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The Art of Travel

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The Art of Travel

At a glance.

Over centuries, images depicting travel have transformed individual journeys into familiar routes and distant sites into iconic destinations, shaping perceptions of places both near and far. See how artists have depicted travelers across cultures, learn about the role of art in travel of various kinds, explore objects that have undertaken journeys of their own, and plan your own trip to the museum, whether in person or virtually.

Types of Travelers and Journeys

Motivations for travel throughout history have been almost as varied as the means of travel. Whether people traveled alone or in groups, on foot, on animals, in caravans, on ships, or using modern modes of transportation like planes, trains, and automobiles, art can capture how and why we move through the world.

Marco Polo (1254–1324) was a Venetian merchant who spent about seventeen years in China—from around 1274 to 1292—during the reign of the Mongol emperor Khubilai Khan (reigned 1260–94), founder of the Yuan dynasty. In 1276, Khubilai’s armies conquered the Chinese capital at Hangzhou with minimal destruction. Sometime after this, Marco Polo visited the city and its West Lake:

“All round [the lake] are stately palaces and mansions, of such workmanship that nothing better or more splendid could be devised or executed. These are the abodes of the nobles and magnates. There are also monasteries and abbeys of [Buddhists and Daoists] in very great numbers…. Besides this, the lake is provided with a great number of boats or barges, big and small, in which the people take pleasure-trips for the sake of recreation. These will hold ten, fifteen, twenty, or more persons, as they range from fifteen to twenty paces in length and are flat-bottomed and broad in the beam, so as to float without rocking. Anyone who likes to enjoy himself…hires one of these barges, which are kept continuously furnished with fine seats and tables and all the other requisites for a party. They are roofed over with decks on which stand men with poles which they thrust into the bottom of the lake (for it is not more than two paces in depth), and thus propel the barges where they are bidden. The deck is painted inside with various colours and designs and so is the whole barge, and all round it are windows that can be shut or opened so that the banqueters ranged along the sides can look this way and that and feast their eyes on the diversity and beauty of the scenes through which they are passing. And indeed a voyage on this lake offers more refreshment and delectation than any other experience on earth.”

Imagine yourself alongside travelers in a snowy landscape through this guided meditation:

Video | "Meditation and Mindfulness: Winter travelers crossing a bridge" | View on YouTube

Travel is a common theme in traditional Chinese landscape painting. From ancient times, the emperors of China maintained a network of roads and waterways that unified their vast realm and facilitated the movement of people and goods. Owing to this imperial association, images of ordinary travelers on the empire’s roads and rivers connoted the benevolent rule of an enlightened sovereign and evoked an era of peace and prosperity. Rather than documenting the hardships or actual circumstances of any particular journey, images of anonymous characters traveling or working together capture some of the noteworthy sights and scenes a traveler might encounter along the way. Simultaneously, they promote the fundamental ideals of a harmonious society and a well-ordered state.

A dramatic topography features a complex and dominant rock formation in the left foreground and a sudden recession into distant space on the right. On the left, sheer cliffs and a waterfall plunge through a channel worn in the cliff by the water. On the right, a slightly more hospitable terrain provides a base for several structures that seem to be scholars’ hermitages or villas. In the left foreground a lone figure on a donkey crosses a bridge at the base of the waterfall. He is followed at a distance by a servant who travels on foot and carries his master’s stringed instrument, the chin . The image refers to a standard Chinese subject: a scholar-official journeying to seek the company of kindred spirits in their mountain retreats. The scale of the natural world overwhelms the small human forms.

One of the most enduring motivations for travel is religious devotion. Nearly every major religion—Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism, among others—has a tradition of pilgrimage: intentional travel to a site of spiritual significance. Christian pilgrims traveled to the Holy Land to walk in the footsteps of Christ or visited more local destinations connected to the lives or relics of the saints. In Islam, pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca is one of the principal duties of all believers. Other holy sites were also visited on a regular basis. Over many centuries, hundreds of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean pilgrims braved countless dangers to visit places where the Historical Buddha lived and taught. Pilgrims would sometimes bring gifts, called votive offerings, with them as a donation to the destination site.

Trade was another common motivation for travel and occurred in many forms, but the most famous trade route in history was the Silk Road, the overland trade routes that linked the prosperous Tang empire (618–907) with Central, West, and South Asia. On the Silk Road, foreign merchants joined Buddhist missionaries, diplomatic envoys, translators, craftsmen, entertainers, and other skilled immigrants in a wealthy, worldly environment that offered a ready market for exotic imports, including silver and gold objects, delicate glassware, and even grape wine.

In the twentieth century, travel offered a key means for diplomacy and cultural exchange. Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884–1980), Theodore Roosevelt’s daughter, embarked on a tour of Asia accompanying William Howard Taft’s goodwill mission in 1905. This voyage is immortalized in a series of photographs but also through diplomatic gifts that dignitaries, such as the emperor of Japan, bestowed on Roosevelt.

Adventurers, archaeologists, and scholars have long been traversing the globe to conduct research and to explore foreign lands. In the early twentieth century, leisure travel among Europeans and North Americans also became increasingly common. Fascinated by the cultural heritage of Asia and the Middle East, tourists began to expand their horizons by venturing there.

Artists who traveled played a pivotal role in documenting and popularizing their visions of the distant places they visited. Their interactions with other artists and the things they experienced on their journeys contributed to the dispersal of different artistic styles and motifs.

Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) immortalized his 1832 trip along the Tōkaidō, the most important and heavily traveled of the five major routes that linked other regions of Japan to the administrative and political seat of the shogun’s government in Edo (modern Tokyo). He created more than twenty full series of Fifty-Three Stations along the Tōkaidō , featuring designs of the lively activities and magnificent landscapes he witnessed and reimagined in his prints. Prints like these gave people throughout Japan access to images of sights and events that most had not experienced, in the same way that videos, photos, and the internet do today.

Though James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) was born in the United States, he spent most of his life in Europe and was based in London. The artist traveled to explore the canals of Venice and Amsterdam and the back alleys of Paris. He ventured further afield to Valparaiso, Chile, in 1866, just as hostilities between the Spanish and Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia were heating up over the Chincha Islands, sites of a precious nineteenth-century fertilizer: bat guano.

While travel has mostly positive connotations in popular culture today, it’s important to remember the darker sides of travel as well. Not all travel is undertaken by choice: people can be forced to travel as a result of political exile, as well as due to war, famine, disease, economic hardship, environmental disaster, and colonialism. Even when travel is voluntary, it can be dangerous, and this was particularly true in ages past. The physical act of traveling exposed people to potential injuries and diseases, the natural elements were unpredictable and threatened modes of transportation, and there was an inherent unpredictability to being on the road far from home. The recognition of these dangers shaped stories and cultural beliefs.

This print depicts a type of supernatural creature often known as an umibōzu , or “sea monk.” It was believed that when calm waters suddenly turned choppy and dangerous, particularly at night, these creatures could appear and drag sailors to the bottom of the seabed. Although the encounter was often deadly, the artist Kuniyoshi has paired the place name “Kuwana” with the similar-sounding name “Kuwanaya Tokuzō,” one of the few who encountered the umibōzu and lived to tell the tale.

Traveling Objects

Objects themselves have rich histories and often undertook journeys of their own, whether through trade, gift giving, or collecting. For conservators, the journey of an item is embedded within its material presence; marks, scars, repairs, and other interventions describe the actions of others who have contributed to its present state. The process of conservation involves the synthesis of material evidence and its placement in time, not just to understand an item’s past but to envision its future preservation. Anthropologists have described the trajectories of material items in terms of their lives, biographies, or itineraries, but such notions are intuitively familiar to conservators, whose actions are fundamentally additive to an item’s journey, both materially and through time.

Individual travelers carried things with them that were essential for the journey itself. Clothing and equipment suitable to traversing long distances sometimes set them apart from local residents, and travelers carried personal effects and accessories, such as small books, drinking flasks, and protective amulets, to make the journey easier.

Travelers brought objects acquired on their journeys home with them as well. Holy objects acquired by pilgrims allowed them to bring the blessings of their pilgrimage back from their destination. Images made during travel—whether sketches, paintings, or photographs—captured the experience of the journey for future reflection. Souvenirs purchased during a trip also offered travelers a way of commemorating a journey and gave them something tangible on which to reflect. The advent of commercial global travel networks in many cultures and contexts was accompanied by a flood of photographs, drawings, postcards, mementos, and other means of recording scientific and sentimental experiences abroad. Perhaps the most recognizable artifact of travel over the past 150 years is the picture postcard. These were collected as mementos or mailed to family and friends from abroad, accruing the additional prestige of a foreign stamp and postmark.

Virtual Travel

Most travel we think of involves physically moving between places, but virtual travel (colloquially, “armchair travel”) that takes place in the mind spans time and cultures and is facilitated by books and works of art. Through focused contemplation of a travel account, a map, a cherished souvenir, or images of far-off places, memory and imagination combine to transport someone mentally and to simulate the experience of travel.

In artist Katsushika Hokusai’s (1760–1849) time, Edo, one terminus of the Tōkaidō, was a metropolis with a population of more than one million. The wide Sumida River (Sumidagawa), which marked the city’s eastern border, is the focus of the illustrations in this three-volume collection of contemporary comic verse ( kyōka ). Hokusai creates the illusion of an uninterrupted land journey along the Sumida from south to north, against the river’s flow. The landscape continues as each page is turned, as if one were viewing a scroll or folding album painting. Hokusai’s shifts from close-up to bird’s-eye views add to the dynamic and cinematic quality of the viewer’s experience. Hokusai’s books provide a virtual journey that begins in the first volume at Edo Bay with a view of Mount Fuji and ends in the third volume at Edo’s Yoshiwara pleasure district, decorated for the New Year. Access to the Yoshiwara was restricted by regulations of the shogun’s government. The route to the pleasure district, with its restaurants and beautiful female entertainers and sex workers, was therefore traveled by few, except in fantasy.

