Different travel personalities: What does your travel persona say about you?

Found in: Botswana, Antarctica, Kenya

You probably never realised you had it in you. You've never particularly cared about animals or birds. You didn't pay attention in biology class at school, and you don't take outings to national parks in Australia. And yet you visit somewhere like southern Africa, or head down to Antarctica, and you're an expert on this stuff, you're consulting reference books and identifying different species and asking intelligent questions about mating habits and natural habitat. And then you go home and it all disappears.

Spiritual hippie

Found in: India, Nepal, Guatemala, Israel, Spain

Even the least spiritually inclined traveller can't help but be swept up in the introspective bliss that comes from visiting deeply holy places like India or Nepal, hippie paradises like Guatemala, historically significant destinations like Israel, or even pilgrimage sites in Spain. Now you're taking yoga classes and going to meditation retreats; you're wandering through temples and churches; you're learning religious history and pondering deep philosophical conundrums. You might be changed forever.

See also: 'Begpackers' - Why travel's generation of entitlement is a disgrace

Obsessed foodie

Found in: Japan, Italy, France

You don't have to spend long in a destination that's obsessed with food – say Tokyo, or Bologna – to become similarly infatuated. You might eat ham sandwiches every day at home, but in foodie paradise you're dining on sought-after delicacies for breakfast, lunch and dinner, you're learning all the terminology, you're researching local favourites and you're banging on about them to anyone who'll listen. And then you're going home to your ham sandwiches.

See also: The best country in the world for food

Art historian

Found in: France, Italy, Spain

You probably didn't know your Picasso from your Pollock, your Dali from your Degas, a couple of weeks ago, but that won't stop you from visiting every art gallery in Paris and critiquing style like you dabble in a little impressionism yourself. This isn't likely to be a long-lasting obsession – the lifespan of the art historian is usually a couple of days. After that you're so over traipsing through galleries and being pushed around by a million other art historian types that you never want to see another painting or sculpture again.

See also: The top 10 artworks around the world you need to see in real life

Outdoor adventurer

Found in: Peru, Nepal, South Africa

This always reminds me of the Smudge lyric, "I lied about being the outdoor type", because plenty of travellers lie to themselves about being the outdoor type all the time. Sure, you've never camped before, you can't start a fire to save your life (literally), and the longest hike you've ever been on was to a pub two suburbs away. But that won't stop you lacing up some new boots and hitting the Inca Trail, or trekking up to Everest Base Camp, or spending a few nights camping in Kruger National Park. It makes for great Facebook photos, if nothing else.

See also: Six incredible hiking trails you've probably never heard of

Five-star luxuriator

Found in: UAE, Fiji, Thailand

Even though you've been schlepping between stinky dorm rooms in Europe for the last few months you can always turn it on for a couple of days of luxury on your way home, in somewhere like Dubai, or Thailand, or even Fiji. Out come the oversized sunnies and the sense of privilege, and away you go to the pool for cocktails, or to the mall for a bit of shopping, or to the fancy restaurant for a meal that cost more than a week of accommodation in Dubrovnik. Hey, you have to treat yourself sometimes.

Total badass

Found in: China, India, Vietnam

Your personality at home might be meek and mild, but certain destinations require the adoption of the "total badass" persona – the take-no-prisoners traveller who can haggle with rickshaw drivers over the last cent, who can spot a scam from a mile away, who's seen all the tricks and heard all of the lines a million times before. You laugh in the face of outrageous prices in markets; you brush off touts like you're swatting flies. It's not pretty, but sometimes it's necessary.

See also: If you said you were coming here 30 years ago, people would say you're crazy

Does your travel personas change according to your destination? Which places alter you the most drastically?

Email: b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater

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