10 Ways to Explore Your Interests on Vacation

A cooking class combines the most notable parts of experiential travel, cultural immersion, and food.

How you experience your travel destination defines the memories you make during your trip, no matter where you are in the world. Cooking classes can introduce you to local chefs, traditional home cooks, market vendors, and more.

Each person has their unique take on a classic cultural dish or a story to share about why a recipe matters. During your trip, your travel specialist will connect you with the type of cooking class that fits your travel style and preference, whether touring Morocco or visiting Costa Rica, exploring Iceland or discovering South Africa.

With a cooking class, you taste history and heritage, taking those stories home and revisiting your travel memories every time you make the dish.

Fashion is an art form that remains essential to culture. An artisan crafting class can take you from fashion spectator to creator as you learn techniques that can help bring your ideas and inspirations to life.

From practical application to a demonstration of status, fashion has taken on many forms and purposes throughout history, with design blooming in places like Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt. Choices for colors, fabrics, cuts, and accessories all add to the perception of style and you can learn to transfer the images in your head into the real world by learning techniques from an artisan known for turning design into art, whether making jewelry, conceptualizing shoes, or crafting a personalized hat.

Architecture is an artistic form often overlooked when traveling. It offers a three-dimensional representation of space you can admire from outside and in. Purposefully designed buildings demonstrate the possibilities of architectural design as artistic mastery, piecing together engineering, aesthetics, and practicality.

Buildings and civil design take on more meaning when you consider that architects account for culture, community, and artistic sensibilities. When in a new city, an architecture tour connects you to three-dimensional art by introducing you to buildings that may span centuries or even millennia. Instead of paint, the artists used an ancient mortar. Instead of a canvas, the artist used stone. Architecture becomes an immersion into art rather than a piece viewed or studied only externally.

Turn your artistic perspective towards that which surrounds you by closely studying structures rather than simply viewing them from a distance.

Humanity has spent millennia fascinated with the night sky, inspired by the blanket of stars, the swirling texture of the Milky Way, and the bursts of light from passing meteorites. Stargazing on vacation combines relaxation and discovery, easily experienced when coupled with the luxuries of glamping.

Combine comfort and seclusion in destinations designed to celebrate the unbound beauty of nature, including allowing your mind to wander and wonder beneath the twinkling night sky. From Dark Sky reserves to tours focused on astro tourism, you will have impeccable visibility to guide you through the night.

Folk art is often overlooked, but it shares important stories and perspectives of communities that become more apparent when you travel.

The art demonstrates the daily life of a community and often depicts dancing. Instead of purchasing the work, you can commemorate your visit to a particular community by learning traditional dances during a private lesson.

In places like French Polynesia, every motion has a meaning. In Spain, Flamenco demonstrates passion. In Argentina, the tango speaks of love. Every dance can bring you a richer connection to a specific community for a more meaningful experience.

Cycling is much more than a hobby, it’s a way of life, and a tour while on vacation will allow you to forget about the upkeep that goes with it and immerse yourself in your surroundings.

From Italy to Vietnam, Patagonia to New Zealand, a cycling tour becomes the experience as you traverse rolling hills or steep mountain passes.

Follow the path of a historic Tour de France or discover a breathtaking view of a dramatic coastline. Whether traveling between small towns or taking a scenic loop road, a cycling tour is a combination of adventure, luxury, and discovery.

For many, coffee is an essential part of the day. It can be a reason for waking up early or part of winding down at the end of a dinner party.

Visiting a coffee plantation can give you a brand new perspective on the life cycle of coffee, as well as a new appreciation for every cup. Sample the floral notes of a Costa Rican blend or indulge in the bitter layer of an Italian roast while an expert guide leads you from cherry to brew, teaching you about the importance of the soil, the methods for roasting the beans, and the ways to heat water to provide the best flavor.

You may learn to love coffee all over again with a new appreciation for stopping, inhaling the aromas, and tasting the variety of flavors in every blend.

Sport brings fans from all walks of life together in neighborhoods, cities, and countries. If you love a particular sport, you probably have a favorite team and understand the power of its colors, culture, and history.

Visiting a local sports event during your trip will open your eyes to the excitement of the event through the eyes of the community. The way a city celebrates its baseball team in Japan will be wildly different from a football match in Brazil, a cricket tournament in India will reveal a new layer of fandom, while a rugby match in Australia could provide new insight into neighborhood rivalries.

Even if you know nothing about the sport, locals are eager to share their fandom, experiences, and love of the game, quickly creating another memory for you to take home.

Look to history to learn about the lifestyles, trends, and inclinations of homeowners when visiting palaces, villas, and castles, the latter of which are much more than candelabras and tapestries.

Touring a historical home can inspire your decor choices as you learn about the evolution of design in a particular region, such as uncovering how tapestries insulated a room or how the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles is a homage to France’s economic and artistic success.

Whether elaborate and lavish or reserved and elegant, historical homes are a treasure trove for bringing touches of the past into the present in exciting ways.

Thermal baths are the original spas. Escape to rural villages or find entire towns built around mineral-rich mud and waters said to alleviate pain, smooth skin, and offer a relaxing experience.

From Iceland’s Blue Lagoon to Hungary’s Tapolca cave, heated rivers in Costa Rica to traditional onsen in Japan’s Gunma Prefecture, worldwide, thermal baths have a rich tradition.

Improve circulation, stimulate your immune system, and soak in soothing waters surrounded by incredible landscapes and local culture for a unique experience.

Turn the things you love into experiences you will never forget by exploring alternative travel experiences based on your personal interests. Whether eager to lounge in a thermal bath during a personalized spa treatment, interested in the ways dance translates to art, eager to find the beauty in architecture, or enticed by the promise of artisan crafts, you can enjoy your interests with guides, instructors, and more who share your passion.

If you are interested in fulfilling your trip of a lifetime or eager to find inspiration for trips based on incredible experiences, working with a Zicasso travel specialist will give you local knowledge to help you plan your perfect trip.