How to Choose a Location for your Pilgrimage

When Ryan decided to accept an internship to Ireland he was giddy. His first international trip would take him to the land of leprechauns, four-leaf clovers, and green beer. The best part was the road trip. He couldn’t wait to drive from Dallas to Dublin! Yes, you read that right. Ryan had no idea, at the age of 20, that Ireland was 4500 miles away… and an island.

Like Ryan, in an age of overwhelming ability to gain information with a punch of a key, we often overlook the fundamentals. Luckily, those fundamentals are where Wonder Voyage starts. With 20 years of adventure travel experience, we take the guesswork out of pilgrimage.

The more your team takes time to research where you are considering traveling, the deeper the potential for an engaging experience when you arrive. An easy way to make the research more fun is to assign each team member a different list of questions and bring them all together to share their new knowledge.

Here are a few areas you might want to research:

• The geography of the location
• What’s the primary language spoken?
• What’s the weather like during the time you are traveling?
• What is the primary religious focus?
• Any interesting historical facts?
• What type of money do they use? Is it expensive or affordable?
• What is the food like? What should you expect?
• Are their certain gestures or phrases that might be offensive?
• How do they view where I come from?

Taking the time to learn about the location and people you are considering visiting will, at a minimum, open your heart to a foreign place that, hopefully, won’t feel quite so foreign when you arrive.