Tag: roatan vacation

There are several reasons why people continually visit popular tourist sites.  Not only do prominent destinations receive more attention and publicity than those that are off the grid, but they’re also often much easier to reach.  Things like direct flights, accessible public transport links and other tourist-oriented services are generally associated with well known travel sites.  But there are big rewards of off the beaten path travel.  To give you an idea of what you might be missing by sticking to the obvious tourist trail, we’ve put together this list of six reasons to travel Roatan on the lesser known road.

Learn How The Locals Live

One of the top reasons that people travel is to learn about local culture.  However, that can be difficult when all you’re surrounded with are tourists from other countries.  When you travel off the beaten path you’re much more likely to be immersed in local life – whether you like it or not.  If you really want to understand how the locals live, avoid the tourist hotspots.

Cheaper

While popular tourist destinations may advertise rock bottom prices, a little more investigation often reveals a long list of impossible to meet conditions and disclaimers.  When you’re traveling in non-tourist areas, you’ll be paying local prices – which often means a serious discount.  If you’re trying to stretch your travel dollar, avoid popular tourist destinations.

Benefit the Local Community

Most of the businesses in and around popular tourist sites are owned by multinational companies.  Often, the only locals who financially benefit are those who hold low paying jobs within these corporations.  If you really want your money to benefit the local community, traveling off the beaten path and patronizing small businesses is a much better way of doing it.

Privacy

Another big reason why people go on holidays is to just get away from it all.  Contrarily, visiting popular tourist sites will only bring you into the center of the storm.  One of the main rewards of off the beaten path travel is easily attained privacy.  If you’re in serious need of some downtime, avoid the tourist traps.

Less Stress

Similarly, an off the beaten path vacation will reward you with far less stress.  You’ll encounter few, if any, lineups, you won’t be constantly hassled by people trying to swindle you out of your money and you won’t need to maintain a hyper-strict schedule to ensure you get to see and do what activities you want.  If you’re looking for your vacation to reduce your stress levels, consider taking the road less traveled.

Increased Self Confidence

Traveling off the beaten path means you’ll have to rely on your own skills more often than not.  It probably won’t be a vacation where you get on a tour bus and let someone else take care of every detail.  But what the added responsibility will give you is an increased sense of self confidence.  When you know that you’ve been able to navigate a foreign environment without a tour guide or concierge, you might realize that you’re more capable than you thought.