A typically contrarian opinion, and a great read throughout. It’s fantastic to read someone who legitimately holds an opposing to the “travel as be-all and end-all” mindset that everyone from status obsessed white girls flooding the most instagrammable spots to office workers (many of my school friends) seeing how many places they can get to in the 20 or so allotted days they’re allowed per year.
I’ve always felt the idea of looking down the barrel of a year, holiday days in hand, and knowing that’s how many days (barring weekends) you have to do what you want to. Such thoughts keep me working a little longer at my desk most evenings, lest I be forced into the corporatocracy.
While I have to admit, I’ve been there, done that and got the scars to prove it when it comes to hazy alcohol fuelled holidays in the sun, including one month long bender that actually took place on the island of Ios, Greece, where I was able to take a quad bike and go visit Homer’s tomb. Completely wasted on me. I thought it was a rubbish pile of rocks. I was only half-wrong.
“Ideas are things to be played with, not weapons to bludgeon an adversary to death with.” I’ve found most people struggle with this these days. Everyone is so emotionally attached to their ideas, they’re so much a part of them, that even considering the potential positives of the opposite side seems to be completely inconceivable. We are right, they are wrong, so who cares what they say. Worrying.
“I think travel is overrated because it has become commodified. It has become simultaneously fetishised, infantilises and drained of enchantment, which is quite a feat when you stop and think about it.”
Less of an adventure, closer to something that you feel you should be doing, without feeling much of a conviction behind it. For the non-flaneur types among us, this is why I feel having a range of hobbies is so important. One of my close friends just goes on surf trips whenever the surf forecast is good. Skiing, mountain biking, cave diving, mountaineering - the list of cool things you can do is really only limited by budget and willingness to look stupid for a few months. If you’re not much for contemplation, this is a healthy alternative, and an easy way to turn a holiday back into an adventure. (Unsure if this is guru territory)
“In the same way that my countrymen have the awful habit of bringing their lager-fuelled, sunburned, walnut bladdered football hooligan mentality with them to various ancient Eastern European capitals, so do Westerners generally have a way of never failing to pack their time-bound, over-caffeinated, checklist-fuelled worker bee mindset with them when they travel to slower and more enlightened countries on holiday.”
Irish aren’t much better on average, unfortunately. Taleb has some great points on this - especially our incessant need to have classes for everything. We can’t just “do nothing”, we must do yoga to relax. We need apps to meditate, lifting weights becomes cross-fit classes, you don’t train you “go to war”, etc. All a bit tiresome.
“So for the time being at least our world is smaller. Which conversely means our locality has grown larger- in both importance and in terms of possibility.”
Yes, precisely. The flooding of farmers markets, and the widespread emphasis on buying local this Christmas, not to mention the myriad ways the people in my small city have stepped up to help each-other and the local businesses during this past year has been truly inspiring to see.
The following paragraphs are a beautiful message, and I really do hope you’re right. If the appreciation for ones locality translates to a universal appreciation, we may well be able to kickstart the next golden era (soaring twenties anyone?).
Great stuff as always, much to think about. Thank you for writing it, Tom.
I’ve always wondered something kind of similar about this “need” to travel and thought....how many people have actually explored (and I mean really explored) and experienced the areas in which they currently live before traveling to other places. And if they had, how would that change that “need”? Thank you for this essay. I deeply enjoyed it and once again feel like I’m floating on a similar wavelength to yours :)
First, I want to thank you for your essays. I’m in a moment of transition in life and your writing has helped confirm that I’m now ready to commit to being “part time”. I’m 54 and a consultant. During most of the pandemic, I was working 20-25 hours a week and it was more than enough. Over the last month of two, I’ve been busier and I’m not really happy. Plan to still work but on things that aren’t directly focused on building business.
As for travel, I’ve really enjoyed being abroad when I could “dive in deep”. So, two years in Israel, 6 weeks living with a French family, or a work project with colleagues in Sweden and the UK were all fantastic experiences. But I have no bucket list of places to see and no interest in taking photos of me in front of the world’s top 20 most important tourist attractions. Indeed, I live in NYC and I’m repeatedly struck at how many beautiful places I can get to with just my bicycle. Places that would be “postcard” worthy if you didn’t tell folks that you were 30 miles as the crow flies from midtown Manhattan.
Loved the article even though I thoroughly enjoy travelling. Even though you started from a different place I think we've arrived in a similar place. When I was reading your essay this morning I was reminded of a quote from Vagabonding by Rolf Potts: "People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home".
I have travelled extensively over the past decade or so and have met all kinds of people travelling. The bucket list people, while annoying, are not the worst. I remember being like them when I was younger so I can relate to them. They haven't realized that a bucket list won't make them happy.
Universally, the most miserable or empty people I have met travelling are the people who are wealthy and travelling to find something. What they don't realize is that they're looking for the satisfaction that only comes from having to sacrifice for their trip, plan ahead, save money etc. You don't value what you don't have to work for as they say.
Generally, many people travelling are deluded. They're doing it for escapism, to show off or to tick things off a list. What they're really looking for is permission to just be happy now. Having travelled a lot and learnt these lessons myself I can understand why someone like Jim Carrey says that if you can't be happy before you have money, you won't be happy once you have it. It's the same with travel.
Wherever you go, there you are. You can't outrun yourself. It's a lesson as old as time.