Video | "Virtual Travel: Japanese Illustrated Books of the 19th Century" | View on YouTube

Online experiences can offer a twenty-first-century version of virtual travel, with tools like Google Earth allowing us access to almost any destination through our screens. Explore the museum’s digital interactives for some virtual travel of your own: to the museum itself, to places around the world, or to the past.

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Art and the Environment

• Materials & Techniques

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The Traveler's Rescue by the Great Bird (al-Ta'ir al-Kabir), from Aja'ib al-makhluqat (Wonders of Creation) by al-Qazvini

Turkmen period, Aq Qoyunlu dynasty

Iraq or Eastern Turkey

Opaque watercolor, ink and gold on paper

Two travelers in the rain

Possibly Ming dynasty

Ink on silk

Travelers at a Mountain Way-Station

Qing dynasty

Ink and color on silk

M. Balwant Singh with Colonel Borthwick

Devgarh or Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh state, India

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Winter travelers crossing a bridge

Late Ming-early Qing dynasty

Ink and color on paper

Ink on paper

Scenic Attractions of West Lake 西湖清趣圖

Late Yuan or early Ming dynasty

Ink on paper mounted on wood core

Pilgrims on Mt. Fuji

S2003.8.2210

Pilgrims' map of Mount Fuji and surrounding temples

Fujieda, from the series, gojusan tsugi meisho zue.

S2010.18.148

Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Valparaiso

United States

Oil on canvas

F1909.127a-b

Kuwana: The Story of the Sailor Tokuzō, from the series Fifty-three Pairings for the Tōkaidō Road (Tōkaidō gojūsan tsui) 「桑名　船のり徳蔵の傳」 『東海道五十三対』

S2021.5.568

Saddle bag face khorjin

Traveling dining service (knife and chopsticks).

Bamboo, ivory, metal, and gold

LTS1985.1.553.1a-e

Ehon Sumidagawa ryōgan ichiran 絵本隅田川両岸一覧

Woodblock printed; ink and color on paper; paper covers

FSC-GR-780.230.1-3

1050 Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20013 202.633.1000

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The Concept of Travel in Art Through the Ages

This post is part of the ArtSmart Roundtable , a group of travel and art bloggers bringing you themed posts every month. This month’s post theme is “concept”, so I’ve decided to tap into what Wanderarti does best – talk about travel in art. Scroll to the bottom to see more of this month’s awesome posts!

For as long as the timeline of art spans back there are paintings of places; depictions of destinations rendered carefully and thoughtfully by both famous artists and lesser-known explorers.

Landscape painting is perhaps the most prominent and most recognisable form of travel art.

Thick brushstrokes bring to life far-flung places; bold colours pinpoint fascinating scenes; realistic portraits showcase lesser-known destinations that would otherwise go undocumented.

Travel in Art in the 17th Century

Back in the 17th century, European landscape art was on the rise. It was a dominant genre during this time thanks to the unprecedented growth of global travel and tourism.

But there’s a conundrum here: it’s the chicken vs the egg debate when it comes to travel and art. Did the explorer set out to paint or did the artist set out to explore?

Through the 17th century and the following 200 years, travel was no longer a means from moving one group of people to another place (a form of travel that, for the most part, has been imbued into human life since the very beginning). It wasn’t just kings, queens, and traders who traversed landscapes far and wide.

Geographical exploration was on the rise, and colonial expansion was well and truly underway. This meant big things for the art world.

Without photographs or social media, explorers used the mediums of sketching and painting to document places. They combined skill and an expert eye for detail to produce scenes they had witnessed on their travels – to bring back and show family, friends, and those who were less able to travel.

William Hodges via Wiki Commons

Trips during this time were lengthy and, usually, with purpose. It was impossible to pop to Cairo for a weekend, or explore the South American jungle in a couple of weeks.

Journeys lasted for months on end, with explorers turning to art to create stories about the places they visited – to immortalise languages, scenery, and customs that were otherwise unfamiliar to them.

But, despite efforts to portray countries, cities, and destinations in an objective light, this is art we’re talking about. Even in the most skilfully executed landscape piece, t here will always been a hint of political, social, and cultural significance depending on the person creating the painting.

Subjective observations creep into well-rendered pieces, offering viewers not just a glimpse into places from the past, but also an insight into the mind-set of explorers.

Even though just one explorer might have been producing the artwork, it was more of a collective experience. There was a vested interest in creating realistic depictions of other places because it hadn’t been done before.

Take the imagery created by 19th century explorers who ventured around the Pacific. Work produced by men aboard Captain James Cook’s ships in the 18th century immortalised places that had never been seen by the western world before. There was a vested interest from the west to learn more about these places – for trading and other political reasons.

Travel in Art in the Mid-19th Century

Jump forward to the mid-19th century. After teaching Queen Victoria how to wield a paintbrush, Edward Lear set out to explore distant lands, painting their oddities as he went.

Lear was different to the men who had been aboard Cook’s ship and those that came before him because he was, first and foremost, an artist. He wasn’t a trader, a soldier, or a voyager. His livelihood was made from painting.

Greece by Edward Lear

At a time when barely anyone had the opportunity to travel (remember the long distances and difficulties in getting from one place to the next), Lear opened a gateway to the world for those less able than him.

From Italy, Albania, Greece, Egypt, and India, he immersed himself in the local culture and drew pictures that he felt reflected the place in its rawest form. There were seemingly no political backdrops to his work and underhand motivations. He simply wanted to bring the world to the world.

This was the start of something beautiful in the art world. Landscape paintings and depictions of “exotic” destinations were no longer driven by an ulterior motive. They were simply representations of the beautiful and the “other”.

Travel in Art in the 20th Century

Skip forward a century and this is even more evident to see. World-famous artists like Matisse, Derain and Picasso were creating piece after piece that showcased destinations around Europe.

These weren’t realistic renditions, though. In fact, they were a far cry from the beige swathes of sketches created by early voyagers and even Lear himself.

They were bold and bright, injected with a heavy dose of the artists’ recognisable style. Matisse’s paintings from Couillere were, at first glance, just splodges of paint in a wheel of surreal colours. Derain’s depictions of London were psychedelic, using the Pointillism technique to create abstract versions of scenes.

Gift and bequest of Louise Reinhardt Smith © 2015 Succession H. Matisse / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

At this point, art was no longer a vessel to share objective scenes and stories from around the world. It was a portal into the minds and souls of creative greats. There were already hundreds, if not thousands, of depictions of places around the world – what good would even more do?

André Derain, 1906, Charing Cross Bridge, London , National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Instead, artists used the backdrop of places to express their feelings and thoughts about them. Matisse’s pieces from Couillere may not have shown visitors exactly what to expect in terms of scenery, but the brash use of colour and thick brush strokes might just give an insight into how he felt about the French town.

This notion of art being a personal endeavour rather than collective continues into the present day.

Sure, artistic versions of places hint at architectural styles, local life, and customs, but more than that they delve into personal journeys, highlighting individual thoughts and feelings rather than a collective vision of the world.

S ince documents began, art has served as an important inspiration for imagination. It’s served as a portal through which people can remember places, cultures, and journeys, as well as depict the motivations behind travel – from the Grand Tour, through the years of globalisation, right up until the present day.

Today travel art is so much more than simply a depiction of a place. They say a painting speaks a thousand words – especially in an age where photographs are a dime a dozen. They not only act as a portal through which we can see another view of a place, but they also act as a personal reminder that’s much more intimate than a photo could ever be.

More posts in this month’s ArtSmart Roundtable:

• Christina of Daydream Tourist –  Changing Paintings After They Are “Finished”
• Alexandra of ArtTrav –  Nurture and Hospitality at Santa Maria della Scala, Siena
• Murissa at the Wanderfull Traveler – Vancouver’s New Art Gallery
• Pal & Lydian at Art Weekenders – Earth Art – Creativity Out In Nature and Back Into Our Sight
• Jenna at This is My Happiness – Northern California’s Greatest Artist: Wayne Thiebaud

Lizzie Davey

Lizzie has a passion for visual vagabonding (a new term, maybe?), whereby she likes to document the beauty in the world via creative forms. She created Wanderarti as a space for this new term to flourish, providing somewhere for art and travel to collide. Apart from pretty things and exploring new places, Lizzie likes tea, takeaways, and cute animals.

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The History of Travel: Paintings of Landscapes Around the World by Edward Lear

Nice concept, Lizzie! It was Matisse indeed who jumped to my mind when I first saw the title, and nice to have a historic overview over how it evolved already before him.. It’s interesting to see that “travel art” hasn’t changed much for some 300 years, while photography of course totally changed the relationship between art and travel in the modern world.

Exactly! With the emergence of photography we no longer have to rely on the paintings of voyagers/travellers to know what places look like – which leaves lots of room for artists to get creative with their depictions of places!

I love early travel art. It seems like every exploration, trade, and military expedition always ventured from home with an artist along. I especially like seeing when Westerners had to document cultures and art so different from their own. For example, the Spanish explorers in Mexico were mostly able to draw Mayan characters, but you can still see their European approach to design in the pictures.

Yes, that’s one of the things I love about it – not only do you get a glimpse into “other” cultures, but you also get to see how they were viewed through Western eyes.

I like what you said about the 20th century artists. It certainly seems that from the late 19th century and after, travel became more important for some artists as they were inspired by color, light, landscape and even culture during their travels.

Exactly – documentation became less important whilst concept, ideas, and technique moved into the forefront.

