Kickstarting your childhood travel dreams

I have mentioned this before and it’s part of my profile, so if you happen to recall it, just skip on to the next post.

My family did not go on big vacations either. We went to historical sights that were close by like Gettysburg, Washington DC, etc. The weren’t glamorous, but I loved them all.

What really sparked my desire for world travel was a National Geographic magazine about Pompey. The pictures were extraordinary! I’ve dreamed about European travel ever since. I was 28 before I finally made it to Europe.

I’ve been fortunate to have traveled to a lot of places, mostly in North America and Europe, but I still haven’t made it to Pompey!

Only in-state vacations for my family with an occasional trip to Niagara Falls. I remember photos of Machu Picchu and the Alcázar in Segovia that sparked my travel interest. I made it to the former once and the latter numerous times.

Like Carroll, National Geographic sparked my interests in the 1960s, specifically Abu Simbel. And like Carroll I still haven't visited the source of my inspiration.

@Trotter-I will be at Abu Simbel in about 2 weeks. I will report back here!

@ Caroll-I hope you get to Pompei soon. On my wish list as well!

We never traveled when I was a kid growing up. Any extra money went to improve whatever house we were living in, as for my mom, her home is her sanctuary. A few road trips when we were moving, but that's about it. SOoooo deprived! lol
First trip to Europe at the age of 18 with a student tour group. Whirlwind trip, but sparked the bug!

When I was in 4th grade, I had to do a report on another state and I chose New Mexico, simply because I had relatives (aunt, uncle, three cousins) that lived in Albuquerque. My mom mentioned it to my aunt and she sent me a ton of brochures and other stuff to help me with the report (this was pre-internet days). I ended up with a fantastic report (which I still have buried in a box in the basement) and a love for the state of New Mexico.

The following summer I was lazily leafing through the newspaper and saw an ad for buy-one-get-one-free airline tickets, traveling from my local airport to several other listed airports. One of which was Albuquerque, NM! The spark was lit !!

I called the number listed in the advertisement to find out how much the tickets would cost, and I ended up having enough money in my bank account (from delivering the local town newspaper) to cover the cost of two tickets. I somehow convinced my mom (who is terrified of flying) to let me purchase the tickets and travel with me to New Mexico to stay with her sister for two weeks.

That was the first vacation I can remember taking and it was amazing! I rode a horse across the Rio Grande River. Took a tramway up to the top of the mountain. Had “real” Mexican food for the first time. Visited native American sites. Rode on an airplane through a thunderstorm and saw bolts of lightning from the sky. And so much more.

I had a childhood friend whose father worked at TWA (Trans World Airlines) which was HQ'd here in Kansas City. He gave me several travel posters - London, Rome, Paris - that were on my bedroom wall for years. That was the definition of European travel for me.

diveloonie/Tammy: I look forward to reading your report. Bon Voyage!!

Mom's parents lived in Mass. - we were in Indiana - so I flew several times in the 50's. Dad's parents wintered in Acapulco and always brought back the neatest gifts & trinkets. Mom's brother reviewed international applications for an Ivy League University and travelled the world (more neat gifts & post cards).. The dream was born. The understanding in our family was - EVERYONE should love to travel. Opps - both my brothers are pretty much stay-at- homes. But I probably make up for their lack of travel genes.

A picture in an elementary school history book had me dreaming of Versailles since I was twelve years old. I traveled as a child/young teen to visit my grandmothers in Croatia and Italy and my husband and I honeymooned in Portugal 29 years ago. I finally made it to Paris a few years ago as a 50 year old when I met my husband at the end of his business trip to London.

We planned that seven day trip just a few weeks before and our European travel skills were pretty rusty. Our planning and execution would make most people on this forum cringe! One night in London, Eurostar to Paris for three nights, Eurostar back to London for three nights then flight home. No regrets, though - I finally got to see Versailles.

Although we have evolved quite a bit in our travel planning since then, I will always look back fondly on the memories of that trip.

