Ten commandments: The new rules every traveller should follow

Most of us would agree that the Ten Commandments contain some sound advice. Irrespective of your religious persuasion, it’s hard to argue with the premise that we shouldn’t murder, steal, covet or lie.

Affairs are generally considered a no-no and, provided they haven’t written you out of their will, you should always be nice to your parents.

Things can get a little trickier when we travel. We can be exposed to new cultures, customs and belief systems – not all of which we may agree with.

Other countries have different religions and exotic foods; there may be unspoken rules and intriguing bathroom protocols. Suddenly, we’re a guest in someone else’s home, with all the social considerations and responsibilities that entails.

Illustration: Greg Straight

Of course, many of these things are the very reason we travel – to experience the wondrous variety that animates our planet. But, clearly, we’re going to need some more help here – some additional guidance that’s a bit more specific than just not pilfering the hotel bathrobe and blaming it on the guest before us.

Traveller hereby presents the 10 new commandments of travel – 10 take or leave ’em edicts from our most experienced writers for a better world of travel.

As always, we welcome our readers’ feedback and we command – sorry, invite – you to share your own travel commandments, or agree or disagree with those presented below, by leaving a comment or writing to us at [e-mail] (the best submissions will be published in our weekly letters).

- Rob McFarland

Thou shalt not tick boxes

It’s OK to make lists. It’s perfectly reasonable to have travel goals. But what’s not OK is to travel in a fashion that is purely in the service of that list; when your holidays become solely about checking boxes, seeing those famous sights, taking a few snaps and moving on.

Who wants to see the world that way? This sort of attitude will make your travels fast and careless, with a total lack of immersion in local culture. It will make it difficult to be spontaneous and to allow the happy accidents of the world to lead you to new and exciting places.

And how can you possibly give a “tick” to any given destination or even attraction? How can you say somewhere is “done” when the world is so constantly evolving? The very essence of box-ticking is flawed.

Modern travel should be slower and more mindful of place and your impact on it. It should be a blend of big-ticket experiences, the sort that would make a bucket list, and small-scale enjoyment.

Your travels should allow time and space for experiences to develop organically and the world to take you in unexpected directions. And you can’t get that by ticking boxes.

- Ben Groundwater

Thou shalt not be distracted by one’s devices

Devices and desires ... don’t be distracted by your screen.Credit: Greg Straight

Given Adam and Eve failed to resist the supposed forbidden apple in the Garden of Eden, is it any wonder we too struggle with the seductive power of the attention-craving Apple in our pockets?

Intellectually, we all know we should limit the amount of time we spend on our devices so we’re more present and engaged. And we’re all aware of just how difficult that is to do in everyday life, let alone on holiday when we often have more free time at our disposal.

One strategy is to organise a trip so jam-packed with activities that you simply don’t have time to squander hours on social media. Another is to choose somewhere with no mobile coverage at all, such as a safari in Africa or a cruise on the Amazon.

Otherwise, just be realistic. Agree on some guidelines in advance. No phone usage at meals is a start. Not reaching for your phone whenever you’re waiting is another.

Sometimes you’ll succeed, other times you’ll fail. Either way, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re on holiday. Have fun. After all, Adam and Eve did.

- Rob McFarland

Thou shalt strive not to be a creature of habit

If you only get one opportunity in your lifetime to travel overseas, make sure you go somewhere fabulous. Let your eyes and tastebuds drink in the glory of France. Warm your soul with the sensory delights of Thailand’s massages, curries and kindness.

Experience the thrilling 24/7 buzz of New York City that allows you to believe, at least for a moment, there’s nothing you can’t do.

But if you are a passport holder with the time and, of course, the resources to explore the world, you are living the wildest dreams of billions of people. Make the most of the privilege. Thou shalt go forth with an open mind and heart to explore all corners of the Earth.

Ten years ago, realising my online search for flights always defaulted to the same favourite destinations, I made a pledge.

