Woyzeck

This is an addendum to my last post about to be or NOT to be a tourist.

What motivates us to travel? What is it that makes us leave where we come from?

Many posters on this forum discuss how they simply like to sit in pubs and cafes in foreign locations, or visit grocery stores. Why is it exciting to do things that you can do at home when you are away? How can we escape the mundane by simply observing other people in their mundane lives?

When I visit a museum in Paris, I am a tourist. What about when I visit a museum in my home town? Obviously there is something about the experience that we enjoy. Can anyone put it into words?

Are we looking for authenticity, pleasure, the unexpected, the past, an extraordinary experience?

Does anyone go just to watch the tourist spectacle?

mr_go

It is, indeed, hard to explain something that feels so obvious to me. Trying to put it into words is a challenge I've tried (and failed) to overcome a number of times.

Travel is good because it's...something different. But is different good? Not necessarily.

You get to see such great things. But what makes them "great"? Again, back to square one.

To those who understand, no explanation is necessary. And to those who don't...no explanation will suffice.

beachbum

In reading your questions, I was reminded of Gardyloo's observations about fellow passengers on a recent cruise (I'd reference it if I knew how). In a sense, I think he describes most of us. The difference between a stateroom balcony and a sidewalk cafe table is just a matter of degrees.

in_wyoming

Because I LOVE to travel. It's so broadening, not only educationally, but once past the lips forever on the hips (the food is so good in Italy and elsewhere). Living in the States made me think there was only one way of doing something, then going to Europe changed that perspective. After my first trip to Rome, I was hooked.

FAMOUSUNCLEART

It is often a matter of lifestyles. I travelled in America on business and later with my wife as tourists. I am 77,in good health, and in the past few years, I have discovered the home exchange.

It puts a different take on travelling. You are,as I am now, in someone's apartment, in my case,in Stockholm, southern Stockholm, not on the hotel track,far from it.

Of course, I do the thing all tourists do, but some factors play into it. I get to know neighborhoods, and feel,rightly or wrongly, closer to the people of the counry I am visiting.

Is it why I travel? Partially I guess.I do know this that when I return to my home town--NewYork City--I look upon with fresh eyes after every home exchange.

Good questions and I am sure many answers.

MissZiegfeld

for me..traveling is not about "relaxing"--I'd be bored on a vacation to Hawaii. it's about learning..about specific historical events (i definitely learned a lot while in Berlin) but about a different couple--this is how THEY do it over there. Which is why sitting in a pub and browsing grocery stores in foreidn cities are fun to me.

while in berlin, i was chatting with this girl who was about my age (19) and was backpacking across europe. her goal was to visit as many countries as she can, so that when she looks back she can feel like a world traveler. i asked her specific questions about cities she's visited, and she couldn't provide me with any answers because "all the cities kind of meld together". what is the point? to feel like you've been to a lot of countries? to me, that's the WRONG reason to travel (though i guess there IS no WRONG reason..)..what a waste of time and money.

slotowner

I love this quote I came across in a travel magazine some years ago, "The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page." - St. Augustine.

Travel is such a personal thing, that it is difficult to quantify why we do so. For me, it is all about the people - talking with them and learning their unique perspectives and way of living that is different (not better or worse) than our own. Although I've been enriched by the landscapes, food, history and architecture of each place I've been, what I reflect on most are those personal moments that you can only find when you are not frantically rushing to tick off all the sights.

ilovetulips

I think that I travel to really get a multisensory experience that you cannot get from pictures, a book or hearing about another persons' experiences. You can see a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge or the Blue Ridge Mountains but unless you are there you don't know what the air smells like or how small you feel in comparison to something so grand. Maybe our childhood dreams and education makes you want to see the Mona Lisa or the Swiss Alps. Ever since I was a girl I have been fascinated by Paris. Now as an adult I plan to visit next year.

Shrink

What a question! I have spent an inordinate part of my life trying to understand what I find so enjoyable about travel. In my case I came from an extremely small town (pop 500)and via the USAF managed to go around the world twice, on my own, prior to age 22. From that time on I was hooked.
I think it makes me feel that I have accomplished something that most people don't. Maybe I get a feeling of superiority out of it in the same sense that a person does who values a large wardrobe. I dont feel better than anyone else for having done it, just better than I was prior to the trip. I dont know whether this is making any sense or not. At any rate, I do feel sorry for those who dont do it and realize at the same time that from their perspective they feel the same way about me having to go to such lengths to feel satisfied. I dont profess to understand it -- I just know that there is nothing that I have ever enjoyed more.

Statia

My main objectives are to experience other cultures (and ALL that entails), along with seeing historical aspects of various cities. Funny thing is that I was certainly no history buff in school.

