Spice Up and Streamline Your Journeys This Year
One of the most common New Year’s resolutions made is to travel more, as the promise of each new year tempts our inherent desire to make new discoveries. For many of us, this assertion is a given, whether our dream 2019 journeys have been planned for months, or your travel tendencies lean toward impromptu adventure. If travel is in your definite future in 2019 and beyond, we offer four travel resolutions to enhance every journey in the new year.
Visit at least 3 new places
We’ll start off easy, as the exploration of new destinations is the very point of travel itself. But if a particular locale has captured your heart to the point that you feel right at home in the corner cafés, know your favorite shops by heart and can navigate local daily life with ease, it’s time to broaden your horizons. If you’ve fallen in love with the long artistic heritage of Italy, try Lisbon’s edgy scene, filled with new creations and known for its openness and unpretentiousness. If the wilds of Alaska’s Inside Passage beckon you back for summertime adventures each year, venture to Norway, where you can challenge your adrenaline among some of the world’s most spectacular fjords and vistas.
Discover 5 new things about your favorite places
On the flip side, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with feeling at home on the other side of the world. It’s a beautiful thing to become so well acquainted with a foreign destination that you long to return again and again. Still, every city – even one’s home town – has surprises and new things to discover. If your 2019 travels take you “home” while abroad, venture beyond your favorites and seek another side of the city. Stroll past your go-to spot in Santorini in favor of a family-owned eatery, where the moussaka recipe has been handed down for five generations. Skip your favorite shopping haunts in Beijing for the incredible opportunity to see the Great Wall, or Terra Cotta Warriors.
Get out of your culinary comfort zone
Crystal ships themselves are a smorgasbord of flavorful adventures, from the modern gastronomy served in Waterside to the global creations of the Far East, South America and whatever the chef chooses to pair in the Vintage Room. Ashore, take your taste buds on an adventure of their own. Bangkok is famously one of the best cities in the world for sampling street food of all kinds from sunup to well after dark. Several other destinations serve up culinary clout along the avenues you can explore. Roman pizza and gelato in charming piazzas, savory Sydney prawns and the great ceremony of Bali’s pork dishes should all be on your 2019 travel menu.
Pack lighter and leave the stress behind
Travel experts around the world swear by a philosophy that less is more when packing for global travel. This is not to say one shouldn’t come prepared, but there are smart tricks that will ease your stress and strain for virtually any trip. Warmer destinations lend easily to this effort – bathing suits, lightweight clothing and shorts are naturally more compact. But even in brisk weather, certain synthetic fabrics and merino wool offer thinner solutions that will still keep you warm. The packing benefits to planning your 2019 adventures with Crystal are many: all designer toiletry amenities are there in your suite; dry cleaning and guest laundry service is easily at hand for re-wearing clothing; and our butlers and stewardesses will even unpack for you if you’d like. We believe it’s simple: the easier travel is, the more we’re all likely to do it.
Whatever your personal travel to-do list in 2019 includes, Crystal is honored to be part of your adventures and do everything possible to make those resolutions reality.
Happy New Year from your Crystal Family.
