Why Travel?

Most of my pics are geotagged and I keyword the trips. I could really get carried away and keyword every town, every square but you can locate the photos with the pin on the map.

My screen saver cycles through my library and a lot of the times I can recollect the place but many I can't. I'd have to go back and look up which project the picture came from.

Apple touted a new upcoming feature of iOS 10, called image object recognition. It would process away and identify mountains, water, etc. presumably it would tag what it found.

We will see if it's useful.
 
We thought we would downsize and travel when we retired. But we didn't end up downsizing and DH wanted a dog, so we tend to do more local outings and driving trips so we can take our dog. We've been putting more money into upgrading the house than travel lately.

We usually go out to eat, hike, see a play, visit a museum, have a club outing or something along those lines most days. Plus we can take day trips or overnights to places like Santa Cruz, Point Reyes, Yosemite or Lake Tahoe so we seem to stay entertained and busy with those kinds of local activities. We have several seat filler memberships and those have been a lot of fun. Usually there are 50 - 100 or so events to pick from between the different lists each week, including play tickets, concert tickets, museum exhibitions, foodie events or winery tours.
 
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If you like travel and can afford it, travel. It certainly gives you the opportunity to broaden yourself, but I really doubt it makes one a better person. And there are certainly opportunities outside of travel to broaden yourself. The choices aren't to travel or sit in front of your TV.


Personally, I dislike the flying experience, have a sensitive stomach and pallet to odd foods, and prefer to sleep in my own bed. Still, I have taken vacations out of the country a few times, as well as visiting 40+ of our states. I enjoy them, but after 2 trips in June (one to see family, one a cross-country vacation mixed with running), I'm very happy to stay put for awhile. I might even turn the TV on once in awhile.
 
We simply love it - as PART of our lifestyle. We also camp in the Sierra or over at the coast. We see plays. It is just part of our life. AND we do wax and wane a bit. The other day DW said the she is cruised out for a bit. Shrug. Like to see new places and different cultures.


"travel" itself is neither good nor bad. It is a personal choice.


my nickel's worth (2 cents after inflation...)
YMMV
 
Historically, being "well traveled" aligned with having the means to do so (ie you were in the 1% ). So how much of today's allure to travel is a consequence of that history?
 
Many RV blogs will show you that travel does not have to cost a lot of money.

For international travel, some perpetual travelers have shown that their budget is the same as that of people living at home.

While we are frugal, we are not as resourceful as these people, so our travel costs more. Still, compared to people who trade in their cars every 2 or 3 years, or like fancy German autos, the difference is in what we spend for leisure activities.
 
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I perpetually traveled my first 5 years of early retirement, punctuated by long stays in locations that I went back to and lived for awhile (Colombia, Philippines, Mexico and Thailand). However, I got tired of life on the road and living in long stay hotels or furnished apartments and having no roots and decided to settle down in the Philippines. It has been four years since I settled down in an actual place with a lease and in that time I have only traveled to the USA annually plus several two week trips around Southeast Asia.

Now that I am yearning to travel more extensively again, I have planned a 5 week trip to Israel, Jordan, and Turkey in September. These are places I have always wanted to visit.

This is an experiment. I could basically travel anywhere for any length of time, so how long should a trip be? How interesting do the sites have to be to be worthwhile (because I really enjoy life in my home base)? So far, I figure I will take one "big" trip per year and see how that goes plus my 5 to 6 week trip to the USA to visit family. Traveling for two months at a time seems too long, and two weeks too short for a long distance, so I settled on about a month. Also, I decided to choose places to go when the weather is less than optimal where I am living (July-September are the rainy months). I want to go to New Zealand but when the weather is good there it is perfect in my home base, so I may put that one off.
 
kramer said:
Also, I decided to choose places to go when the weather is less than optimal where I am living (July-September are the rainy months). I want to go to New Zealand but when the weather is good there it is perfect in my home base, so I may put that one off.
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We have the same problem living in Mexico all winter. Best time for South America and Australia/Africa. Plus all our snowbird friend are there. Like you, we have bene at this for 14 years now and know what we want in travel, usually going to Europe for a month in the summer.

As for the list:
5 Detox from Social Media
I would say broader perspective on news. Believe it our not, the world is not focused on Trump versus Clinton. In fact, the Brexit was held and Cameron replaced, all in less than a month.

10 New Experiences Give Us Moments to Remember
We are at that stage where the visits help us peg the year. 2005 was the Mediterranean cruise and Spain trip, for example, and each year has its own pegs.

There will be a time to sit around waiting for the grim reaper, but I am thinking late 80s, body and mind willing.
 
Ronstar said:
The part about travel that bugs me is this: I do a bunch of research so that I plan to visit everything that I might enjoy during travel. But I always discover something later (online or word of mouth) that I missed and need to go back for. In today's information packed world, how does one make sure that they don't miss anything?
Click to expand...

You can never see everything, so make the most of your time there without getting burned out. Then tell yourself you'll be back if you miss something or don't have time to complete your itinerary.

I usually make a list of top priorities for places we visit and once I see those, I consider it a success. Everything else is gravy. And I can always go back.
 
kcowan said:
As for the list:
5 Detox from Social Media
I would say broader perspective on news. Believe it our not, the world is not focused on Trump versus Clinton. In fact, the Brexit was held and Cameron replaced, all in less than a month.

10 New Experiences Give Us Moments to Remember
We are at that stage where the visits help us peg the year. 2005 was the Mediterranean cruise and Spain trip, for example, and each year has its own pegs.