Samsaf

When I was growing up, we went on once-a-year or twice-a-year trips to a beach in Florida. My husband's family never traveled while he was growing up. Now we love to travel, together and also with our 3 children. I feel like we're making memories for our family when we travel; they usually dont' remember the material things we've given them, but we all remember our trips together!

mikemo

The weather in July and August in DFW is horrendous!
M

job816

Perhaps we catch a sensation of our previous lives, of the lives we were destined for had we been born elsewhere at another time. Traveling is an esoteric experience for me; it drives me, motivates me, and enlightens me. It keeps me sane and makes me crazy with desire.

"To those who understand, no explanation is necessary. And to those who don't...no explanation will suffice." In total agreement mr-go

StCirq

I travel for a lot of the reasons mentioned above, but also because it's a challenge, and I love a good challenge.
Few things thrill me more than being lost in a medina, trapped in a rental car whose stick shift I can't get to go in reverse, left on the tracks as my train exits the station, locked in a bathroom on a Greek freighter...these are the things that build character.
And, of course, scenery. I'm a complete sucker for good scenery.

skatterfly

I find myself travelling back to my same favorite places, and they often speak to me because of the scenery, food, or art, language. I'm not a big adventurer hell bent on seeing "the world." Though there are places I would go to in a heartbeat if I could. In some ways, I often seek each time to recreate a piece of that first trip to a place, the awe and wonder and beauty and the essence of a place... and there are many places in Europe (and here in the US) that, when I'm going back to them, they feel like "home" if only temporarily. And yet, there's always a newness to visiting those places again.

For me, travel is a change of pace, a change from the monotony of life here, a visit to a place where people and customs are different so that I can broaden my senses and, if only temporarily, see how other people live. Even better if I can delude myself into thinking that I'm "living" it too... if only temporarily.

Re: mundane things... I would say I do "mundane things" in Europe, but to me they're not mundane because they're still different from my mundane things at home. Nothing like shopping for groceries in Venice... and stepping out to the view of the canals. Nothing like going to a charcuterie in Paris... can't get picnics back here at home like that. Hanging out in an apartment in Cinque Terre and reading a book while the sea pounds the rocks below... can't say I have a view of the Mediterranean from my casa.

I'll be travelling in September for the first time with my toddler... and I expect we'll do lots of mundane things and spending time in the parks between naps. But it sure is a very welcome vacation for us and we can't wait!
~k

jarmnm

Travel for me became a "must do" in life after a bout with cancer. I realized that I had lived a lot of life very safely and securely in my quite little world and was missing so much! Within the year after my surgery, we were on a tour to England and now we are going back to celebrate our 20th anniversary and then on to celebrate my daughter's wedding in Edinburgh. We always traveled when she was little and I'm so tickled she chose the way she wanted to get married and is "doing it her way," in a castle none the less!

jdraper

Because we can? Because we should? I travel because I grew up in a very small town in the midwest where I was related to almost everybody and nobody ever went anywhere. I am the black sheep of the family who broke out and had the audacity to get an education and leave the area. When I left I learned there was a whole new world out there that was just waiting to be discovered and it was entirely different than anything I had ever experienced before. I have now been to every state in the continental US and am working my way through Europe. I have met wonderful people with ideas that are different and I have learned that the entire world does not revolve around the United States, as the media and most Americans (including myself before I began travelling) seem to think. I am a much different, and hopefully better, person because I have travelled and encountered new people and experiences. Most importantly, when I leave this world my children will never look back and wonder what it was all about, they will remember all of the tales and photographs of the great places I have been and say, "Wow, what a great life she lived". That is the legacy I want to leave.

dln

What motivates me to travel? Sometimes I just want to get out of the house. And if I can find a deal, off we go! Of course it helps that I am only second generation American, and curious about my grandparents' countries, and married to an Englishman and curious about his birthplace.

hopingtotravel

For me part of the reason lies in the thread someone started here about "jaw-dropping" sights: the Grand Canyon at sunset, Edinburgh from a footbridge under the full moon, Waikiki Beach at sunset, the northern lights over the Chugach Range from my front porch, Sissinghurst Garden from that 3rd story tower, Lake Louise, Alberta etc, etc. A child of the fifties, I was raised by parents who showed me the whole American West from a car window at 60mph. The funny thing is travel has taught me tolerance, patience, and a burning desire to study a connection to the past, i.e, learning about Eleanor of Aquitaine before going to France. Besides, life is short. I like the St. Augustine quote.

nocinonut

I travel because it is exciting. I am addicted to the feeling I get when I buy my plane tickets and anticipate my trip.

When I land on foreign soil I get a rush of excitement because I am somewhere so different from where I live. The challenge of getting by everyday is exciting too because I am out of my comfort zone and I am experiencing new things for all of my senses.
This is all addicting to me and I try to travel as often as I can.