No doubt you’ve heard of the “locavore” movement – the idea of eating food that is grown or raised close to home, sometimes within a 50 or 100 mile radius – but have you heard of the Local Travel Movement? Despite its name, LTM is not, I repeat not, a staycation, the recently coined word designed to make us feel better about not venturing beyond our own cities while taking time off. (Don’t get me wrong – feel free to explore your own city but just don’t call it a staycation – call it a weekend.) No, LTM is similar to the locavore movement because its goal is to go back to an older, more natural way of travel – before travel books galore that purport to share with us secret tips about places off the beaten path; before the internet let us find out absolutely everything about our destination, including the time of the sunset; before an entire television channel devoted to only travel, airing half-hour shows about Walt Disney World or eating challenges; and before travel was corporatized into the “tourism industrial complex,” a multi-billion dollar industry.

LTM asks you simply to travel to learn and experience more about different places, people, and cultures. Sounds easy but with the rise of all-inclusive resorts, organized tours, satellite tv, and a Starbucks on every corner, traveling like a local is becoming more and more difficult.

But after all, why travel 7,000 miles across an ocean just to sit around and look at a beautiful yet dime a dozen beach? Why spend all your time in a museum when that same culture’s current artists are right outside the door?

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