I had dreamed of going to New York City for several years before I finally went.
I’d seen its famous places in all my favorite films. I knew its skyline by sight, its iconic spots. And I believed things about it that I desperately wanted to be true, things about how it would feel to walk its sidewalks, what the energy would be like, how exciting it would be.
So I wanted to see it for myself to prove all those things true. But there was something more. I wanted to belong there. Like many travelers, I hated the tourist cliche – that picture of a person in a tropical shirt walking down 5th Avenue with a fanny pack and a camera and no concept of the people rushing around them as they paused mid-sidewalk for pictures or to stare up at the Empire State Building. I dreaded the feeling that I only belonged to New York as much as that person did.
And I got lucky. I worked for a travel company at the time, so I was able to go inside New York for meetings and meet-and-greets, inside in a way I couldn’t have if I had simply been a tourist. And besides that, I’d made personal connections in that city so far from everything I’d known. I was able to meet two friends I’d only communicated with by phone or email until that point. And sitting in their city, having an actual conversation with real live connections – that made the difference for me. I did feel I belonged and that I had a part.
I’ll always love New York, maybe more than any other place I go because I’d dreamed of it so long and it lived up to every single hope. And that got me thinking, maybe people make the difference all the time.
For our student travel company, we send a lot of groups to Capitol Hill in Washington DC. The Capitol, of course, offers free, guided tours throughout the day that anyone can join. They follow a standard path and a fairly standard script, hitting only the highlights of this magnificent building and its history.
But we like to take it one step further and get our groups a private tour with their state representative. This personal touch can make all the difference in educational tours of the Capitol. The kids will feel much more connected to the process, which will help them connect to the tour.
Any chance we can find to make a tour more personal, for any group, can turn a pleasant experience into an unforgettable one. What about you? Do you find that you travel as much for people as for places? Maybe even more?
