Wonderful responses to previous posting, Thank you. Now, Please tell me what your purpose in travelling is...

An occasional trip over the pond is just the thing to escape bill collectors, telephone companies wanting me to switch long distance service, home re-finance offers, and new full-service stock brokers.

Its also a great way to "dress to impress", try out some practical jokes on snippy waiters and shop girls, and break in a new pair of white tennis shoes.

But I travel mostly to find innovation ways to solve world hunger and spread vile, crass, greedy american culture around the globe.

Degas
You and I have all the same reasons!

I do have one saving additional motivation: I travel to learn.

elaine, you are so right about learning, and also becoming a better person and responsible world citizen. But let's not forget just plain fun and good times!

My purpose in travelling is to find myself. I am someone else in Paris, someone else in LOndon, someone else in the US, I must keep travelling to find the Real Me!

Well, whatever you do, don't go into the jungle, Scarlett because when the "real you" finally emerges there I'm sure the world will never be the same. Happy Holidays!

To expand my experience in life.

To expand my experience in life....and continually produce additional cherished memories.

At this point in time, most of my travels are for business reasons.But nearly always, when work is done there is a little time for some EILC.There just doesnt seem to be a better way for me to appreciate what I have in my life other than to see how life is "over there".Wherever that may be.

I never feel so healthy and so alive than when I'm traveling. I believe it has to do with all the walking, fresh air, fresh food, new sights, the challenges of travel (mental and physical), and leaving responsibility behind.

I'm mentally in France at the moment as I can smell Julia Child's recipe of beef burgundy cooking in the oven! It's making me hungry for food and for France and for all travel!

Merry Christmas Eve everyone.

I travel to see and enjoy beautiful and interesting places, food, and music, to understand more of what others think, and in central Europe to watch old and proud nations of Europe come back to their natural station, free, at the heart of Europe. Roll on 1 May 2004.

[email protected]

Sometimes to see people far away; tied to this is having something interesting to do when I can't see the people. i.e. I once had free days before meeting a friend for dinner and the evening in paris, for four nights.

I'm jsut curious -- want to see other things.

Having been raised hearing about people and places, I've wanted to go see for myself. Having been raised in middle-class UK-oriented Canada, England calls me, as does France, partly because of time spent in Montreal.

A lot of my "tourism" in North America has been tied to business. I had to go somewhere to do some work, and took advantage of the paid ticket to find out things that would help my business or satisfy my curiousity.

Some travel was family-based; a sense that my son should see his country, and/or my wife should see here elderly aunts and uncles, so we went 1000 miles to see their part of the country.

A boss gave us tickets to Switzerland for a weedding present, so that prompted a trip.

BAK

I travel because I am curious--I want to see what other people eat, how they live, what their music is like, what view they see when they get up in the morning. "I wonder what is down that road?" says my equally curious husband, so we turn and find out (or get chased out!). Traveling makes me see my own home differently, and makes me find a new love for the food I eat, the music I listen to, and the view I see when I get up in the morning.
Merry Christmas, fellow travelers, and best wishes for 2004!

My purpose is to be amused, to be educated, and to see the world with fresh eyes every day.

I travel to experience things in the different way that things are experienced when seen through the various lenses of place, language, custom, atmosphere, and culture.

Looking through some of these lenses is extremely compelling to me and I keep returning for another look at life from, for example, the perspective of Paris, New York city, or Cape Cod Bay at low tide. As I travel more, I find more and more places the view from which calls me back.

Travelling recharges my batteries.

Get REALLY bored seeing the same places & people every day. The American suburbs are a watered down version of life. I need to be in a foreign city as much as possible. Having/making friends in different places around the globe is MUCH more interesting than sitting by the pool at home, and it makes you a much more interesting person, as well. I thrive on experiences. Don't do well as a couch potato, watching TV or movies about other people & places. Have to go out & explore on my own & see things in person.

All of these people that responded to this hokey note qualify for the Miss America contest, at least the part where they ask those important questions.

Hey, caveman, the next time you have an urge to say something mean and nasty, go beat your head against a rock.

Click on cavemans name and see that he is just another screen name for a cranky old poster who regularly wanders the boards adding nastiness with no information at all.
Obviously, this person lives in a small dark place with no friends.