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So, I spent part of my 20's and 30's traveling more, and I enjoyed it at the time. Pursued my dream to buy a house, and all of the sudden I really want to be home all the time or close to it. I don't want to travel much anymore (although I have to for work still). This creates a divide for my husband and I, who hasn't traveled much and wants to (although limited since he doesn't get a lot of time off of work or have unlimited funds). I've compromised with 1 vacation a year on an agreed upon place he hasn't been to before (so he can see more of the world, and its gentler time and money wise).
When I do travel, I don't find myself really wanting to run around and sight see as much. I used to just hop on a plane, and go on unplanned weekend trips all the time, and whereever I ended up, I would end up. That was in my 20's, and I can't fathom that at all anymore or have the energy for it. However, I get bored of the idea of a cruise, where it is nothing but R&R (never done one).
My question is, this cynical view on traveling and going places, can anybody relate? Is this a result of basically "seeing most of what I wanted to see" when I was younger, or finally finding "home" and being happy (I moved 9 times in 11 years due to my career, I was so thrilled to settle down). Is it a result of business travel. And the debate part of this post - some people live for their vacations. Are they lacking something in their life where they feel the need to "run away from it all", instead of sitting down and taking a hard look at their goals? Or is it travel in and of itself a goal?
I'm probably going to get a lot of insults and flamed for this post, or told I am boring...lol!
I also like traveling and I also like being at home and doing homey things. I had a spurt over the last few years where I was able to travel and do things I've always wanted to (winter olympics in Vancouver, a road trip up the coast of California, a road trip to the midwest, New York City, St Louis, Portland, Chicago, San Francisco...). So now I think when growing older, the allure of always being on the go and having your vacation day filled up to the maximum and falling into bed at night exhausted and cranky is overrated. Now, when I go on vacation, I don't sweat not being able to see everything. A million tourists have done and seen most of everything and taken pictures of it all a million times over. That is boring to me. And so is going on a cruise. How boring to sit trapped on a boat with 100s of other people stuffing your face and then getting out and doing touristy things for a few hours (but not getting to see much of anything because you have to be back on the boat by a certain time). In New York I barely scratched the surface of what there was to do, I just got on the subway and walked around side streets and saw really cool things, they weren't the touristy things that everybody else saw but I had fun anyways.
It's better to be selective in what you do, try to do things the locals would do or you would do if you lived there. Be adventurous, don't worry about being "safe" and only going to places where they speak English. I had the chance to go to Belize around the time when there was talk of an upcoming revolution, so my friend chickened out and we never went, but I still would have gone and I think we would have had fun and I don't think the coup ever happened and now we both regret not going. Go to art installations and find places off the beaten path, talk to people, read the local papers and get an idea of what's going on. Have tea or coffee in a little shop, sit back relax, have a conversation with the people next to you. If you forget your camera, that's OK. If you forget to see some big touristy place, don't worry!
A slow vacation and night out is still fun, it's what YOU make of it. Maybe you are visiting places that have been overrun with tourists and that's all boring to you, yes you've been there done that, there's nothing wrong in being selective. Think of yourself as the weathered traveler who is out to set up a really interesting vacation for your husband and you, you won't dilly dally at boring places you will find the hidden treasures out there and explore them. You're not boring.
Slow living is better than fast living, but you only realize that once you've got the fast living out of your system.
Slow living is better than fast living, but you only realize that once you've got the fast living out of your system.
I really like what you had to say, and I agree fully! Also, I love the quote above (i.e. Slow living is better than fast living, but you only realize that once you've got the fast living out of your system). Definately is describing me to a tee anymore! I have a long weekend trip planned with my husband in two months, and I will have to take your advice concerning staying away from the tourist traps and apply it.
I was raised in a military family so not only did we move every three years or so - we spent a lot of time exploring each new region as much as we could in that three years. Then I married a military officer and we moved and traveled some more. Then I became a corporate trainer and I traveled several years with my job.
This year I've traveled to Ohio, Louisiana, and West Virginia, and am about to go spend a week in Virginia, then another week or so in October in Pennsylvania (I live in Texas). Next spring we are going to the UK. Last year we went to Central Europe.
That being said, I LOVE my home. Let me rephrase that - I love my THINGS in my home. I've come to realize that with my mobile lifestyle, I consider anyplace that I decorate with my "stuff" to be "home." My furnishings and knicknacks are very sentimental to me - and since my grown kids are now also in the military (and scattered to the four winds), my house is also filled with photos of my loved ones.
Most of my trips out of state are to see family and friends, by the way, though my husband and I take at least one vacation a year just by ourselves doing something with just each other.
The only thing missing in my life is having my kids living next door - and I think that would get old after awhile anyway! In this age of technology and air travel, I can be at my daughter's doorstep 8 states away, in five hours, and that includes an hour layover!
I'm fifty years young and still chock full of wanderlust. I consider it a blessing - not a sign of discontent. I'm always glad to walk back into my familiar surroundings and spend quiet evenings at home with my husband and our dogs.
