I don’t like to travel. I often say that I only want to travel when I have a purpose (study something, visit someone, etc). It does shock some people when I say I don’t like to travel, even when I complement that I don’t dislike either. The accepted answer is that everyone “love” to travel. But I didn’t feel represented in this article. I didn’t feel connected with any of the arguments. I think the author carefully worded each example to being the worst interpretation of it to make a point without considering or conceding what is good about “loving to travel”.
Take this part:
> ” If you think that this doesn’t apply to you—that your own travels are magical and profound, with effects that deepen your values, expand your horizons, render you a true citizen of the globe, and so on—note that this phenomenon can’t be assessed first-personally. Pessoa, Chesterton, Percy, and Emerson were all aware that travellers tell themselves they’ve changed, but you can’t rely on introspection to detect a delusion. So cast your mind, instead, to any friends who are soon to set off on summer adventures. In what condition do you expect to find them when they return? They may speak of their travel as though it were transformative, a “once in a lifetime” experience, but will you be able to notice a difference in their behavior, their beliefs, their moral compass? Will there be any difference at all?”
He puts the positive outcomes of traveling as utopian perspectives, while defining that you can’t disagree, and proposing a test that is obviously designed to fail. “Can you notice a profound transformation in your friends after asking them how the trip went?”. That’s silly.
I noticed profound transformation from traveling in myself and in friends before, but that’s during conversation about other stuff than the trip and that happen along the years, not right after the trip. People talking about their careers, their partners, their family, their expectations, their doubts, and then mentioning something that happened years ago in a touristy trip.
I read this whole text as someone making an effort to prove that they are right at being presumptuous about people who say “I love to travel”.
I appreciated the perspective in the article just having taken my first overseas vacation with my kids a week ago. There are overstated benefits and pros and cons and costs to the thing. How much of post-travel glorification is reflexive self defense of sunk cost psychology?
But the article was a bit more of a thoughtful rant than a capturing the essence of the travel and its trade offs.
Two thoughts it doesn’t capture:
Travel in almost all cases broadens your perspective of what life is (or was) like for others, or could be like for you. The broadening of perspective you get from, say, books, is similar in a way but just… different.
The type and degree of broadening you get can be different depending on duration, how and why you travel (vacation, visiting friends, volunteer work serving others, business) and what you do (touristy, backcountry, live with locals, museum focus, food focus, nightlife focus, outdoor focus, bucketlist focus) etc. Are all those of equal value? Are none of those of any value and they are all just vanity on the way to death?
Second, there is also an aspect of “adventure” to travel. The traveler goes into the unknown in hopes of something and returns. Is adventure good or pointless? Is it true “the journey is the reward” (Steve Jobs quote) or is it all about outcomes as the article author implies?
Anyway it was a good rant but something better could be written on the subject.
You might genuinely not be a travel person, but sometimes people just hate the specific kind of travelling they've experienced.
For instance, many Americans try to cram all of Europe into their two weeks there. They end up seeing a major capital with centuries of history in 6 hours. Perhaps they'd have a better time strolling around Poznan for two weeks.
I think that travel is a lot more pleasant if you reject the completionist approach and just try to have a good time while expanding your horizons.
You are not alone, friend. I also don't like to travel. I am lazy to pack up, lazy to sit while I reach the destination, lazy to see things, lazy to pack again, etc. And all to see "new stuff", which is not something I'm interested in.
I dislike travel. I wouldn't mind traveling alone though. But travel with family is more expense and hassle than its worth imo. The packing, whining, sharing hotel rooms, arguing about what to do, when to do it, where and what to eat, etc. Spend tons of money and kids dont even appreciate it and would rather just stay at the hotel pool, or stay in the room all day, etc.
Take this part:
> ” If you think that this doesn’t apply to you—that your own travels are magical and profound, with effects that deepen your values, expand your horizons, render you a true citizen of the globe, and so on—note that this phenomenon can’t be assessed first-personally. Pessoa, Chesterton, Percy, and Emerson were all aware that travellers tell themselves they’ve changed, but you can’t rely on introspection to detect a delusion. So cast your mind, instead, to any friends who are soon to set off on summer adventures. In what condition do you expect to find them when they return? They may speak of their travel as though it were transformative, a “once in a lifetime” experience, but will you be able to notice a difference in their behavior, their beliefs, their moral compass? Will there be any difference at all?”
He puts the positive outcomes of traveling as utopian perspectives, while defining that you can’t disagree, and proposing a test that is obviously designed to fail. “Can you notice a profound transformation in your friends after asking them how the trip went?”. That’s silly.
I noticed profound transformation from traveling in myself and in friends before, but that’s during conversation about other stuff than the trip and that happen along the years, not right after the trip. People talking about their careers, their partners, their family, their expectations, their doubts, and then mentioning something that happened years ago in a touristy trip.
I read this whole text as someone making an effort to prove that they are right at being presumptuous about people who say “I love to travel”.