Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it.

RexTalionis: archnem: Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it.

I agree with you. You have to sleep in uncomfortable new locales, you run the risk of getting lost, and everyone is trying to kill you. Why would anyone want that?

And that's just if you go to Chicago.

RexTalionis: archnem: Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it.

I agree with you. You have to sleep in uncomfortable new locales, you run the risk of getting lost, and everyone is trying to kill you. Why would anyone want that?

You forgot the gate rape.

It helps if your wife is a stewardess and you can sit up front for a VERY reasonable rate.

Thanks wife!

Right. I'm sure the US travel industry, the major airlines, etc, had no part in publishing this garbage.

/f*ck you, f*ck you, F*CK YOU... you're cool, and f*ck you, i'm out!

archnem: Time Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it, before you.

FTFM

archnem: Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it.

It's also farking expensive.

Wanderlust is an affliction that I have. I love travel, and I miss it. Yes, it can be stressful and a hassle, but the thrill of new experiences and perspectives, and all the beauty that the world has to offer make it well worth it. Now if only I weren't a broke college student...

Other animals love/need to travel. That's why we take our dogs for walks.

Our need to travel very far away would probably diminish if we did more of our traveling under our own power. (Not saying we would stop entirely of course, just we'd be more easily satisfied nearby.)

Tell me, is it a conflict of interest for a website that is based on travel to publish a "news" article boasting about the positive aspects of travel?

Uh, no. Travel doesn't make us happy. Vacation makes us happy, whether we go places or not.

Travelling for work sucks. Early flights, wearing a suit on a plane, no time to actually do anything, and jet lag right before important meetings and projects. No thanks.

All I can say is that travel is good if it's a short trip and if you're traveling without the idea that a)where you're going is "better" than where you were and b)you can act the same way you did from where you were originally from.

"?pi=pi" in the URL? Someone is circumventing the "link already submitted" filter! Bad kitty!

Skullduggery: Wanderlust is an affliction that I have. I love travel, and I miss it. Yes, it can be stressful and a hassle, but the thrill of new experiences and perspectives, and all the beauty that the world has to offer make it well worth it. Now if only I weren't a broke college student...

enlist in the Navy, .. seriously, I hit 25 countries in 51 months (would have been 26 but Diego Garcia is not a country)... or since you're about to graduate, try for NavOCS.

archnem: Travel is a damn nuisance. There I said it.

Then stay in your basement.

i'm going to travel down the hall to the bathroom. just thinking about the stomach virus i got the last time i was in mexico gives me the shiats....

I love travel, too. I've been trapped at airports, missed flights, groped by Homeland Security, wandered around places where I couldn't even read the alphabet and was in slightly elevated danger of being a victim of a major crime and realized I needed to do more of it. I haven't been to Somalia, and don't really want to, but someday I'd love to go to Socotra.

On the other hand, "luxury" travel really sucks. The more you pay, the more you insulate yourself from the real life of the place you visit. I'd rather travel cheap and hang out with the people in the places I visit. Learn some of the language, eat street food, walk a lot. It's incredibly luxurious to have the privilege to do that, and it doesn't cost all that much, at least compared to the costs that travel used to exact. And you can do most of the planning online, too.

If you need to climb a *particular* mountain to get your jollies, I'd say that travel isn't really your thing. Maybe impressing people is. If you need to have a near-death experience on a mountain, climb Mt. Washington in August wearing shorts. That way, the only person likely to die is you. The rescue people will be appropriately dressed for the ice-storm.

If you're a broke college student, Skullduggery, leverage your friends if you can. Can you stay with their relatives? Are they doing a road-trip home? Do your friends from somewhere else know cheap but great places to stay and is there a cheap local airline that flies out of three airports (one a cheap bus ride away) that will get you there? It's possible to do it if you really need to and are willing to put up with a shiatload of inconvenience. As a college student, that's half the fun.

Yeah--I agree with Aerox. Done that, too. It sucks.

Pestifer: I love travel, too... "(L)uxury" travel really sucks. The more you pay, the more you insulate yourself from the real life of the place you visit. I'd rather travel cheap and hang out with the people in the places I visit. Learn some of the language, eat street food, walk a lot.

Fly first class wherever you go and handle the rest yourself then.

RexTalionis [
I agree with you. You have to sleep in uncomfortable new locales, you run the risk of getting lost, and everyone is trying to kill you.


So...like a normal Saturday night for me.

ArtosRC: Tell me, is it a conflict of interest for a website that is based on travel to publish a "news" article boasting about the positive aspects of travel?

Perhaps, but more likely confirmation bias.