[…] Lizzie – The Concept of Travel in Art Through the Ages […]

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How to plan your next art trip the right way

Summer is here, and although this summer is going to be different, it’s still time for some traveling. I am lucky enough to live in Europe, where traveling is permitted (almost) everywhere, despite Coronavirus and a second wave of new cases across the continent. This is why, fingers crossing, I will be leaving for Switzerland soon. 

I’ll be doing what I call the “lake and art” road trip, starting from Como and driving around Switzerland. In fact, when this article will be published, I’ll be exploring a nice kunsthalle or bathing in a lake. Check Artsy Travels Instagram for live updates! 

Anyway, the point is, it’s time to plan a trip, and I figured you might want to know how I do it. That is why I decided to put together this short guide on how to plan your next art trip. 

1 – Choose a destination

This sounds like the easiest part, but in fact, it is not. Some destinations seem more appealing than others, some are just too far away, or too expensive. And then again, some are close and easy to reach, but you don’t really feel like going there. 

When choosing a destination, take into consideration how far you can go, how long you can stay, and if the destination fits you. For example, for the longest time I have dreamt of traveling to China, but I haven’t had the chance yet. China is big, full of things to do and see, and it would take me a lot of time to actually visit it. Which is why I haven’t yet: I’d rather wait, than just travel there for 7 or 10 days trying to squeeze in as many things as possible. 

On the contrary, there are places which I know are extremely beautiful, and that I will maybe visit one day, but they are not my top priority right now. Like beautiful Caribbean beaches, or ski resorts on the Alps. I know I would enjoy a short vacation there, but I also know that I would probably get bored after a few days, so for now I am not considering them. 

If you need to choose and have no clue on where you should go, try this method. First analyze the closest destinations around you, places you’ve never been before and you would like to visit. Then start considering places further and further away, until you find a balance between your budget, the time you can spend traveling and your own curiosity. 

2 – Do some research – General info

Once you have narrowed your list down to 3 or 4 places, start doing some research. At this stage, you want to find out on a general level what each destination has to offer, in terms of places to visit, attractions, culture, food, shopping, outdoor activities, festivals, and so on. Start on a very general level, because it is easier to find information. 

Remember, Google is your best friend in this situation. Chances are, wherever you are traveling, someone has been there before, and they might have written something about their trip. Or you could find photos and videos. The point is, get a written and a visual idea of the places you intend to visit. It will help you picture yourself there, understanding whether it is the right destination for you or not. 

3 – Focus on what you like 

Once you have a general picture of the place you are about to visit, dig a little deeper. It is now time to find out what these places really have to offer. And since we are talking about art trips, I suppose you will be looking for museums, galleries, exhibitions, and art-related attractions. 

As I told you, there are 3 online resources I always check before planning a trip, you can find more information in this article . But you can also use Pinterest or Instagram, to search for hashtags and pin things you find interesting. 

Another resource I really love using is Culture Trip . It is an online platform where you can find any sort of information, mostly written by locals and experts, basically on every place on Planet Earth. They have articles on museums, galleries, but also food, shopping, itineraries, beautiful castles, churches or temples, archeological sites, music festivals, and so on. For anything you want to know about a destination, they probably have an article. You can use it as a starting point to decide where to go, how long you should stay, and what route you should follow.

Remember, every traveler is different and every trip should reflect the peculiarities of the traveler. Use the information you find to plan your own trip, you shouldn’t be forced to stick to what other people say. You are free to choose, that is the beauty of traveling. Embrace your freedom and plan whatever you feel like doing. 

4 – Put it on a map

At this point, you should have a relatively clear idea of what you would like to do and where you would like to go. You have a destination, maybe a set of places you plan to visit – neighborhoods, cities, smaller villages, single attractions, museums, galleries, etc. – but you still don’t know how to organize all these information.

My advice is, put everything on a map. I usually use Google My Maps , but you can find a lot of different options online. There are websites and apps, but if you are more of an artsy type of person, you can draw your own map. The important thing is, put everything down and see where all those things are located. It’ll make it easier to visualize where places are, what is close to what else, which itinerary you can follow, how you can plan each day visiting a different area of a city or a country. 

Pinning everything you want to visit on a map is a great help when it comes to making things clear on your mind. It helps you visualize your trip, it gives you an idea of how long you should stay in each place, and once you are there it helps you getting around. Try to cross your own map with a general list of attractions and things to do in a specific place, so you can mix and match and create your own perfect itinerary. 

5 – Ask a local  

Asking a local is never been easier. First of all, if you are reading this blog post, you probably speak English, and therefore you can communicate with a lot of people around the globe. Reach out to people, ask for directions, sit in a bar, and talk to some local old men. They will have a lot of stories for you, they will point you towards the best places to eat, the best neighborhoods to go shopping or the best things to visit. 

If you want to ask a local before actually leaving, I recommend you check Airbnb experiences. I have used Airbnb to find accommodations, but also to book amazing tours. Airbnb offers you the possibility to connect with local experts that will show you a part of their city, the one they know best. I used it in Tokyo, where I met a curator that brought me on a gallery tour, and I did the same in New York, before moving there. I met two art advisors, and together we visited a few galleries in the Lower East Side area. This experience was so good, that one year later I was moving to NYC to actually work in one of these galleries. 

My point is, no matter how long you stay in a place, you will never be able to get to know it as much as someone who lives there. Find someone who is interested in what you like or works in your same field, and ask. People are happy to share their knowledge, especially if they love their city and you will discover places you wouldn’t have the chance to see otherwise. 

6 – Check the important details

Almost there, by now you should have a destination, a list of things to do and places to see in said destination, a map with all these things pinned, an itinerary with some recommendations by some local friend. And now comes the most important part. 

Check the details! Check when the museums are closed, check what time they open, and if they have longer opening hours during the weekend. Verify if they have exhibitions on view or if they are closed for installation. Make sure that the day you are planning to go is a regular day and not a bank holiday. Check if they have free nights or any special event. 

Check all the boring things and the exciting ones. I am telling you because I have done all these mistakes time and time again, but I am finally learning. Before you book your hotels or your flights, check everything. You don’t want to book a day trip from Madrid to Bilbao on the only day the Guggenheim Museum is closed. 

7 – Get lost  

The preparation is over, you booked everything, you have your itinerary, you know what to do and where to go, you checked all the opening hours and the exhibitions. Now close your book, close your browser tabs, put your phone in your bag, and just get lost. Enjoy the moment, have fun, talk to people, visit as many or as little places you want. It’s your trip, make the most out of it and make sure you will remember it forever. 

Cutting-edge contemporary art destinations in Tokyo

Contemporary art in paris. five addresses to add to your list.

The 2024 contemporary art lover’s travel bucket list 

Art traveling during the pandemic. A brief guide to resume our art explorations

Ask a local. Discovering contemporary art off the beaten track

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8 Travel in Art and Literature

• Published: July 2021
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This chapter explores the links between travel and artistic endeavours. It shows that travel dominates our language through metaphor and idioms, thus shaping our way of thinking. It then explores the myriad links between creativity and travel. It discusses how travel has influenced artistic trends and tastes, and shaped literary forms such as the novel. It also explores how travel helps inspire creativity, giving the artist or writer a mental freedom and new perspectives. Conversely, artistic works have inspired many others to travel: to follow in the footsteps of the artists and see places depicted for themselves. Finally, the chapter looks at how and why travel is such a central motif within our stories, art and literature. We see how nearly all forms of literature, and many other art forms, explore themes of identity, freedom, suffering, empathy and psychological development through the theme of travel.

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What is Art Tourism? A form of sustainable travel

Art tourism is a form of trav­el that revolves around engag­ing with artis­tic and cul­tur­al activ­i­ties, in touris­tic or his­tor­i­cal set­tings. Some­times referred to as cre­ative tourism, It involves vis­it­ing des­ti­na­tions that also fea­ture art dis­play. It offers a unique trav­el expe­ri­ence and con­tributes to the con­ser­va­tion and reap­pro­pri­a­tion of cul­tur­al spaces that might have oth­er­wise been lost.

Breathing Fresh Air into History

For vis­i­tors, Art Tourism trans­lates in explor­ing his­tor­i­cal sites, muse­ums, gal­leries , towns or exhibits with a fresh per­spec­tive . It can also look like par­tic­i­pat­ing in cre­ative work­shops or see­ing artists per­form on loca­tion. But why does it mat­ter?

Artis­tic ini­tia­tives and inter­ven­tions cre­ate new inter­est in his­tor­i­cal des­ti­na­tions that might have oth­er­wise been over­looked, for­got­ten or under­fund­ed.

The prac­tice pro­motes the con­ser­va­tion of his­tor­i­cal des­ti­na­tions and cul­tur­al spaces that might have fall­en into dis­re­pair or neglect. By attract­ing tourists with art, these places receive much-need­ed atten­tion and invest­ment for their preser­va­tion. It allows com­mu­ni­ties to fund the restora­tion of his­tor­i­cal build­ings and even revi­talise neigh­bour­hoods . They pre­vent the loss of invalu­able cul­tur­al her­itage.

Many small towns and vil­lages in Europe, for exam­ple, have wit­nessed sig­nif­i­cant eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment through artis­tic tourism . By lever­ag­ing their cul­tur­al assets and her­itage, these des­ti­na­tions attract tourists, cre­ate jobs and fos­ter a vibrant local econ­o­my.

Asso­ci­a­tions, donors and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions play a cru­cial role in sup­port­ing these sort of endeav­ors, often work­ing on a non-prof­it basis to ensure the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the projects and their pos­i­tive impact on the local com­mu­ni­ty.