I would make the effort to visit new countries. Maybe there were extraordinary places I could love even more than I loved Chiang Mai, Paris and the Upper West Side. I hadn’t yet visited Spain, South Africa or Colombia.

A decade on, my global memory collection has grown by 27 countries. From South Korea to San Marino and beyond, I’m often astounded by how much there is to love and learn from.

- Kristie Kellahan

Thou shalt not be a slave to the graven imagery of Instagram

Don’t let Insta imagery persuade you to do something stupid.Credit: Greg Straight

Instagram will lead you into a land of false promises. Use it as your guide and you will find yourself queuing to get into Paradiso bar in Barcelona at a ridiculous hour or wandering aimlessly through Morocco’s Chefchaouen, being scolded by stick-wielding townsfolk for intruding on their once-peaceful town.

Tourists do mad things in the quest for an Insta-hit image, stripping off for a photo in front of sacred banyan trees in Bali, scratching graffiti into ancient monuments and taking risks that don’t end well.

In December 2022, a New Zealander fell to his death while taking a selfie from an open carriage door on the Thai Burma Railway, and in February of this year, a man scaled a high zoo wall in India’s Tirupati, entered a lion enclosure for an Insta selfie, and was attacked and killed.

The Insta-mage becomes crucial to the holiday experience, and civility suffers. In the past year I’ve been shooed aside by tourists at the Spanish Steps in Rome and India’s Taj Mahal, with the word “Instagram” by way of an apology.

Stop it, please. You won’t go blind. But you will blind yourself to the overlooked, un-Instagrammed wonders of the world.

- Michael Gebicki

Thou shalt remember to watch the world go by

Savour those moments.Credit: Greg Straight

Holidays don’t have to achieve anything: no one really cares where you went when you get home (they’re only pretending to listen).

The term “holiday” is defined as “a day of festivity or recreation where no work is done”. Lining up for two hours for the Louvre sounds like hard work to me; so does making a pilgrimage to Florence in the middle of a European summer to battle the crowds to see Michelangelo’s sculpture of David at the Galleria dell’ Accademia.

Make sure to at least leave a day (or two, or three, or 10) for nothing. To achieve … nothing, at all. Feel free to linger longer at breakfast, to loll over lunch, to skip the museums and churches.

In fact, take a seat outside them and observe life as it passes you by. It’s then you’ll notice how foreign it all is from the life you know back home.

Skip the Louvre and sit and drink a takeaway coffee on the Pont du Carrousel arch bridge over the Seine outside and watch Parisians pass on their way to work.

Skip the tour at the cultural centre in the South Pacific and spend your day talking to locals as you meander slowly around their town, staring at its trees, smelling its breeze.

- Craig Tansley

Thou shalt immerse oneself in thy destination

God is in the detail. And the detail is omnipresent – if only we can resist plotting our next trip. In this age of fashionable destinations and algorithmic influence, it can be difficult to ground ourselves in the present.

“Where to next?” is the new commandment given unto thee. It’s a mantra especially dear to those of us who mistake familiarity for expertise.

Can we truly understand a place we’ve visited only fleetingly? Too often I’ve flitted between countries, barely skimming the surface of one before landing in another.

But if travel is the force for good so many claim it to be, how do we calculate the value of transitory visitations to foreign lands, of an attention span diluted by technology?

In honouring my personal commandment, I’ve endeavoured to prolong my journeys, to explore regions neglected by the algorithm, to give the landscape and its stories my undistracted attention.

This investment is compounded when I immerse myself in a setting – through literature, historical accounts and, yes, social media – long before I’ve departed, and continue my contemplations long after my return.

It’s in the infinite detail, after all, that we’ll find the essence of a country, and in digging beneath the superficial foundations that we’re better able to commit it to enduring memory.

- Catherine Marshall

Thou shalt bear witness to all manner of gods and idols

Show respect for others’ beliefs.Credit: Greg Straight

If we’re to believe travel marketers and influencers, the purpose of travel is to see places, and the more beautiful, unusual or “unknown” the place, the better.

