Leaving Your Mark on Your Travels

Your travels leave their mark on you, opening you up to different experiences and different cultures, but have you ever thought about how you might leave your own mark on your travels and the places you visit?

If you have ever traveled abroad, you will know how a trip can leave a mark on you, allowing you to see how different cultures live and giving you a greater understanding of the world in general. If you have traveled for a considerable period of time, your perspective on a whole range of issues will likely have changed, giving you a new appreciation for life for when you return home again.  

There are so many different places around the world with the potential for leaving their mark on travelers, from the great cities of times past – Rome, Jerusalem, or Xi’an – to places of outstanding natural beauty, such as the natural parks of the US, the Brazilian rainforest, or the plains of Africa.  

What about leaving a physical mark on a place you have visited? One of the better-known places for doing so is the Western Wall in Jerusalem, where visitors have been leaving notes in a practice known to date back to the beginnings of the 18th century. The popularity of doing so is reflected in the fact that over a million notes are left each year in the cracks and crevices of the wall, traditionally a site of pilgrimage for people of the Jewish faith. Twice each year, the notes are taken from the wall and buried at another important site to Jews and Christians alike – the Mount of Olives.

If you are one of life’s romantics, you will not want to miss Casa di Giulietta, or Juliet’s House, a World Heritage site in the Italian city of Verona and a destination associated with the fictional lovers, Romeo and Juliet. Over the years, the site has become a popular destination for visitors who use its walls as a bulletin board, often posting love notes inspired by Shakespeare’s world-famous play.    

If you have a blog, you can use it to demonstrate how a particular site or destination has left its mark on you. Take photographs of what you see or the people you meet, and post them to your blog as a lasting reminder of the impact you made on a place you visited. If you are looking for ways to leave your mark on your travels, consider leaving a sticker with your name on it at a local site you have visited. A website for sticker printing will give you a better idea of what stickers are available for leaving at the sites. Stickers with a personalized message on them about what you enjoyed about a particular site may inspire others who are visiting it.   

Another way of leaving your mark on a place you visit is to volunteer your services in some way while you are there – perhaps by teaching or working on a community project so that the impact you make is something that lasts in an especially positive way. Perhaps you have a particular set of skills that are in demand in the place you intend visiting.

Instead of staying in a hotel or hostel, you could decide to stay with a local family, learning about day-to-day life in your destination, and teaching your hosts about your own culture and way of life back home. Alternatively, there may be schools in the places you visit that would welcome the opportunity for those from other countries and cultures to tell schoolchildren about where they come from, considering how positive it is for children to learn about different parts of the world as part of their education.

Leaving your mark on a place is best done in a positive way, and there are some important tips to remember when on your travels. Respect other cultures, and if there are particular things that are frowned upon or even forbidden, then avoid doing them. Respect the environment as well, and this applies to cities as much as it does to sites of natural beauty. Pollution and environmental damage are such problems worldwide, so keep in mind the importance of keeping the places you visit clean.

There is much talk about leaving your mark on the world in ways that are negative, but remember that it is just as easy and more rewarding to leave your mark on the world and on your travels across it in a positive way.

Stay gorgeous everyone!