I was bitten by the bug in elementary school when our family trips were limited to beach vacations and annual trips to Washington, DC to see the cherry blossoms, etc. I had a Golden Book (remember those?) when I was in 3rd grade with a story about a little girl whose father whisked her off to Europe when he went on a business trip. She flew in a plane that was called a Constellation which was a prop job and not a jet. I was in awe! Then we had a neighbor who had been in the military who shared his slides of Europe with us. I especially remember his photos of Holland and the tulips. I made it a point to start learning foreign languages in high school and college so that I could someday communicate with people in France and Spain. I finally made that first trip across the pond when I was 27. Paris for a week. The Eiffel Tower. I was ecstatic. I got my shoulder length hair cut in a little boutique hairdressers into a very chic do a la Audrey Hepburn in Roman Holiday. Forty countries now under my belt and hopefully more.

In 1966 I was in 6th grade when the teacher said the world was getting smaller and he bet all of us would visit Europe at some point in our lives. I still remember the excitement I felt on that day. Ten years later I was in Europe. He still remains my favorite non college teacher…he loved history and tried to instill that love in all of us.

Another one of your fun topics Allan.

Since I grew up a military brat, I “traveled” at an early age. We have family photos of my Mom and I on skis on some slope in Germany. My first memories of flying were myself and brother and sisters piling into one of those military transport buckets. But, I was so young, I was unaware that there were no stewardess’ to handle our every need. Another memory is being on a ship going from Europe to New York harbor tethered (literally) to my mom. She was pregnant with my sister Holly and my brother Stuart was maybe 5 years old. She harnessed me to keep me from wondering off. Probably a good thing since, to this day, I do wander. Nowadays, I wander with an agenda. Not sure I did that when I was 4.

I also got the travel bug by reading National Geographic magazines. Wow, what an education. When I was a young teen, I appreciated the stories and photos of Alberta, Canada and the Canadian Rockies and it got me interested. I can now say that my trip to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper in 2018 was everything I hoped for and more. Travel back to Europe (since Germany as a brat) came in 2010 when I took a two week trip and my first RS Tour, Heart of Italy.

This is a great topic!
My love of travel was sparked from a random conversation when my great uncle was visiting. I was maybe 10 years old at the time. My great uncle Clarence was retired and traveling with a friend out west (I think to go hunting). I caught a comment that astounded me. His friend had been to all 50 states. "That's possible?" I thought in my little 10 year old mind. It was like I had ben struck by lightening. I had never dreamed someone could do that.

In school we used to write these reports about other states (I had no idea which class). I would call more 1-800 numbers and send off requests for travel information and PORE over the information that was sent. The spark turned into a flame.

Because I grew up on a farm, we literally could never leave for more than 5-6 days at a time. My mother would spend months planning these vacations. Wisconsin Dells, Black Hills, Yellowstone, Mackinac Island, Iowa (yes, Iowa), and Duluth MN. I found these trips wondrous and turned the flame into a fire that had been set earlier by that one visit.

Now I have been to all 50 states and 37 countries and counting. It all reminds me that it is powerful to talk about travel- you never know what young mind you will have inspired.

It was 1967; I was almost eight years old. Our family vacations were always trips to visit relatives in the midwest. But mom and dad subscribed to National Geographic, opening windows to the rest of the world. One article early that year caught my attention-"Florence Rises From the Flood". It documented the recovery, cleaning, and restoration of art and historic sites damaged when the Arno flooded in late 1967. For some reason I was fascinated by the stories and photography. Cimabue's Crucifix, at the Santa Croce basilica, caught my imagination. I always remembered it-and, fifty years later, finally visited Florence and saw the art in person!

Hmmmmm. I can remember being transported in my high school Spanish class by the huge poster of Mont St-Michel on the wall. . . and my maternal grandmother, who I am not sure ever was on a plane (my paternal grandmother certainly was not) had a wooden souvenir carved bad-relief plate of Neuschwanstein that a girl in one of her Rebekahs groups had given her as a gift. I don’t guess I ever thought about visiting either one, but I ended up seeing both.

My first trip abroad, I was 4 or 5 years old, but it wasn’t my choice, and wasn’t for tourism. We moved to Scotland then as my father, an engineer, worked on a project up in Orkney. I went to first grade there and a few days of second — when I move back to our Oklahoma hometown, that was when I felt foreign — as I had developed such a thick Scottish brogue while living in Scotland that no one at home could understand me !

