WHY WE TRAVEL and How it Affects Our Destinations and How it Changes With Time.

A huge lesson that traveling has taught me is that I don't know everything about myself yet. I am a lot more changeable than I imagined and every experience leads to those changes in myself.

I love that attitude. I wish people in American society travelled abroad a lot more. There's such a strong mentality in the US that the US is so good and great that there's no need to travel anywhere else. Why go anywhere else when you're already in "heaven"? barf

You've got me thinking about motivations and I'm not sure there is just one and definitely not as deep and personal as yours.

• 2015-Mediterranean cruise and Rome. Rome had always been on Mrs. Allan's bucket list but the entire continent of Europe had never been on mine until I was told it was. Thanks to that trip it set up a whole new list of motivations.
• 2017 Venice and Adriatic Cruise. Motivation was that it worked once, let's try it again. No dream destinations, no bucket list stops.
• 2018 London, Bath and the Cotswolds. Motivation, take Mother-in-Law to meet cousins she's never met.
• 2019 RS Tour, Loire to the South of France. Motivation was curiosity of what an RS tour was like. This particular tour because I always wanted to see the Lascaux caves and this tour got me close to them that I was able to visit on a day off from the tour.
• 2020 Nope
• 2021 Nope
• 2022 Scotland. Motivation was interest created in Scottish History thanks to the book and TV series Outlander.
• 2022 England. More book and TV related interest. The Last Kingdom books and TV series and the Pillars of the Earth book by Ken Follett. However this trip was bumped up thanks to a seat sale which is always an influencer.
• 2023 Sorrento. Primary motivation was a desire to go back after a 1 day cruise stop to the AC and Pompeii in 2014.
• 2023 Washington DC. Seat sale, plain and simple. Only other motivation was a bucket list item to see every MLB stadium before I die.
• 2024 Spring Training in Dunedin, Florida. Probably my earliest bucket list item ever since I was a kid in the 70's and discovered teams went to Florida in the Spring to train. For 20 years now it's been on the list of the trip to kick off retirement.
• 2024 Probably the Dordogne Region. Motivation was the coup0le of days we spent there on the 2019 RS Tour. More caves, more castles please.

If I dig deeper, most of these European adventures do have a motivation based in history, but before that first trip in 2014 I had no idea I had an interest in history. But as of yet I'm not as well rounded as some of you on this forum, my roundness is still a minor sector of a circle.

Great question, Vandrabrud, to ponder! Here’s an initial go, but I will probably come back & edit it some more tomorrow after thinking more about it.

1975–Motivation: With my parents’ blessing, I was excited to see Europe thru the 4-H People-to-People Ambassador Program. 40 days, 13 countries for true back-door experiences with local families.

2003–Motivation: 25th anniversary & trying out a RS tour - the GAS tour. We also stayed with my 1975 Dutch family for five days as a wonderful beginning to this trip.
2006–Motivation: 2nd RS tour to see Italy’s art, architecture & many ancient sites.
2011–Motivation: Italy - the Veneto & Dolomites region. Trying our first independent trip to concentrate on areas more in-depth. Glad to find out we loved traveling independently together, and it jumpstarted my love of travel research & planning.
2012–Motivation: France. We wanted to see WWII sites & Paris.
2013–Motivation: First solo trip - RS Paris. I yearned for slowing down in Paris & savoring it.
2014–Motivation: Switzerland & Italy sites from our RS tours were calling us back.
2015--Motivation: Germany & Austria to concentrate on music, art, quaint villages.
2016--Motivation: Italy & France to return to favorite cultures
2017--Motivation: It was time to see Spain. (It had been considered for a few years.)
2018--Motivation: My first independent solo trip & my retirement year. I learned so much about myself during that trip to Italy!
2019--Motivation: France was more solo travel & my husband joined me the last week. What a memorable, fun romantic experience to meet up in Paris!
2020--Motivation: : ( Daughter’s first trip to Europe cancelled….
2021--Motivation: Planned a solo Italy trip. Cancelled it all a month before. : (
———-
A new overall motivation to not take future travel years for granted! Being retired, we can travel more, and hope for no regrets. My husband encourages me to do it while I’m healthy, active & enjoy my intense level of research.
————-
2022--Motivation: Finally back in Italy - teared up seeing the first piazza! Solo, personal enjoyment & reflection in small towns. Art, churches, festivals & “back door” culture emphasis.
2022–Motivation: Finally taking our oldest adult daughter on our 2020-planned trip - such special Mother/Daughter time we will always treasure! I will add that my adult daughter’s motivation besides seeing beautiful Italy was she really wanted to learn exactly how I travel. She had noticed that I have the more intimate cultural connections that her traveling friends weren’t experiencing.
2023--Motivation: My husband has wanted to see England; a fun memorable time to celebrate our 45th anniversary - very flexible/much less “must do’s”.
2023–Motivation: seeing the Slovenia & Croatia beautiful nature - RS Adriatic tour
2024–Motivation: for us to try an off-season, relaxing trip in southern Spain with hardly any plans.