(La la la la) Art tourism is all around the world

Due to its suc­cess in rekin­dling local economies, artis­tic tourism has recent­ly mul­ti­plied through­out Europe and the rest of the globe. Ini­tia­tives relat­ed to the prac­tice can man­i­fest in the most dis­parate regions , each with its unique artis­tic her­itage wait­ing to be explored.

One pos­i­tive exam­ple is PROYEC­TO ARMAZÓN , a project led by Mar­gari­ta Asuar in Spain. This ini­tia­tive revi­tal­izes old cas­tles by trans­form­ing them into exhi­bi­tion spaces fea­tur­ing art relat­ed to the 17 OECD sus­tain­abil­i­ty goals .

The select­ed works include paint­ings, pho­tographs, sculp­tures and more. Such projects not only attract vis­i­tors but also cre­ate a plat­form for pro­mot­ing social and envi­ron­men­tal aware­ness, all while pre­serv­ing his­tor­i­cal struc­tures.

A word of caution

Not all art tourism ini­tia­tives share the same non-prof­it and com­mu­ni­ty-focused goals. While some attrac­tions may present them­selves as such, they may pri­mar­i­ly serve com­mer­cial and sales objec­tives. Instead of help­ing local pop­u­la­tions, pre­serv­ing the envi­ron­ment or even sup­port­ing local economies, they might even hin­der them. This address­es ven­tures such as the Abu Dhabi Lou­vre .

Dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing between projects that gen­uine­ly sup­port local com­mu­ni­ties and those dri­ven pure­ly by com­mer­cial inter­ests is cru­cial in under­stand­ing the true nature of art tourism. It is essen­tial to crit­i­cal­ly eval­u­ate such ini­tia­tives to ensure they align with the prin­ci­ples of non-prof­it, com­mu­ni­ty devel­op­ment and cul­tur­al preser­va­tion, allow­ing art tourism to tru­ly make a pos­i­tive impact on the places it seeks to show­case and sup­port.

Sustainability. Last but not least.

By pro­mot­ing the con­ser­va­tion and reap­pro­pri­a­tion of cul­tur­al spaces, this cre­ative form of tourism fos­ters sus­tain­able eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment in rur­al areas. It leads to enrich­ment for both trav­ellers and local com­mu­ni­ties.

Art tourism offers a unique, sus­tain­able and reward­ing trav­el expe­ri­ence that com­bines cul­tur­al explo­ration, cre­ativ­i­ty and the preser­va­tion of his­tor­i­cal her­itage.

Written by Malu Benjamin July 12, 2023

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Experiencing Art through Travel

Foto: © Authenticitys

“When you visit a country, visit the forgotten artisans of the narrow streets because they are the ones who made that country! Do this, not to honour them but to honour yourself!”  ―  Mehmet Murat ildan

This blog post might serve as a reflection about the authenticity of travelling. Let’s think about what that word might mean in relation to both travel and art.

So, if you think about travelling, you usually try to search for an authentic experience, something that goes beyond a typical encounter with a new culture of a country. “Travel like locals”- how often do we try to obtain this experience?

You see, all too often art can be seen as an expression of showing the own culture, to demonstrate the lived experiences and the learning process. The artist’s work is a reflection of what his or her mind is about. Probably, what most of you always associated with travel in Europe is the exploring of museums, cathedrals and other historic buildings. Thus, the discovering of authentic art in a culture is part of tourism and travel.

In this sense, the authentic experience of a culture that you visit is often given through the eyes of art you see and experience there.

Probably the main reason why writing about the experience of art through travel is important is to show that art and travel aren’t far away from each other – contrariwise – they have some crucial connection points.

Discovering beauty

The experience of local art might provide you with an alternative side to learn from another culture and a deeper cultural understanding of the country you visit. However, it is not enough to find out what different ways of expression exist and to learn the disparities to your own culture.

The condition is to try to understand the culture through local art. Only by then, the real beauty of a new culture can be discovered.

“The World is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.” – Saint Augustine

There are plenty of things to be gained from going abroad: new friends, new experiences, new stories. And of course – new attitudes towards life.

But travelling into another country may come with another benefit, too: Some scientists say it can also make you more creative.

Imagine this prospering creativity that comes through travelling by discovering local art in your journey – a double learning effect. If you are really open to discover the beauty of a different culture through art, there are plenty of possibilities waiting for you.

Maybe one of the most authentic local art expressions in a city can be seen in Street Arts. Like in on of our experience tours in Athens you are getting to know a different side of the town through the eyes of one of the most provocative and celebrated artists there. By experiencing this type of local art, you will gain a profound understanding of what is happening at the heart of the city through an unconventional way and support the artistic community that thrives there.

Another example leads us to the local art experience in Buenos Aires , where you have the chance to visit the main galleries of contemporary art in the city with a specialist guide in this field. If you have ever wondered how a local artist sees his own culture – these experiences take you through the underworld of art and provide you with a deep understanding, far away from “normal” tourism.

And of course – the pure beauty of artisan art pieces show precise traditions of a culture where you get to know the local side better. Like in tours through the Artists colony in Delhi the creative local communities can be inspiring for your own creativity and a stimulation to understand the foreign culture.

In general, we should all invest more time and thoughts about art and the individual expression of views while we are travelling – because it is an alternative but direct way to discover the beauty of the culture in the country or city we are visiting.

Foto: ©  Authenticitys

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How Travelling Can Benefit an Artist

Travel can offer great benefits for an artist , from having new experiences and exploring new cultures to a simple change of scenery and opportunity to relax and get a fresh perspective on life . These experiences can offer new sources of inspiration that can consciously and sub-consciously influence our artwork and push our art in new directions.

Travelling can be a source of education as you are exposed to different forms of art, different subject matters or new art techniques. A new perspective allows you to critique and challenge your own work, as you explore new ideas or provide confirmation for the focus of your work.

In this blog post I have summarised the key benefits of travelling for an artist.

Table of Contents

The history of art travel

Learning from other artists, inspiration for new artworks, overcoming creative block.

Re-energising

Where should an artist visit?

Travelling for art inspiration has been a long-trodden path. Many great artists of the past were cultural tourists and saw travel as integral to their art practice.

During the Renaissance period, Leonardo da Vinci travelled around Italy and France and Michael Angelo regularly travelled across Italy, whilst Albrecht Dürer travelled across Europe from Germany and the Netherlands to Italy.

During the 18th and 19th Century, the Grand Tour was considered an important feature of artistic education and learning. It often involved a trip through Europe and primarily Italy, with a focus on understanding and being inspired by the arts of classical antiquity and the Renaissance period. The Grand Tour inspired neoclassical art and romantic art movements.

Not all artists of the romantic movement travelled through southern Europe. Some artists such as Chateaubriand travelled through North America, from Philadelphia to Louisiana; and Eugène Delacroix journeyed through North Africa, where he discovered Tangier, Meknes, Algiers and Oran.

Travelling to new destinations provides an opportunity to view works from artists of the past or emerging artists from the local area.

Art retreats provide a travelling opportunity dedicated to creatives and are becoming increasingly popular.

Alternatively, travelling to an art course to learn a new technique or improve your existing skills can also be a great way to reinvigorate your art practice. At these events, there is access to an expert tutor and participants can learn from each other.

Much of the inspiration for my artwork comes from the experiences I have had while travelling. I spent time living in Padova in Italy and have had long trips to Peru and Portugal . These trips have provided inspiration that has endured for many years.

Trips further afield to new regions and countries expose you to different architecture, cultures, climates, materials, light, colours and textures, as well as tastes and smells. All of which can contribute to the creative process.

It is not always necessary to go so far to find new inspiration, and it’s also possible to get inspiration from City breaks and visiting interesting areas close to home. I have written blog posts about the inspiration found in London , Southwold and Whitstable - all places that are within a 2 hour drive from where I live.

Whenever I travel I try to buy a piece of art, I usually aim for something that is traditional to the local area, although I have returned with less traditional pieces over time. I find they are a great source of inspiration many years later as well as a great way to support other artists.

Taking plenty of photos is helpful to make sure you capture as much of your experiences as possible for when you get back home. It is also worth having a sketchbook to hand to make notes and draw sketches. I would recommend making at least one sketch each day of your travels to make the most of every experience. Inspiration can come from anything, it is best to be prepared so you don’t lose any opportunity.

Many artists experience creative block at some point. Arranging a trip to break up a daily routine could be just what is needed to overcome a creative block.

Whether it is a trip to the coast, countryside or a City break to somewhere not far from home or a longer trip abroad, a break away can trigger new ideas and inspiration.

Please see my blog post on ways to overcome a creative block for more ideas on this topic.

Re-energising 

The work of an artist doesn’t end at creating the artwork, there are exhibitions or art fairs to prepare for, there is marketing and social media to think about, as well as packaging up orders to be sent to customers. This means there is very little downtime, so it can be a real benefit to take some time away to relax and re-energise. It can feel counter-intuitive to take a break, when you have so much to do, but a break can fill you with fresh energy that is really beneficial in the long run.

There are no rules on where an artist should travel to. The possibilities are endless, but I have a number of blog posts about different places that I find inspiring and would definitely recommend visiting for art inspiration.

Once you have decided on your destination, here is a list of ideas to help you plan your trip:

Art galleries

Art fair, please read my article here for more about Art Fairs.

Art Festivals or markets, please read my article here for more about Art Festivals.

Music gigs or festivals

A walk in the local parks, countryside, woods, mountains or along the coast

An activity such as cycling or horse riding or nature spotting

A boat trip along the river or at sea

I hope this blog post has encouraged you to take a trip to inspire your artwork. If you feel something is missing from this post, please email me and let me know at [email protected] .

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Hi, I'm Sarah, I sell my artwork through my Art Store . I draw inspiration from my travels and personal experiences, and I believe in the healing power of art and its ability to bring people together.

