Experimental travel

It can be just around the neighborhood, cross-country or a 101-island expedition. The destination doesn?t matter; the journey does. That?s experimental travel?a creative way for bored or penniless tourists to shake it up and experience traveling like no other. Need some ideas? Don?t worry, we got them for you:

1. Mock-stalk?When someone you know goes on a holiday, secretly follow them around and take pictures of everything they do. You cannot be caught, though, and you have to get home before they do. When they come back, surprise them with a slideshow of their entire itinerary. Just imagine how freaked out they will be.

2. A to Z?Go to any city you?re not familiar with, grab a map and look for the first and last alphabetical streets (e.g. Albert Drive and Zoo Lane). Draw a straight line connecting those two and that line is your day?s trip.

3. Opposites?Visit famous landmarks with a camera. But don?t take pictures of the attraction. Turn around and click on the opposite view instead. This can be other people taking pictures, an empty lot, the woods or something equally beautiful as the landmark itself.

4. The Number 12?Take a trip based on the number 12. You can choose to go to 12 cities in 12 days. Or stay in hotel rooms numbered 12; explore all the 12th Streets that you can find. Or choose your own number. How does ?33? sound to you?

5. Nocturnalism?Visit a major city and make it a point to sleep during the day and go around at night. Reverse your day totally and see how different or similar being a night owl is to being a normal person.

6. An odd year?Take a year off to travel on a budget. Stay for a couple of weeks to a month in every destination and get a job there. It can be a minimum-paying odd job just to make ends meet.

7. Dice-lucky?Look into the city index of an atlas to search for your city. Throw a dice and take note of the number. That number corresponds to the number of lines from your city?the place you will be traveling to. It?s gonna be one of the next six cities on the list.

8. Masterpiece pursuit?Travel to a destination suggested by the title of art or literature of your choice. You can also go for song or movie titles. Here are some: Funkin? for Jamaica, McArthur Park, Miss Saigon, The Count of Monte Cristo. Or how about The Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy?

9. Bartender-hopping?Go to a bar and ask the bartender what their favorite bar is, other than their own, of course. Then, go to the recommended bar and do the same. Keep doing this until you go full circle and right back where you started?that is, if there?s actually another bartender who likes the first bar you visited.

10. Left and right?Stepping out of your hotel, walk straight until you reach the first right turn. Go down this road until you reach the first left turn. Keep going right and left?and exploring the city this way?until you reach a dead end.

Experimental tourism is developed by Joel Henry (www.latourex.org) and expounded by Lonely Planet in the book The Lonely Planet Guide to Experimental Travel. Road Junky (www.roadjunky.com) has its own version, a 101-item list of ridiculously insane and hilarious experimental travel ideas, including starting your own religion and going around the world in search of converts.