How to be a beautiful traveler (no matter what you’re wearing)

Are you a beautiful traveler?

Well, do you have Instagram posts to prove it?

Warning: sarcasm ahead.

Do you pack for the picture-taking or the activity? My suitcase always suggests a stylish vacation for me. My dirty clothes/clean clothes ratio tells a different story. But apparently, I’m not normal.

When I’m on vacation, I see girls posing everywhere, in bathing suits, sundresses, you name it. Even ladies my age, with their legs bent and their hands on their hips. Hair all in place. Maybe even a cute hat.

I’m so impressed. Any perhaps a little annoyed, as this blog might reveal.

Well, let’s be honest. I’m skeptical and befuddled. How do you accomplish this thing? How are you not sweating? Not freezing? Not uncomfortable? Assuming you’re an active traveler and not eating bonbons in air-conditioning, how do you manage to be a beautiful traveler?

I am rarely beautiful on vacation. I do try, but the process just isn’t sustainable. Being beautiful is a lot of work, folks, even when you’re at home with your own closet and your own regular-sized toiletries in your own climate that you know how to handle. In another place—with different weather? I just can’t.

I never get the Insta picture right. I’m always hot, not in the outfit I meant to wear, and my front leg is definitely not bent at a 45-degree angle, and my front arm is not hinged so my hand rests daintily on my hip.

No. I am always turned the wrong way, wearing something practical, sweat-covered, and misshapen. I have a visible double chin and arm fat. My hair is pulled back in a stubby pony tail. But I am enjoying my actual beautiful vacation, or I wouldn’t take the picture.  (I-phones have cropping for a reason.) But I look happy, right? Cause I am.

 

Why beauty is essential to relaxation and fun

When we go on a vacation, we anticipate being struck by beauty. We’re wired to crave it and receive it for our own emotional healing. Beauty in nature settles our nervous systems and generates feel-good endorphins.

We can’t relax without it or experience restoration without beauty. Some of us are drawn to the mountains, some to the ocean, some to the swamp or the desert. Some to architecture, history, music, wildlife, art, culture, or community. We all crave beauty most when we need to decompress from the stress in our lives.

Stress is always a sign that you need to get away–that you’re the missing beautiful moments that want to shape your mindset, your emotions, and your life.

Vacation gives us the space to linger at dinner,  enjoy nature, and watch the sunset every night.

I’ve got two things to say about beauty and travel:

1. Travel is about the experience, not the documentation of it (although that helps us remember it)
2.  Beauty is authentic, not contrived (more about the people we love and the places we went than how we looked)

Beautiful travelers, I might add, differ from beautiful picture-posers. Beauty is unfiltered. Posing is contrived.

Posing, by definition, is a distortion of reality. It’s a stop-gap in personal activity and interaction. I’m not saying that posing for pictures is bad. We need pictures to help us remember we experienced something. For crying out loud, we shelled out a small fortune for the boys to swim with dolphins once, and because I was too cheap to buy the pictures, they honestly can’t remember the experience. It’s shocking to me.

So posing on vacations has merit. But I have to ask–what kind of posing do you do? Why do you find it necessary?

Perhaps it corresponds to how good do you look on vacation. I struggle to prioritize looking beautiful on vacation. From all the pictures I’ve seen on social media, it would seem that most people can manage beauty while vacationing. Not to mention, managing the POSE. I can’t, as my pictures above prove.

I always have hair and clothing issues on vacation.

1. I don’t do my hair, can’t do my hair, can’t control the weather’s effect on my hair, don’t care about my hair, etc.
2. I pack all wrong. I pack pretty things to take nice pictures, but I don’t wear them. I dress for activity.

WARNING: you are able to read Two rants about people who look beautiful on vacation.

Travelers are divided by their clothing, even more than their choice of resort. There are the beautiful picture-posers and the beautiful location admirers.

I can’t even believe there are influencers who teach about how to pose for vacation photos. I am literally shaking my head right now. But here’s the evidence…

RANT #1: the vacation pose.

