Hate Being a Tourist? Take a 'Skillcation' Instead
Solita
Travel writer Amy Jo introduces the concept of 'skillcation'—traveling specifically to learn a new skill or hobby—as a way to foster deeper
Key takeaways
- The 'skillcation' method uses interests like Muay Thai or birdwatching as an entry point into complex foreign cultures.
- Frictionless travel through apps like TripAdvisor can actually reduce curiosity and prevent travelers from truly experiencing a place.
Main topics
- Skillcation concept
- Slow travel vs. frictionless tourism
Notable quotes
The modern tourism industry reduces friction to the point so you can see everything but experience less.
Conclusion
The episode serves as an inspiring guide for travelers looking to repl
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:01) I remember Speaker 1 (0:02) bringing this energy into the bachata scene in the DR. I'm going to get good at this really fast. It's a very American energy. Oh, yeah, for Speaker 2 (0:09) sure. It's Speaker 1 (0:10) a Speaker 2 (0:10) very American energy. And I remember being kind of cocky. And one of my friends, he was like, oh, my God, Amy, you've got this all wrong. I realized this energy of I want to be a better dancer. I need to leave that in the dance studio at LA. Dance has existed for thousands of years and it was meant to connect. It was meant to honor the gods. So like put aside the industry, put aside the TikTok videos, put away the cameras, put away the ego because like that shit doesn't really fucking matter. Speaker 1 (0:45) This is Solita, stories of what really happens when you travel alone. The beautiful, the messy, and the moments where you say yes and surprise yourself. I'm your host, Julie Pinheiro. Speaker 1 (1:01) Okay, quick question. How do you actually prepare for a trip? Do you save a list of restaurants, bookmark a few TikToks, screenshot a TripAdvisor post? When I do that, I land feeling ready. But at some point, I'm standing there, feeling like I'm just watching a place rather than connecting to it. Today's guest has a theory about why and a fix that flexes the openness you wield in your solitude. She picks one skill and lets that be her way in. Birdwatching in Puerto Rico, capoeira in Brazil, bachata in the Dominican Republic. She calls it a skillcation because it turns out three minutes on a dance floor with a stranger gets you closer to a place than any list ever could. But being a total beginner somewhere new, as a solita, has its own trade-offs. We dive into it today with Amy Jo, a travel writer and creator known online as Amy Is Alive. Amy walks us through this buzzy term, skillcation, and what it actually takes to forge a connection with a place. Speaker 1 (2:16) I know that part of your story is that you left your job to travel. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Speaker 2 (2:22) I was at Warner Brothers and I was working video games for five years. I loved it. I had a great time. When it comes to corporate jobs, that was a really good job. I was basically working for like only 40 hours. By six o'clock, I was wrapping up. It was like half remote, half in person. And you also work in games. So it was like a really cool industry. But even at its best, I was like, I don't love this right now. And I think. For maybe like a lot of immigrant kids, for a lot of us, like this was kind of the only path. So when it came to what are some other options, it was like, oh, should I be, you know, a product marketer or a product designer? Like that was like the extent of like what my brain could really imagine. And so I was like, you know what, I'm just going to take like a four month sabbatical. I'm going to just learn Speaker 1 (3:06) Spanish, figure Speaker 2 (3:07) things out. And then my. plan was really just to come back to corporate. But before I do the whole climbing corporate ladder, getting an MBA, kids, family, yada, yada, yada, I'm just going to have four months for myself. So I was considering this a post-college trip, but like post-four-year working trip. And I think within maybe three weeks of traveling, I was like, oh, I don't have to go back to corporate because I've seen the way people live and they're happy and they're fine. And I could be a lobster farmer. I don't know. I could do anything. I could work on a sailboat. Like I wasn't limited to just what corporate had to offer anymore. As grateful as I am for that experience. What I'm doing now, I basically just freelance four to five months out of the year. And then when that goes, I just go travel. But like, I think the nice thing is when I came back from the DR recently, I was like, oh, I'm like excited to work. I haven't worked in a while. I'm really excited to bring shareholder value. I don't know. Speaker 2 (4:00) I was excited to do something that I knew I was good at and was ready to do it again. And so I think here on now, when I travel, it's going to be on my terms. When I work, it's going to be on my terms. Like whatever I do, I'm only giving it my all because I want to do it. And I think that was something that I kind of forgot I had the free will and the privilege to do so. Speaker 1 (4:19) Yeah. Yeah. And now you travel in a way that I think looks really different from the way that a lot of people travel. Oh, Speaker 2 (4:26) OK. And Speaker 1 (4:27) I'm curious. Is there like a flaw that you saw in the way that we travel? And when did you start to see that? Speaker 2 (4:34) I had always been an active traveler. I used to go on family vacations all the time. I'm very lucky where I have a work that allows me to, you know, go on like two week vacations every now and then. And it wasn't until I took this, you know, long term sabbatical. And I think within a month I was like, you know, there's something wrong about the way we travel. And I just couldn't