I planned and signed up for a European trip with school in summer 1985 or 1986 — that was cancelled due to all the terrorist attacks in airports that summer.

So my first actual trip abroad ended up being to the then- Soviet Union after my first summer in college. We flew into Helsinki and then took the train into Russia. We visited Moscow, Leningrad (yep), Riga, and Vilnius for two weeks before returning to Moscow for a month’s language study. I guess that was a pretty wild introduction to European travel for a girl from small town Oklahoma. We happened to be there when President Reagan visited. But oh my that was more than 30 years ago. I have never been back to Russia — or Latvia or Lithuania since. I would like to go. Although my Russian language skills have atrophied to basically nil. Still, it would be fascinating to see. I almost feel like it is a different person who was there, separate from me today.

every year my Dad would take the same 3 weeks off in July and drive to
the same campground, same campsite and at the end of the 3 weeks, he’d
rebook for next year.

Same here! And what's more... we children loved it!

There wasn't too much international travel when I grew up, but Italy was a place many Germans went to comparatively early. And guess what, I can't remember ever envying those children who could tell of their vacation in Italy. Did any of them have a beach that was the size of our beach? Or sand that was as fine as the sand on our beach? Absolutely not!

I have done a lot of (international) travel since, and I have loved it and still do. However, sometimes I feel that we will need to get back to those more modest and climate friendly destinations... and discover how wonderful they are. Or how incredibly enjoyable and relaxing it can be to spend three weeks in the same place.

I think I can trace my love of travel to two childhood experiences. When I was a child in the fifties both of my parents worked. We had a babysitter, an older woman, who watched us. She had done a lot of travelling and had quite the collection of postcards from places she had visited. She would show them to me and tell me about her travels and that is when the spark ignited. On a more personal basis, my grandparents had immigrated from Sicily in the early 1900s. My grandma would always tell me about her hometown and she too had a few very old black and white postcards from her hometown. So old fashioned postcards did it for me. In elementary school back then, we took geography every year and I loved that class. I always daydreamed about visiting the places we read about.

As a kid we didn't do much travelling other than camping trips and big long drives, including an ill fated trip to Disneyland that included snow, flat tires, and a case of ringworm. But my grandparents were world travelers. My grandpa was a county extension agent, and they worked out a gig to escort group tours of farmers to check out rural farming practices. Their first trip was in 1968 to Australia and New Zealand. They took dozens of trips over the next few decades, both farm and recreational, including China (in 1980!) and a crazy trip that went to Buenos Aires and South Africa/Kenya on the same tour. It always seemed they were on the road when I was growing up. I still have some of the trinkets they brought me from those adventures, much treasured as a child and even more today.

I always wanted to travel like them, but life/work/finances got in the way so I didn't get started until my early 30s. But I've been at it ever since! It took a long while to go somewhere that my grandparents had not already visited. A few years ago I went through a ton of slide carousels of my grandparent's 35mm slides and scanned in highlights from their trips and put together a binder of itineraries and little notes from my grandpa (he was a list maker, just like me). I even found their first passports. My grandpa died in 1997 and my grandma left us just last year, two weeks shy of 100 years old. Now I have two travel angels watching over me :)

My family didn’t vacation when I was growing up. Travel was going to the beach or Disneyland, which were both not too far from home. Too many kids and too much bickering between us was the problem I think. I did travel from Southern California to Northern California once with my dad and younger brother when he had to travel to Sacramento for business. He worked for the state. He dropped us off to visit family friends and then took me to my grandparents for a one week visit in the Bay Area. The summer after 6th grade, when I was 11 years old, I went to Guanajuato, Mexico. It was the sister city of Claremont, CA, where I lived. I was painfully shy and my host family didn’t speak any English. I remember sitting in the kitchen mesmerized by their cook making tortillas. It seemed so exotic. Thankfully my best friend was also on the trip, even though we stayed in different homes. The summer I was 12 my parents took us on our one and only family trip, to Ensenada. Why Ensenada? Probably because it wasn’t too long of a drive and was inexpensive. My mother was 8 months pregnant with my youngest sibling. I didn’t think about it then, but in later years I wondered what they were thinking. Other than the U.S., Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean I didn’t get to travel out of the country until I was 49 years old. I have relatives that traveled all over the world and I was fascinated by their stories and photos. I dreamed of travel for years, especially to Europe. I’ve been lucky enough now to go to Europe 10 times since 2006. I can’t wait to go back next year for two extended trips. 🤞🏼

Dad was a civil servant so travel was limited.