I love to travel, always loved to travel, and always will - health permitting - love to travel.
By the time I was 14 I had already been to nearby places like Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and about a third of the states in the US. By the time I was 21 I had been to Europe and the Middle East.
At this point of my life I have been to between 85 to 90 countries on six continents. Not just quick visits - five times to Thailand, four times to Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, 3 months traveling all over India, three times to Israel, Egypt, Brazil, Venezuela, Japan, Nepal, Morocco, etc. I have been through the Suez and Panama Canals. I've seen the summit of Mount Everest (no I didn't climb it!). I've sailed on the Amazon River. I've visited the Parthenon, the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, Angkor Wat, Waikiki Beach, the Sydney Opera House, the Sahara desert, the Amazonian rainforest, the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, Myanmar, the Alps, the fjords of Norway, the Palace of Verseilles, ancient Petra, Jordan, the Hagia Sophia, the gold souk of Dubai, the Taj Mahal, the Canary Islands, Samoa, and Sri Lanka.
I consider myself very very lucky.
On the other hand, I never found the love of my life. I never had kids and I never raised a family. I guess there are trade-offs.
When I was 19 in the mid 90's I went to South America and ended up living in Bolivia and Brazil for a year. It was a completely life-altering experience and I wouldn't trade it for anything... though I wouldn't necessarily want to do it again!
Today I'm settled with a house, family and grunty office job, but I admit sometimes I'm tempted to just walk away from it all and go on another crazy adventure like that one...
...then I remember how much it sucks to be hungry, scared, sick and targeted by not-so-friendly folks who get suspicious of white American kids living in cocaine country and the feeling goes away.
But when my kids are grown up and my debts paid you can bet I'll be touring the world... this time in style.
My father loved to travel, so I got a lot of it as a kid. Travel is pretty much an activity for extroverts, and I'm more of an introvert, being perfectly comfortable not being with anyone other than my wife for weeks or even months at a time.
Because I'm not particularly interested in meeting fellow travelers, or experiencing extreme weather, or having digestive upsets to my touchy gut, or staying in motel rooms, or spending massive amounts of money, I get much more pleasure in traveling to different places at different eras in time. Since about the time of the U.S. civil war, there has been photographic documentation as well as written work on major sites and events. The old 3D photos, in conjunction with a good descriptive story are much more entertaining. The 360 panoramas on 360cities Hoover Dam, Nevada USA are also close enough to "being there" that I'm happy.
I suspect that over time, more people will get into the idea of "virtual travel".
Growing up, our family vacation was always the same: Drive to the beach and spend a week crashing at my grandparents' house. Never went anywhere else. Never varied more than one mile off course to see a roadside attraction or a historic monument. Even at the beach, my parents would just shoo us out the door. We would walk the half-mile to the beach across the golf course while my parents stayed at the house and played bridge.
So now, at the age of 50, I crave travel. Just yesterday, we returned from Yellowstone and Jackson Hole and I'm already looking forward to planning the next expedition. Sure, we have a nice house. But I can't wait for the kids to graduate so we can downsize and travel more. I already have the next 5-6 trips mapped out in my head.
For travel isn't just seeing sights. It's really getting in touch with the broad possibilities of life. It is new vistas, new understandings and creating appetites for things that you didn't even suspect existed.
I spent the better part of the last 20 years traveling for work. Most of the time the places were never that exotic. I was always on a tight budget and pressed for time. I would get a schedule of contacts about four months before the traveling would start. Sometimes the list of cities would number over 150 in 43 states and I would only recognize two or three cities. I have been to most major US cities, beaches, mountains ranges, and driven by probably most tourist destinations.
When ever some around me mentions traveling and vacations I try to keep my mouth shut because I have a load logistical nightmare stories to share with them about every city or region of the US. Don't get me wrong there was a scheduling glitch that got me four days on Pismo Beach, there was two days in Rio, and I once drove 17 miles out of the way to a jazz festival in Monterrey and I visited the MIM in Phoenix, but other than that nothing in 20 years. That sounds like a single vacation for most folks.
What I like about traveling is not the places but the people. I've met the most fantastic people in the most unlikely places. I think that is the advantage of not being a tourist the locals treat you better. I think that is what I will miss the most. From my perspective it not me that's traveling its the places coming to me. I wear the same clothes, eat the exact same food every day , stay in the same chain hotel and I 'm am in the same car.
I like to go on trips within the states, but I'm not very traveled.
I'm just getting over a fear of flying (had a rough couple of first flights).
But I have always loved road trips.
@30 I'm just starting to get the itch to get out and travel a bit. I only really want to go to Europe (mostly Western, and maybe a few Eastern European countries) and Japan...oh and Australia too... (Don't tell my wife, but when I was younger I thought I'd marry an Austrailan woman; I thought they all looked like Natalie Imbrugila. Ahem...)
Money (although we're not rich) was never the issue. My wife and I could have gone to any of those places we've just had other priorities (hobbies, cars, whatever else) and honesty didn't really want to go that bad. I'd like to plan a trip before we start having children, but it doesn't seem likely.
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