Savor same old or venture forth?

I do both, I enjoy the new and I enjoy savoring the old again and again... for instance, Paris... I can never get enough.

While I may visit the same country or city repeatedly, I rarely go back to the same hotels or restaurants repeatedly, unless I've made friends there and wish to see them again. I might frequent the same locale, but I like to try new things, and have the opportunity to see and experience new things, or the same things from a different perspective. I do have specific criteria that need to be met though. When I go to certain museums, I do tend to want to see certain artworks repeatedly because I derive great pleasure from them over and over, but I always stretch my envelope to explore new genres and forms of artistic expression.

I too do both. I just love going back to Scotland and meeting with friends and revisiting old haunts. However, I need to bust out of the Scotland rut now and then and extend my vistas and visits. : ) Some years I just branch out and try a new destination. Other years I've comboed a visit to another destination for one week and then to Scotland. For example, I went to Brugge and Amsterdam one year before going on to Scotland. Pam

While we're well-traveled compared to some of our friends, we've only been to Europe a half-dozen times. There are so many places yet to see! On our first couple of trips when we were young and had seemingly endless energy, we did the spend-one-night-in-each-place thing. I can't recommend that as a strategy, but it did serve to whet our travel appetite and give us a slight taste of other cultures. Now we're still sampling, but we stay 3-5 nights at each location. The only place we've visited twice has been Florence. What a wonderful city. I want to have traveled enough to have a favorite town in the south of France, or on the Amalfi coast, or in Bavaria. Our hope is to be able to travel nearly full-time when we retire in 20 years. Knock on wood. :-)

I try to do both,, Paris gets worked in every trip, but I have stayed at least 10-12 different hotels( even though most I have stayed at were worth staying in again) and rented an apartment.. I have also tried adding new countries, last year was Spain ( loved it) and revisiting and giving some places a "second chance " after lack luster 1 or 2nd impressions( Amsterdam).. Next trip we will try and include Ireland, and of course Paris again. After that I want to revisit ( from decades ago) Greece , and try Turkey.

I also do both, which is why my trips keep getting longer! I always go back to Italy, and Turkey is on my return-trip list. In Italy, I can't stay away from Rome, but I'm still looking for that perfect hotel (in my price range and near Piazza Navona). I do go back to restaurants that I like, partly because when I travel for long periods, it's comforting to go where someone knows my name, or at least remembers that I was there before. This trip I added France, Berlin, Warsaw, Krakow, Vienna and Croatia. I would go back to all of these places. I've never been anywhere I didn't like.

It depends. I have a handful of areas that I like to (re)visit en route or even on some short trips. Namely: Berlin, Alpine road passes, the Dolomites, Southeast Sicilia, mid-Pyrenees in Spain. I don't repeat restaurants, though, I love to change food options always. I will also try new hotels when I revisit these areas, I think I've repeated hotels in Europe just twice after adulthood.

I do like the comfort of return visits: the familiarity with logistics, the simplicity of planning, and there are always attractions I haven't managed to see in the past. Yet the more I travel, the more I enjoy going to new places. I am less and less as put off by the challenges of new surroundings and extensive planning. Maybe it's luck, maybe it's the love of travel, but every new destination seems to be wonderful. And the more I see, the longer my list gets. Like Susan, I can never get enough of Paris.

We return to Italy year after year, but always to a new region. I'm determined to explore every corner of the country before I die....or can't travel any more. That being said, we've also ventured to France, England,Germany, Switzerland Austria and Peru on other "adventure" trips. While I enjoy other countries, something about Italy calls to my heart and I have to return and "get my fix". So lucky have to have traveled to Le Marche region last September on a bike tour with my husband, then this May we went to the Puglia region (again a bike tour) I came home from the May trip and just booked a trip with my daughter to Florence for 5 days in October. I have to go back. Bucket list for me is China and Nepal, but the husband has no interest in traveling that far, so I guess I'll just continue to dream. When I was just engaged to my husband we spent 5 weeks in Europe doing as much as we could. In college I also was lucky to see the Soviet Union prior to Glasnost... I totally love to travel, I actually CRAVE it.

I'm just getting back in to International travel after a couple of decades of being tied down by responsibility. My first inclination was to return to London which I visited a lot in a previous lifetime. The rest of the family voted for Italy, so I reluctantly <siiigh> agreed. Wow, did I have fun! I really only felt out of my comfort zone the first couple of days even tho my Italian is limited to grazie, prego and pointing at the phrase book while stumbling thru some question. I do however have a London trip booked as well so I am thinking alternating is a good plan!

Hi, I do travel in some countries more than once but only to parts that I haven't been to before. London is my exception as it is my favorite city in the world. I have been to Italy twice and France twice and will probably go back there next year to see Provence. These countries are big and you can't see them all in one trip. Mary

This is an ongoing debate with my husband. He travelled MUCH more than me in his youth and feels like he has "done" Europe. I am a huge fan of European culture and history, and would like to go back to many places I've only gotten tastes of. I have been back to London three times and loved it every time. I want to go into France more than the once I have gone, but husband spent a lot of time there as a child and young man and is eager to go someplace he hasn't seen every trip. So now he's more interested in Africa and Asia. Our solution is to take turns choosing trips. This year he gets his bucket list safari to Botswana. Next year, I get Iberia, which has the additional advantage of being a place he hasn't really been. After that, for him it's probably Cambodia, but I may branch off and do an England/France trip with a friend. Husband and I also want to see a bunch of places in common, such as Alaska (I have an uncle there) and South America. Most places I will travel in the next few years are new to me. When I have "dragged" my husband back to Italy and France (new to me, not him), he's had a fabulous time each trip. I think he is learning the value of a balance of the two kinds of trips, though I know he will always hunger for new places.I know I sure want both!

I also tend to do both. I have a few countries that call to me, but I am always ready to visit someplace new. If it were totally up to me (sometimes I travel with others) I would probably add at least one new country each trip. I will often stay in the same hotels if I revisit an area... especially if I was happy and it fit my budget. Less to think about and I spend so little time in a hotel I usually don't make it a huge priority. If it works, I will return. But, really, I am ready to travel any place, any time, at a moment's notice. I want to be sure I don't become so comfortable that I am afraid to travel out of my comfort zone. I am pretty adventuresome, and I just want to be sure I stay that way.(as long as it's not life threatening and I really do not love heights) but, I am like Zoe as in I like everyplace I have traveled, just some more than others.

Because I still have several decades to go before I am anywhere near retirement, vacation time is at a premium. I've got family scattered around a number of countries in Europe and I've visited each of those countries multiple times, but really, if I did not have the family connection I would rather be using the time elsewhere. I still do alternate my trips as much as I can to visit countries where there aren't family, and ultimately, take a lot of heat for it with comments like: "You took 3 weeks off to travel and you aren't going to stop over for a week to see us?!" And when I do repeat a country because of family obligations, I always make sure I tack on as many new experiences as I can by visiting an area where I have not been, seeing different attractions, going to new restaurants.

I have family in Germany and so far haven't been to their cities. I tell them where I will be and ask them if they would like to join me. That works out great because they too get a vacation and I get to spend my time where I want to go.

That is such a great solution Andrea... smart you are.