However we did do weekend road trips many involving camping in Yosemite, Carmel/Monterey/PointLobos visits staying with my Aunt who had an art gallery on Cannery Row. This was before it became the tourist trap it is today. Her’s was the only gallery and the only restaurant was the Outrigger.

An only child I liked looking at my folks National Geographic magazines, and watching Lowell Thomas High Adventure show.

First foray from my California home was getting to see Oahu Hawaii in High School. Our football team was invited to play Punahou High School. I was Rally Commisioner so was invited to go. If memory serves the Oakland to Honolulu Flight cost $ 250.00 round trip.

Wasn’t until 1972 that I journeyed to Europe with the then boyfriend who was on a sales trip for his father’s company.

Whirlwind tour. Eye opener and I was hooked, especially on London.

While employed went as often as I could and now in retirement and hopefully with the elimination of Covid my travel will be lengthy sojourns.

My uncle was an airline pilot who lived in Lima, Peru, for many years. My cousins, close to my age, were born there. In addition to speaking fluent Spanish, they studied French and German in elementary school, so when they visited my Oklahoma schoolroom, they were certainly exotic visitors. My 4th grade teacher had taught in China and had many "show-and-tell" items and experiences to share with the class. My first foray outside the U.S. was a bus trip to Mexico with a stay at the Girl Scouts' facility in Cuernavaca, a gathering place where we met girls from all over the world. All of these experiences, as well as the fact that my mother had the travel bug, set me on my path.

I appreciated the stories and photos of Alberta, Canada and the
Canadian Rockies and it got me interested. I can now say that my trip
to Banff, Lake Louise and Jasper in 2018 was everything I hoped for
and more.

We did a staycation this year and did the Banff to Jasper route. It's easy to forget what I have in my own backyard. Surprisingly, even though it's only 75 minutes drive away, I never even went to Banff while I was growing up. The mountains were something we passed through to get to the other side.

My family is from China, and I remember as a child visiting a relative here in Sydney who had a big framed photo of Hong Kong harbour on their living room wall. It was a beautiful picture and I suppose it subconsciously fueled my desire to travel. Of course years later we did visit Hong Kong and mainland China to visit relatives. Hong Kong does now look very different from the old photos, and I remember my mother who grew up in Hong Kong commenting with some disgust about how there is no longer any natural coastline due to all the land reclamation. The locals even joke that one day you will be able to walk across the harbour without getting your feet wet.

When I was young, our family vacation each year was a few nights in a motel with cabins (so we could cook meals) near the amusement park at Lake Okoboji in Iowa. We really looked forward to it!

Later in grade school, my dad started earning a yearly special business trip. Spouse & family were encouraged to come, also, if we paid for it. Those were wonderful trips, and we stayed in gorgeous hotels - The Grand Hotel at Mackinaw Island, The Broadmoor at Colorado Springs, and Pheasant Run near Chicago. When I was in 4th grade, he qualified for the trip to New York City - a big change from small town Iowa! While Dad was in conferences, Mom took us sightseeing. We took slides with our camera instead of prints, and our extended family was happy to gather around the living room to see those photos projected on the screen!

I really appreciated that I was able to see several states while growing up, and the mountains in Colorado, Mackinaw Island with horse & buggies (no cars) and NYC helped me love all of the variety that we have in the US.

My desire to travel to Europe definitely came from my mom. Although she never traveled to Europe, she took me to several travel films at the high school auditorium. I also remember some exotic Spanish dancers performing one of those evenings - very exciting! Mom was the person who helped me be able to go to Europe & Russia for 40 days with the 4-H Ambassador Program in 1975. I’ve honored her after she died by wearing her watch or bringing her small binoculars on European trips.

Allan, our honeymoon was at Banff, so it holds a special place in our hearts.

I am enjoying this topic.