On my blog, I share inspiration for art-inspired trips and holidays, tips to help improve your art, and ideas for fun craft activities with children.

Follow me on Instagram to see my latest artwork and behind-the-scenes processes, or sign up for my newsletter to receive exclusive offers and stay updated on new artwork and blog posts. Join me on this creative journey!

Discover Street Art in Alfama District, Lisbon

Chelmsford museum open art exhibition.

Travel and Art

Explore transport and travel through the eyes of artists

Planes, trains and automobiles

Expeditions and maps, on your bike, take a walk, artists on holiday, explore more themes, fahrelnissa zeid: city by city.

Follow the international artist’s creative journey through each of the cities she spent time in

Patricia Belli – The Scar of the Skin

Join visual artist Patricia Belli and discover what her artwork means to her

Thao Nguyen Phan – 'My reflections on the history of Vietnam, the poetry of daily life'

Step inside the studio of artist Thao Nguyen Phan and discover her mesmerising, poetic work

Sol Calero Goes Travelling in Latin America

The artist explores themes of representation and identity through colourful, immersive installations

Concorde L449-15

Hommage à chrysler corp., tram on westminster bridge, concentric bearings b, king’s cross station, london, red arrow bus, french engine, locomotive wheel, united kingdom, escaped animals, water, selected, ithaca mirror trail, ithaca, new york, the north-west passage, a journey that wasn’t, the last voyage of henry hudson, a hundred mile walk.

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. Francis Bacon

Lubaina Himid CBE RA Between the Two my Heart is Balanced (1991) Tate

© Lubaina Himid, courtesy the artist and Hollybush Gardens, London

B.S.A. Tour of Britain Racer Enlarged to 135%

Joseph beuys, ‘is it about a bycicle’, cycle racing, five-man pedersen (prototype no.1), michael balling up old net, outside kampala, photograph of an unidentified boy playing with bicycle parts, colour photograph of the shadow of a bicycle on the pavement, a line made by walking, performance still, the commuters, laundromat-locomotion (walking in suit), walking dream with four foot clamp, the walking man diary, marching figures.

Julian Trevelyan Canal Holidays (1975) Tate

© The estate of Julian Trevelyan

It's very important for inspiration to go elsewhere: to move away from the city into pastoral settings, and to make space for meditation. Isaac Julien

Feet on Holiday I

The last resort 40, incidents 025, black mirror, st ives beach, from the pleasure principle, study for ‘the seaside’, rio de janeiro, brazil, 1967, couple eating fish and chips, whitley bay, tyneside, photograph of mollie gordon sunbathing by the pool in puerto de la cruz, tenerife.

My favorite thing is to go where I've never been. Diane Arbus

Tracey Emin Monument Valley (Grand Scale) (1995–7) Tate

© Tracey Emin

It sometimes takes a foreigner to come and see a place and paint it. I remember someone saying they had never really noticed the palm trees here until I painted them. David Hockney

Land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs

Psychogeography

Psychogeography describes the effect of a geographical location on the emotions and behaviour of individuals

Journeys Coursework Guide

From physical journeys and migration to journeys of self-discovery, get ideas and inspiration about journeys in art

Family and Art

Uncover how artists have responded to the idea of family through art

Queer Lives and Art

Discover LGBTQ artists and queer art

Migration and Art

Explore how artists reflect on moving to new places

Black Identities and Art

Discover Black art and artists in Tate's collection

Weather and Art

Explore how artists respond to the seasons and our changing environment

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Art Smart Travels plans and leads private art tours through a broad range of locations in the United States and Europe. Our elite, personalized travel programs cater to your specific interests and needs so that you spend your time with personally satisfying treasures that will mean the most to you. Our travel advisory services include:

• Itinerary planning for self-guided tours An Art Smart consultant will work with you to develop a detailed itinerary featuring the perfect mix of experiences for your destination. We’ll assemble a portfolio of cultural resources, design a workable schedule, and arrange luxury travel programs that will make your experience insightful, delightful, and stress-free. Thanks to our extensive network of contacts, we can assist you in the selection of a local art expert to guide you in most locales.
• Escorted travel For a luxury experience, an Art Smart art historian can travel with you to provide the personalized guidance through art museums and cultural monuments. Along the way, you will receive expedited and VIP-level access to art venues.

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Art Smart knows how to make the most of your family’s travels around the world. We’ll start by building a custom list of recommended books and resources that are great for introducing your family to the area that you’ll be visiting. Then we’ll send you on your way with a custom guide to the can’t-miss masterpieces at your destination.

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We can use local art collections to familiarize your family with what you should look for while you are traveling. For a truly unforgettable experience, an Art Smart expert can travel with your family to provide the highest possible level of on-site expertise and guidance.

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Give us a call at (212) 595-4444 or email . Tell us when and where you will be traveling, what you hope to see, and a little bit about your interests. With that, we’ll create the perfect experience for you.

On the Road: Best Traveling Paintings

Anastasia Manioudaki 17 November 2023 min Read

Augustus Leopold Egg, The Traveling Companions, 1862, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham, UK.

Recommended

Art Travels

Artists’ Beloved Travel Destinations as Seen Through Their Art

Travel in the Footsteps of Henri Matisse in Morocco

Around the World with a Painter: Frederic Edwin Church’s Travels

“ As you set out for Ithaka, hope your road is a long one,” thus begins Ithaka , the famous poem by C.P. Cavafy. When we travel, we always think about the destination – thinking of the time we spend to arrive as a hassle, a necessary evil.  But, as Cavafy and many other artists will tell you, being on the road has its own kind of magic. Let us look at some of the best traveling paintings.

Traveling by Train: Traveling Companions

Director Wes Anderson would surely love this painting, or maybe not. At first glance, the scene inside the railway carriage looks completely symmetrical: the two women identical. They wear the same dress, the same hat, that both have placed on their lap. The window is split into three parts, emphasizing the sense of symmetry. However, there are small details that dissolve the similarity. The woman on the right has her hair up, wears gloves, and is reading a book. Beside her sits a flower bouquet, while the other with loose hair and bare hands is daydreaming, with a basket beside her.

Sadly, neither of them pays attention to the magnificent view of the French Riviera outside the window. They both remain firmly enveloped in their private worlds, eschewing the experience of traveling and thus putting an ironic ring to the painting’s title.

Traveling by Boat: Breezing Up

Traveling for business does not have to be boring. On a cloudy afternoon, a fisherman and three boys return from a day at sea. The boat moves quickly on the waves. The man and the boys are perched on the right side to balance the breeze that pushes the sail. It has been a good day. The floor of the boat is teeming with fish. At last, they have some time to relax. Look at the young boy in the front: he is sprawled across the bow taking in the wind and the sea.

Winslow Homer presented this painting in 1876, the centennial year of the United States. This view of American life completed the climate of postwar nostalgia at the time. Stylistically, the loose brushstrokes and warm colors remind us of the French Realism of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet .

Traveling by Boat: Great Wave Off Kanagawa

The Great Wave is probably the most famous piece of Japanese art. A huge frothing wave is about to crash on three fishing boats. The fishermen are frantically trying to get to shore – being at sea is not always fun. In the distance, the sacred mountain of Japan, Mount Fuji, is dwarfed by the immense body of water.

Katsushika Hokusai’s print is part of his series Thirty Six Views of Mount Fuji , but through the use of linear perspective, the largest mountain in Japan seems small. However, the waves are perfectly framed around it to make it stand out.

Traveling By Boat: The Last of England

A young family sets on an uncertain journey with dreams for a new life. In The Last of England , we see a pair of immigrants beginning their voyage to Australia. The man seems broody and stressed while the woman is resigned to her fate. From an opening in her cloak, we barely see her clutching her baby’s hand.  Emigration is surely one of the worst reasons to be on the road – being forced to leave everything and clinging on to hope. The white cliffs of Dover are looming in the back, the last view of England, while in front of the couple, strung cabbages reminds us of the long journey ahead.

Traveling by Car: Tamara in the Green Bugatti

With the turn of the 20th century, traveling by car became more of a commodity than it used to be. Tamara de Lempicka , nicknamed the baroness with a paintbrush, epitomizes the modern woman of the roaring 20s. Her stylish persona, which she meticulously built, featured in all the most forward-thinking magazines in Europe.

Tamara in a Green Bugatti was a commission for the cover of the German magazine Die Dame . In her characteristic Art Deco style, the artist portrays herself as an independent, emancipated, and sexually liberated woman . She stares smugly at us, with her leather gloves and blowing majestic scarf. The car is another symbol of her emancipation. A woman driving in the 20s was a rare sight. Moreover, it is a nod to the contemporary futurist movement that celebrated speed and everything that had to do with the modern world.

Traveling by Caravan: Pilgrims Going to Mecca

Before trains and cars, camel caravans crossed the desert to deliver goods and offer safe passage to travelers. Leon Belly’s orientalist painting shows a caravan heading towards Mecca, a place of pilgrimage for all Muslims. The convoy advances towards the viewer in a dramatic fashion.

Belly manages to capture the pious but weary faces of the pilgrims under the scorching sun. Adding an exotic note, the camels are large enough to dominate the canvas. Even though its subject matter is chiefly Islamic, Belly creates a more expansive religious meaning. Take notice to the left of the column; we can see a man walking along with a woman and child on a donkey – the pair refers to the biblical theme of The Flight into Egypt .

There are many reasons and many ways to be on the road. Whatever our destination, time spent traveling fills us with new experiences. Or, as Cavafy says, “Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn’t have set out.”

