To feel that people who constantly travel are just running from their problems?

[BluntGoldPoster]

Frequent travellers act as if they’re enlightened, but is it just escapism? AIBU to think it’s more about avoiding real-life issues?

Does putting a negative spin on it make it more palatable for you because you can't do it?

@BluntGoldPoster , I would presume from your post that your miffed with someone in particular.

I'm in my 50s & we travel a lot. This year I've been away 6 times. I detest resorts / beach holidays so never tempted by them. We work in the arts & our trips have been to attend & participate in very specific events. Not all of them relate to our specific medium but they're all of interest.

My interests are art, performance, literature, theatre, music, food & history & we travel to experience these things in other places.

They are our main expenditure apart from mortgage / education. Our dc have come with us on 90% of our trips & have been lucky enough to have also experienced many incredible cultural opportunities. For us it's the one of the greatest things we can do & it immeasurably enriches our lives.
Curiosity is the core of living well for me ; I hope to never lose it.

I think there's an element of everyday life being quite bleugh, especially when DC are young! Wake up, work out, school run, work, making dinner (make sure it's healthy!), tidy house, rinse and repeat - definitely the right things to be doing but hardly fun! When we travel I'm not so much deluding myself that it doesn't all exist, I'm rewarding myself for sticking to the plan!

I absolutely do not travel to escape. I do it to see new places,eat different food, hear different languages, have ew experiences. It will be a comfort to me when I’m old that I have seen a fair amount of this planet while I’ve been here.

I'm just off on holiday lots - nothing to run from?

Have you never thought past your own biases and judgement to realise that it’s often about seeing and experiencing new things rather than existing in the same location for your whole life and missing out on the rest of the world.

I love travelling and I love coming home. You seem to lack the understanding of what travel is all about.

I dunno, maybe, does it matter? Of course people go to other places because they're better/nicer/more fun/less stressful than being at home, is that not sort of the point? Would be weird if it was the other way around! It does annoy me when people use the word 'travel' in place of 'holiday', in that superior 'broadens the mind' sort of way. I don't really know what very specific criteria something needs to meet in my head to be properly defined as 'travel' but I know for sure spending two weeks in your time-share in Tenerife ain't it, looking at you SIL 😂not that there's anything wrong with showing off about your lovely holidays of course except that I get jealous but I'm not sure you are more culturally and spiritually enlightened than me because you spent 2 weeks drinking wine and eating tapas while I did the washing up and walked the dogs...

edited to delete - replied in the wrong place

I've known a lot of people (both generally and while travelling) who've used travelling as punctuation to end a rut and buffer a fresh start. Mainly relationship or employment based.

But they're people who are competent at life or they'd never have had the budget or organisational skills to manage the travelling.

It's good to have that mental fresh break and space to see things afresh.

I did a lot of intetesting holidays and travelling in my 20s. Family life has calmed that. I'm looking forwards to more unusual destinations again when we reach the empty nest stage of life.

Edited - Mistake!

I think that sometimes this can be the case, yes.

I know a family who go on a truly 'excessive' amount of holidays and breaks. They often don't seem to give themselves (or their kids) time to breathe.

I'm talking two weeks in Turkey. Home on Wednesday. Leaving on Saturday for 4 nights at Butlins. Back for three nights then a City break for two nights. Then maybe two weeks at home and then off for a week to Disney Paris. Many times the DH goes but sometimes it's just mum off on her own with the dc.

I LOVE holidays in most forms. But I find it so odd. And it's definitely not coming from a place of jealousy, I can't imagine coming back from two weeks abroad then having to unpack and pack again for two adults and two kids within a couple of days 🤢

In the back of my mind I've always assumed there are some 'issues' whereby they just don't want to be at home.

When I have problems I want to be at home with the familiar. When I'm happy and confident then I venture out to explore the world and have new experiences.

Some are.
I'm thinking of one in particular, an ex, who would disappear suddenly and text me from Rio or Cape Town. He was fleeing from his bits of the side that would be threatening to out him.

But I'm now a frequent traveller and I do it because I love it. I love finding myself in a new country and getting around, makes me realise how competent I really am.

A quote from Timothy West’s obituary in The Guardian.

‘Hugely popular, with a commanding stage presence but unassuming personal manner, West toured the UK’s regional theatres with the same adventurous spirit with which he travelled its waterways. “I feel more useful when I’m on the road, touring this country and others, playing in different theatres, exploring different places, meeting different people,” he wrote in his witty 2001 memoir A Moment Towards the End of the Play … “It’s no way to get rich, or famous, and it drives my agent mad, but I love it.”

A life well lived. I hope his friends and family find consolation in this and his many other achievements.

Oh, thats me. You may well be right but it beats drinking or eating or smoking. It used to be an escape from parenting and now its an escape from the empty nest!

Also I often travel solo and I am not anxious about doing so, unlike many.

It's good to see different cultures.

Why don't you tell us all about this person who you clearly can't stand who likes to go travelling?

Well I travel. Usually 3 or 4 months a year. I've also got a good life when I'm at home. No major issues to " run from". So yeah I suppose it's a lifestyle choice but what's wrong with that. Some people like big houses and stuff. Some like travel

Really don't get the point of your post

Who says they have issues? I travel loads, have an amazing life and absolutely no part of it am I escaping apart from British weather. What an odd opinion you have.

what a ridiculous post 😂

I don’t think that no one should ever go anywhere, but I think it’s going to become much less fashionable to make travelling your entire personality.

As I said I am pretty well travelled and I have many friends who are as well, and there is definitely an element of collecting “experiences” like Pokemon.

In the end I did realise that whether you go there you are!

Maybe they just enjoy it?

No I don't think people who travel are escaping or running from problems, many have likely simply identified that staying still in one small place for long periods of time isn't actually making them happy. For many it does, and for many it is a financial necessity, but if I removed money/work from the equation, I'm not sure I would spend quite so much time here in my home town all year round. 4 weeks annual leave is nothing like enough for me to truly feel I am getting a good balance of stability and adventure, but it's what most people are stuck with.

I agree with @Euphonious upthread. I did my first backpacking trip solo across Europe 50 years ago as an immature and shy 20-year-old. I acquired confidence from having to find my way round unfamiliar places by public transport and, to my surprise, achieving that. I also met a lot of people/locals and fellow travellers and was invited into some people's homes to visit their families. My horizons really had broadened and I found it very liberating. I then did a lot more extended trips travelling through Asia, South East Asia and the Antipodes, backpacking and sometimes working for a few months. I am still in contact with a few friends (travellers and locals) that I met along the way. I used to think (as did many of my contemporary backpackers)that all young people should travel in this way for a long trip after leaving school, to find out about themselves and people who live in other countries before starting careers. Shortly after that gap years became a thing but, alas, they are no longer that sort of travel, as the digital age and credit cards and much parental back-up has made interaction with other travellers and locals and reliance on one's own wits less essential to the journey, so less opportunity to become self sufficient and tolerant and understanding of people who lead different lives from ourselves.
I met several quite old (70-80) solo independent female travellers along the way who were resuming or starting extended travels now their children and/or grandchildren were grown up. For lots of us who like to travel it is not to escape responsibility or things we fear, it is being in a position to be fortunate enough to embrace a whole lot of life.