We travelled up and down the east coast of the US during my childhood, and did not tend to go back to the same place twice. My parents never travelled abroad except for a company outing to Bermuda in the late fifties. I do remember frequently going to a travel film series. I don't remember the presenters name, but he was extremely passionate about travel. The William H. Mortensen Travel Series ran at the Bushnell in Hartford from 1930 - 2008. The cause of its death is the Travel Channel and other travel-adventure film providers on TV and online.

My Cub Scout troop did a play based on Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, and I recall being thrilled by the story.

I also had a couple of high school teachers who were passionate about Europe. One was my teacher for a course on Eurasian History, and the other my junior year French teacher.

When I was a sophomore in college I explored transferring to another school. Ultimately I decided that I really just needed a total change of scenery for awhile. In the summer of 1972 I attended a summer program at Oxford University and travelled on my own in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland and Austria. This experience helped stir my passion for European travel.

My family never travelled beyond a couple of hours from our home. To this day none of them have a passport and likely never will. "Travel" was staying at my aunt's beach house on the coast for a week each summer.

When I was about 13-14 my history teacher brought in photos of her trip to Egypt and before I knew it class was long over and it was us two looking over her photos and me asking questions and her enthusiastically describing everything. I really think my true yearning for travel started that day, or at least the realization that it was possible for someone like me. I haven't made it to Egypt yet, but I have time, I'm only 41, I'll get there eventually.

I was inspired by 9th grade world history. My teacher had amazing lectures and especially showed lots of slides for European history. I remember being fascinated about the Bayeux tapestry and did a project on it for class. A few years later, I went on a school trip to Europe (that same teacher was one of the leaders) and had the chance to see the Bayeux tapestry in person. It was incredible. The trip ignited my love of European travel and was my first introduction to Rick Steves and his travel philosophy. This trip also gave me good tools for traveling independently later on.

We didn’t really take family vacations when I was a child because my father‘s vacation time would inevitably fall during school days. So my father and my mother might take a short trip and I would be farmed out to relatives or friends, but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for travel. I remember as a teenager writing to consulates of different European countries requesting information and then receiving huge packets in the mail full of pictures of exciting exotic places. That had to suffice until the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college, when I studied in northern Germany. Since then, I can’t count the number of times I’ve traveled to European countries. I can’t wait until I travel overseas again next summer. I’m planning to take my 16 year old granddaughter to Europe, hopefully to ignite her travel dreams.

I'm not contributing a story but I want to compliment Allen and all the contributors, and say, "Isn't this an absolutely wonderful thread?"

Only 1949 comments short of your greatest post of all time Nigel.

I agree with Nigel: “Isn't this an absolutely wonderful thread?"

I haven’t thought of those travel films & Spanish dancers for 40 years!

It is interesting how personality plays into these answers. My dad was happy to be at home; Mom loved a chance to travel. My sister is happiest at home; I love to travel. Our daughters both love to travel, and I’m taking each of them for a special Mother/Daughter European trip. One of our granddaughters has “Jean” as a middle name, and as they shared why they chose it, one of the reasons was my sense of adventure in traveling! ❤️

Jean, sometimes I wonder if I'm adopted. Besides my dad's travel style, my oldest brother has never been beyond Canada and the US-including Hawaii which he and his wife go almost every year; same Island, same time frame, same resort. I don't think my other brother has been out of Canada; maybe not even Western Canada. My Mom started travelling with her twin sister after their husbands died but neither were brave enough to have been able to go beyond senior's bus tours or organized excursions on cruises, but at least they got to see the world.

1946 comments to catch Nigel.

Allan's "same island same resort" comment reminded me of my mother's co-worker. While I was in high school my father was a visiting professor at the University of West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Every year he would travel to Kingston in February and March. Twice the rest of the family joined him for a week! Yes, my Chicago classmates were jealous as were my mom's co-workers. My mom would describe the new foods we had, specifically the curried goat and the jerk chicken. Finally one of the co-workers went to Jamaica himself. My mom asked, "did you have the curried goat?" The answer, "no, we had some really good hamburgers."

