“Italy is the place where the soul goes to find calm and love.” Vivienne Westwood
Exchange
What works in love also works when traveling. The Holiday Swap app uses a Tinder-style mechanism to connect travelers who offer their homes for exchange and brings together people who like to jet around the world and prefer to get their tips from locals rather than travel guides. Browse, chat, swipe – on six continents and in 184 countries. Holiday Swap, free of charge
Roadie
Hotel or apartment, all inclusive or half board? If you want to go on vacation like this, you’d better not look at Lonely Planet’s latest book. “Vanlife” is for people whose hearts beat faster at the certainty of a full tank of gas and when the speedometer shows a decent reading, who shake their heads in disbelief at the idea of buffet service and pool gymnastics and only sleep soundly when there is nothing separating them from nature apart from a bit of sheet metal. Camping without a tent, but in a van – that’s travel instead of vacation and adventure instead of sunbathing. This travel bible tells you what you should definitely pack for your road trip, what (or who) is better left at home , how to plan your route so that it’s fun, and how to pack the trunk Tetris-style. Lonely Planet, “Vanlife. Living and traveling in a camper”, Mairdumont, from 16. July 2019, approx. 33.-
Stranded
Does the thought of a vacation at Club Med make you break out in a rash like a pollen allergy sufferer in the tall grass? You don’t have to go there. After all, there are alternatives for people who would rather stay at home than follow the flow of tourists. They then travel to Namibia, for example, to the Skeleton Coast, as the place 45 minutes from Möwe Bay is called. The ten cabins of the Shipwreck Lodge, two of which can accommodate entire families and the others two people each, lie here as if thrown by the sea between the dunes. Here the rough desert, through which gnarled branches meander like sun-hungry vipers, there the Atlantic Ocean, the sound of which accompanies you into your dreams at night. It’s a place where everyone gets thoughtful – and voluntarily sets the alarm clock in the morning to see the rising sun over the still cool sand before it gets too hot to venture barefoot across. On the other hand, there are jeeps with a lot of rumble that take you to the horizon during the day and back again in the evening. Then you sit together by the flickering candles, drink freshly mixed gin cocktails and listen to the stories of the hotel crew, who tell of sandstorms, washed-up whale bones and the magic that accompanies those who once ventured here back home. Shipwreck Lodge, Skeleton Coast, Namibia, double room from approx. 705.-, www.shipwrecklodge.com.na
Para Solo
Foreign countries, other languages. If you don’t speak it, you’ll miss the best tip from the Uber driver or the story from the greengrocer on the corner. According to a survey by the language app Babbel, 85 percent of all respondents regret not speaking the language at their vacation destination. Around half of them try to learn at least a few words before their trip, and just as many study for longer periods. Incidentally, Swiss people immediately get the vacation feeling when they hear Italian, English or Spanish.
