John

<BR>I agree with Rufusfirefly. Most people overwhelm with pics. etc. I don't even bother to talk about my travels abroad unless they bring it up and then ask to see pics.<BR>I also keep pics to a minimum taking only what I want to remember as something special.<BR>I am bored stiff looking at other peoples memories.

Queenie

<BR>From a bit different persepective, we LIVE in Europe, and our friends/family don't really care about asking about the experience. So I've learned not to say anything about it unless asked.<BR><BR>We have never shown pictures/ videos - people don't ask. Its not that they are jealous, uneducated etc. They genuinely are not too interested just as I am uninterested in American Football.<BR>

Kristina

Yes, people do tend to glaze over after a while.<BR>My husband and I did a 9 month RTW trip and after the initial &quot;How was it?&quot; and &quot;where was your favorite place&quot; they didn't really want to hear.<BR>Now when we travel for shorter periods it's about the same.<BR>We started a website while we traveled and we put our journals and photos online so I just email people when things are posted. They can look if they want. At least I have a wonderful &quot;virtual scrapbook&quot;.<BR>http://www.wired2theworld.com

Clifton

Kristina, <BR><BR>How weird that you posted. I just stumbled on your site the night before last. I was looking for pictures of Tuscan towns and regions in a Google search and ended up on your site. Then I forgot to keep looking for pictures/idea on Tuscany and ended up reading almost all of your trip planning stuff and most of the Asia leg. And I wasn't even planning an Asia trip!<BR><BR>Thanks for putting that site together and I think I'll always envy that trip, or at least the smoother times.

Natalia

Sometimes I feel a little hurt when I come back from a trip and want to share some memories and highlights with my friends and they seem so uninterested. I think when you have close friends you would be interested in how they spend their time.<BR>I am interested in their &quot;things&quot; usually only because they are doing it. One friend collects little objects and has little tales to go with the art of collecting. I would be totally bored with this, if she weren't my friend.<BR><BR>When I return from a trip nowdays, I tell people where I have been and if they ask questions I can go on as long as they like and when they start to snore I usually quit, lol.

TracyB

I find it funny that this would be a posting, because the same thing happens to us...Travel, as well, is our priority and we do it as often as possible...Most times, we are lucky if anyone even asks how our holiday was...Which is fine I guess, but if they go, you have to pull out the red carpet..That is what bugs me...We do not travel for the response of others but it sure would be nice if someone would just be a little interested...I have learned to just be darn happy that we get to travel and sometimes don't even tell anyone we are going anywhere unless they ask...I never tell anyone until everything is booked and do not go on and on about it once I do say something...The best person to talk to about travelling, is another traveller.....

Cassandra

Sorry, couldn't help linking up your nom de plume and your &quot;problem&quot; -- are you, perhaps, too &quot;Windy&quot; about your trips? Do you realize that, boiled down, your post is &quot;people aren't interested enough in me&quot;?<BR><BR>Why is this a problem for you? And why does anyone care WHY your family/friends/co-workers (your &quot;audience&quot;?) isn't interested in your trips? <BR><BR>The point is, you've detected disinterest. Why would you press the point? You say &quot;nothing brings down a vacation high like disinterested family, friends, and co-workers.&quot; Sounds like all you want from them is help keeping your &quot;vacation high.&quot; Much as I love to travel myself, it wouldn't be a matter of envy or narrow horizons if I found the job of helping you keep your &quot;vacation high&quot; pretty annoying.<BR><BR>So, to address your real problem -- wanting to relive and prolong the trip -- be glad your husband went with you because you and he can talk all you want about it, and be glad there are travel boards like this one where others share your enthusiasms.

Patrick

My picture albums are for my own use, and I don't &quot;bore&quot; people with them. I've found that friends usually ask, &quot;where all did you go this time&quot; mainly so if they've been to the same place they can turn the conversation to what THEY did there. Which is only logical -- as let's face it, who really wants to hear endless details about a place we haven't been to ourselves? Although I do have a few friends who sincerely want to know about places we've been to see if they might want to go there themselves.

Windy

Cassandra: My name is Windy, not a nom de plume. And no, I am not &quot;windy&quot; in my descriptions of travel to others.<BR><BR>I quit telling anybody about my trips after the second one. There was a lack of interest detected and I did not press upon anybody any details or pictures. As stated by another poster, and I agree, my pictures are for my own enjoyment, not anyone elses. And to respond to another poster, I do not &quot;yak, yak, yak&quot; about my exciting trips, beautiful new home (it's neither new nor beautiful but it is comfortable), new cars (which I don't have), and wonderful children (don't have any kids). <BR><BR>My &quot;problem&quot;, as you put it, comes from the fact that travelling is part of who I am. Things that we do and see and experience are all part of who we are, whether it is having a baby, remodeling your home, getting a promotion, volunteering for an event, etc. You want to share your experiences with others, just as others want to share theirs with you. It's all part of the give and take of human interaction and conversation. How should I respond when family and friends ask what I've been up to? Since I travel, that's what I've been up to. That's what I have to share. If they don't want to hear about it, well, the conversation turns to the weather and local news. Quite frankly, not as interesting in my opinion. And it makes for a very short conversation.<BR><BR>The main point of my orginal post was to see if others had experienced the same lack of interest from family, friends, and co-workers, in their travels as I had experienced. I was glad to see I wasn't the only one who had experienced this. I will take the advice of some of the posters and seek out clubs and organizations that focus on travel. And continue to visit Fodors!<BR><BR>Windy

Brutforce

I agree w/most everything on here. If you want to share your trip w/someone who cares, there is no better place than right here. It's all about priorities.

aj

This is a very interesting topic. I have the same problem when I return from my trips to Europe. Most of the people I work with don't travel out of the state and don't want to. Actually the older I get the more I feel people really don't want to &quot;know&quot; about vacations, family or anyting else but their own life! I travel to get away from home things and see new things. I try not to tell any co-workers where I am spending my vacation time. I even ask my boss to cover for me! If perchance someone finds out where I have gone they act mad because they did not know! Who can figure! If they don't care then why do they act like they should have known?????