Reading these posts literally gives me goosebumps! Thanks all for your wonderful stories.
@Allan - I know what you mean. My dad was a wheat farmer in Kansas and our “travels” consisted of a long weekend each summer in KC for baseball games and a day at an amusement park. It was all we could afford, but we looked forward to it all year. I’m the youngest of 5 and only one who travels abroad. I unabashedly admit that my travel dreams were stoked by reading Harlequin romances as a teen. I always looked for the ones set in a foreign locale.

reading Harlequin romances

For me it was watching movies.

In my youth we did a few summer 2-days each way drives (Washington DC, Glacier), and one very long one around the Gaspé Peninsula and Nova Scotia via Sudbury and Niagara Falls. I wasn’t too taken with what driving then meant: no AC, vinyl seats, top 40 radio, and 4 in the back seat of a sedan with one rotating sitting on the transmission hump facing backwards.

a day at an amusement park

Hopefully it was Worlds of Fun

Yes, to movies being an influencer. Well maybe the Bond girls were more of an influence in my teen years, but I still get a kick out of the locations. And now this, a new Bond museum. Austria just made its way onto my list.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-mountaintop-museum-highlights-history-bondjames-bond-180969377/?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=socialmedia

@Tom - yes, it was Worlds of Fun (and I can’t imagine enjoying even Disney World more)!

The love of travel, or at least the idea of it, started early on for me. Aviation is in my blood. My father worked for an airline. He would receive a newsletter that listed flights and vacations at a very attractive rate for airline employees. My junior year of high school my sister and I used travel passes to spend spring break on Oahu. We stayed for a week. It was a great trip. When I graduated high school I wanted take a year before starting college to work, save money and take trips while I was still eligible for those great rates. However, my father would not help pay for college if I did that. So I started college and earned my B.A. in three years. After graduation i worked for a company that made parts for aircraft, then later married someone who worked and traveled internationally for that company. In 1982 I accompanied him on a business trip/vacation. I was hooked on international travel. We travel every chance we get these days. Typically we would be in Europe at this time. However, we also care for my Mother and we are unsure if she can travel to stay with one of my siblings (all at least 12 hours away by car). So we are hoping for 2022 when we are sure we will have figured somehow to provide care for my Mother. We have many, many trips we hope to take before we get too feeble to travel. We have never taken an organized multi-day tour, always traveling independently. However, I have made a list of all Rick Steves tours and prioritized them. Even if we never decide to take one it has helped us prioritize our wish list. Happy travels and travel dreaming to all.

My love affair with Europe began when my grandma wanted a travel companion, I was the oldest grandchild so she took me to Europe when I was 12. Like a couple of others who have posted, I was also a military brat who lived in such exotic places as Omaha and 3 different California military bases so I jumped at the chance to accompany Grandma on our planned 3 month summer trip. I loved every minute of the ocean voyage to our first destination, Norway with stops in Copenhagen and Stockholm and the month we spent there with a family she knew. Then it was on to Scotland with England, Germany, France and Italy to come. At least that was the plan. However, she had met a charming gentleman on the ship going to Norway and long story short, they fell (pretty much instantly) in love. We left Norway for Scotland where he met us in Edinburgh and we three had a wonderful week there. However, instead of continuing my special trip with Grandma, we ended up flying from Edinburgh back to his home in NYC so his family could meet her. They were married just a few months later. I wasn’t able to get back to Europe until after my own children had graduated from college but I never lost my desire to go-and finish that trip. I have been so, so lucky to realize nearly all of my travel dreams and have taken my own grandchildren to Europe a few times….a legacy from that initial European trip with my grandma.

@ Andi-what a wonderful story.

I’m another traveler influenced by National Geographic magazines. And Encyclopedia Brittanica.

We camped a lot when I was a kid, and by age 10 I had been to 35 states, Canada and Mexico. My dad was a huge history buff, and I learned about US history on our camping trips before ever hearing about those places and events in school. I guess I got the travel bug early.

I was also heavily influenced by the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” tv show. I remember a “Worlds best beaches” episode that included Bora Bora, and I was mesmerized. Bora Bora remains on my bucket list due to that show!

The Indiana Jones movies were also a huge influence. I studied anthropology and archaeology in college for a while, before switching to a more “sensible” (yet boring) field, and I’m just giddy to explore some ruins anywhere.