Travelling show you that “normal” at home is not normal.

Travel Europe for a few weeks and get back to the US and realize just how sick and fat Americans are. And Europeans walk after dark, while Americans rarely walk, and never after dark.

Part of it is a different signaling of wealth. Goods outside of real estate get cheaper all the time while experiences don’t.

Part of it is a way to signal willingness to experience the world differently. Saying that you’ve been in a place and experienced it gives greater authority on that place even if the trip is a curated experience.

This is very interesting to read, I thought I was alone in this, I do not get excited when I travel, being with friends and family is what matters, not where I am, I have traveled many times (been to four continents and more than 10 countries at least once) but never really felt much about the traveling part, and I never get FOMO when someone tells me about their trip. But everyone seem to want to travel all the time.

I do like trying new things a lot, going to different restaurants, eating and drinking different types of food, testing different forms of entertainment or sports, and so on, learning about someone’s experience, I just do not care for traveling.

But I do believe in diversity and that we should all get to experience many cultures so we can understand each other, seeing is believing, I think more people need to experience other perspectives.

That said, I still do not find traveling abroad appealing, I’m not against it, I’m just weirdly neutral on the topic, while my friends dream of traveling.

Finally someone like me. I’m going through these comments reading things about wanting friends in other countries, having an experience, whatever.

And I’m like, I worked so hard to be comfortable at home, why would I spend 4 figures to leave? I absolutely have bought things 5 years ago that I still use and enjoy.

I’m lucky enough to live in a city with tonnnnns of museums, food from all over, and cultural hotspots in different neighborhoods.

Life is so absolutely chaotic these days that I’d rather just relax at home with the things I worked hard to get.

And of course, all that said, I am going on vacation in a week to a place further away than I’ve ever been before, so, ya know. Maybe once every few years is fine, but I’m not going to foam over it the whole time between.

A while back I went to my high school reunion and met up with the guy who had been my best friend. He admitted to having never been more than 50 miles from where he was born …. And was exactly the same as in high school. No growth, no personal development. I had moved to a large city, which was totally alien and frightening.

Obviously there are degrees and most people aren’t this bad, but visiting other places and other people can really open your eyes. I don’t know if lack of travel is cause or effect but it really seems like people who have never been anywhere tend to be very small minded, have a very narrow view of people and the world.

I would hate to die knowing I’ve never once met a friend outside of where I live. Some of my best friends, were actually ones I met online who are a bit of a ways away. If I can even see them once or twice in my lifetime, I’ll be good.

But the reason traveling is such a big deal because, well, would you feel content being in the same spot for all of your life? I wouldn’t.

Apart from the perspective others have mentioned, it also resets my life when I’m in a rut.

Because its about the experience.

Whatever you buy now, you won’t give a shit about in 5 years time. But you will remember the experiences.

It’s a mixture of “fancy” escapism and trying to signal being “cultured” (they just got wasted and fucked random people in a different country, perhaps with a museum visit in the middle of it all, lol). It’s nice to travel, just like it’s nice to go to a nice restaurant, but that’s it. Sometimes it does open up your mind because you lived in a racist, weird bubble your whole life, and in that case yeah, it’s definitely more transformative than just having good Indian food in a nice restaurant. And I’ve been around the world besides Asia and Africa, basically (but Morocco and China are my future destinations so that’s gonna happen too at some point), so it’s not like I’m just sour-graping over here.

Some of it might depend on where you’re from. I live on a Scottish island, but have travelled extensively and can’t recommend it highly enough.

Me and a young guy I worked with, here in my hometown, were once out on a tech support job. We passed an old quarry and the kid said “man, that’s so cool and massive”. He’d literally never been anywhere, so from his perspective this shitty (and actually rather small) quarry was impressive.

Travel gives you perspective. Dismissing travel for me is like dismissing art, or learning. You’re willingly limiting your lived experience and that’s not, to my mind, anything to be celebrating.

As for the kid, he’s currently in Vietnam on a career break. Keen to hear how the sites he’s seen compare to that quarry when he gets back.

The point is that after you’ve travelled yourself, you will no longer believe anyone who tries to tell you that people on the other side of the border are evil flesh eaters.

Maybe you wouldn’t have believed this before either, in which case travelling wasn’t as transformative for you as it has been for others, but that’s the primary reason.

They were told once that as long as you’re “traveling” not “driving” you don’t need to follow laws

Human variation…

Some people are cool anywhere.

Some freak out when they leave home.

Some have to leave and never come back

And some have to ping pong all over the damn place constantly.

If everyone was the same we’d never have made it anywhere close to this far.

I’m on a weird spot on this. I like the travelling part, the doing tourist stuff at the end not so much. I don’t feel the need for visiting places but for some reason I like the idea of my trip taking me through them, so I’m more open to a week long road trip than a four hours flight and spending a week somewhere. That makes planing a trip with someone else almost impossible and being quite shy myself doesn’t help to go alone.

Travel is the perfect product.

It can be luxurious, yet is affordable enough for most people in some form. People love to tell everyone the places they’ve visited; some people, given the chance, will talk about nothing else. It’s endlessly novel and requires little physical investment. It’s literally impossible to run out of places to visit. There are practically no limits to how much money you can spend on travel.

That is to say, it’s consumerism dressed up as virtue.