Why do you travel?

I want to see everything. Although I know I'll run out of life before I accomplish that goal, I'll see as much as I can.

I also love history, art and culture. I try to learn as much as I can so I'll appreciate what I'm seeing.

My only other lifelong goal (that I haven't already accomplished) is to be a champion on Jeopardy - but there's no telling if that will ever happen. :)

The last time a similar thread got going was 2007, was posted to over a hundred times, and the thread was featured in one of Rick's e-mail newsletters. Here's that thread:

http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/7085/why-do-iyou-igo-to-europe.html

I want to see, hear, eat and drink stuff I can't experience at home. And I want to visit my family...

I love the freedom - the freedom from work, the freedom from everyday problems, the freedom to explore, and the freedom to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate life.

I love the opportunity - to learn about various cultures and entwine those cultures into my own life, to see art, churches, structures that have existed for such a long time, to meet people and to learn of their different viewpoints, and to enjoy the food, beer, and wine.

The pure thrills of travel!

Interesting question, Randy.

I travel to learn, as nerdy as that may sound. Planning the trip and reading up on the art/food/history of a place is half the fun for me.

Then, once I've traveled to a place I've studied, I've found that going there makes me feel more emotionally connected to these far-flung places that otherwise wouldn't matter to me. When I hear that the unemployment rate is 20% in Spain, or that London won the 2012 Olympic bid, those news snippets recall actual places and people for me. I'm hooked on that feeling of connection to a bigger world.

Eagerly awaiting other folks' answers!

I am a history buff, so I enjoy seeing those places where major historic things occurred. Places like Normandy, or Berlin. It is actually one of the major reasons that I enjoy living in Frankfurt so much, the history of this city goes so far back and has played such an important and awesome role in the history of Germany. It is fun and fascinating to be surrounded by this, day in and day out.

I also like architecture and like to do odd things like compare vaulting styles or pillars in old churches and cathedrals. Eating new things, hearing new music, but also seeing the scenery that surrounds a place and wondering how that shaped the people that live there and its history.

Standing in the Forum and feeling the sense of history is as enjoyable to me as walking down an ancient donkey path in the countryside of Greece. Both have felt the feet of hundreds if not thousands of people and I like that connection. Wondering who they were, what their lives were like and so on.

P.S. - we went to Paris and never even went up the Eiffel Tower, nor in any museums or galleries, and we still had a blast. Though we hope to go back some day and would like to see those things, we still don't feel like we missed anything.

For me learning is the goal, on several levels;

1) Learning the history of a place and how it came to be - I read as much as I can before the trip starts and try to draw the connections between the various "tribes" as they moved and settled many centuries ago.

2) Learning the small (and not so small) cultural differences between the US and other countries.

3) Learning that there are other ways to run a society that also work as well, almost as well, or better than in the US.

4) Learning by gaining some greater perspective of the passage of time - that people as cherished as anyone we know today lived there lives centuries ago, perhaps seeing the same cathedral spire I can see today.

All of this leaning can happen in a superficial sort of way by sitting at home and reading about it. Many people think they know it even without ever reading about it. But it is something entirely different to go there yourself, see the places, see the people and feel the history seeping from the cobblestones and brick.

Traveling is a way of life for me. My traveling started when my husband was transferred all over. I traveled the last twent years for my work.

Have traveled to 29 of the US states(many of them several times), 5 Canadian provences and 11 european countries.

Had to postpone trip to Portugal, Spain and Italy this summer due to new great-grandson's arrival this month. But plan to go next year.

I enjoy seeing how people in other countries live, different foods, their culture, museums, ruins, etc.

Having lived and worked in Galbriath Lake, Alaska (north of the Brooks Range) watching the Carbou herds and having Gertrude the Grizzle making visits to our office area is truely an experience.

Walking on top of Masada in Israel and visiting the Dead Sea was a majestic experience.

Visiting the LandesMuseum in Trier, Germany seeing artifacts unearthed after 2,500 years was amazing.

I loved traveling on the trains of Europe quite an experince. Loved it !!!

People travel for different reasons.

I have stayed at many 5 start hotels around the world....yet found that private room at the Wombats Hostel in Munich provided all that we needed.

People come to this board for input, advise or to have a question answered.

The majority of us respond based on our travel experiences.

I agree that different people have different goals/reasons for travel. It is a bit like 2 chefs- one uses just a few ingredients and looks for intense flavors or focuses on just a few traits. Another likes to layer lots of things or explore really unique, even questionable, combinations. A recent post requesting feedback about an itenerary points that out well. Also the debate about sharing/not sharing about our travles and some posters' insistance that some of us are snobs. It really is about priorties. I like to expand my horizons and enrich my senses. I like to make comparisons and see contrasts. And I LOVE to learn, learn, learn- and mostly by doing.

My first trip to Europe was a business trip to Belgium. Our associate there told me his family had lived in Brussels for 10 generations. Having grown up on the west coast, with family history there of less than 100 years, I was impressed with the permanence of the area, the feeling of really belonging.

More importantly, I have devoted an inordinate amount of time over the last 20 some years to learning the German language. I love to get into areas where English is not spoken, and I get to use my German (or, better, they have to listen to it).

Third, I am of German ancestry, and I love getting out and seeing my homeland and mixing with my fellow "eths".

