Some people responded that my question was "dumb" If it was there sure were alot of interesting responses!

I think the main reasons people do not travel is lack of intellectual interest. Second most common reason is lack of travel partners or money.

The reason I like to travel is an escape from the routine boring life I have here in NVA. A break from the boring routine is so nice.

How about a couple (middle aged & childless) who love to travel, vacation 4 times a year and always go to the same 4 places??? We have friends who do that.

I can understand the lack of desire to travel at all over the desire to go on the same cruises every year, Las Vegas, & Florida!

Those who have no interest in travel may simply not want to venture out of their comfort zone - home.

What does "lack of intellectual interest" mean?

I'm sure on some other internet board,people are discussing why the people on the Fodors board are so obsessed with travel. The answer to that question and this one are the same,it's a choice.

i think it means that the writer believes him/herself intellectually superior to the non-traveler.

I think it means "no desire to learn something new".

Why would people on a Travel Board not be interested in Travel ?

Suzanne..How do you know these people don't sit in a library and study all day? Or are perfctly content in their environment? And,what do people learn by taking a Carribean cruise each year? What do people learn at WDW each year rather than spend time as a family? I think the post before yours is specific to how you feel.

I think people don't like to get out of their "comfort zone."

Doc, I was just trying to surmise what bunchargum meant by "lack of intellectual interest". That's all.

Personally, I think that people who don't like to travel, given that they have the time and money, is due to some type of fear of leaving their own comfortable little world. And/or no desire to see or experience anything outside their world.

As for myself, I don't think I could live without travel. I'm extremely depressed if I don't have an upcoming vacation! And I have never, ever spent a vacation day at home.

I don't understand why some people are afraid to/have no desire to travel, but then I also don't understand why some people want to get married and have kids at 21 or why some people want to go to war over religious differences. To each their own.

I in no way mean this as an insult to Stepanie but I am still curious as to why she would visit a travel forum if she doesn't like to travel. I certainly would be reading a fishing or baseball forum. I like to come here either for advise because I am getting ready to go on a trip, to read about your vacations or to offer advise for my town or places I have visited.

Interesting discussion,as an aside only 18% of US citzens have a passport.I wonder how many of them, have even used them for an overseas trip? Might this explain our somewhat myoptic view of the world.
I believe our President had only been abroad once in his life proir to being appointed to his current position.

I think people who are not interested in travel are lacking in intellectual curiosity. They are not intested in learning about different types of people ideas and places.

Though a traveler who only goes on a beach vaction to a dull place like Cancun or Ocean City may be as dull as a person who sits home all day in their "comfort zone"

When I travel I try to learn something.

The travel snob

I meant I would NOT go to a fishing or baseball forum since it is something I am not interested in.

I think people, even people in the same family, are influenced a lot by their experiences growing up.

My dad was in the military and we moved every three years. We didn't get a European assignment but we did get sent to Hawaii twice (lots of fun!). I remember looking forward to my dad getting his orders and moving to a new place and making new friends. I also remember hoping each time that we would be sent to Europe. The only influence I can think of for my European fascination was the family who lived next door who had just come from Germany. I was totally in awe of them and the stories they told and the neat things that they had in their house from Germany.

Now, as an adult, I love to travel, especially outside the US. My sister prefers to do weekends in the Smokey Mountains with an occasional trip to visit family, but that's it. My dad has absolutely no interest in going to Europe but his dream trip is going to Australia and New Zealand. He also enjoys going to places like San Francisco and Florida (golfing). My mother seems to have a lot of curiosity about traveling outside the US, but doesn't do much outside of trips that are a couple of hundreds miles from her home. I think this has more to do with her situation (taking care of her 90 year old MIL) than anything else. I've offered to take her to Paris for her 60th birthday (in two years) and she seems absolutely thrilled. But, as I've discovered, for some people, the idea of the trip is more exciting than actually going on it, so I'll wait and see.

I will say that as much as I enjoy traveling (I'm like the poster above, planning my next trip after I come home from my last one) I really like having a house to come home to after each trip. I've lived in the same place for the past 12 years and it's nice to have a permanent base, so to speak.

bunchargum,
I think you need to do MORE traveling.
What I have learned from MY travels is to respect other people for their differences in appearance, culture, religious beliefs, culinary preferences, and their OPINIONS.
To state that someone is less intelligent simply because they are happy with what they have and their surroundings and prefer that environment to travel indicates who really has the problem here...

It also seems to me that it is narrow minded thinking to believe that travel is the only means by which someone can satisfy intellectual curiosity. I guess bunchargum would not consider reading Plato to be an intellectual endeavor or studying astronomy to be intellectually stimulating. Both activities can be done in the comfort of your own home/backyard and will exercise far more brain cells than window shopping on Fifth Avenue or searching for the perfect deli sandwich etc etc.

Traveling is just one of many hobbies that intelligent and not so intelligent adults can enjoy.

Diana,
Bunchargum didn't say people are "less intelligent" because they are content with what they have....he/she was trying to say that they just don't care to learn about other people and other places...careful with your wording, s/he never accused them of being "less intelligent"...

Thank you, Diana, someone had to say it. There's something odd about Bunchargum's need to put down nontravelers so that she, an admitted "travel snob," can feel superior. She's also made herself very vulnerable by admitting that she travels to escape her boring home life. The people she puts down might well point out that they are able to find enjoyment and even excitement in their own lives and have no "need" to travel. Andy Rooney had an entertaining (unusually so for him) comment on the 60 Minutes this week asking what, exactly, tourists keep looking for. Finally, what if the people in the places Bunchargum visits were "superior" enough to vacate whenever possible: she'd have no one to visit.

I love travel. I love coming home. And I love exploring the world in other ways than traveling (reading, emailing, etc.) I don't love this kind of aren't-we-special post.