I'm sure traveling is for some people. I'm not a big fan. Re the article: Self-actualization through travel? Really?

There is nothing new under the sun.

Depends on where you're from and where you go. It's pretty important, even necessary, for some people to reinvent themselves with strangers. But you can't escape hierarchy no matter where you go...and sometimes on-the-road hierarchies can be even shallower, because they're dictated by travel experience and fashion instead of more traditional status cues like income and influence.

Degenerate Monkey: I'm sure traveling is for some people. I'm not a big fan.

Same here. I've had good trips to Costa Rica and Vancouver, though. Trouble for me is I get homesick after a few days. I doubt I'd handle a two-week vacay very well. One week is about my limit. Fortunately, I'm also broke, so one week is all I can afford.

I love seeing new places, I just hate the process of getting there.

Subby has never traveled anywhere with my parents. Seriously. Right now I'm too busy to go anywhere. My wife and I have lifetime travel benefits (She's worked for Southwest for 15 years). We can fly anywhere they go for free, based on availability. We do have some positive space passes, but it seems we're always too busy. Plus nowadays at the airport, a lot of the time it's just not fun. By the time you check in, go through security, and connecting flights, to go visit my family in Texas, I'd rather drive my own vehicle, though it takes longer, and not have to rent a car when I get there. Plus, i can take more stuff and bring more back, if I'm so inclined.

don't mind the drive, have satellite radio. Can stop whenever/wherever I feel like it. Plus with getting 30+ miles gallon, it costs me less than a rental car for a few days.

Pestifer

If you need to climb a *particular* mountain to get your jollies, I'd say that travel isn't really your thing. Maybe impressing people is. If you need to have a near-death experience on a mountain, climb Mt. Washington in August wearing shorts. That way, the only person likely to die is you. The rescue people will be appropriately dressed for the ice-storm.

Some of the best or most interesting travel experiences I've had have been on mountain climbing expeditions and trekking. Most of the time, getting to know the local guides/cooks is half the fun. Trek to a mountain that's not very commercialized in somewhere like say Bolivia, and you'll get more in the way of local culture then you would wandering around the capital or outlying cities.

/I like the way the guys on Madventures travel.
//Oh and Hong Kong kicks ass. (eat at Sushi Dokoro Matsudo at near the TST station. Probably the best sushi I've had outside of Japan)

KeeptheChief: Skullduggery: Wanderlust is an affliction that I have. I love travel, and I miss it. Yes, it can be stressful and a hassle, but the thrill of new experiences and perspectives, and all the beauty that the world has to offer make it well worth it. Now if only I weren't a broke college student...

enlist in the Navy, .. seriously, I hit 25 countries in 51 months (would have been 26 but Diego Garcia is not a country)... or since you're about to graduate, try for NavOCS.

I am in the same boat as Skullduggery. Want to see the world, yet I'm a broke college student. Unlike him however (at least that I know of), I actually have tried enlisting in the military. Army in fact (which is ironic, considering that my dad was in the Navy, and my grandpa was in the Navy as well). I never got the chance to even go to basic training, simply because i was medically DQ'd due to my Asperger's (or Assburgers, whatever). Now I guess I'm SOL.

\Got passport in 2007. Biggest fear is that it will still be empty once it expires
\\only flown once in my life because it was so expensive. Family always drove for vacations
\\\Some experiences good while driving. Most of the time, it was farking boring.
\\\\CSB
\\Slashies

Ever been in a Turkish prison?

Woolwine: Asperger

I just checked out your profile and you asked "how else can I piss you off today?"

I wondered, then scrolled down... You did!

/Bears season ticket holder..
// grr

j__z: //Oh and Hong Kong kicks ass.

And when you live and work here, no matter for how many years, it still feels like you're on holiday.

Travel Tips:
One-way tickets are twice as good as round-trip tickets
2-wheeled vehicles are twice as good as 4-wheeled vehicles.

Got my Million Mile award, too much business travel. If you get into a routine, you can tolerate it. There is the occasional bright spot, but don't plan on business trips to be fun. It's called work for a reason.

Despite my work life being on the road - I also enjoy traveling in my 'private time'. Escaping the home to-do lists, seeing new things and experiencing new cultures is a blast. Great way to educate the kids that they are more than just their local community - that they are part of a world where people have different environments and experiences that come together to make them who they are. And that this is why they may think differently than you do.

Visited 45 of 50 States growing up with the parents. Trying to get as many countries now. Where the 'gettign there' may be getting more of a hassle - the 'being there' is just as good.

