The other day, a good friend had posted her status on Facebook as: Looking to do a Costa Rican yoga retreat… Any recommendations?
What a brilliant idea. But wait. What if I’m not Facebook Savvy?
Why not Ask GoMad NoMad?
If you “don’t do” Facebook or Twitter, that’s why I’m here. You write me (Stephen) an email here at GoMad Nomad with your question and I do my best to answer it in this column: Ask GoMad Nomad. Email: gomadnomadtravelmag [at] gmail [dot] com
I’ve been traveling regularly and living abroad for much of the last ten years. In addition to that I’ve worked and volunteered abroad, so I have lots of ideas and knowledge at my fingertips.
While I have a lot of general knowledge of these aspects independent travel, I tend to reach out to others in my network to answer specialized questions.
By posting on Facebook, my friend did something very important. She harnessed the power of Social Media to get information about travel. These social media networks like Facebook and Twitter were not around 10 years ago and now we travelers have a whole new avenue of getting travel tips and information.
Kristen did the right thing by posting on Facebook. Some of her friends posted their suggestion for her. I saw her status and mentioned that I would look into it for her. In turn, here’s what I did:
Use your network
In my nomadic lifestyle I tend to meet a diverse group of people that live all over the world. So I wrote an email to my old yoga instructor (who also just happens to be a very experienced traveler and writer at GoMad Nomad). And although she didn’t have any personal experience, her friend and teacher who does retreats in Guatemala highly recommended this one: Birmingham Yoga
Twitter is about communication, albeit very brief communication. In 140 characters or less you need to get your point across or pose your question. Here’s a tip if you don’t have many followers: use hash tags (#). Here’s an example tweet I might use to in this situation: Looking to do a #CostaRica #yoga retreat. Any recommendations?
By using hash tags, anyone following the #CostaRica or #yoga tag has a better chance of catching your tweet.
Additionally I did a Google search and also sought out my favorite independent travel magazines like the Matador Network and Transitions Abroad. These are both online publications that I trust, and know their recommendations would fit my friend’s personality. This led me to find: 20 Warm Weather Yoga Retreats around the World. I passed all this information to my friend. I hope soon she’ll be happily practicing yoga in Costa Rica, or some nearby country, and lets us know how it turned out.
Dear Gomad Nomad,
Do you know of any English speaking programs like Vaughan Town (Spain) that are in France?
great post! I love it. it is so refreshing to read. thanks for this post.