Is “travel” the most overrated activity?

jamin wrote:

Joe Schmoe in Middle America, married with kids, Pittsburg Steelers hat on his head, has no interest in "travelling the world." That's not a bad thing. He has a more fulfilling life than Mary the Marketing Manager from NYC, who is planning a backpacking trip in Colombia with her single female friends.

Sounds like you don't know much about middle America, kid.

First of all, why would we wear hats of an east Coast team?

Second of all, why is being at home with my kids more fulfilling than backpacking? I've done both. They're just different. Both fulfilling.

just a regular guy in the neighborhood wrote:

If you're going to each place for a day to just stare at the main tourist attractions maybe. If you're taking some time to actually immerse yourself in the culture not really. Obviously this is much easier to do if you're either wealthy or are young enough where you can move around a lot and don't have to worry about being tied to a wife and kids.

I feel that people are pretty much the same everywhere, it’s the tourist attractions that make each place unique

Depends what you expect, what you want. Travel can suck. It can be sublime. Flying itself... bleh. But even then, there are ways to make it not too bad.

I think of the week I spent in Belfast 6 years ago. I went to the north of Northern Ireland to Portinballintrea on the sea (I likely spelled it wrong) and ran a 10k trail race on a cowtrail along a bluff overlooking the sea. It was an insane amount of fun. Had to jump a cow fence or three, mud, and hills. It was an animalistic experience, joyous. Bla bla bla, etc.

Hey and 12th out of 212 runners, not bad for an old f*ck.

Travel can be fun and rewarding. The thing that's annoying is when people act like it's an accomplishment.

actual schmoe wrote:

jamin wrote:

Joe Schmoe in Middle America, married with kids, Pittsburg Steelers hat on his head, has no interest in "travelling the world." That's not a bad thing. He has a more fulfilling life than Mary the Marketing Manager from NYC, who is planning a backpacking trip in Colombia with her single female friends.

Sounds like you don't know much about middle America, kid.

First of all, why would we wear hats of an east Coast team?

Who knows why middle America does anything.

Why would you fly confederate flags?

Makes as much sense a Steelers stuff but I see plenty of both

Backpacker wrote:

Traveling is the most underrated thing in the US.

Why? Because most Americans have no vacation time.

It's work, work, work all the time to fill the pockets of shareholders and Billionaires.

..................who are spending their time traveling!

I had to travel for my work. Fun at first but then later on it sucked. Spent too many years based in Asia in a few different cities over a course of 30 years. Traveled mostly in Asia, the Middle East, and some to Europe. Traveling for work is way different than for vacations and pleasure.

I remember once arriving home after a two week, six city, business trip with endless meetings that were somewhat productive at best. I was ready to just crash at the house when I got back. Nope, the wife wanted to fly down to the islands (1 hour flight) for a weekend at the beach. We went, but it was the last thing that I really wanted to do!

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

-MarkTwain

Interesting, I thought the same way you did when I was your age. Once you're about 50 you start realizing something really interesting about travel and doing...stuff. In life you are making memories. While you may not have a tangible asset which are also cool the ability to talk with your kids friends and family forever and laugh about things you did is priceless. I recently met up with my crew from college. We rented a house and talked for 3 days about our exploits from the old days. It was 3 days of Non-Stop laughing. You wouldn't have that if you didn't go out and do something. Travel is the same way in my opinion. You created those memories. If you didn't do it you wouldn't have it. Do you know what I talk to my 80-year-old dad about when I visit him in the nursing home? Memories. Yeah it's kind of sad, but you are going to get old and you might as well have something to talk about. You can't Bungee jump forever.

Aside from that, nothing compares with flying from a cold climate to a warm climate around March or april if you are from our crappy part of the country where Winter is 8 months long. That's a damn good feeling.

Travel removes the stress. There I was able to make love to my wife 5 out of 5 days on our trip.

jealous!

If you have the means to travel and choose not to......why not?

I can't imagine being so uncurious about life that you wouldn't want to see the world.

I love travel, but only when it's relatively hassle free. No way am I putting up w boosters, PCR tests and quarantines. I just won't do it. I'd rather forego international travel altogether. I'll just go domestic in the meanwhile until the hysteria around the virus goes away. People are finally beginning to see the ridiculousness.

Many people like to travel because it is very interesting. Personally I like Asia and Africa, for me it is cool to rest there.

jamin wrote:

Joe Schmoe in Middle America, married with kids, Pittsburg Steelers hat on his head, has no interest in "travelling the world." That's not a bad thing.

That is correct.

jamin wrote:

He has a more fulfilling life than Mary the Marketing Manager from NYC, who is planning a backpacking trip in Colombia with her single female friends.

That is almost certainly not correct, and this is coming from someone who has no interest in going to Colombia.

roger penske wrote:

Could be

If you're mostly doing the standard tourist crap like taking a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower, then yes, travel is definitely overrated.

But if you're doing something epic like renting a Cessna, flying it to the Grand Canyon, and doing the Rim-to-Rim hike, then travel is absolutely worth it.

hi

Sorry mate, but I can't agree with you. I don't think travel is an overrated activity at all. When I grew up, I started to be passionate about history, geography, culture and that way, I developed an unprecedented curiosity and passion for trips worldwide. It was possible because my parents gave me that opportunity and money, and I'm unlimited thankful to them. This summer, we decided to go all together to a
https://epiccaribbean.com/ on an island. Honestly, I don't know why you have such a vision of travelling; I believe we should spend money with a purpose, and getting new experiences is simply priceless.

Nailed it! whenever we go somewhere, we spend way more time in the neighborhoods than the attractions. It’s far more relaxing than being on some sort of agenda where you hustle from point to point so you can stand on a skyscraper or get a picture of a picture that you can look at a picture of from your sofa

Maybe if your concept of travel goes no further than places like Branson or Vegas.