Bryce Monkivitch, CEO of one of Australia’s fastest growing online brands has had a passion to travel since the age of 12. Through his adolescent years he travelled around Australia and New Zealand playing sport, in his young adult years he spent many years travelling around Bali, Thailand, Europe, China, Russia and the USA for leisure and networking. In recent years he classifies his ‘travel’ as ‘work’ – Monkivitch has set himself up to be able to work from anywhere at any time. Sounds like the ultimate lifestyle, right? Monkivitch shares some of his top travel tips for all over the world.
1. Try the local food
Monkivitch explains, “the smaller the menu, the better the restaurant. Also, the ‘dodgyer’ looking restaurants are always the most authentic and most amazing”. I love food. Food is now my absolute favourite way to get to know a place better.I love trying new things, and I’ve found a thousand amazing dishes that I never would have discovered if I’d continue to eat from supermarkets around the world. Trying new food isn’t scary, and you’ll build your confidence up as you fall in love with more and more things.
2. Plan as little as possible
“When i plan a trip, all i book is the one way flight and maybe a couple of nights accommodation. I don’t like to restrict myself, if i decide to stay somewhere longer then i can do so” explains Monkivitch. One of the first lessons I learned on the road was that your plans will nearly always change. You’ll arrive in a place and hate it and want to leave immediately, or you’ll fall in love with a destination and want to spend longer there. You’ll make friends with a group of awesome people and want to change your plans so you can travel with them for longer, or you’ll find out about an amazing-sounding town that’s nearby and want to head there instead.
“I suggest making a list of the cool things you definitely want to see and do so you don’t miss out, but don’t book a strict schedule”. Book a one-way ticket and your first few nights of accommodation — you’ll figure the rest out along the way. It’s not as intimidating as it sounds.
3. Embrace the moment
“Yes, take plenty of photos but don’t spend all of your time trying to get that shot. Embrace the moment. I am all about living in the moment, of course i want to get great pics for my instagram but you will get more out of your trip by turning your phone over and embracing the moment. Also, as you will have read in my previous articles- this is the perfect time to network!.”
4. Learn the basics of the local language
You’ll gain more respect from the locals if you can at least say hello, please, sorry, and thank you. Also, body language and miming gets you a long way to if you become stuck!
5. Don’t over expect
Expecting everything to go perfectly on your trip is only setting yourself up to fail. Nobody goes travelling and comes back without any stories of mishaps. No matter how prepared you are, at some point you’re going to get lost, get scammed, miss your bus, get food poisoning, injure yourself… The list is endless! Expect it to happen, and don’t beat yourself up when it does. Monkivitch states “I have been scammed numerous times when travelling, but these are some of my favourite stories to tell people.”