Right now, you’re probably stuck at home, keeping yourself safe.

The pandemic spread really quickly — in fact, exponentially quicker than anyone who’s not a scientist would have expected. I had to cancel some flights for March, after some initial reluctance on my part. It sucks, but it was the responsible thing to do in order to control the spread. Some of my colleagues also did the same.

But this situation shouldn’t discourage you from traveling in the future. Traveller, now is your time to dream and plan ahead. We will all get through this, in (self-)isolation. For now, here are some tips on how to prepare for your dream holiday to celebrate after this pandemic is over ?.

Dream now ?

Write a list of places you’d love to go to. Read blogs, forums and travel publications that keep the flames of wanderlust alive. Get inspired by faraway cities and countries with cultures that differ from your own.

Our blog has many city travel guides and posts to help you get inspired. Discover great places to eat out in Paris, Zermatt, Tokyo, and other cities. We’ve also partnered up with National Geographic Traveller and easyJet Traveller — two world-leading travel publications — and all of their great recommendations on the best restaurants, hotels and bars to visit across the world are on TWISPER for you to follow.

These recommendations are direct quotes from their previous issues! So if you’re a fan of these magazines, no need to manually flip through the pages of their pretty magazines. Just go to their profiles, and look for their recommended spots in the places to visit!

Start planning your city travel list ?

How do you normally find the best places to eat out or have some fancy cocktails in your local or when you’re travelling? Well, aside the travel blogs and the magazines, you can also find out about interesting places through friends and word of mouth.

Oftentimes, when travelling, I hit up a friend who’s local in the city I’m visiting for travel recommendations, but this can get laborsome. Sometimes, your friend doesn’t even bother answering! Ghosting is a real thing.

But fret not! This is when the TWISPER app is super useful. On the app, you can look into your friends’ favorite places (located in their profiles) to instantly see their recommendations and great experiences.

And, of course, you can also get expert recommendations from our partners that you can follow on the app! Philippe Chevrier is an award-winning chef in Geneva, and he has high-brow recommendations in the region. We also have Dirk Hany, who won Diageo’s best bartender award in Switzerland. His bar “Bar Am Wasser” that’s based in Zurich recently got press traction for being one of the best places in the country to have shockingly delicious and thirst-quenching cocktails.

Learn a new language ?

Of course, language is one of the main things that can really influence your travel experiences. Some people dream about visiting a country for its culture and language, so they spend a lot of time learning them. Others are scared of traveling to places because they don’t speak the language.

From personal experience, I tend to find the latter to be an overblown issue. Before I really got into travel, I was crippled by the fear of going to a place and getting lost because I couldn’t speak the language. I got over this fear, after realizing that helpfulness transcends language and that I could find my way better than I expected.

In any case, learning a new language is always a nice skill to have. I mean, when was the last time that someone insulted someone for speaking many different languages?

Download a language app to start learning about some foreign words. Annoy that friend who speaks fluent Portuguese through video chats. Go online to find pen pals.

Get fit for travel ??️

It’s the season for calisthenics and awkward home workouts! During the quarantine, gyms are shut down, but fitness trainers have gone online to engage with their followers. So it’s time to sport your rattiest outfit you’re ready to sweat in, and to try the home workout routines on Youtube and Instagram.

After all, when travelling, you want to stay perfectly fit and healthy, in order to indulge yourself in the going out, the partying and just the actual physical effort of travelling. As this pandemic has revealed, airports and other travel hubs are places to get all sorts of illnesses because so many people go through them, so you need to stay healthy and fit to avoid getting sick.

A relic from the 1980s, this clip is part of a legendary series of workout videos made by popular American actress Jane Fonda. As the highest-selling VHS series of all time, these videos collectively sold over 17 million copies and effectively launched the fitness craze among young adults at the time. As you can see, this beginner workout is clearly not for beginners, unless most people who’ve never stretched before can fully touch the floor with the palms of their hands. But if you’re up for the challenge, watching videos like this is a good way to get motivated to get fit for travel.

Travel later ?

The pandemic is causing a lot of pain around the world, because of the way it infects those who are most vulnerable and overloads even the best healthcare systems out there.

But let’s not forget that global travel has enabled us to understand each other more than ever and reconcile our differences in order to become stronger together.

Ultimately, our individual social responsibility is to travel in a more conscious way and to understand the effects that we have on the places we want to visit. In other words, don’t force yourself to fly if you’re too sick, or try to stay healthy when travelling. It’s not only for your health but for that of others. Consider the footprint of your travels. Sustainable travel means that we just have to make smarter choices when we travel.

It is important to realize that this time will pass, and you shouldn’t let your dreams of travel be affected by something temporary. While this pandemic will live on as a monumental part of history, collective unity brought forth by communication and travel will help us get through hard times like this one.