What you see is what you get
When planning where to go on a trip, don’t overlook one of the most important, seemingly obvious and least considered aspects of travel: The visual appeal to you of the places you’ll visit.
Now obviously, travel consists of so much more than what you see. In particular, the people you meet tend to be highlights of your trip. But also the smells, the tastes, the sounds and even the texture of new objects, all that adds to the experience. Moreover, what you feel in response to all this, your reactions to the thoughtful gesture of a stranger, the exoticism of new tastes or the delight in walking in the footprints of some historical figure, those emotions go far beyond anything visual on a trip.
And yet, what you see affects so much of how you feel when you travel. The odd thing is, if you’re like most of us, you may never have factored into planning for your trip the kinds of things you desire to see on that trip. Instead you may show up and experience deep bliss without ever considering why or what triggered that happy feeling or how much the visual stimuli contributed to it.
This shot captures what has the greatest visual appeal to me: nature, architecture and people, especially those close to me.
An exercise if determining what appeals to you visually
Just in case you were wondering what that sculpture in front of the Pantheon looked like…
To help you get better in touch with both what you see and also how it affects you, your trip and planning where you’ll go, try this exercise.
Think of any place in the world that you’ve been to (or have seen pictures of) that you adore. Be specific. Don’t think, “Rome, Italy.” Instead, think, “that fountain with the comically-faced sculptures in front of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.” Got it?
Now imagine you were magically plopped down there for the first time. Look around. What stands out? What specifically appeals to you visually there?
Maybe it’s the natural beauty displayed in the rocks and trees. Maybe it’s the epic expanse of a big sky or open sea. Or, conversely, it might be the intimacy of small cafe or Gothic chapel. Are you outside in the country? Inside in the city? Wandering down a quaint village road? Huddled beneath a jungle canopy? Looking out on a vast mountain range? Hanging out with newly-made friends in a quaint pug? What grabs your attention visually? Bright colors? Ancient surfaces and textures? The unfamiliar angle of the sun? Or perhaps it’s the people who make that scene work for you. What specifically about the people in a particular place attracts your attention?
Consider all the factors
Sometimes architecture doesn’t have to be planted in nature for visual appeal. Sometimes, as in this traditional courtyard home in Baihe, China, they bring nature inside.
When determining what visually appeals, it’s likely a combination of many elements and it could even include the weather, quality of light, season or time of day.
But think about what you most love to see on a trip.
Try to jot down all the components that have the greatest visual appeal. Then prioritize them. Which one emerges as most important to you? You could expand this beyond the visual, but that quickly gets overwhelming. Restricting this exercise to only what has visual appeal to you reveals insights you may never have considered before.
If you want, try the same exercise again only with a different location. See if the same factors that worked regarding visual appeal for you the first time hold up in a new location.
You may be surprised
Before I did this exercise, my guess would have been that nature would have been the aspect that had the most visual appeal for me. And that’s still at the top of my visual-interest list. But this exercise revealed that neck-in-neck with flora and fauna is architecture or other human-made elements. And most of all, when you combine the two — human design combined with natural beauty, I’m a goner. The images above and below will give you some idea of what I mean by that combination of the human element combined with the natural.
The mountain (Morro Rock in Morro Bay, California) wouldn’t be nearly as interesting without the boat.
But how about you? What’s the visual appeal priority or highlight for you on a trip? Knowing this can dramatically assist you in choosing destinations that delight you. You might be amazed how many people don’t consider what elements have visual appeal to them before they go on vacation so they end up choosing trips that may be enjoyable, but don’t spark that “I can’t believe I’m here!” response.
Sometimes, the architecture blends in with nature as in this village in Morocco
Understanding what has visual appeal to you also helps you know what to pursue on your trip, particularly if you want to take photos. Finding places, people and scenes that appeal specifically to you rather than just seeing what everyone else is looking at, can dramatically enhance your trip and your photos. To learn some simple yet powerful techniques to taking better travel photos, check out this free guide.
Applying this to planning a trip
Even elements of architecture increase their visual appeal, to me, when even small bits of nature are added.
Think about what appeals to you visually, then go where you’re predisposed to liking what you’ll see once you arrive. If you’re a nature lover, minimize cities or find hidden examples of nature even in urban centers (e.g. The High Line or Central Park in Manhattan). If you love the sea, you may not want to vacation in Nebraska. If you’re a people person, avoid deserts, ghost towns or Times Square at 5:00 a.m. If you love artifacts and sites related to ancient history, stay away from the suburbs. And if you, like me, love that combination of nature and architecture, choose places like national parks, gardens, castles in rustic settings, remote villages or anywhere the design is distinct, unusual or incorporates elements of nature into the buildings themselves or their surroundings.
In short, find what you love and pursue it. That sounds so obvious, but you may never have really isolated the key elements of what you love, at least visually. Do so. Plan your journey around those. Then go have a trip where you come home knowing why you love it. And how to find even more of that on your next trip.
Finally, realize that the visual appeal of a place is but one factor in planning a trip, albeit an important and often overlooked one. But you may find that knowing your Traveler Type can also be invaluable in helping you decide not just where to go on a trip, but how.
