Whenever I am going on vacation to a place I try to read a few books about its history first. It gets me psychologically situated for what I’m going to experience and I also find that people appreciate it and are even touched to find that you know a bit about their history.

Reading deepens your enjoyment of life. I don’t know if I’d enjoy travel so much if I wasn’t aware of all the layers of history beneath a place that I was visiting. I’m planning to travel through a few countries in southern Europe later this year and am reading books in anticipation.

Big fan of this approach. 

After leaving Coinbase in 2019, I spent 8 months traveling. Logged off from Twitter for a good chunk of it. Ended up reading a bunch of books.

First time in Middle East — Jordan, Egypt, Israel — and I really enjoyed these two books while there:

https://www.amazon.com/Arabs-History-Eugene-Rogan-ebook/dp/B007TV0PJE

https://www.amazon.com/Crusades-Through-Arab-Eyes-Essentials-ebook/dp/B008SBXGCW

https://danromero.org/2019-booklist.html

Dan took touching grass to another level. 

My approach is a little bit different: I browse things to expect on Reddit (Hopefully Warpcast soon) and watch a couple of YouTube vids about the customs and culture. 

I can't stress enough too the importance of studying a country's culture before you visit.