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

[LornaDuh]

So many on MN talk about doing lots of travelling in their 20s. Or their DC "going travelling."

Anyone else not see the appeal of backpacking round Asia sharing hostels with randoms and eating authentic street food?

I've worked abroad but that was an office job not picking fruit or working on a cattle ranch in Australia.

I love going on holiday but like coming home after a fortnight ... months on the road don't appeal.

Anyone else?

It was very very cheap to travel back in the 90's early 2000's and I had excellent jobs in NZ and Australia when I got there with my working visa

This enabled me to travel more on my journey home

But it was nice to settle for a while and enjoy life in Oz and NZ and have a different travelling experience

I don't get why you would be with the same people all day everyday. ??? That sounds more like a cruise scenario.

I didn't go travelling as a teen/early 20’s but enciyrage, quite frequently, my children to go.

I will when I retire.

How sad that you think about such boring and mundane things anyway when thinking of travelling

You sound like you definitely need to go

I'm planning to retire to Thailand and use it as a travel base

Doing the big group thing and staying in hostels does not appeal but travelling definitely does, I love solo travel and seeing as much of the world as I can afford to.

I'm the same. Started work at 16.

🙌

I would hate it now but I had an absolute blast doing it in my teens and twenties. I’m grateful for the amazing memories I have, even though I wouldn’t recreate them!

😁Very, very true.

DH and I both quit our jobs and went travelling together for 6 months when we were 30. It was incredible. Zero regrets. We're spending summer 2026 travelling around Europe with the DC as well and it's gonna be awesome. We have many more travelling plans for the future.

💯

I'm in my 50's now and know the experience would be completely different to the backpacking adventures I had back then

There is no way that it could and would ever be the same

The people, the parties the adventures they aren't accessible to me now in the way they would be for DD or DS if they went

If we all went backpacking separately we'd find ourselves having completely different experiences due to our ages and the people we'd meet, the places we'd stay and go

Unless you actually go on the backpacking route to Thailand etc you will and can never ever imagine what it's like.

It's nothing like you'd expect

It's a million times better unless you're a person that's not open to new experiences and people

Well yes @EmoCourt but it's not one extreme or t'other.

It's not AI or backpacking through South America.

DD went inter-railing in Europe after A levels, she's spending a year in North America as part of her degree. So she's not lacking in a thirst for seeing different places - just not the Travelling favoured by many on MN.

I can definitely see the appeal of travelling but not on a shoestring budget. If I had the funds for it then I would love to disappear off every winter to a tropical island with access to warm water to swim in and fresh perfectly ripe fruit and a life of languidly snoozing on a beach, to hop on a plane at a moments notice and spend the weekend in New York or a week skiing (drinking hot chocolate in front of a roaring fire).

But yeah hostels and hours on buses isn't part of my dream life.

you see so many people on here talk about how they can’t wait to get back home from holiday to their “home comforts” and their own bed so it’s not surprising a lot don’t wanna travel really!

I would have liked the opportunity to travel, but after uni i worked out pretty quickly that I'd never get on the housing ladder unless I started working and saving immediately. So I prioritised that instead of travelling. I'm sure some people think that's pretty boring. 🤷‍♀️

I did the whole extensive low budget travel thing back in the 80s. Loved it so much. These days I’m pretty much where @Meadowwild (first page) is and enjoy moving around the mid-range accommodation. I also would find the 5* or cruise situation hellish, not for me at all. The trouble is that is so hard to be spontaneous in the mid-range, everything has to be booked in so far in advance so I still use hostels quite a bit - I just upgrade to the private room and leave the big bunk rooms to them young uns

I understand that people have different tastes - not saying my way is the best! Just that for those of us who enjoy travelling it’s not necessarily roughing it.

I spend 14 months backpack around Asia, South America and the east coast of America with my DH in our mid 20s. Cost 16k (2009!) and not once did we share a dorm or listen to anyone else snoring! Yes we stayed without A/C in some places and some were less than desirable hygiene wise but what we saw and did was worth it. Now I work with some people who have hardly left the UK and am so grateful we did it. I can't fathom why people don't want to see and experience all the amazing places there are out there and I will encourage all my children to do the same. I do appreciate the cost has ridden wildly since then of course!

Traveling experiences were some of the best of my life.

I spent last summer up active volcanos in Guatemala.

From what I gather most DC are travelling much younger so straight after A Levels before uni

This because they were confined during covid and want adventure

They know that after uni they will need to work and pay rent bills save for a mortgage

Sadly it's not as easy financially for everyone to travel as it was in my day

However most DC my DC age all have their CTF thanks to Tony Blair so have enough to travel with once they hit 18

We could literally travel on a shoestring and drop everything to do it

But I love spending time in cultures that are entirely different from our own. Where nothing tastes like it does at home, right down to the coffee and fruit or bread, and where buying something is a completely different experience from UK shopping.

Dh and I enjoy that too. We don’t mind discomfort or heat if it means we can see interesting things and places. I love tropical plants so botanical gardens are often the highlight for me.
Travelling has improved for us both enormously since the purchase of a portable espresso maker.

Can’t really improve on @EmoCourt’s comment.

I think the whole point about travelling as a young person is exactly that you can get away from home comforts, from eating the same beige food, from having your mum do your laundry etc.

In practice it’s true that nowadays a lot of the backpacking circuit is a bit of a self indulgent thing for affluent western kids who want to have a blowout on bank of mum and dad. I wouldn’t want to do it now particularly.

But surely you can see that people who struggle with change, people who don’t like getting out of their comfort zone, the kind of person who takes tea and Marmite to the Costa Brava, is exactly the kind of person who will benefit most from this?

You don’t have to do the Hindu Kush on foot or go to Full Moon parties in Thailand: inter railing around Europe or working in a bar in Ibiza or the Lake District is just as good. It’s about learning to cope without the normal infrastructure of life and learning to cope when things don’t go exactly to plan. I think a lot of people would benefit from a bit of this.

I don’t think I’m cut out for it.

I have to travel a lot for work. Been all over the world. I hate it. Husband loves travelling. I dread every summer, having the find somewhere nice to stay that isn’t too busy, with an airport near the house, blah blah blah… I would rather stay home in my garden with the cat. I’m boring.

The World and everything and everyone in it!!!!