INDIVIDUAL TRAVELERS: EMBARK ON A LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCE
Where to look for faith vacation opportunities
When it comes to taking a faith vacation, you now have many choices as an individual traveler. You can choose from not only pilgrimages and missionary/humanitarian travel, but also cruises, adventure trips, leisure vacations, conferences/events, attractions, retreats, and much more. The hardest part today is not deciding on whether to embark on a faith-based vacation, but rather – which one.
Where can you look for faith vacation opportunities? First, inquire as to whether your faith community or place of worship is offering any trips. Next, check to see if any religious organizations that you belong to might be hosting a trip or event. Another option is to look in (local or national) religious newspapers and publications for travel opportunities.
WRTA membership is a great opportunity as you seek resources for religious travel. In face, soon, one of the best places however to look for faith vacations is the WRTA Online Quick-Search (currently under development). With this free tool, not only can you search for travel organizations and destinations that specialize in faith-based journeys and events, but you can also conduct searches for exactly who and what you want.
To sum up, there's never been a more exciting time to embark on or lead a faith vacation. Unlike ever before, your options are almost as unlimited as your imagination. If you want faith-based adventure trips such as multi-day whitewater rafting, they exist. If you want faith-based cruises to the Caribbean or Alaska or the Middle East, they exist. If you want pilgrimages or any other religious-oriented trip or vacation, they also exist. And possibly best yet, if some type of journey or event you want currently doesn't exist, you can always create the trip and lead it. Out of the more than 300 million religious travelers from around the world, surely others share your same travel wishes and desires.
Choosing independent or group travel
Another question many faith-based travelers are faced with is: whether to travel independently or with a group. There are advantages to both. Independent travel provides virtual unlimited freedom, whereas group travel provides companionship and security.
Let's look at each of these a bit more in-depth. As you debate whether to travel on your own or with a group, let's look at the benefits of traveling solo first. As mentioned, you have virtual unlimited freedom. Translated, this means you can essentially choose to do what you want, when you want, and go where you want. Other positives include the ability to either budget or spend as much as you like. In short, everything is your choice. Another benefit is the ability to experience the local culture very intimately, as it's usually just you and the country you're visiting. In short, traveling independently to a holy site or on a retreat, it can sometimes be a wonderful way to travel.
As for traveling in a group, this form of travel is the most popular with faith communities. We see virtually every kind of group these days taking trips together from women's groups to men's organizations to family ministries to singles groups and the like. The advantages of group travel are a laundry list long. Benefits range from greater security, comfort, and ease to trips being more cost-effective (groups have greater buying power), less worrisome (the group travel leader/director does all the work), and more educational (your guides teach you each day about the local culture, people, foods, etc.).
Above all, one of the greatest rewards group travel brings is fellowship. As many faiths are built upon experiencing community and fellowship, that is exactly what is experienced when traveling with others. For this reason alone, many places of worship and religious organizations are taking advantage of traveling together. And if nothing else, fellowship is probably the top reason to consider traveling with your faith community or religious organization. For this reason, the vast majority of people make the decision to travel in groups versus on their own.
Everyone takes a vacation -- get your faith community involved
Let's face it…..virtually all of us take vacations. In fact, statistically-speaking many people take at least one trip per year. Knowing this means that a majority of your fellow faith community or religious organization members are taking vacations at least once a year.
What does all this mean? If you're hoping to embark on a cruise, retreat, leisure vacation, pilgrimage, or virtually any other kind of trip this year…. chances are that others from your community might be interested in the same type of travel experience as well. What should you do? Get your faith community involved!
Maybe consider serving as the trip organizer or leader. Or, consider launching a travel program if your place of worship or religious organization currently does not have one. You will probably be surprised by the great amount of interest such a program creates. In fact, your greatest consolation may lie in knowing that you are providing a tremendous service for your community. Not only will you be providing people with a faith-based travel option for their next vacation, but you will also be building friendships and bridges among members. It doesn't get any better than this!