So, were you lying in that thread or are you lying in this thread?
Or has something changed?
Anyway, chalk me up as another “I enjoy travel” vote. Yes, it’s a luxury. So was that delicious chocolate contraption I just ate. I suspect travel is better for me that rich food.
Oh, this thread isn’t about travel. It’s about an axe to grind. Essentially, “Why do those people do something I don’t approve of?”
It’s not like the OP was talking about seniors on a fixed income taking those horrible-looking European river cruises advertised on the Ben Gay Nostalgia Movie Channel.
Sure, if that’s all you do, I agree. It’s easy to just “go places.” My idea of traveling includes getting to know the local culture as best I can given my constraints. For me, that’s what traveling is about: getting glimpses into different cultures and different worlds. I’ve been doing that as a child, since my parents were Polish and behind-the-iron-curtain travel to Poland and staying with relatives and living life for a month or two at a time did give me a broader perspective of the world. And that’s carried on to my current life, and what drew me into journalism and living abroad and traveling for the majority of my 20s. I feel I’ve learned a lot in those travels. And it doesn’t have to be international travel. Even here in the US, when I go places, the first thing I do is research the local culture, the local foods, the local watering holes, and try to get into the mindset of the local culture and find out about it. I’m not saying that I’m a better person than others who have no interest in that, but, for me, that’s one of the most interesting parts of being a human being and being alive. I’m a very curious person by nature, and nothing thrills me more than learning and experiencing places and peoples different than me; and, yeah, it’s not always a pleasant experience, but I’m still interested.
My point was about the size of the U.S.
And to be fair East Coasters often think things out west are a lot closer together than they are. I spend a lot of time explaining to them that no, Sedona isn’t an easy day trip and no, they won’t be back in time for an early 5 Pm dinner.
As I mentioned above. The OP is looking at the Instagram posts from this questionable website where people are posting pictures abroad, and somehow draws the conclusion that because of social media and spiritual emptiness, traveling has recently become some kind of new obsession for all young women, (who surely must all be going deep into debt because of it), and furthermore implies that by extension this new obsession somehow corroborates his claim that travel in general is worthless.
Seriously? Only now young people are taking up this totally new, idle fad–this shallow, decadent practice? Because they have nothing better to do? This sounds like something you hear from the guy who’s been sitting at the end of the bar all night if you make the mistake of sitting too close to him. He’s mad about something, but he’s not exactly sure why.
Oh, I’m agreeing with you, that’s why I made the point (about UKers hopping over to Spain) - it’s easy for us, so everyone does it, so it’s not seen as anything special. So it’s also not particularly boast-worthy - it’s just another way we use weekends. I get that it’s different in the US.
I just don’t see the original gripe - if you don’t like travel, why care? And why criticise people who do? It’s just their chosen method of spending money. We don’t all want to spend $30k on a car.
I don’t. I’m criticizing the people who criticize people who don’t (or rarely) travel.
Not really. It’s just that the beaches that we hop over to for the weekend are in the same country, that’s all.
In the past year I’ve been on a safari in Africa, a week in South Carolina, another week in Virginia, four days in LA, ten days in Sydney Australia, probably two weeks total in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and a week in London, England. I took on no debt to do it.
I will be one of those snobs - I do feel some pity for people who never get the chance to travel. Travel broadens your horizons. It allows you to experience History (my favorite part of travel) in a way that you can’t from books. It allows you to meet people with life experiences unlike yours - as well as understanding how alike we are. This Fall I spend three hours looking at some of Da Vinci’s sketches - it isn’t the same in a book or on the internet. I get people who don’t enjoy it or choose to do it - my son would rather just stay home and seldom goes with us. But for those that would like to and never get the opportunity - due to cost or some other restriction - yeah, that sucks.
And travel doesn’t have to be expensive. Some of these trips this year were expensive. But my trip out to Virginia was a road trip with a few hundred in gas and tolls, and a cheap hotel. Our trip to South Carolina was staying with a friend - cheap airfare. That’s still out of reach if you are living paycheck to paycheck - but that’s a different problem.
And young women who hook up with older guys and want to travel? I suspect that there is a chicken and egg problem there - they want to travel and see hooking up with an older guy as a way to do it. The older guy wants a hot young thing, and the cost is taking her to the beach. Much of my travel has been tagging along with my husband on business - he was speaking at a conference in Sydney, so I got a free hotel room and a chance to visit Australia for the cost of airfare. That’s my annual London trip as well…bargain airfare, hotel paid for by my husband’s company, and the British Museum is free. (I married him 25 years ago when he was bankrupt and underemployed, and he’s only 10 months older than I am - it isn’t like I married him for his frequent flyer miles).
You missing out on a lot, but that doesn’t seem to matter to you. Fine. May I just ask you how you decided on the 250-mile cut-off and not 249 or 251 ?
That’s pure, arrogant BS. I don’t care who said it (and I know who Pessoa is), it’s still pure, arrogant BS.
I don’t have much respect for people who always say that the grass is greener elsewhere and I despise the tourism industry. But I’m not impressed with your opinion either. Both are based on snobbishness. Two sides of the same coin.
I can’t stand traveling anymore. I’ve been all over the place and I swear to god once I retire in a million years I’ll never step foot in another airport. I’ll never stand in another hot crowded line carrying all my shit. I’ll never have people telling to do this and that and remove this or that.
Both ways for me. I was fortunate to have worked in jobs that took me all over the world and that allowed me to live there and travel. I wouldn’t trade the experiences for anything. Now that I’m retired, however, the thought of sitting on a plane and in airports for 10-12 hours or more defeats any notion that I might have of visiting other countries; so other than my once-a-year trip to see my kids, our short RV trips are plenty.
This. Example, standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon and seeing it on TV are two vastly (no pun intended) different experiences.
Yeah, you fall into the TV and you’re out a television set. You fall into the Grand Canyon, and, well… can I have your television set?
In the next 12 months I’ll be travelling Florida for a wedding, a short cruise to the Bahamas, hiking in the Adirondacks, NYC for a Broadway show, a week in Morocco, 10 days to the Azores and Portugal, and business trip to India with a layover in Qatar on the way home. If we can fit it in, we’ll add a long weekend in London.
I love travel.
But have you ever seen the man-sized butterflies of San Real? They weep tulips and bleed roses. You can’t go more than a couple blocks without coming across one of their carcasses nailed to a wall, and mobs of tourists posing for selfies all around. Oh, the martyrdom of butterflies! so terrible, so beautiful.
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Holy disconnect here, man.
You are talking about women looking for and getting sugar daddies and then wondering how they are paying for things?