Skipping the main storyline: How travel side-quests transform standard itineraries into deeply personal, immersive adventures. (Image by Frank Flores)
Catch a flight, check into a nice hotel, visit the major attractions, and take plenty of pictures. These are all familiar parts of a travel itinerary, but after enough trips, even the most exciting destination can begin to feel predictable when every experience follows the same formula.
Well, it doesn’t always have to be that way. One simple way to change this up is by integrating side-quests into your next holiday. Grand as it sounds, side-quests are not meant to complicate your travel. Rather, it keeps the trip interesting and may even help you discover things about the destination that you might otherwise miss learning about. From turning your lunchtimes into a quest for unique flavours to connecting with strangers over directions, turn your next trip into a brand new adventure by investing some of that travel energy into side-quests that can potentially offer you more than you expect.
Borrowed from video games, a side-quest is an optional challenge that exists outside the main objective. In travel, side-questing means creating small personal missions, whether that’s trying unfamiliar snacks, chatting with locals, or hunting down street art, that can lead to unexpected discoveries.
Tasting notes: the local flavour quest
Half the excitement of travelling is getting to try new things. Checking off attractions is fun, but savouring exciting new dishes? Even better. The next time you travel, try spicing – in ways more than just letting the flavours grace your taste buds – it up by making a quest out of it. Challenge yourself to try dishes that represent a range of flavours, including those you might normally avoid, such as bitter foods.
Bitter does not have to be a miserable taste either! Think about the bitter taste of matcha and how a refreshing mango puree complements it in a nice cup of gelato or a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting over a sticky toffee pudding. Whatever combination of foods there are, going on a flavour quest will definitely help you get to know your destination beyond its visuals. Food often carries a strong sense of place and identity, so you’re getting a cultural lesson alongside the gastronomic adventure. Isn’t that awesome?
Loot drops: unconventional souvenirs
No matter how cliché it may seem, no one is missing out on getting those keychains and fridge magnets to take home from travel. In spite of having obnoxious stamped text of the destination name on them, completing the routine of collecting these souvenirs is just a long-standing, pure act of a good tourist. So, how can this act be turned into an interesting side-quest, you say? While keychains and fridge magnets are standard souvenirs, go on and challenge yourself to collect more unusual mementoes as well. You can even make it personal and unique to the destination. For example, make a checklist to collect natural souvenirs like a piece of leaf, a flower and a twig on an adventurous trip or gather a small pebble, a shell and a small jar of sand from a beach trip.
Other than putting zero pressure on your pocket, you are very likely to remember the trip well just from the idea of literally taking a piece of the place home to remember it by. Be cautious not to perform vandalism while you are at it, though. If natural souvenirs are not an option, collect ephemera like receipts and ticket stubs instead.
Note: Just be mindful of local regulations and environmental protections, as collecting natural items is not permitted everywhere.
Local dialogue: small talk missions
No-cost, low impact. While it is nice to live in a bubble when you are on vacation, try to immerse yourself in your exciting surroundings by talking to the locals around for a change. Not everyone will be in the mood for a conversation, of course, but the aim isn’t to force interactions. It is to engage with the people around for a better sense of the place you are visiting.
Make it a point on your next trip to converse with at least three locals, even if it is just to ask for directions or dining recommendations in a world where it is so easy to just look everything up on your phone. Who knows if you might even end up with a new friend if the conversation takes a way better direction than you expect. Either way, you are more likely to find the best route to the place you are heading to or find an authentic local eatery when you speak to real people who know and live in the local scene themselves.
Uncovering the map: urban street art
Being a specific form of visual art, it may not be possible to be able to do this on all trips you take, especially on nature-focused holidays or eco-retreats. However, it can definitely be integrated into any other city trips you are taking. Much like the contrasting artworks you will see in art galleries across different cities, graffiti as an art form also takes different shapes across different localities. This allows you to observe certain aspects that can make the visual unique to a particular city, offering small clues about the communities that live there. Consider it a window into the non-curated version of the city!
A fun way to participate in this side-quest is to use your camera or phone to document the graffiti you are able to spot as you move about throughout the trip. If travelling in a group, you can amp up the fun by making it a competition to capture the highest number of graffiti among the group. Besides being a fun additional activity to do on the trip, it also keeps you attentive and present on the travel experience as a whole, which elevates the enjoyment.
Mystery munch: convenience store roulette
This is another food-centred side-quest you could try! Something that sets it apart is that, instead of proper eateries, you have to stride into a local convenience store and pick several snacks you have never seen back home to try. Like traditional dishes, snacks can also be just as reflective of local identity. They can be the local-exclusive edition of an international snack brand, a nostalgic local childhood snack, or even the nation’s iconic snack for all you know.
Much like Mamee being one of Malaysia’s prides in the snack industry, there are bound to be equivalents of that in other places you are visiting. In any case, there is a lot to be learned from the many colourful packages of local snacks you can get your hands on. Certain snacks might even challenge you to explore particular ways in which you are to eat them “correctly”. It might sound trivial, but you would not be eating a KitKat bar without breaking it off first either, right? Exactly.
Lore gathering: the bookshop trail
Not every city reveals itself through monuments. Sometimes its personality is hidden inside independent or second-hand bookstores, and neighbourhood reading spaces. Turn your next trip into a literary side-quest by visiting a local bookshop in every destination and leaving with a book, magazine, or postcard created there. Even if you cannot read the language, the covers, illustrations, and themes can offer surprising insights into local culture and interests.
You may also find yourself wandering into neighbourhoods you would never have visited otherwise. Along the way, you could discover cafés, conversations, and corners of the city that rarely make it into guidebooks. Like any good side-quest, the reward is often the journey rather than the item you bring home.
