Seeking 'Experimental' Travelers

[worldmatt]

Hi,

I'm writing an article for a large travel publication about "experimental travel" and experimental travelers—people who choose destinations for unusual or random reasons (e.g., only places that start with the letter 'Z'), or who engage in odd or quirky activities while traveling: photographing mailboxes, or applying for a driver's license, or simply pretending to be from a silly place (I have a friend who, on a visit to Baltimore, pretended to be from Manitoba, and sang Manitoba-themed songs at a football game).

Basically, these are people who, for whatever reason, have decided to put themselves outside the usual categories of traveler: Tourist, Backpacker, Adventure Traveler, Food Tourist, Danger-Seeker, and so on—they don't fit into any of these, and their stories are unlikely to involve such traditional topics as sightseeing, museums, etc.

If you consider yourself an "experimental traveler," or if you know someone who is, please send me an e-mail at [email protected].

Cheers,

—Matt

[Matthew]

I had lots of fun doing 'dice man' traveling back in my late teens (inspired by the wonderfully influential 'Dice Man' by Luke Rheinhart) - choosing a set of random and weird destinations and visiting them on the thorw of a dice - also pretending to be different people and chatting to strangers in bars. No end of fun you can have with a bit of imagination. Grew out of it though and became boring. Perhaps i'll give it a go again?

[chaaaarlie]

my parents would pick there vacations from the back of sugar packets, down at the sundowner restaurant,

kinda like sizzler. the only problem was it came down to either san diego or santa barbara.

never paris, tokyo or the grand canyon even.

but it beat my teens when they would travel to desert towns like st. george utah, or henderson nevada, and look at model homes for the week. yeah, we saw the hoover dam, but didn't take the damm tour.

had to get over to boulder city, and look at a duplex.

cheers

charlie