• Augustus Leopold Egg
• Ford Madox Brown
• Katsushika Hokusai
• Tamara de Lempicka
• Winslow Homer

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Art Historian, she graduated from the Department of History and Archeology of the University of Athens and has an MA in Art History from the University of Sussex. She is a member of the Association of Greek Art Historians. Her articles have been published in Ta Nea tis Technis and avopolis.gr.

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• INTELLIGENT TRAVEL

The Art and Heart of Travel Storytelling

Telling stories is one of humankind’s abiding, defining impulses.

The cave paintings at Lascaux in France and the Aboriginal wall paintings in Australia’s Kakadu National Park are very early examples of this—of people   trying to make sense of their experience, and trying to share the sense they make.

So when you become a travel storyteller, you’re tapping into one of the deepest and richest veins of the human experience.

For me, the fundamental art in storytelling is focus. And the art of focus has two layers.

The first is the experiential one. As I’ve said   before , in order to write deeply, you have to live deeply.   This means that your primary   mission as a storyteller is to see keenly, taste keenly, hear keenly, smell keenly, feel keenly.

The second layer in the art of focus is evoking your experience vividly   through carefully selected details that elucidate   the points you’re trying to convey to your reader. Details such as these are the building blocks of any story.

Beyond these steps, you should strive   to give your experience a larger context. Ask yourself: What’s this all about? What’s the meaning here?

Truly great stories succeed in extracting   meaning from the everyday.

They are also the record of two corresponding journeys: a journey in the outer world and a journey in the inner world. And the travel writer’s story is built upon the interplay between these worlds   and   journeys.

This, of course, is not a license for self-indulgence. Great storytelling is not about length; it’s about saying precisely what needs to be said, in precisely as many words as are needed to say it. Your anecdotes and examples must always   be in the service of your point. And your story must   have a point—a lesson. It   should answer the question: What did I learn, and how did I learn it?

To be a great storyteller, you must first cultivate the fine   art of vulnerability—opening yourself up to a place and trusting in its people, saying, in effect, “Here I am. Do with me what you will.” This   is a kind of corollary to being able to evoke a place only as richly and deeply as you have lived it.

You can penetrate and absorb a place only as richly and deeply as you open yourself up to it. When you do so, you enable and forge deep connections that will ultimately become the subject of great travel storytelling—and the effect of great travel storytelling as well. You connect with the places and people you write about, and then, if you write about them well, you connect your reader to those places and people, too.

And so the world becomes infused with a little more appreciation, a little more open-mindedness, a little more kindness, with every story you write.

This notion was brought home to me on a trip I made to Cambodia a year ago, which I described in an article called “ Piecing Together Puzzles in Cambodia .” I was planning to visit Siem Reap and Angkor Wat when I learned about an intriguing place called Banteay Chhmar , a tiny village with impressive temple ruins hidden in the jungle, but no hotels or hostels.

I decided to add Banteay Chhmar to my itinerary, and after three days in Siem Reap, a wonderful taxi driver named Mr. Kim agreed to transport me the three-and-a-half hours north it takes to get   there. He ended up becoming a character in my story.

At the end of my homestay in the village, when Mr. Kim picked me up to drive me back to Siem Reap, he asked if I’d first like to see two ancient temples on the Thai-Cambodia border, temples that had been the site of border disputes just a few years before, but now were places of harmony. I’d love to, I said.

At the second of these temples, Mr. Kim knew the local commander, and we were accompanied by a military escort of a half dozen soldiers up a winding jungle trail to the temple grounds, where contingents of both Thai and Cambodian soldiers were sharing cigarettes and talking easily—in a setting where they had once been shooting at each other.

After a half hour of cigarette-sharing and photo-snapping, the commander led us to his post and brought us tea. He then gathered a dozen of his soldiers, including the six who had accompanied us to the temple, and gave a speech welcoming us and telling us what an honor it was to have us   visit   them. He also described the history of the border conflict and how happy everyone was to have peace in the area now—and how they hoped the only future visitors would be tourists and not soldiers.

Everyone applauded, then I rose and gave a brief speech, which Mr. Kim translated, saying how very special it   was to be welcomed at this ancient, important site, and how moved I had been to see the Cambodian soldiers and Thai soldiers talking with such amity. I told them how inspiring that was to me, and how that kind of peace and understanding between people was why I believed so fervently in the power of travel to transform the world. I ended by saying that I would always treasure my visit with them.

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Then something profoundly moving happened.

Here’s how I described it in the story:

All the soldiers burst into smiles and applause, and then, quite unexpectedly, a very young-looking soldier at the end of the table got up and began to speak. His voice quavered at first, but as he continued to speak, the words flowed out of him with a pure passion. ‘I am just a simple soldier,’ Mr. Kim translated. ‘I have not traveled far or seen much in my life. But today is a very special day for me.’ He looked directly at me. ‘Our honored guest is the first foreigner I have ever seen in my life, the first foreigner I have ever met…This makes me think how big the world is, and gives me a kind of hope.’

What a moment! A   year later, this brave soldier’s open-hearted words bring tears to my eyes. Reflecting on them now, I realize that they perfectly express for me the ultimate potential of great travel storytelling and the sacred mission we storytellers share: to make us all think how big the world is, and to give us all a kind of hope.

Don George   is an editor at large at   Traveler   a nd the author of   The Way of Wanderlust   and   Lonely Planet’s Guide to Travel Writing .   He   has also edited award-winning travel writing anthologies, including   An Innocent Abroad .   Follow Don on Twitter   @don_george .

> More From Don George:

• The Journey of a Travel Story
• The New World of Travel Writing
• The Quality Quotient: Travel Writing That Matters    
• The Fine Art of Focus in Travel Writing

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What Does the Phrase “Slow Travel” Actually Mean? 

This is part of a collection of stories on slow travel—read more here.

For about a decade, Paul Salopek, a Pulitzer-winning journalist, has been walking. By that, I don’t mean he’s consistently hit his 10,000 steps on daily constitutionals. In 2013, Salopek set out on the  Out of Eden Walk , a project to follow the 80,000-year-old footsteps of our forebears, following the 24,000-mile route of human migration from Ethiopia to the southern tip of South America —all on foot just as they had done. Salopek’s still-unfolding, extraordinary journey might be considered the ultimate experiment in so-called “slow travel,” a term that is being used more and more frequently to describe everything from backcountry bikepacking expeditions to mega-ship cruises. But when I reach Salopek on Zoom to ask him about it, he is in the Chinese province of Shaanxi and is audibly confused about what the term even means. “There’s been no other way  but  ‘slow travel’ for 99 percent of our history,” he says. “I guess in today’s world to premise anything on going slowly is revolutionary.”

It’s hard to pinpoint its exact beginnings but the slow travel revolution—an intentional move towards more mindful, more environmentally responsible, less purely convenient modes of getting around—organically emerged from another revolution. In 1986, a journalist named Carlo Petrini, in the most Italian protest ever conducted, handed out bowls of penne pasta to passersby and demonstrators who yelled, “We don’t want fast food. We want slow food!” The target? A McDonald’s, the first in Italy , set to open at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome. The McDonald’s did indeed open, and is still there, but by actively resisting the very concept of fast food, Petrini started what became known as the slow food movement, a culinary practice that emphasizes natural ingredients, traditional cooking methods, and long, languorous meals where food is relished rather than treated as fuel.

If slow food is defined, at least partially, by what it’s not, then the same can be said for slow travel. Slow travel can be best understood as a collective reaction to our post-industrial obsession with convenience, where time, and using as little of it as possible, is the biggest priority in getting from point A to point B. Some have tried to give slow travel a more concrete definition. In 2010, for example, a decade before the coronavirus pandemic saw  skyrocketing interest in  trekking, cycling, and domestic trips, two tourism researchers out of the UK, Janet Dickinson and Les Lumsdown,  wrote that slow travel was “an emerging conceptual framework which offers an alternative to air and car travel, where people travel to destinations more slowly overland, stay longer and travel less.” Seems simple enough. Take a train, a bike, kayak, or your own two feet instead of a plane and car and just like that, you’ve taken your vow of mindfulness; welcome to the church of slow travel? 

Of course, like any trend that starts with a kind of radical thoughtfulness, the definition of slow travel gets slippery with the more questions you ask. What if, on that train ride, you do nothing but scroll on TikTok? What if the place and the people you really want to get to know and learn from are just too difficult to reach without getting on a plane, because of other obligations, money, or a disability? Does that disqualify you? Run a Google search of slow travel and you won’t need to scroll long before you’re accosted with shiny images of beautiful people on pristine beaches and “must-have” checklists for worthwhile “slow travel” experiences.  What if you can’t afford the five-digit price tags associated with the two-week yacht trips, luxury train rides, and wilderness resorts that market themselves as the ultimate in slow travel indulgences? 

What emerges then is a far more complex definition of what it means to travel slowly. Traveling slowly can mean exploring your own backyard, avoiding environmentally damaging transportation when possible, spending a lot of time in one place instead of a little time in many—but it also is an internal process. It means tamping down our own built-in, conditioned obsessions with time and allowing the world to move just a little slower so that we can actually notice it. Slow travel is a mindset: you don’t need three weeks of vacation to slow down. A day spent strolling through an unfamiliar neighborhood without a crammed to-do list or exploring a state park with nothing but a route map and a bag of snacks could fall under the umbrella of slow travel. It comes down to how you engage with the world as you move through it.  

“It’s about taking the time to make a connection—to the land and each other,” says Chyanne Trenholm

“If slow travel is about stopping and taking the time to properly connect with a place and its people, then yes, it’s something I’m all for,” says Chyanne Trenholm, a member of the Homalco First Nation, and the assistant general manager of Vancouver Island-based  Homalco Wildlife and Cultural Tours . The Indigenous-owned company organizes visits to local communities, and Bute Inlet wildlife excursions. Trenholm says the idea of taking it slow and being present has been ingrained in her culture as a steward of the land. “Slow tourism is not the term we’ve used much, because it’s not just how we think of our brand—it’s who we are,” she says. She feels a certain sense of responsibility in instilling that kind of thinking in visitors who might arrive looking to get that one shot of a grizzly bear with a fish in its mouth and then leave. “It’s about taking the time to make a connection—to the land and each other,” she says. “I think humans in general can learn a lot from the act of making those connections.” 

