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?

I know someone that took a year off & travelled by train from UK to Thailand & Indonesia by train, via Russia

I don't know if that route is still available now (due to issues in Russia & Ukraine)

Not necessarily. My friend sold her business and travels full time. No home in the UK anymore. That's hardly a long holiday lol

I agree! My mum used to wave me off and say “email me at some point when you know when you are coming back” and would expect little more than a post card in 2 months.

I think the good bits of travelling are to stop making it about where you are going and getting there efficiently. It’s about meandering. Not quite knowing. Trial and error. The mishaps (as opposed to really bad things like assaults I mean) are part of the fun and experience and you have to learn to relax into it a bit. For a control freak like me it made so much difference to my outlook for a long time

I'm from the 1960's. I didn't know anyone who went travelling after school. But I didn't know anyone who went to university after school either.

FigTree0fLife · Today 14:33
I know someone that took a year off & travelled by train from UK to Thailand & Indonesia by train, via Russia

I would love to do something like that - but as you say, the situation in Russia might make it difficult nowadays.
What I think is that if there’s a place you really want to go to and you have the time and budget etc., then go.
I wish I’d gone to Myannmar and Syria when it was still possible.

@Bertsmum22

what exactly do you mean by “home comforts”? What things specifically are you referring to?

Literally the most fun you can have when you're young, imo!

I'm with you. I absolutely love going on holiday, I love going to new places, but not "back packer" style. No shared bathrooms. No shared rooms. No coaches. Not living out of a bag. It just sets off a number of anxieties for me. My ideal is road tripping, hotels for sleeping, and a car for all your stuff!

You sound judgemental with a misplaced feeling of superiority so I don't quite see how you benefitted from eating with the Inuit or milking yaks or whatever you did on your Travels.

And I don't live anywhere near where I was born but don't think there's anything wrong with people who do.

Widen your thoughts and you might imagine some amazing experiences you could have that would fit in with any sort of desires- living in Osaka for 3 months and settling in, sailing a boat around the Caribbean, a road trip around Australia.

I have plenty of experiences that are amazing to me! Driving round France with DH this summer. Exploring Barcelona with DD. Visiting a friend in Sweden. And DH and I are planning 3 north America trips when DD is doing her year out there. We just won't be taking backpacks or disappearing for months!

I wonder if she’s moved on to liking Scandi-style hotels with lots of stripped wood, waffle-cloth robes and expensive toiletries?

Sounds good to me 😀

My partner did this for 3 years in his 20’s. He’s 57 now. Came back doing the same job he’d done before leaving. He says now that he wished he’d invested in property instead. I don’t think people regret the travelling itself but it didn’t change my partners life in any positive way

I realised this year that I like travelling, just not by plane.

I find them boring and parochial. Horses for courses.

It's interesting to me that travelling is supposed to make someone more open minded and less ignorant, and yet, on MN at least, it's often followed by comments like this. Comes across more close minded than the people I know who haven't travelled.

Depends on where you would be staying and with whom, and how much money you have, your personality etc.

I travel all over the world in the winter for months at a time with my partner. It's amazing. We stay in nice hotels or if in an expensive place like Australia we stay in a small tent, travelling around in a hire car.
I can't understand people not wanting to see the world. Its amazing.

I can't imagine anything worse, I didn't do it when I was younger because don't like the idea of staying in grotty hostels and hotels, especially when it is hot.
My DH did it, traveling as far as Albania in a Jeep-type vehicle. One of them got dysentry and nearly died. He speaks about it as a wonderful time of his life but his friend who was so sick doesn't feel the same.

You go to Australia and stay in a tent?

Yep, went from Adelaide to Coober Pedy, Alice, Darwin, Cairns, Gt Barrier Reef, Whitsundays, Sydney amongst others, all in a 3 person tent we bought when we landed! It was fab. I was 52, my partner 66 😃

Fair dos. Just seems a long way to go to stay in a tent (unless you’re posting from NZ or PNG of course).

Wouldn’t a hotel in Suffolk have been a better, more cost-effective choice?

But how the hell would she have seen all the things in Australia from a bloody hotel in Suffolk? I'm sure she slept in the tent and explored outside of it rather than just stuck in there the whole tine

Suffolk’s nice. I realise it doesn’t have Uluru and the Great Barrier Reef, but Bury St Edmunds and the Shotley Peninsula are must-sees.

Are you serious 😆

Lived in quite a few different countries when I was younger, not always doing the backpacker thing. Taking every opportunity to travel with work or for pleasure. We always go on tour when we take a break - I'm not good at staying in the same place for longer than 3 days - we keep moving, meeting new people, we really enjoy it. Everybody likes different things - my holiday hell is a cruise, luckily I'm not forced to go on one.

I find them boring and parochial. Horses for courses.

That’s pretty mean.