Everyday Adventures

Weave a little wonder into daily life with Lonely Planets Everyday Adventures.

Embrace the traveller spirit closer to home with Lonely Planet's Everyday Adventures, a new book packed full of inspiration you can use to rediscover somewhere familiar, or to help you explore a new destination when travelling.

Whether you want to explore your hometown in new ways, generally feel stuck for things to do, or just fancy a new challenge, the fun and varied activities within prove you don't need to spend big or travel far for great adventures. The 50 'everyday adventures' in the book include themed tours and adventures, how to take inspiration from food, music and books, and ways to leave your journey in the hands of fate (or others!).

Each activity is accompanied by simple, easy-to-follow instructions, ideas on things to bring and a case study from someone who's completed it, as well as surprising facts and anecdotes that shed light on the history and science behind each quirky quest.

Weave a little wonder into daily life and seek out urban solitude, take directions from a stranger, or do a good deed in the local community. Whatever adventure suits your mood, Everyday Adventures will inspire you to go exploring closer to home and discover a new side to where you live.

Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content on lonelyplanet.com, mobile, video and in 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. Visit us at lonelyplanet.com or join our social community of over 14 million travellers. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat (@lonely.planet).

Everyday Adventures
ISBN: 9781787013582
RRP: $24.99

Memory Lane

Let your inner child run wild. Indulge every whim as you trip through the happiest locations of your childhood.

What you'll need
• Happy memories
• Access to childhood haunts

Instructions

Your inner child wants to perform cartwheels in the park, eat cookies for breakfast, and chase pigeons through the main square.

Think about where you were happiest as a child – a park you used to play in, a duck pond where you scattered bread – and take a trip down memory lane. Don't hold back: if you loved kicking a ball or chasing squirrels, abandon self-consciousness and unleash your inner child.

If childhood haunts aren't close to home, recreate a long-abandoned pastime. Newspaper-wrapped chips by the beach, hose-pipe wars in your garden, eating cake icing first...if it makes you squeal with glee, do it.

Complexity *****

Case study
Ali Lemer, Native New Yorker

My hometown has changed in countless ways since I ran around it in pigtails; could I recreate my childhood New York? First I visit William Greenberg Desserts for my once-favourite treat: their signature rich, moist brownies. For good measure, I also get a Black & White Cookie (another NYC speciality), which I polish off walking to the pocket-sized Central Park Zoo.

It's a hot, sweaty day, so I duck into the penguin building; the cool air smells like old fish but I'm transported with delight by these endearing creatures. Though I'm conflicted about wild animals in captivity, I'm still grateful for the chance to see them.

I devour my brownie on the bus to the American Museum of Natural History. I recall seeing the same fusty dioramas of taxidermied animals years ago. Best is the Hall of Ocean Life, with its gigantic blue whale floating above our heads. After a 2003 refurbishment it looks better and more colourful than before. It's comforting to know that this quintessential icon from my past will be there for future generations.

I buy my inner child a chocolate ice cream and walk across Central Park to the Ancient Playground (an apt description for how I feel being there). It's just as I remember: a huge brick pyramid with ladders, ramparts, tunnels and slides. I clamber up awkwardly and whoosh down smoothly, barely suppressing a whee! Then again. And again. Who cares about adult responsibilities? I think I'll get another dessert.

Medicinal Memories
Nostalgia is as soothing as a warm bath, but it also has power. Recalling fond memories has a measurable positive effect on mental health, making 'reminiscence therapy' an increasingly common treatment for patients suffering with dementia or depression. Taking its cue from reminiscence therapy, an enterprising Australian radio station, Silver Memories, hired retired broadcasters to DJ music from the 1940s in retirement homes. Going a step further, the 'Memory Lane' village near Bristol in the UK faithfully mimics a 1950s-style post office, greengrocers and pub, even decking the walls with old Oxo adverts, to immerse elderly patients in the sights and smells of their childhood.

Reproduced with permission from Lonely Planet's Everyday Adventures © 2018 Lonely Planet