Monisha Rajesh , the author of three books on long-distance train travel, thinks that moving slower gives our brains the time it needs to process our experiences. “On a plane, you lift out of one place and drop into the next without any awareness of the in-betweenness,” she says. “On a train, the journey starts the second you get on board. I don’t know who is going to enter my story and the surroundings are part of the adventure.” Instead of the time it takes to get from origin to destination being a kind of blank nothingness—a necessary, if somewhat annoying, component of travel—suddenly, it teems with possibility. 

When people hear about long, slow journeys—a cross-country  bike trip , a paddle down the Mississippi, a 10-year-and-counting walk in the footsteps of early Homo sapiens—the reaction is usually a mix of “you-did- what?”  shock and “I-could-never” envy. It’s a strange reaction considering our history as a species. Salopek tells me that he’s noticed something almost primeval about entering a community that is not your own by foot. “They see you coming from a distance. By the time you walk up to them and say hello there’s this ritual of greeting that you’re both prepared for,” he says. “We’ve been walking into each other’s viewsheds for 300,000 years and that’s why it feels so good.”

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Why Do We Travel?

• Written by Nicolás Valencia
• Published on September 13, 2019

Everyone wants to travel the world, whether it's to meet new people, taste new food, or visit new places. Travel is consequently an extremely lucrative industry, but tourist destinations are getting more crowded than ever and associated pollution emissions are only worsening the climate emergency .

Why do we travel? In this edition of Editor's Talk , four editors from ArchDaily based in Lebanon, the United States, and Chile share their thoughts on the meaning of travel, and why tourists enjoying a beach in a location like Brazil should also care about the cities they visit.

Nicolas Valencia: Travel was June's Monthly Topic . Back then we published articles about architecture guides and travel-related typologies, but we didn't talk about the experience of traveling. What does travel mean to you?

Dima Stouhi : I was born and raised in Lebanon, but I'm moving to Switzerland next month. This will be the first time that I experience living abroad. Because Lebanon is so different from any other country, traveling is incredibly important for me to see how other people live and what other cultures are like.

Eric Baldwin: I often introduce myself by saying that I’m a farm kid from rural Iowa. My idea of the world, including different cultures and ways of working, was limited for much of my youth. In college, that worldview expanded greatly. I was able to study and travel around the world, in places like China, Italy, and Greece. I believe that context is everything; travel is one way to expand your context.

Christele Harrouk : I was born in Beirut too, coming from French roots, so It was always easier for me to travel, and it was always an option for me to live abroad. Nevertheless, I never opted for this choice: I did spend a couple of months here and there, but to me, the notion of home was more important. Traveling has opened my eyes to what this world holds, and it has also made me better appreciate what I had and took for granted.

Nicolas Valencia:  But it's still a luxury nowadays.

Eric Baldwin:  Travel has been priceless to me, but it’s also become terribly destructive to our environment. In many ways, it is a luxury. As Greta Thunberg showed when sailing across the Atlantic on a zero-emissions yacht, we have to come up with better ways to travel. Our current conditions are becoming more and more unsustainable.

Dima Stouhi:  Traveling is definitely a luxury now. Especially for people who need visas to travel, like me.

If you travel, you are a loser

Nicolas Valencia: In June we published an article titled The Age of Travel is Over . The author says that "if you travel to earn your living, you are a loser. If you travel to see places, or to learn, you are an enemy of the planet."

Eric Baldwin: I think it was meant to be a sort of provocation. Travel is still so important, but that doesn't mean there aren't better ways to travel. Or that we shouldn't continue to imagine new modes of connection that bring us together and expand our context without harming the environment.

Christele Harrouk:  Traveling is a pure form of learning, possibly the most genuine way of getting information, but I always go back to the idea that if you don't do anything with these experiences, they become useless and the whole process becomes futile in a way. The more I meet people, the more I discover that a lot of them, who pretend to roam the globe, are so closed into themselves.

Dima Stouhi:  The idea of traveling is different now. People want to travel to show everyone that they traveled or just for the sake of traveling. There isn't much thought to what they harm along the way.

Nicolas Valencia:  Dima has a point. Traveling has become a sort of meta-traveling:  visit  a place to say you visited a place.  I'm very critical of those who don't learn anything from traveling, but then, I think, "Why should they experience it the same way I do?"

Dima Stouhi:  That's the thing, it's a matter of perspective. I doubt that people "never learn" from traveling. Regardless of how different each individual is, at least one experience, building, or even meal is going to get stuck in their head. It's just a matter of what people are paying attention to while traveling.

Eric Baldwin:  We travel to work, to discover, to connect with family or friends, to get the perfect Instagram post, to escape. As long as we continue to question why, and whether we are doing so responsibly, I think travel will continue to have meaning. Beyond location, I think being a "good" vs. a "bad" tourist is part responsibility and part perspective. If you travel to escape your daily life and enjoy a beach in Brazil, but you don’t care to learn about the city, people, or culture you visit, is that inherently bad? Again, it’s a matter of context.

Cities for rich tourists

Nicolas Valencia: Bloomberg published a chart on Instagram a few days ago explaining that "tourist destinations are only going to get more crowded," especially in Europe. We recently saw Venice ban large cruises from its historical center . How do we think other cities are going to deal with tourism?

Dima Stouhi:  I support Venice's decision. I went to Vatican City last year in August. I remember at one point I just wanted to leave because of how crowded it was. We couldn't even stop for one second to look around us. There was no place to stand in the Sistine Chapel. It's sad.

Eric Baldwin:  It’s a tricky thing. It’s tied to preservation: when does saving something relegate it to becoming frozen, functionless scenery? Again, I go back to context. What does tourism give to a city, and what does it take away? Does heritage have a part to play? No city remains the same, and in turn, tourism and travel have to change too.

Dima Stouhi:  But Eric, the way we see it, preservation comes first because we know and appreciate the value of historical sites. The majority of people don't.

Eric Baldwin:  I question the value of historical sites. How do we measure relevance or heritage? Why are the pyramids worth preserving? It’s a question — and battle — of values and those things that define us. In turn, it’s directly related to why we travel.

Nicolas Valencia:  Countries such as Spain rely strongly on tourism — the industry accounts for around 13% of its GDP. It's hard to regulate if your city's economy relies so strongly on tourism. Anyway, I'd assume that restricting access to tourists will eventually punish middle-class tourists. 

Christele Harrouk:  Well, I'm not sure about this. Maybe not restrict accesses but make them more organized.

Dima Stouhi:  I don't believe that increasing prices and limiting access to rich tourists is the way to solve it. I think it's like what Christele said: it's how governments organize it that might make a difference.

Christele Harrouk:  This is the responsibility of the cities: they have to advertise different areas. It's not difficult, but they just don't take the initiative. Changes in marketing strategies can indirectly reduce the concentration of tourists in one place and divide it into many regions, making new areas grow and develop as well.

Nicolas Valencia:  If I'm going to Venice, I'm going to visit downtown, not a peripheral neighborhood.

Christele Harrouk:  But if there is a Zaha Hadid building in the periphery, you will go there, and spend less time downtown.

I Love City Branding

Nicolas Valencia:  We have been talking about Europe, but what about Latin America? Africa? Asia? Have you visited these regions?

Dima Stouhi:  Dream destinations, big budgets!

Nicolas Valencia:  In Latin America, we are more interested in visiting Europe and the US, rather than our own region. This is despite the fact that airfare has plummeted in this region, so it's cheaper than ever to travel across Latin America.

Christele Harrouk:  This may be global, but don't you think this is where city branding comes in hand?

Nicolas Valencia:  Sure, city branding defines what we think about them. But one thing that freaks me out about traveling is that after spending a week abroad, people think they gain a certain power to explain what a whole country is like. We each have different backgrounds of emotions, ideas, and expectations, so a gay man visiting a city after breaking up might have a totally different experience from a heterosexual woman who meets a guy in that same city. Each person's visions of the same city are completely unique, which means these narratives can't be universal.. 

Dima Stouhi:  I think these assumptions are a normal human reaction. Whatever is different from what they usually see, they pin-point it as if it were a flaw..

Eric Baldwin:  I think that's a very hard thing to change. You inherently have more perspective than someone who has never been there, but at the same time, you have an inherently limited understanding as well. I think the after-visit stereotypes will continue to happen, as Identity is always tied to travel and context. How that context is shaped happens in a myriad of ways, and defines who we are.

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Is it safe to go there? What State Department travel advisories mean for your vacation

If you're planning an international trip, you're probably researching the safety of your destination.

The U.S. Department of State offers guidance based on the most up-to-date information about potential hazards that can disrupt travel or threaten personal safety. The department issues advisories that classify how safe a place is to travel on a given moment.

Each country has an advisory level from 1 to 4, from lowest risk to highest risk. The most dangerous places to visit, including areas affected by war and unrest, are classified under Level 4, which means "do not travel." Some countries, including Mexico, have different advisory levels for different regions.

Here's what the State Department travel advisories mean.

What are the travel advisory levels in the US?

The State Department classifies how safe a place is to travel by assigning an advisory level, from Level 1 to Level 4. Here's what the advisory levels mean:

Learn more: Best travel insurance

Level 1: Exercise normal precautions. This indicates the least risky places to travel to, but the State Department cautions that "there is some risk in any international travel."

