Why travel?

We know many people who, honestly, see no need to travel, they are perfectly happy, living rich, rewarding lives. They are active with friends, hobbies, sports, clubs, gyms, cottages and busy daily routines.​

And of course, travel is not a binary yes or no choice. It is a continuous spectrum from travelholics traveling for years with just a backpack and a shoestring budget to high-end round-the-world luxury cruises that keeps the ‘traveller’ hermetically sealed in a service and safety cocoon. 

Most are at some mid-point, they enjoy traveling a couple of weeks each year. Typically as a destressing tonic. Idyllic beaches, all inclusive resorts, cruises, visiting the major cities of Europe courtesy of an online package or, if older, talking with a travel agent.​

So, when talking about travel, definition is part of the problem. We like the term independent traveler. Travel as if you are going to a place to live and work. Doing your own research, making your own arrangements, dealing with local people, having only yourself to blame when things go wrong (and they go wrong all the time), hopefully learning everything possible about the people and how they live. Working to get to the paths less traveled, somewhat off the grid to the extent that this is possible these days. It is not always the most relaxing style of travel and maybe not for the timid, it can require some long, dusty, bumpy rides with meaningful WTF moments. At times, you just have to ‘toughen up’ and work it out. We have found that it is these moments that we remember and fondly reminisce on decades after the event.​

So why do we love to travel? I have tried but cannot articulate a succinct reason. I know that it is a great privilege to be fully appreciated. I know that travel makes me feel fully alive, electric, a heady mix of excitement and thoughtfulness. Not fully knowing what is around the next corner. A total breaking of the daily routine. Getting to know people from around the world, whose lives are as different from mine as humanly possible but at the same time, the same. We all smile and laugh the same way. Want the same things for our family and children. Doing our best to live lives of meaning, purpose and love. As Mark Twain said “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness” and I think the world needs more of it.

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​Travel far - Stay long - See deep

CJC