I've not been to Europe yet. That's why I'm on here--getting amazing advice from people who have been. But I've been a traveler since I learned to drive, and I would not trade any of those experiences for anything. I remember my grandmother shaking her head at me in college; one semester I scheduled my classes all on Tuesday and Thursdays so I could traipse about the east coast for four days per week. And what my travel experience gave me was, well, more experiences. A week at a pagan festival (alone, at age 20) in New England resulted in an impromptu trip to Boston a month later, which resulted in a last minute trip to Cape Cod for the weekend, with only the clothing on my back (talk about packing light!). A jaunt down to Maryland one summer day for a music festival resulted in a phone call two weeks later, and a last minute trip to Baltimore (from north of Philly) late one rainy night for another concert and a weekend in DC with new-found friends. Travel creates connections. And that's what life is all about.

I cannot wait to see what comes out of our upcoming Europe trip, and am beyond grateful that I'm able to take such a trip. The word 'blessed' comes immediately to mind. As for next year--I'm thinking maybe India...Rick needs to get to work on THAT book!

Well said Tracy! Personal, emotional, physical, spiritual, ...
Celebrate the connections!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've done many different trips and for different reasons:

• change of scenery

• change of climate

• visit with family: and this one is the case 90% of the time with families living quite spread apart. We meet with my inlaws on Vancouver Island or in the Okanagan, travel to the Dominican Republik to meet up with my father, spend a week in Tuscany together with my brother, and then of course travel to Germany (my citizenship) to visit family.

• develop new friendships: especially with my travels to France we've developed some long-lasting friendships, e.g. visiting with the same family again and again for 30 years now.

• But most of all: travelling makes me appreciate my life at home in a whole new way.

The thing I regret is that I had no or very little interest in traveling until the past 12-13 years. When I tagged along with my wife on a business trip to The Netherlands and Germany for a week the travel bug bit me big time. It is amazing to look back and see how naive I was about travel and how weak my geography was. I always had an interest in history especially WWII history but it was more of a casual thing. I remember as a grade school student seeing photos of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Eifel Tower and thinking how cool those structures were but I did not necessarily have a burning desire to see them in person plus traveling the world back in those days was not something people did in the towns where I was raised. Once I made that first trip to Holland and Germany everything changed. Travel is educational above and beyond school books. The love of travel has motivated me to study and learn about other countries and cultures whereas, before, interest in such things was not on my radar. Researching the places before going there is fun and educational. After going to a place I enjoy watching movies or specials as much or possibly even more than before going. I seem to always see or learn about something that I missed and it makes me want to go back. The memories from traveling are an added bonus and then there is the photography to add to my interest in traveling. In 2007, we climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and as I looked over the Field of Miracles with many thoughts running through my head I remembered that picture of the Tower in that school book back in the 50's and said to myself, I cannot believe I am standing at the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the very one that was in that grade school book. Made me feel real good.

Guess all I can say is ...I agree for all of the above reasons, & I too feel I will run out of life before I see it all. :(

I travel for the same reasons many of the above posters do. I did not grow up in a family that traveled, but I traveled in my mind by reading everything I could get my hands on. My first big trip across the country was when I was 19 years old. I was fascinated by how old things were on the East Coast, as opposed to how relatively new everything is on the West Coast. For a while I was not able to travel too much for family and financial reasons. I have been in many States now (my goal is to see them all before I die) and there is so much more of this country and the rest of the world I want to see. I did not get to Europe until 4 years ago, and now we will be leaving in a few months for our 4th trip. I always wanted to go to Europe, but I think that deep down I was a little apprehensive. I don't know what of, but every time I would talk to my family in Germany about visiting, something always came up to prevent it. We finally took that trip and it changed my life. I have been bitten by the Europe bug big time! I have now been to 8 countries in Europe and we are about to go to the one that has always been #1 on my list - Italy! I love the different cultures, how old everything is, and how different it is from my life here. I like to see how other people live. I like to see how other cultures do some things better than we do, and I see how spoiled we as a country are. I also can appreciate the things that we are fortunate enough to enjoy. I love the preparation and research for a trip almost as much as the trip itself. It prolongs the excitement for me.

I love history. I love beautiful scenery. I love architecture and art. I love seeing and experiencing new things. I love to learn. I love to see places and things that have been around for much much longer than I have. Travel gives me all these things!

Just speaking about European travel, I love going because it's so much of a break from American life. I really feel like I've gotten away when I go somewhere with different food, different money, different language, different cars, different lifestyles. I love the history over there and am amazed at the locals that live there and walk by these amazing sights every day. Yes, sometimes the differences can be stressful, like driving on the wrong side of the road, but it's all part of the experience to me.

We all get caught up in our own lives - often thinking everything we experience is unique. If we are able to see out side our own lives a bit, we might think of the people we see every day and the people of multiple generations in our extended families and aquaintences. But that still mires our consciousness in the last 100 years or so.

But crossing the ocean to a place where the last 2-300 years is just a blip on timeline of civilization is so eye-opening for me. To imagine all the lives led whose memory is lost to history makes my imagination run wild. It helps put my own issues in proper perspective and to see more of the world as a whole instead of "us vs. them".

I love living and traveling in Europe. I, too, am fascinated by the age of Europe and by ancient cultures. We tend to think of the US as very new. But I feel I must point out that there are and were cultures in North America that go back waaay past the last few hundred years. There is a rich history of native populations on the American continent. They might not be OUR cultures, but then, neither are some of the ones we find fascinating in Europe.

Yea, I knew that issue would come up. I suppose the difference is that there is a either a written record or a general understanding of what occurred over the last 1000+ years on the European continent. That isn't really the case for the "Americas".