Isn’t the point of vacation the vacation? The destination? The separation from social media and follower-frenzy?

And what is it with daily sundresses for walking around?  I love the concept, but I struggle with the practicality.

Whenever I’m in a sundress vacation spot, I realize that I’ve got to get on a scooter or a bike or climb 100 stairs, so I opt for dry-fit running clothes instead.

While I’m wearing my tank and shorts and sneakers,  I’m surrounded by all the pretty young people wearing sundresses and sandals. Their long hair is flowing in the breeze. They aren’t sweating. They are posing up a storm, with knees bent and hands on their hips, smiling and throwing their long locks over their shoulders, pursing their lips toward their I-phones, which are held by reciprocating friends or dutiful boyfriends.

Meanwhile, I’m on a bike or a scooter in a dry-fit razor-back tank and shorts, a baseball cap, and a sweaty but happy demeanor, taking in the sites. Drinking the history and the culture. And occasionally posing for in a selfie that shows my sticky face and frizzy pony-tail hair.

Do sundress people even tour destinations at all? And what do they wear when they hike up tower steps or climb hills in the rain forest? I’m guessing they don’t do those things. They just attract followers on Instagram.

RANT #2: Airport clothing.

More and more, everyone flies in comfortable clothes. I appreciate that. Occasionally, I see people still wearing their pj’s and bedroom slippers—that seems a bit lazy to me–but they do balance out the occasional airport over-dresser.

Here comes the rant… Please explain to me the woman who’s dolled up in a curve-hugging dress and heels, carrying a large designer handbag, walking through the airport. Why do they do it? Airports are not places for our beauty to shine–they are places that facilitate us traveling towards beauty. They are utilitarian locations, so we ought to all dress accordingly, in solidarity. For the tight, awkward places on our airplanes. We ought to look equally exhausted, frustrated, and uncoiffed.

Well-dressed travelers are never rushing. Why don’t their shoulders hurt? Aren’t their feet tired?

Well-dressed travelers are making the airport their own private runway, and frankly, we normal people are tired of watching it.

Maybe they’re on your way somewhere important and they don’t have time to change (I’ve been there, but even so, I’d wear sneakers and change them later). Or—it just occurred to me—maybe they’re flying first-class and they dress like this all the time. No running. No tight places. No sweat. Fresh cookies. Champagne. Warm washcloths. Special lounges.

They’re one of those people. (So much for a classless society.)

Honestly, it seems like a lot of showing off to me. I feel like fancy travelers are saying to the whole, tired traveling world: “It’s not that hard. You can look good if you want to.”

And they’re probably right.

I guess I just don’t want to waste the energy. I might have to run. I will certainly have to cram into a small space in coach.

I’m a different kind of traveler. I’m expectant of beauty somewhere other than myself.

Vacation, by definition, is a perspective shift. It happens because of a realization that I’ve gotten lost reality in the abyss of my normal reality. While a vacation can certainly be an escape–I think it’s better used as a recalibration. A realignment to the way we were meant to live: in the beauty of a garden, in a loving relationship, in total worship of a Creator and admiration for His creation.

Instead of worrying what someone thinks of me–if my work is good enough or if I’m good enough–I take a break from expectation. I hike, swim, read, snorkel, scoot, bike, sight-see, boat, dine, walk, and animal-watch. I notice the beauty around me, and it all inspires me and realigns e. Vacation is about a beautiful place with people I love and all that I experience there. It’s not about me in my own little normal world.

Hello, beautiful traveler!  I’m really not trying to judge your traveling habits.

However you dress, just see this beautiful world and release yourself to its creator, no expectations attached.

And if you look good in the process, kudos to you.

 

If you’re looking for some more blogs about vacation, click below:

Beach baggage and other truths you only learn on vacation

My brain before a vacation: a stream of consciousness

Books you should take on vacation, 2018 edition

Why you should take a non-vacation vacation