Why do we travel?
Why do we travel?
I’ve been thinking lately about why humans travel? There are all kinds of very basic reasons why our ancient ancestors might have traveled over millennia including searches for shelter, food, to avoid dangerous conditions or neighbors but even the earliest cave dwellers must have traveled for adventure too.
I think we have been imprinted with a desire to see what’s across the valley or on the other side of the hill. What wonders will we see? Will we encounter other people? What is it like over there?
In the modern age, answering the question, “what is it like over there?” is assisted and complicated by the age of AI assisted internet trip planning and destination searches. We can find out a lot about the places in which we are interested without ever leaving our laptop. And yet….
Recently, the World Cup was hosted in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Maybe you heard about it. In addition to the coverage of the actual games, there were dozens of stories of the fans visiting the U.S. from all over the world who, despite all of their preconceived notions of the U.S. which they learned about in the media and their own on-line searching, found unexpected welcome and wonders. Americans turned out to be hospitable and friendly, not rude angry red or blue people. Visiting fans were astounded by the glories of Costco, Buc-cee’s and Waffle Houses. Scots drank Boston dry of beer, Norwegians discovered Taco Bell, Englanders line danced in Texas and the list goes on and on. They had done the research, they had embedded their expectations and, when they arrived, the answer to the question “what is it like over there?” was nothing like what they imagined.
In my own travels, I have experienced countless instances of places and people surprising me and pushing my experience wildly outside the mental lines I’ve drawn planning the trip. I met an 80 year old guide at a historic site in Norway that knew my coworker’s father in Fargo, I got lost in the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul just like people have been doing since the 15th century, I had dinner at a tiny restaurant near Portofino that ended in my attending a birthday party with the owner’s family after closing time, I learned that there is a green that’s greener than any other green on the planet on the hills of Scotland, I got a much better rental car than I reserved because of the kindness of an Irish rental car clerk that couldn’t get over how much my ginger haired son looked like a proper Irish kid and most recently I returned to Paris with my wife who had never been there and enjoyed her wide eyed wonder of the city more than I can describe.
Perhaps this is why we go. In our hearts we suspect that, despite the power of our internet information age, we cannot truly know what a place and its people are like until we actually go there. The things we see, the people we meet and our own reaction to all that we experience are the essential features of the journey. These mind-blowing moments point us to the answer which we learn is almost always wonderfully surprising and unexpected.
What is it like over there?
“Amazing, you have to see it yourself! It was nothing like I imagined”
This is why we travel.