Austai

Cassandra, I hope you were just having a bad day instead of reflecting your normal self, but why did you have to jump on Windy? Your negative assumptions about her were uncalled for and totally out of line. You know nothing about her at all, yet feel free to chastise her for things she hasn't done. <BR><BR>I'm glad most of the group isn't like that. <BR>

Cassandra

Windy, sorry if I came down a little hard on you. I really do feel, however, that there is something out of balance when worrying about why others aren't interested in us and our activities becomes a matter of complaint. <BR><BR>There was a very similar post to yours a couple of years ago, and you will not be surprised to learn that the range of replies was similar to these. Also, I posted what I did partly because so many of the posts here were focusing on the shortcomings of the people you want to listen to you, and I wanted to pull the balance back. Perhaps I overstated it, but to put it another way, if you must have friends that are enthusiastic about hearing about your many travels, choose ones who travel also and let the others off the hook.<BR><BR>(Note, Austai -- if you check my other posts, you will find this is, indeed, not my normal style of posting, but at the time I posted, it seemed to me the responses were too much in the direction of criticizing non-traveling people for failing to be appreciative audiences. As I said, the prospect of having an audience is not my reason for traveling.)<BR>

katie12

Sounds as if a lot of people are eager to share their experiences with others who can appreciate their interests. I would love to be able to meet with others every once in a while and discuss past travels and future plans. Anyone interested in forming a travel club in Chicago area? There should be plenty of travelers out here...<BR>e-mail at [email protected]<BR>Cheers!

pakitty

My close friends are still very interested in my travels, even after many trips to England, and I tell them lots of stories. My family is only mildly interested, so they get a very condensed version. If co-workers express interest, I talk about the trip, if not I don't. I usually take about 300 photos and then organize and post about 50 of them in a labeled album - not only does it allow others to look at them quickly, but they always say what great quality photos I took (they dont see the 250 bad ones).<BR>Maybe some lack of interest stems from an excessive amount of photos. I once asked to see a coworkers photos from Europe, and she said her husband was still putting them in albums, and was on #14; needless to say, I didn't ask again. While I love to travel and talk about it, I have a hard time looking at an excessive number of photos, poor quality photos, 10 shots of the same thing, and shot after shot of themselves in front of some landmark. <BR>Even people who like to travel tend to be interested in a specific type of travel. Maybe your type of travel just doesn't appeal to your coworkers. Disneyland and cruises don't appeal to me so I wouldn't ask about or expect details from other than my closest friends. As Patrick said, most people who do ask about my travels do so in order to tell me about theirs, and that's okay.<BR>I like the idea of making a powerpoint slide show of photos.

cruelbee

<BR>I too, find it amusing to have people turn your trip stories into their trip stories, sometimes one-upping you in the process, but these are not my closest friends but my co-workers. My previous boss used to turn green if he perceived I took a &quot;better, longer, more exciting&quot; trip than he did, so I would downplay them to keep peace. <BR><BR>

KimberleyDK

This really seems to be a basic issue of recognizing how much information people want. It applies to any issue. I certainly care when one of my friends has a baby, but having no kids myself, I have to say I really don't want to hear too much about breatsfeeding and diaper changing and eating habits. And, honestly, unless the kid does something really cute or interesting, each of the 300 baby pictures starts to look the same after the first 10. And, trust me, I LOVE my friends - and their kids. I wouldn't be too offended Windy, but do try to just not bother giving details to people who haven't caught the Europe bug themselves. If none of your friends are fellow Europe-addicts, save your stories for us. Fodorites love trip reports!

Melissa

Jor- I don't think Cassandra was being particularly coldhearted. She is right. If people seem disinterested in what Windy had to say, why press on? People can express themselves, but they should consider their audience, and if they seem disinterested- you are basically making a nuisance of yourself by trying to force their &quot;interest&quot; and will make people run even faster in the opposite direction when they see you coming with the dreaded &quot;photo book&quot;. <BR><BR>I might not particularly care for what other people may find interesting, and I might look at their photos and listen to their stories because they are my friends/or I am being polite, but if one is CONSTANTLY talking about how their individual experiences, it would wear on the most patient of people.<BR><BR>It goes both ways. As a friend or co-worker, one should invest a polite interest in the happenings of others lives. However, that doesn't entitle one to provide an endless lecture with pictorial of their life events.

janis

Actually - I have the opposite problem. I travel much more than most of my friends and they mostly deluge me with questions and &quot;next time you go I want to go, NEXT TIME YOU GO I WANT TO GO!!&quot; Some even buy enlargements of my photos (which I always thought was weird - I can't imagine wanting pictures of other peoples' trips). <BR><BR>But all the interest is what got me into a side business of teaching travel and packing courses at a local community college.

Austai

&quot;I don't think Cassandra was being particularly coldhearted. She is right. If people seem disinterested in what Windy had to say, why press on? &quot;<BR><BR>Where did you get the impression that Windy wants to press on and bore her co-workers, friends, et al? She's merely wondering if others here have the same experience she does.