really put. my finger on the pulse, but I knew something about this felt really unsatisfying. I remember I was in Bolivia and I was on the Uyuni salt flats. At sunset, there's a little bit of water that forms on the top. And so when you look across, you see a reflection of the sky on the ground. And so it's like you're on a glass mirror is what people call it. And so when you're running, it also leaves a little puddle for every step you take. It's gorgeous. Speaker 1 (5:20) Incredible. And during the daytime, it's also just white cracked land. Yes. As far as you can see. Daytime is cool. Speaker 2 (5:27) It's like, wow, that's a lot of salt. But like during sunset, I just I it's the most gorgeous thing ever. Speaker 1 (5:32) And Speaker 2 (5:32) I remember being too exhausted where I was like, I don't care. I want to go home. Speaker 1 (5:36) And Speaker 2 (5:36) I was like, this sucks. Like how lucky am I to be at one of the most gorgeous places in the world? And I just can't process this right now because I'm so overstimulated from this last just two weeks of traveling. And so after that, I was like, I'm going to slow down. I don't have to see everything. And I feel like my travels got so much better when I started slow traveling. A lot of the long term travelers I talked to, they're like stuck in one city for five to six months because there's so much to see. There's so much to explore and they're not packing their schedules, you know, by the hour. The more I've traveled, the more I've realized the modern tourism industry reduces friction to the point so you can see everything but experience less. By reducing friction and by giving you a hop on hop off, all inclusive, they just don't activate your curiosity. Like I've been on so many trips and when I come back, I'm like, I don't really remember what I saw. I don't really remember what I did. Speaker 1 (6:29) Yeah. And Speaker 2 (6:30) I just like didn't feel like I had an understanding of that actual country. Yeah. I think I went to Mexico once, like Mexico City. And when I came back, someone was like, oh, like, how was the whole water situation? I was like, what are you talking about? And they're like, oh, there was a drought. And I was like, how did I not know this? You didn't have to interact. I just didn't have to interact with it. Right. How am I in this country and still in a bubble? In the past, when you talk about, you know, being a nomad, being an explorer, the beauty of it is that you have to figure out how to get there, how to take the bus. There's so much more friction and the friction is almost what makes it actually memorable and worthwhile because you you figure it out. You had no idea what to expect. And now you're here and you figure it out for yourself. Part of the friction is you have to go around and ask people where the bus stop is. You know, instead of asking people around, I now just go on Yelp or I just go on to, you know, TripAdvisor, which it's accessible. And I love that. And I think for some people, yeah, you need that accessibility, especially if you're only traveling like two weeks at a time. But it does take away a lot of the joy and a lot of the reason as to why travel is so meaningful and why I think it could really change your life. When people are like, oh, like, what should I do in this country? I'm like, I don't know. Go figure it out. I don't know you. How am I supposed to give you an itinerary of what you should do? You should go to the city. You should figure it out. You should make friends. I think travel is less about what you see and more about how you, you know, how you experience that city and what it can teach you. Speaker 1 (7:50) Because what happens when you experience frictionless travel? It's boring. Yeah, Speaker 2 (7:55) it's just boring. Like, I just remember, oh, we say it in Chinese, but it's like. I'm going to try my best to translate it, but it's like, oh, you get on the bus and you take a nap. You get off the bus and you look for the bathroom and then you do that repeat. And that's the frictionless travel experience? That's the frictionless travel experience. A lot of people don't take public transport when they travel. To me, Speaker 1 (8:16) that's so bizarre. Speaker 2 (8:16) I know, same. You figure out what the city is. You figure out the lay of the land. I remember in the past when I used to travel, and I traveled like this as well, I would go to a country and then I could not point. to where it is on a map. That's so embarrassing. And then when I go into the city, I'm like, I don't even know what the city looks like. I don't know where things are. And it just takes time. You need that friction in there to actually understand the cities that you're visiting. Speaker 1 (8:39) I think this transitions well into the way that you travel now, which is through this term, skillcation. Can you talk more about that? What is that? Speaker 2 (8:46) So skillcation is travel structured around learning a new skill. So like, let's say I go specifically to Thailand to learn Muay Thai or I want to learn yoga in India. So you're traveling to a country centered around learning a skill or a passion or an interest. I love skillcation because I think when I show up to a city, let's say I go to Rio and one's like, you know, you got to see Christ the Redeemer. You got to see this. You got to see that. You got to see Sugarloaf. There's too much to do. Speaker 1 (9:11) And Speaker 2 (9:12) every city has too much to offer. And so you just end up. kind of being swayed by things that you don't really care about, by people on the internet who you've never met. Every country and city has so much to offer. So you need to be focused about where you go and not just be swayed by anything because it's really easy to get brought into things that don't actually align with