P.S. Upside of the business travel: Do have enough miles to bring my wife and 4 kids back to the US business class (from Germany). Just need to get the reservations soon enough.

bayoubruce: I have been out of the country on business 200 days a year since 2006. The fun part gets really old like anything else..

That's not traveling, that's working, but agreed. I used to think it would be so much fun to fly around the world for work... it gets old after the first few times.

The actual travel part of travelling (ie, the journey to get to your country of choice) is no longer fun thanks to all the clever ways people have found to make it a living hell for us poor folk. Long drawn out check in procedures, gate rape, lost or damaged luggage, cramped seating and if you are really unlucky, an obnoxious seating companion.

But that can all be worth the sacrifice if the end result is awesome. For me, travel is about getting away from my life back home and being free, even if it's just for 1 week. Most people probably have things in their life they want to escape and sometimes it can feel like you are in a prison with the only freedom being what the guards let you have. When I go away, no-one I know can hassle me, everything is different and the new people I meet don't judge me the same as the people back home since they don't know me. Thats true freedom in my book.

And my golden rules are:

1. No luxury travel. As said above this only insulates you from the real people. Being forced to get about like the common peoples lets you experience more.

2. No organised tours. Being in a tour group with other people in a foreign country does the same thing as luxury travel. It insulates you from the real people. You will end up spending a lot of time waddling around in a large, noisy creche whilst the locals spend time avoiding you. And any activities are structured and void of any true freedom. I've never been on an organised tour and never will.

digistil: bayoubruce: I have been out of the country on business 200 days a year since 2006. The fun part gets really old like anything else..

That's not traveling, that's working, but agreed. I used to think it would be so much fun to fly around the world for work... it gets old after the first few times.

It's old when you're bored. It's frightening when you forget which city you're in after you land.

Tom Paulin: No luxury travel. As said above this only insulates you from the real people. Being forced to get about like the common peoples lets you experience more.

With the exception of air travel, I agree. It's absolutely worth upgrading your flight, if you can afford it. Even premium economy (or better yet business or first) will make a world of difference, and is only a few hundred dollars more. That's cheap when you consider how much better it will make your overall experience.

digistil: Tom Paulin: No luxury travel. As said above this only insulates you from the real people. Being forced to get about like the common peoples lets you experience more.

With the exception of air travel, I agree. It's absolutely worth upgrading your flight, if you can afford it. Even premium economy (or better yet business or first) will make a world of difference, and is only a few hundred dollars more. That's cheap when you consider how much better it will make your overall experience.

Yep, sorry, I should have said that and I agree 100%. There's no shame in making the journey to the destination a little more comfortable at all.

urban.derelict: Right. I'm sure the US travel industry, the major airlines, etc, had no part in publishing this garbage.

/f*ck you, f*ck you, F*CK YOU... you're cool, and f*ck you, i'm out!

Read the first paragraph. The author is "a luxury travel planner"... I guess that means travel agent, but whatever. So yeah.

But, truth be told, traveling has always made me happy as hell. They have drugs and prostitutes in other countries, legally, for very reasonable prices. The ethnic food is cheaper, too. And you can see volcanoes. And drink a lot... more? Maybe, I drink a lot here, too.

Tom Paulin: The actual travel part of travelling (ie, the journey to get to your country of choice) is no longer fun thanks to all the clever ways people have found to make it a living hell for us poor folk. Long drawn out check in procedures, gate rape, lost or damaged luggage, cramped seating and if you are really unlucky, an obnoxious seating companion.

But that can all be worth the sacrifice if the end result is awesome. For me, travel is about getting away from my life back home and being free, even if it's just for 1 week. Most people probably have things in their life they want to escape and sometimes it can feel like you are in a prison with the only freedom being what the guards let you have. When I go away, no-one I know can hassle me, everything is different and the new people I meet don't judge me the same as the people back home since they don't know me. Thats true freedom in my book.

And my golden rules are:

1. No luxury travel. As said above this only insulates you from the real people. Being forced to get about like the common peoples lets you experience more.

2. No organised tours. Being in a tour group with other people in a foreign country does the same thing as luxury travel. It insulates you from the real people. You will end up spending a lot of time waddling around in a large, noisy creche whilst the locals spend time avoiding you. And any activities are structured and void of any true freedom. I've never been on an organised tour and never will.

100% on these. I've traveled solo a few times, and it was liberating as hell. Once I got the lay of the land, it was a blast. Spain was probably one of the best countries to do this in - the locals didn't seem to like large crowds of Americans, but one? They helped me out and showed me around in a heart beat.

Whoever wrote that article never spent three days in a pickup truck with a dog, two cats and an ADHD kid with bladder control problems.