Level 2: Exercise increased caution. Travelers should be aware of higher safety and security risks in their destination, and that conditions can change at any time.

Level 3: Reconsider travel. Serious safety and security risks exist and conditions can change at any time. The State Department provides more specific guidance for travelers in Level 3 areas.

Level 4: Do not travel. Level 4 countries represent the highest risk of life-threatening danger and little to no ability for the U.S. government to assist when an emergency occurs. The State Department advises travelers to avoid Level 4 countries, that Americans in those countries leave as soon as it's safe to do so, and to write a will and leave DNA samples before travel in case of worst-case scenarios.

Some countries have varying advisory levels with different guidance based on the region. This includes Mexico, where most states are under advisories ranging from Level 2 to Level 4.

Is there a worldwide travel alert?

Yes. The State Department issued a worldwide caution for international travel in October 2023, which was updated in May 2024, because of the "potential for terrorist attacks, demonstrations or violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests."

The worldwide caution was first issued shortly after the Israel-Hamas war began, and was updated to warn travelers of "increased potential for foreign terrorist organization-inspired violence against LGBTQI+ persons and events."

What countries are on high alert for travel?

Any country classified with a Level 4 advisory is considered high risk for travel, according to the State Department. High risk means local conditions are very hazardous and/or the U.S. government has little to no ability to help travelers in trouble.

What countries have a Level 4 travel warning?

As of May 2024, these countries and regions are under a Level 4 advisory, meaning do not travel:

• The Gaza Strip
• Afghanistan
• South Sudan
• Central African Republic
• Burkina Faso
• North Korea

Six states in Mexico have a Level 4 travel warning: Colima, Guerrero, Michoacan, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas and Zacatecas.

What countries have a Level 3 travel warning?

As of May 2024, these countries and regions are under a Level 3 advisory, meaning reconsider travel:

• Israel and the West Bank
• Mainland China and Macau
• New Caledonia
• Saudi Arabia
• Papua New Guinea
• Guinea-Bissau
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Trinidad and Tobago
• El Salvador

What level of advisory is Mexico?

Mexico has 32 federal entities: 31 states and the capital, Mexico City. Six Mexican states have a Level 4 travel warning:

Seven states in Mexico have Level 3 advisories:

• Baja California

Travelers to Puerto Peñasco , the popular Sonora resort town also known as Rocky Point, should follow safety precautions that include only using Federal Highway 8 via the Lukeville Port of Entry and only driving during daylight hours .

Mexico City is under a Level 2 advisory.

Where should Americans not travel right now?

Travelers should be cautious if planning to travel anywhere with a Level 3 or Level 4 travel advisory from the State Department.

The department does not restrict people from traveling to Level 4 countries, except for North Korea. Americans can only visit North Korea for limited humanitarian purposes and must apply for a special passport that allows this travel.

Is it safe to travel to Europe right now? 

It depends where you're going. Destinations such as Greece, Hungary, Norway, Portugal and Switzerland are under Level 1 advisories, the State Department's lowest level. Exercise normal caution when you visit.

France , Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European countries with nonstop flights out of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, are under Level 2 advisories because of the risk of terrorist attacks. The State Department advises travelers to be aware of their surroundings when in crowded public spaces and follow instructions from authorities.

Visitors to France should also be aware that pickpocketing and civil unrest are also possible in their travels, according to the State Department .

Is it safe for Americans to travel to China?

Most of China, which consists of the mainland, Hong Kong and Macau, is under a Level 3 advisory.

The State Department advises travelers to reconsider travel to mainland China because of arbitrary enforcement of local laws, including exit bans that ensnared travelers in recent years , and the risk of wrongful detentions. Travel to Macau should be reconsidered because of the U.S. government's limited ability to provide consular services there.

Hong Kong is under a Level 2 advisory because of arbitrary enforcement of local laws.

How to check for travel advisory? 

Visit travel.state.gov for detailed advisories on the country or countries you plan to visit.

Michael Salerno is an award-winning journalist who’s covered travel and tourism since 2014. His work as The Arizona Republic’s consumer travel reporter aims to help readers navigate the stresses of traveling and get the best value for their money on their vacations. He can be reached at  [email protected] . Follow him on X, formerly Twitter:  @salerno_phx .

Support local journalism.   Subscribe to  azcentral.com  today.

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What to Know About the Latest Social Security Number Breach

Hackers may have gained access to the private information of millions of people from a background check company called National Public Data. Should you be worried? We have some advice.

By Ron Lieber

Ron Lieber covered the 2017 Equifax breach while fleeing from a hurricane .

The details are murky. In April, Hackmanac, a cybersecurity company, posted on X that about 2.9 billion records of personal data were for sale, from people in the United States, Canada and Britain. The data was supposedly stolen from National Public Data , a company that does background checks.

That company became the target of a class-action suit, which Bloomberg Law recently reported, contending that thieves got Social Security numbers in the breach. Bleeping Computer, a technology and security publication, rounded up reports of hackers leaking batches of the data.

We may never know the extent of the breach and the subsequent leak. But I’m not sure the details matter much.

Security breaches happen all the time. Thieves frequently find vulnerabilities in large systems and exploit them.

Our lack of data privacy and security is intensely hateful, but in the short and medium term, the only thing we can do is lock ourselves down as best we can.

Here are some reminders about how to do it.

Control Anxiety

Remember, some thieves steal simply because they can. If they don’t try to use stolen information, you don’t have a problem.

More nefarious crooks need to know how to use the data against whatever aggressive defenses exist at, say, a bank. Often, they fail.

Or they may try to sell the data. A market may not exist, so the stolen information languishes. If a sale does happen, the data might turn out to be outdated.

Also, the buyers may be state actors. If you’re not a likely target of blackmail or in possession of interesting secrets, they may have the goods on you but not want to use them.

Freeze Your Credit

The kind of identity theft where someone pretends to be you and uses your Social Security number to open new accounts can be damaging. One good defense is to freeze your credit files with the three big consumer credit reporting agencies, Equifax , Experian and TransUnion .

Credit card issuers, mobile phone companies and the like generally won’t open new accounts if they can’t check your credit. If you have frozen your credit, someone trying to open an account in your name at a new company won’t be able to proceed.

And if you need to open a new account yourself? You get a PIN when you freeze your file with each of the three companies and use it to thaw the file when someone needs to examine it. Don’t lose the PIN or chaos can ensue.

This is a pain, but I’ve done it for years and have heard only sporadic tales of people being unable to thaw their files when they need to. I’ve also set freezes up for my minor children .

Other Measures

Set up two-factor authentication on as many online accounts as possible, or use an authentication app to secure your online accounts. If thieves haven’t intercepted your email, text messages or phone, then it’s going to be hard for them to break in.

Account alerts are your friend. Depending on your bank or card company, you can set them up for many things, including any charge outside your home country, any (or all) A.T.M. withdrawals or transactions over a certain amount.

If you get an alert you didn’t expect — or even one you did — don’t click links or call phone numbers in the alert. Instead, log into the account in question and find a contact number there. That will keep thieves from redirecting you to their own operations.

Take the Compensation

I’m not confident we’ll ever live in a fraud-free world. Until one exists, I take some joy in accepting compensation from companies that have messed up.

I have cashed settlement checks from various class-action suits. The offers come so fast and furious in the mail these days that I can’t even remember them a week later. What did I send off earlier this month? A request to join the fight against Ticketmaster ? Quest Diagnostics ? There have been many recently.

Thieves don’t want us to gum up the works. Credit bureaus don’t like to slow down the system, either. Counteracting them and cashing in when money is on the table is some measure of revenge, or at least a way to protest the absurd security status quo.

Ron Lieber has been the Your Money columnist since 2008 and has written five books, most recently “The Price You Pay for College.” More about Ron Lieber

A Guide to Better Managing Your Money

Making sense of your finances can be complicated. these tips can help..

Hackers may have gained access to the social security numbers of millions of people. Should you be worried? We have some advice .

You have been able to earn solid returns by parking your money in fairly safe places, our columnist says. But that won’t last much longer .

The collapse of a little-known intermediary named Synapse Financial Technologies has put a spotlight on the risk that customers face  when using popular banking start-ups.

A growing number of Americans who need cash before their next payday are using online paycheck advances. But the fees that often come with the advances are drawing scrutiny from a federal consumer watchdog. Here’s what to know .

With traditional mortgages for lower-priced homes hard to get, some home buyers are turning to riskier alternatives , like seller-financed loans known as “land contracts” that don’t involve a bank.

What Does 'Very Demure' Mean? Everything You Need To Know About The Viral TikTok Trend

Youtube/Jimmy Kimmel Live

Over the past few weeks, TikTok’s “For You” pages have globally been flooded with a new viral trend centered around the phrase "very demure, very mindful." If you've been browsing the app but missed the trend's early days, you might be curious about its meaning and origins.

Although thousands have jumped on the TikTok trend, it started with Jools Lebron , an influencer who describes herself as a plus-size transgender content creator. 

In the original video, where she takes on the persona of Joolieannie, she explains to her viewers how to dress and behave professionally in the workplace. “You see how I do my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful,” she began. “I don’t come to work with a green-cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much. I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”

Lebron continued, “The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma. Not demure. I’m very modest. I’m very mindful.” 

According to Oxford Languages, “demure” means “reserved, modest, and shy.” However, Lebron describes the term as embodying a playful yet understated quality, striking a balance between humility and self-expression.

Check out how some TikTokers are using the sound:

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What would a Canadian rail shutdown mean for the U.S.?

Leila Fadel

Canada's two main railways and unionized employees are at a contract impasse. Thousands of workers have been locked out, and the roughly $1 billion worth of goods that travel each day aren't moving.

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