To ask if anyone else doesn't see the appeal of "Travelling"

@Mercurial123 I partly agree and partly don't. Personally I think it's good for teaching self resilience - but only if you aren't the kind to be phoning daddy asking if he could just transfer another £2k and maybe do a bit of work whilst travelling.

On the other hand as an employer I am very sceptical of under 35s whose CVs seem to have very little work and an awful lot of 'travelling' listed- almost like it's job- just makes me think they are going to work for a year before 'going travelling' again. It's choice, I do get that- but does nothing for your employment prospects if it's not just a one off experience - so depends whether that matters much -

“Life is one damned thing after another”

Unfamiliar food is a good thing! And bottled water and medical care are available all over the world. If you’re travelling somewhere really remote and come down with something serious that can’t be treated locally then travel insurance will pay for you to be transported to an appropriate hospital even if it’s in a different country. Most travellers are fine with a few basic OTC medicines in their bag just in case.

That doesn't mean people who travelled have "better" lives or make them better people though. It's very subjective.

OP - I thought I was the only one!

I agree. It wouldn't be my cup of tea and I know I wouldn't enjoy it. I can only go on holiday for a max of 9 days...after that I cannot help it but my thoughts turn to home and I just want to get back.

My parents didn't travel and I'm sure it must be linked to that. I'd love to be different, of course. I'm very much out of step with 90% of the population and I'm lost when people start long discussions about travel. I'm happy to listen, but can't really contribute anything of my own.

I always think it's the equivalent of being a heretic in the past, not to worship travel. I've never met anyone in real life who understands!

On a more serious note: I completely get where the recent demonstrations are coming from against mass tourism. I think it's destroying the planet, and certainly ruining many beautiful, once-remote and special places. I've only ever been to rural France and for the off city break in Europe, but my one and only encounter with mass tourism in Venice* traumatised me. I'm not surprised the Venetians are demanding a fee for entering the city. All power to them!

I was there for work - not by choice.

You work as you go, often, doing something like WWOOFing or Workaway, or you work online, and that’s far easier now. One of my own former students teaches Irish online to international students wherever he is, and another writes content for social media from wherever (if you’ve read Anne Enright’s novel The Wren, the Wren, you’ll see an amusing take on this). Some people run YouTube channels with advertising etc. Or, seeing as people on here seem to accept as normal people moving back in with their parents for years to ‘save for a deposit’, they decide to save instead to travel. Most of the staff of a friend’s youth hostel are people travelling and stopping off somewhere they like to save money before heading off again.

Rummly is having a laugh. 😉

@Rummly

but it’s still the uk though! Lots of people do want to see the world ie visit different countries even if that means getting less value for money with their accommodation

Don’t diss the Suff!

I forgot to mention how affordable many Suffolk hotels and B&Bs are. Bet you’d pay more in Brisbane and Adelaide.

I am very keen to eat any food except British, tbh.

@Helloworld56

not everyone sees eating unfamiliar food as a bad thing

@Rummly

lol as if Suffolk can compare to Australia

@TheCadoganArms With a smart phone it's a lot easier these days to book accommodation and transport in advance. My first trips I was only armed with a Lonely Planet guide, you picked up tips on the road from other traveller's, you relied on the kindness of locals and occasionally luck.

Same here re the Lonely Planet Guide - or Rough Guide. But actually I think travelling is much more complex now, partly because of booking in advance.

You need tech and phone access, and charging facilities. If you decide to do a day tour you might need a WhatsApp data connection to arrange a meeting place while you're out and about. You need to book in advance or popular things are sold out - a friend recently missed out on the Terracotta Warriors because he hadn't booked in advance. Likewise, we couldn't see a couple of things on recent holidays because 6 weeks in advance wasn't enough to get booked slots. It doesn't do much for freewheeling, spontaneous travel. Likewise with accommodation. DH and I used to just rock up somewhere, find a hotel, ask to see a room and that was that. Now, in many places, if you do that you will be left with the dregs or the super-expensive ones because everyone else has booked the decent ones.

I don’t disagree that open minds can exist anywhere, and that some people travel in a bubble, but you’re really not going to have the same ‘experiences’ or relationships, or push your limits in the same way if you spend your life in Surbiton to the way you would if you backpacked solo through Africa, or married someone (like my former housemate) you met doing ayahuasca in Guatemala and started running ayahuasca retreats in Europe.

Even much closer to hand, living in a different language and culture and landscape are life-changing. I think one of the most genuinely transformative things I ever did was au pair in France aged 18. I’d barely left my home county before , never my country, because we were poor and I was expected to leave school and get a job in a shop and marry young, as my parents did. But living in a different way, learning to speak French well, learning about food and another culture, and meeting people people with different expectations and ideas, exploring the south of France alone etc etc put my life on an entirely different track. I came home, applied to read modern languages at university, and stepped entirely outside the type of life I’d been expected to lead.

Depends where you go surely, travelling around Switzerland is a heck of a lot more expensive then travelling around say Morocco. With a smart phone it's a lot easier these days to book accommodation and transport in advance. My first trips I was only armed with a Lonely Planet guide, you picked up tips on the road from other traveller's, you relied on the kindness of locals and occasionally luck.

I wish more people felt like you and then the great sights of the world wouldn't be so overcrowded and I could enjoy them in peace!

For a start, you need money and lots of young people can't afford to go travelling.
It would never have appealed to me at that ago though. It's one hassle after another, arranging transport and accommodation, eating unfamiliar food, not being sure of clean water, and what happens if you fall ill?

I'm a different person because I went travelling. It changed me for the better and I genuinely believe that even 20 years later.

I think 'experiences' can be had anywhere. You can push your limits on relationships, ideas and all sorts anywhere. If you have a mind to it. You can also travel and still just mingle with the same people.

An open mind is an open mind and can exist anywhere.

And I speak as someone who has lived abroad (though not 'travelled' in the sense OP means).

Well, it teaches to plan and be organised and learning how to budget. Getting on well with others and working on social skills by having to interact with strangers who may become friends. Learning languages etc etc. It's an experience, but only shallow people can experience, right?!

The problem for me is, I would love to do all the staying in hostels and seeing different places, it's the physical travelling I don't like. Being in a stuffy car for hours on end. Even though I much prefer train travel, I wouldn't want to be regularly doing long, crowded journeys on a train. I get sick on boats and in cars, and just generally find getting from A to B a faff. If somebody had invented the transporters like they have in Star Trek, I'd love it.

I don't feel as though I have "missed out" by not travelling. I have friends who are very well travelled and I still seem to know more about the world than they do. It is possible to have amazing experiences without travelling, they are just different.

I did have the opportunity when I was young, but I bought a flat instead. No regrets (even though I've ended up long term renting).

I am with you on that. I dislike travelling. Holidays were enough for me.

My son travels a lot for work, he accepts it and enjoys a lot of it but is always glad to come back to his house. He loved lockdown when he worked from home.

YANBU. I never wanted to go travelling when I was younger.

I do like going on holiday and seeing different countries. I went to Thailand last year. But I like to stay in a nice hotel and be comfortable. I never wanted to go on buses and stay in hostels and fit everything into a backpack. Sharing a room with someone is my worst nightmare.

And I don't like to be away for more than 10 days, I just want to be back home after that long.

The longest I have personally holidayed is a month road trip round bits of America with DH when we both managed to get a month off work. I have stayed in hostels though. Ended up in one in New York shared with a French guy who working illegally as a DJ, a Swiss engineer, a Japanese student and some art teachers from Blackburn. We saw Hilary Clinton speak at a political rally and got drunk together.