2024–Motivation: I’m scratching my itch for more cultural, art, cooking class & festival time in smaller city Italy. And a reason to study the Italian language all Winter & Spring!

Thank you for sharing!

@Allan-From reading your posts and thread topics, it appears that you are an extremely thoughtful traveler. I recognize that you mention you didn't know you were interested in history until you found that you were! It is terrific when we can find an interest because we happen to come in contact with it almost by accident. Your quest to visit all of the baseball stadiums sounds like a quest that would appeal to me. I spoke with someone yesterday who's plan is to visit all of the big 10 schools by going to one The Ohio State University away football game per year. Then he builds a trip around the location, finding quirky places to visit. He is very happy they are adding 4 west coast schools.

@Jean-I love to read about your travels because of your solo, fast-paced, small village style. It looks like we have some things in common including the enjoyment of exploring on our own. Most people I talk with can't imagine being in a "foreign" place all by themselves. This is where I can better see and care for myself. I also have been lucky to share trips with an adult child. Traveling with my child is about the only good enough reason to give up a trip by myself. I have also been able to see more of the primary essence of who my son is on these trips.

One of the reasons this topic has been on my mind is that I am quite the goal oriented person. I generally have a very long term plan of how things are going to go. This works very well for me, but when the long-term plan needs to change because of evolution of motivations or preferences I find myself resisting the change ever so slightly. It is like I require myself to prepare a "presentation" for myself of why changes need to occur. An old plan was to go to as many European destinations as I could get to. Learn the history and culture and sites of Europe. Don't go back to a place because that would cause me to miss some place else. I also wanted a large part of the trip to include the natural beauty of the geography, away from people. My motivations and preferences have shifted. I really enjoy being in a big city, surrounded by people that I don't have to talk to, but I can if I want to. (Friendly introvert!) I have finally realized that the draw of seeing more of the world is to figure out where I fit in. I am a different person when I am exposed to different things and to different ideas. Traveling has turned into the most fantastic journey of self exploration.

1983--Motivation: first trip to Europe; first big international trip. Summer exchange program to West Germany through Rotary International as a high school junior.
2000--yes, went all through the rest of the 80s and 90s without going to Europe. Motivation: helping lead student trip to England from the private school where I was teaching.
2003--Motivation: first trip to Europe for my partner, Italy.
2004--Motivation: finally for both of us to see Paris
2005--Motivation: return to Italy for a wedding
2009--Motivation: visit friends who had moved to England, and see Scotland at the same time
2011--Motivation: as a Spanish teacher, I had never been to Spain, so this trip fulfilled that quest
2013--Motivation: pre-wedding proposal trip and visit friends who had moved to France (Riviera).
2015--Motivation: see for the first time and research family roots in Ireland
2016--Motivation: visit again same friends in France (Riviera)

A huge lesson that traveling has taught me is that I don't know everything about myself yet. I am a lot more changeable than I imagined and every experience leads to those changes in myself.

This is really beautiful. Would that we could all listen and watch enough to see this.

I will add that my adult daughter’s motivation besides seeing beautiful Italy was she really wanted to learn exactly how I travel. She had noticed that I have the more intimate cultural connections that her traveling friends weren’t experiencing.

And Jean, this is absolutely beautiful too. Very special !