There will be a time to sit around waiting for the grim reaper, but I am thinking late 80s, body and mind willing.
Click to expand...
We have really been able to isolate ourselves from news and things that dominate mainstream media. So going overseas doesn't make a difference to us. We don't watch news overseas either. Never turn on the hotel room TV.

As for social media - we still browse our favorite sites while traveling. Maybe not as often. But not infrequently enough to detox.
 
audreyh1 said:
We have really been able to isolate ourselves from news and things that dominate mainstream media. So going overseas doesn't make a difference to us. We don't watch news overseas either. Never turn on the hotel room TV.
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We used to do that during vacations, but now that travel is big part of our life, we find that what the locals are interested in is part of the experience. Europe2016 was a big hit in Belgium, Germany and France. Big screens installed in many restaurants. Watchers with faces painted in country colours. Honking and other street celebrations after home team wins.They even call it football!

We manage to avoid facebook though. And our friends know we are away so not much email.
 
FUEGO said:
You can never see everything, so make the most of your time there without getting burned out..........
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I used to invite a relative along on our travels, but DW and I like to sight see for a set number of hours, then just kick back and relax. The tag along relative felt we were "wasting our time" by not seeing everything possible given that we'd paid airfare to get to the location.

Now we travel alone.
 
I'm just curious for those of you who travel more than a couple months out of the year, where is your permanent residence? Do you travel in part because of the weather where you live? Do you get bored in the city you normally reside?

Most of the people we know take vacations but in our offline word life I can't think of anyone I know who travels a big part of the year, unless it is part of their job or to visit family.
 
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daylatedollarshort said:
Most of the people we know take vacations but in our offline word life I can't think of anyone I know who travels a big part of the year, unless it is part of their job or to visit family.
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Yes, but you live in California, where winters are mild. Many retired Canadians have vacation homes in warmer locations where they retreat for several months to escape winter.
 
daylatedollarshort said:
I'm just curious for those of you who travel more than a couple months out of the year, where is your permanent residence? Do you travel in part because of the weather where you live? Do you get bored in the city you normally reside?

Most of the people we know take vacations but in our offline word life I can't think of anyone I know who travels a big part of the year, unless it is part of their job or to visit family.
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With one home in the low desert and the other at a high elevation and enough climate difference, I always have a comfortable place to stay. And with them being only a 2-1/2 hour drive apart, I have done daytrips between them when needing to.

So I never travel to get away from bad weather. We tend to travel during off season to avoid tourist traffic, or because of favorable weather where we go.

For example, last year we hit the road in early April because I wanted to visit Death Valley, and they close down part of the campground at Furnace Creek on April 15. That tells you how hot it gets that early in Spring. That early travel worked out well, because it was in May when we got to Oregon and the spring flower bloom was just beautiful.
 
daylatedollarshort said:
I'm just curious for those of you who travel more than a couple months out of the year, where is your permanent residence? Do you travel in part because of the weather where you live? Do you get bored in the city you normally reside?

Most of the people we know take vacations but in our offline word life I can't think of anyone I know who travels a big part of the year, unless it is part of their job or to visit family.
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We full timed in an RV for five years with no permanent residence, and rarely stayed any one place for a month. It was just one long rolling travel adventure which we thoroughly enjoyed. Then we decided that it was time to do more traveling overseas. We'd seen so much of North America including Canada and Mexico in the first 10 years of retirement that it wasn't such a priority anymore.

We don't travel as much each year, since there are quite a few things DH likes to do where we live. But I'm slowly ratcheting it up again. We do big Europe trips where we have family to visit as well as just enjoying exploring many areas we haven't been. I'm hoping we'll start adding Central and South America to our explorations soon.

Not weather related even though summers here are incredibly hot.

Some of our travel is family motivated.

We've just always enjoyed travel. Some people are nomads b nature.

I don't think any location would have enough going on to keep us there year round.
 
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travelover said:
. The tag along relative felt we were "wasting our time" by not seeing everything possible given that we'd paid airfare to get to the location.
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:confused:?

Since when is relaxing at a café watching the world go by waste of time?


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
daylatedollarshort said:
I'm just curious for those of you who travel more than a couple months out of the year, where is your permanent residence? Do you travel in part because of the weather where you live? Do you get bored in the city you normally reside?
Click to expand...

For us, we travel in the summer because of the kids' school schedule. But it's also nice to get away from the crazy summer heat and humidity here in North Carolina. It's tolerable for a few hours in the morning but that's about it.

So we end up going to places with nice summer weather. That means 70's and low humidity, which has translated to central highland areas of Mexico and Ontario and Quebec provinces in Canada (leaving for Canada tomorrow! :D ).
 
travelover said:
I used to invite a relative along on our travels, but DW and I like to sight see for a set number of hours, then just kick back and relax. The tag along relative felt we were "wasting our time" by not seeing everything possible given that we'd paid airfare to get to the location.

Now we travel alone.
Click to expand...

That's a good point. We often "invite" others to tag along with us (so far no one has joined us) but figure it would be a bust since most folks seem stuck in the rush rush rush 1 week gottadoitall "vacation" mentality. I'm okay missing a few things if I only have a week somewhere.

We always plan on plenty of "do nothing" days where we tend to sit around, prop our feet up (maybe on the balcony with a view), read a book, or take an afternoon siesta. Maybe we go out for a bite or to do some shopping, but we don't go out sightseeing on our do nothing days.

I understand how our lack of intensity and focus could be seen as a failure by others. :D
 
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