I just want to see this amazing planet that we live on.

I travel to re-discover. Yes i do. <BR> <BR>Not the place im traveling to, but the joy of appreciate the basics things again. <BR>A good meal, a realxing bath and the peace of just contemplate your surroundings without any hurry at all. <BR> <BR>Try this ... If you ever go to Paris on spring, just seat on a bench in the Louvre Palace Gardens and watch the sunset. The beauty and the peace are overwhelming. <BR> <BR>This moments are what traveling is all about.

The bread, the food, the bread, the wine, the bread....and did I mention the bread???? Having just returned from Portugal and Spain, those were my first thoughts!! Seriously, though - mainly to experience other cultures, to have an adventure that is a total high, to experience first hand the places I grew up reading or studying about, and did I mention the food?? <BR>

Everyone I really enjoyed reading this forum. Thanks for the thoughts and insights.

When I was ten, my father told me, I don't like having a desk job. So up we went and moved to Utah, while he prospected for uranium, during the Cold War, in the mid-50s. We had Geiger counters in our house for years. But, I puzzled, what did he mean, what was wrong with a desk job? <BR> <BR>Now, I know. There's so much to explore in the world. What a waste to sit at the same old desk, week after week. So I travel as much as I can. To see the world. To see something new. <BR> <BR>But, I travel to Europe mostly to see beauty. I live in a large Texas city and while there are pockets of beauty, I find there are many many more in Euorpe. At least to my taste. <BR> <BR>I also do TIME travel. I like to go somewhere old, surrounded by very old buildings and culture and pretend I am back in another century. Yes, I have degrees in history, of the European variety. Something like the I.M. Pei pyramid attached to the Louvre is quite upsetting to me because it certainly spoils the ancient feeling. I have, however, learned to live with it, but it wouldn't have been my choice. <BR> <BR>I have a dear friend who loves to travel too, and also adores Disney World. I think that's too unreal. I have finally realized, hwoever, that I go to unreal places, too, because 18th century England doesn't really exist anymore, but I can find pieces of it. And 19th century Russia, 17th century Germany. And so on. I hope you get the idea.

All of the Above! Additionally - I travel to put things in perspective. To appreciate the beauty of the magnificent and the small - the children in the National Gallery making crayon pictures of the "Great Artists". The tiny churches on the Greek Isles to Westminster Abbey. I can't agree more with the posters comments on the planning being almost as important as the trip. The day I get back, I'm usually planning, researching, hoping...Also, to appreciate the comforts of home. I like the adventure, but appreciate toilets with seats that flush, drinking water... To the comment of venturing outside the cities, as someone who lives in the Rockies, to be completely selfish, see the National Parks, appreciate the Mtns., open fields, coastline - but don't promote developing these areas. As the populations increase, they'll be developed soon enough. <BR>

How delightful for daniel lee to pose this query. We returned yesterday from three weeks in Italy, and I am still brain numb, so this might not be exactly what I would reply if my wits were clear. <BR>I echo all the insightful posts by those more experienced at travelling than I am, and agree that travel tremendously broadens and improves life. But what pleases most is the broad range of experiences. I expect to marvel at the 2000-year plus collections of art and architecture, the famous places and natural beauty that I have spent 60 years just reading about. Then you happen upon small things, like the mist in Riva del Garde that stopped our evening walk, but let us meet a couple from London standing under an awning, and spend maybe half an hour talking with. Or the fact that the rain had covered the top of the adjacent mountain with a dazzling white cap by morning. Or the puzzle of trying to figure out just what herbs went into the pasta dish that made it so surprising and so good. Or the community chorus giving a free performance of sacred music in a medieval church in San Gimignano, where the organ and voices reverberated among the massive stone columns. All the senses come alive. <BR>And with all this, I still have a home and loving family awaiting my return. Any wonder I feel blessed? <BR>Marge

To learn. To see things I've never seen before. To meet people who do things I never thought about. To share these experience with my husband. Whether we travel to an exotic island, a distant city, a land where people speak a different language, or half a day from where we've lived for 20 years, we always learn something about the world or about ourselves.

Whoa. Doing with the forum doing it's strange inernet thing, I didn't get but one response when I first clicked on this question, so I got to post an answer quickly. When my response was posted, THEN I got to read all those prior. <BR> <BR>Daniel, have you ever read Paul Theroux? He is a terrific travel writer. Sometimes, I hate his point of view, but I'm driven to keep reading because so much else is there. Read the one where he gets on an MTA from Boston, and takes trains as far as possible on the way to Patagonia. <BR> <BR>On the other extreme, the Washington Post Sunday Magazine ran a great article on travel guide writers. (I think it was the magazine, could have been the travel section.) It is probably available in archive articles, try www.washingtonpost.com. Many of us have thought about it, but it's best to keep your day job, as they say. By the way, suburbs are amazingly the same, in the midwest (where I grew up) in the east (where I live now), the south and the west. Also in France, Germany, etc.......It's all in how you look at them...they almost get to be INTERESTING some times!

I have lots of reasons to travel, as I'm sure most people do. And they are, in no particular order: <BR> <BR>To get away from it all... <BR>To see things I've only seen in pics... <BR>To see things "for myself" and form my own opinions on what I think is great and not so great... <BR>To be able to join in on conversations involving Europe, Paris, London, etc... <BR>To have something to plan and look forward to that is almost as fun as the trip itself... <BR> <BR>I love to travel.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful responses. I loved every one of them! I am so glad to hear such passion for travel from people all over the world! <BR> <BR>When my dad was a young lad growing up in Korea, he would be able to run down to the seaside and catch crabs and fish for lunch, and if he wanted to get away, he could be up in the mountains in a matter of minutes. Sometimes he would just hop the train and see where it went, and then hop out and work for food and lodging. The stories he tells me makes my body electric with awe. The things that some people do so easily make a lot of us fearful and retreat further into our own comfort and safe lives. But are we slowly killing ourselves? Would you rather die in bed after years of watching TV, or die climbing the Himalayas (maybe not so dramatic). <BR> <BR>My point was this: exclusion and rejection only lead to more exclusion and rejection. Open minds lead to more open minds. Everything breeds unto its own. I see how my love for travel makes some of my friends restless with their own comfortable lives and they, too, wish to get out and see what's out there. <BR> <BR>I mean, what if your true calling was 20,000 miles away--how would you ever know unless you got out and opened your eyes? <BR> <BR>Daniel

To get away from Starbucks!