Do you know what kind of traveler you are? No? Well, if you’ve never thought about it you might feel that the question is silly, or that you don’t really need to think about what type of traveler you are. After all, if you’re the one with the money then the world should just bend to you, right?

Not so fast. The way we travel is important because we need to think about the type of impression we want to leave behind. Even though it’s unfair, when you act rude or unpleasant on vacation — no matter if you’re really right about whatever’s being discussed — you still come off looking bad. A lot of people have this idea that they can do whatever they want on vacation and it’ll never get back to anyone. However, in today’s Internet-connected world these days are coming to an end. Unless you plan on staying in very undeveloped locations that don’t have a data uplink, you will find that your behavior can get posted on a wide variety of websites — including youtube.com itself! This means that other people will see you and possibly even identify you. That can have an effect on the social life that you enjoy.

After all, no one wants to be around someone unpleasant. It doesn’t matter who you’re speaking to — you should always strive to treat them with as much respect as you can. You shouldn’t feel like you really have to walk over water just to be a good person, but you do need to think about not only what you say, but how people can misinterpret it. This is very important in places where English is usually learned as a second language. Those without native command of the language might not fully understand what you’re saying if you’re using slang or idioms. Those are a bit harder to translate, but every language has them. It’s not just an English problem, but English is just the example that gets trotted out the most.

When you’re planning your vacation, you want to make sure that you’re going to be in a place where you are comfortable. If you’re really not one to explore a brand new culture, then you might want to limit your search of destinations to places where you’ve been before or places that share similar cultures to yours. Someone that isn’t comfortable with Asian culture might not want to book a trip to Thailand, and someone that isn’t comfortable with Afro-Caribbean traditions needs to stay out of the Caribbean altogether. This isn’t something that’s base don race or culture, but rather your limits as a person. This might be a controversial view, but if you know that you’re going to be uncomfortable somewhere, don’t waste your money. There are much cheaper ways to include diversity in your life than to spend your precious vacation time doing something you would rather avoid.

On the flip side, if you are ready to embark into a new world, you need to realize the type of traveler you need to be is someone that is a good observer. When you are in someone else’s home in real time, you wouldn’t tell them everything that they do is wrong, would you? That would get you in trouble very, very quickly. However, that’s what a lot of travelers do when they arrive at a new country they haven’t been to before. They immediately compare it to their home country and then deem it to be lacking in areas where their home country is superior. This puts the entire trip through that lens, and that’s pretty unfair. For starters, you’re only in the country for a limited period of time — how would you ever possibly be able to figure out everything there is to know about your new host country?

Since you have the Internet at your fingertips, it might be a good idea to figure out how the local people in the host country go about their everyday lives. No, we’re not talking about the classic tourist attitude of catering to whatever the foreigners on vacation want — we’re talking about how regular people live their lives. If you really want to command the most respect and understanding, you will want to be more local than tourist. Tourists have a lack of respect for things that matter to the local population, and this can lead to a lot of strained relations between you and the residents.

These lessons aren’t just for you, but they should extend to everyone in your travel party. If you’re really serious about doing something with your vacation that leaves behind great memories, you really do need to stop and decide upon what type of vacation traveler you really want to be — why not get started today?