Yet travel should be as much about making us think, feel and wonder, and surely nothing does that more than encounters with other people’s gods.

Whether you look at foreign beliefs as religion, superstition, myth or fairy tale, they provide no better insight into the dreams, aspirations and fears of other societies.

If we’re self-reflective enough, they might make us realise that, in other people’s eyes, our own beliefs are just as curious, outlandish and improbable.

Open up your mind, welcome in gods and idols, and you’re presented with the philosophy of everything – even of travel itself, a theme tackled in the stories of almost every religion.

Perhaps you’re a committed atheist? Never mind. There’s still great beauty in shrines and mosques, saintly Christian art and Hindu statuary, baroque cemeteries and neck-prickling rock art. You can’t dismiss the human need to understand and explain life and death.

- Brian Johnston

Thou shalt show respect to locals and all living things

There’s no getting around it – we live in the age of mass tourism. Would that be such a blight if we were not also living in an age of diminished respect for others?

It’s why visits to Venice, Italy, are now ticketed; why Majorcans are firing water pistols at tourists, and why the world is full of signs: stay off the grass; don’t feed the wildlife; don’t trample the sunflowers. (And you only have to search the term “sunflowers” on a social media app to realise that there’s a large, rude cohort out there ignoring the signs anyway.)

So next time you get set to go on an adventure or holiday, make this commandment your mantra. Understand you are a visitor in the home of people, animals and plants – all of which equally command your care and concern.

Understand you are privileged to be there, not just privileged (in other words, leave your main character syndrome at home, thanks). Understand that being mindful, considerate and humble helps the locals experience your time in their patch in a more positive way. Believe it or not, this in turn will ensure you have a better time while there.

Understand too, we are all the custodians of travel, now and in the future. Our shows of respect in the present strengthen the possibility of better tourism for those who visit after us.

- Julietta Jameson

Thou shalt do thy research and not just show up

Don’t reveal your ignorance – do your homework.Credit: Greg Straight

Would you ever turn up to a dinner party without checking whether you need to bring a plate or some plonk? What? You would? Shame on you.

Well, you may be the same sort of person who turns up to destinations without doing a single shred of research. Admittedly, no matter how much you research a place nothing can replace physically visiting it.

But you owe it, increasingly, to the destination and to yourself to read up on a place as much as you do to allow for some surprises and spontaneity.

Ignorance is more likely to be cringy than blissful (common traveller faux pas: Bali is a province of Indonesia, not a country in its own right).

Even one skerrick of information can transform a trip and impress your hosts with your knowledge, or your conduct, especially in this age when the effects of overtourism cannot be overstated.

Above all, don’t be that lonely guy or girl overseas who’s never heard of Lonely Planet. And do check on whether to bring a plate and some plonk (none if it’s a Muslim nation) should you be the lucky recipient of an invitation from a local.

- Anthony Dennis

Thou shalt be non-judgmental and open-minded about how others choose to travel

Everyone has their comfort zone when travelling, and those zones can look very different to yours. I recently joined 44 other guests on an escorted journey around Switzerland.

You may think this is a country where guidance is least needed. The place runs like clockwork and everything is well signposted.

Yet, many of my fellow travellers simply didn’t want to spend hours arranging the finer details of their trip or were averse to lugging their bags from city to city. The thing is – they had their reasons, and those reasons are none of your business.

It’s human to judge, I get that. The moments when I have to rein in my own judgment usually revolve around travellers overtly filming content for their social media.

I once lounged by a Bali hotel pool that included a particularly photogenic angle. Instead of swimming or enjoying the sunshine, guests formed a queue to pose for pictures and videos.

They looked happy about it, too. Not fake-happy but genuinely having-the-time-of-their-lives happy. Who am I to judge them for spending their holiday this way?

The most consistent travel judgment I encounter, though, revolves around cruising. Usually, these comments come from someone who’s never cruised. I always reply: don’t knock it until you try it.

- Katrina Lobley