one with an infamously ugly airport and back home. Spend 24 hours each on those two other airports. Don?t leave to explore the cities. Document your airport-stay with a camcorder. Visit the restrooms, the gift shops, the restaurants and everything else inside the airports. Compare your findings when you get home.

5. Jet-setting mascot ? Make it your lifelong must-do to take your mascot (a teddy bear, a doll, etc.) whenever you travel. Wherever you go, you must take a picture of it with a famous landmark as the background. Make a scrapbook of it and see what you?ve accomplished 10 to 15 years from now.

6. Swappacking ? Go backpacking with a friend and at a certain point, plan different itineraries with the same budget?complete with train and bus tickets and a schedule. Then, just before splitting up, swap itineraries without telling the other what you?re swapping. Meet up at a different point at a designated date and time.

7. Faux tourist ? Go around your own city pretending to be a tourist. Rely on travel maps and try to not use your knowledge of the place as much as possible. Get recommendations from locals as to where to go, what to eat and where to stay. You might pick up something that you never would have known to begin with.

8. Full tank ? Go to a foreign city, rent a car, gas it up and drive. Just drive away from the city on one full tank. You can make pit-stops anywhere you want; if there?s a nice view, if you?re tired. When you run out of gas, fill it up again and drive back.

9. At world?s end ? This starts off similar to the previous entry. But when you run out of gas, you?re now supposed to take an alternative means of transport to take you further from your starting point. Do this until there?s no other way to go but back. Or you can start heading back when you really feel lost and scared. Either way, it?s gonna be quite a trip.

10. Amazing Budget Race ? Race against a group of friends to get to a specified destination. But the first one to arrive isn?t the winner. It?s the one who spent the least getting there is. It doesn?t matter if you take a long time, just as long as you don?t fly first class. Keep all your travel receipts for tabulation.