Quite so.
I live in the UK and used to travel to play international chess tournaments. (I’ve visited about 30 countries doing that.)
Now I’ve made a great friend in Las Vegas, so I go there most years.
I would like to travel to New Zealand to:
Me. I love the rain and snow because it keeps me indoors (mainly in bed.) And my idea of a summer vacation is being inside the house, doors and windows open, watching tv or reading a book, and sipping from a tall glass of water and ice cubes.
You spend more than a couple months pay to go somewhere, and come home tired, and marveling at how fast you can spend your money.
I have to agree air travel sucks. Last time I headed to Europe we took the QM2 from NYC to Southhampton and it was a fantastic experience. Would highly recommend if you have the time. Price wise even staying in a suite it’s not a lot more expensive than first class air travel (in fact it cost us almost as much to fly back as it cost for a week on the ship with amazing service).
Overall though as I get older I enjoy travel less. We still take at least on major trip a year (e.g. went to Aus/NZ in Jan/Feb) and then usually a few other trips. Driving is the way to go if you can make it work (I have a Ferrari GT car that is amazing for road trips).
But I must qualify. I don’t consider spending several days in my favorite hotel “travel”, even though it takes an international flight.
I was married 25 years to a woman who didn’t care for travel. At my urging, we went to Europe once, in the 90’s, and she hated it, and that was it for international travel ever since. She liked camping; I did too, but grew so tired of it. The only travel exception was Hawaii, since were in California. We went to Hawaii 11 times and I was so over Hawaii as well.
Nearly the first thing I did once divorced was take a trip to Italy, and it was so awesome. Since then I’ve been to Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong, Paris (for the 2nd time). It will take a very long time to exhaust me of the desire to see the world, since I spent so many years not doing so. I mean, yeah, Hawaii counts, but 11 times?
I traveled plenty when I was young, and lived abroad several times. Now, I would rather skip it, and would, if my wife didn’t want to travel. As long as she makes the plans, I’ll go along. She’s a former travel agent, and good at it.
I’m quite satisfied without traveling. I like my house, my family, my community, my circle of friends. Love my job and my colleagues. I’m passionate about my hobbies and activities. I like the comfort of having the stuff I like and need right at hand. My books, my ukulele, my family and friends, my wife’s (fantastic) cooking, my booze and weed, my cats and chickens. Mariners game on the TV…
Traveling is nerve-grating, inconvenient, uncomfortable, sometimes painful, painfully expensive, and too often removes me from the very things that make my life comfortable and satisfying.
So no, I’m not a fan of travel. Not these days.
I also don’t like being around large groups of people I don’t know.
This is also my experience. I traveled weekly for work for years, and still enjoyed jetting off on vacations. Now I’m just done.
Kinda this.
Every day is a vacation in my condo.
I do not like the act of traveling. I’m typically labeled by coworkers as “calm” and “unflappable” but all that goes out the window when I travel. A tech meltdown I can fix and soothe others through, but being lost and being late both make me anxious.
Once I’ve reached my destination, I tend to enjoy it, though. Except for worries about food - if I choose wrong I’m going to get hives at best, so I worry that I won’t find something okay to eat, especially when we have work dinners at an Italian restaurant. Other than that, I like seeing new things and being in new places. Or revisiting familiar places in NYC and Boston.
I want to go to Alaska sometime. And maybe Ireland. Oh, and Florida, I’ve never been.
Me also. 35 years ago I flew for work all the time, and it was great. Today, not so much. Though last year we flew to and from Hong Kong business class thanks to my daughter working for the airline, and that was pretty enjoyable.
We drove around the country, Bay Area to New York on the Northern route, back on the Southern route, and it was less stressful than your standard air trip. We left when we wanted to, stopped for lunch when we wanted to, had our own car, and I booked hotels in one chain for the next night.
I like to cruise also, and long cruises (over a week) are very relaxing.
I’m flying o/s with my 2 grandkids in a couple of days, and we have two carry-on cases and one backpack between us. For two weeks. With three devices and all the cords, adaptors and power boards you could imagine! You need to teach your kids to PACK LIGHT, then empty the case again and PACK LIGHTER. 
Yes, that sort of thing has some appeal to me. Awfully pricey, tho, when we checked. But, I guess you pay for what you want.
I have NO desire to be shuttled on and off a bus in a herd.
If you hadn’t made your “19th century” mention above, I’d have been tempted to say that you might well have found a kindred spirit in J.R.R. Tolkien 
. He hated cars and aeroplanes; and trains and railways also. As far as JRRT was concerned, the Industrial Revolution marked the point at which the world really started going down the tubes. He considered that that Saruman guy had a great deal to answer for…
My hatred of airline travel is legendary. Up until a few months ago, I had free anywhere on a legacy airline – and never used it. Security, crowding, and invasive searches have put me off airline travel for good. Since “travel abroad” is a been-there-done-that category for me, my only interest is the USA, mainly national and state parks.
Like others have mentioned, the absolute best way to see the US is by RV. I just spent a week at a beach with almost no one else around. I had to use 4WD to get there, but it was grand. And all my possessions, medicines, CPAP machine, and liquor remained untouched and unbroken in my RV while I was out. It’s nice not to worry about my stuff around cleaning staff, and I can leave the CPAP gear out to dry in my own bathroom. Add my own coffee, in a real coffee maker (not the hotel cheapo) and the ability to bring bicycle, drone, grill, and firewood for a campfire, and there’s no comparison to hotels for me. Here’s my current ride, parked for an overnight stay (didn’t unhook the truck).
I’ll say it again. I dislike going there, being there and returning from there. Other than that, I’m okay with traveling.
I feel no need to fly anywhere again.
I love road trips.
.
To me looking back, those have been the best type of vacation: where you go somewhere off the beaten path and find something special.
Destination vacations such as to Washington D.C., Key West, the entire Caribbean, Disney, etc. always leaves me underwhelmed. Instead of relaxing from your daily grind, you feel that since you have come all this way to see certain things, you and the family feel like they need to engage in a death march to see all of the sights, even though everyone would be fine skipping a few. It’s like “The Trip to Abilene” where everyone swears that they want to go to the Lincoln Memorial even though it is 101 degrees, 5 million people at the Memorial, and everyone really would like a couple hour nap.
The Caribbean is the same. Yeah, it’s my week off so I would love to just drink and lie on the beach, but I paid several thousand dollars and I could drink and lie on the beach much closer to home. So I have to get “value” for my money and go to all of the tourist traps.
The only exceptions in my experience (YMMV) was Paris and Las Vegas. Paris was absolutely wonderful and I damn near cried the last day I was there because I wanted to stay for a month. Las Vegas works on me with the lights and sounds and I can’t wait to go back.
We’re still kindred souls.
Oh, destination vacation, very pre-packaged, very ‘touristy’ … and be sure to upload ever goddamn minute to social media! BARF
A lot of vacations I see people going on are just them being luggage. They’ve been places, but they’ve not experienced anything.
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