There is is only one thing I have missed this year and that's travel. For me, every time I travel it's a huge adventure. I live in a French farmhouse which pre-dates the revolution. Many of the stones used to build it come from the medieval monastery in the next village. I am smacked in the face with the history of my immediate surroundings every day, and I love that, and will spend the rest of my life exploring them. But I am a true believer that travel broadens the mind (if done properly). To experience different cultures, different climates etc etc. (Which might explain the move from the UK to the depths of rural France 13 years ago 😉)
The beauty of this pandemic is that it has proved that an awful lot of us don't have to stay in one place. We are seriously considering sodding off after Christmas for a month or so. A small apartment in Florence, or Rome. Or a gîte in Provence. Even with restrictions the possibilities are huge. All we need is good WiFi for work and an open mind to experience day to day life as it is lived by the locals. Not a holiday. An adventure. It makes my heart race even to think of it.
This is all very well said. Just a century ago, a travel abroad meant you'd have to stay longer (couldn't travel to Istanbul just for an extended week end), know some locals or at least people who knew some locals, and be ready to subject yourself to a stenuous and often challenging trip. The concept of leisure and "wanderlust" (the plague of the modern world) did not exist, so you'd usually had some king of a "purpose" to go there; discover the local culture as an artist - when every country in the world wasn't yet McDonald'ed - find local products like books or technical devices that could not be found where you lived, etc. Nowadays, in the age of mass-tourism, there is just no purpose in traveling except the very fact of traveling itself. Tourism isn't a discovery anymore, it's a bucket list. You must cram as much "items" as possible in the shortest amount a time; rush to the next bullet point; take the mandatory picture; move on.
When you think of it, the big boom of mass-tourism came almost at the same time as the rise of social medias. How many "travel-addicts" would just stay home if they couldn't broadcast it as a demonstration of value on their instagram? But I have a feeling it is getting more and more outdated; since everyone can pony up a few hundreds of $ once a year and go the the same places to take the same pictures, the value of travel has taken a dive: no one will look at you with their eyes staring wide when you show off your Machu Picchu pics on your iphone by the office Nespresso machine. You can feel there is a growing boredom. Almost as if travel was sold to us as the ultimate form of freedom, and the Easy-jet, low-cost airlines-made Eden didn't prove to be as effective as we'd thought.
French author Montherlant once wrote "On n'emporte que soi dans les voyages", which roughly translates to "You only travel with yourself on a trip": tourism as escapism does not work. You will not feel more fulfilled. You will not feel more "connected" to others; quite possibly the opposite. You might experience a slight boost in social validation, but that will only last until the next IG pic. Only human bonding and a sense of purpose in a community you value can bring you happiness. Tourism as localism, as you elegantly said.
As someone who shares your disillusionment with travel; and particularly dislikes time spent travelling; I sometimes find myself falling to the FOMO of peers basking in the experience of expensive, and yet oh-so overdone, commercial travel. It’s nice to see someone also out there who thinks like I do.
Yet, I see you haven’t really covered the more non-commercial methods of travel. Especially the one enabled by the growth of Air B&B type systems. I would consider travel worth the trouble if one could, for example, disappear for a month to an apartment in the suburbs of a historic city. And spend it in a leisurely soaking-in of the culture and art. What say?
I’ve been thinking about how limited our busy lives have made us. Less free, in any real sense. If anything good comes out of all the covid/wfh experience, please let it be true freedom. Freedom to enjoy the world, not stuck in an office, in a classroom, slave to the clock. Are we at the precipice of an unlimited future where work, education, play, can all be part of the wanderers experience? Is it possible? Yes, I believe, for those who want it. How? I have some ideas but it will take a massive network that I, personally, know little about connecting. (I’m better at the dreaming than the executing.) To wander...To wonder...To admire the locale...To truly BE the experience. Oh, how whimsy girl can dream....
A typically contrarian opinion, and a great read throughout. It’s fantastic to read someone who legitimately holds an opposing to the “travel as be-all and end-all” mindset that everyone from status obsessed white girls flooding the most instagrammable spots to office workers (many of my school friends) seeing how many places they can get to in the 20 or so allotted days they’re allowed per year.
I’ve always felt the idea of looking down the barrel of a year, holiday days in hand, and knowing that’s how many days (barring weekends) you have to do what you want to. Such thoughts keep me working a little longer at my desk most evenings, lest I be forced into the corporatocracy.
While I have to admit, I’ve been there, done that and got the scars to prove it when it comes to hazy alcohol fuelled holidays in the sun, including one month long bender that actually took place on the island of Ios, Greece, where I was able to take a quad bike and go visit Homer’s tomb. Completely wasted on me. I thought it was a rubbish pile of rocks. I was only half-wrong.
“Ideas are things to be played with, not weapons to bludgeon an adversary to death with.” I’ve found most people struggle with this these days. Everyone is so emotionally attached to their ideas, they’re so much a part of them, that even considering the potential positives of the opposite side seems to be completely inconceivable. We are right, they are wrong, so who cares what they say. Worrying.
“I think travel is overrated because it has become commodified. It has become simultaneously fetishised, infantilises and drained of enchantment, which is quite a feat when you stop and think about it.”
Less of an adventure, closer to something that you feel you should be doing, without feeling much of a conviction behind it. For the non-flaneur types among us, this is why I feel having a range of hobbies is so important. One of my close friends just goes on surf trips whenever the surf forecast is good. Skiing, mountain biking, cave diving, mountaineering - the list of cool things you can do is really only limited by budget and willingness to look stupid for a few months. If you’re not much for contemplation, this is a healthy alternative, and an easy way to turn a holiday back into an adventure. (Unsure if this is guru territory)
“In the same way that my countrymen have the awful habit of bringing their lager-fuelled, sunburned, walnut bladdered football hooligan mentality with them to various ancient Eastern European capitals, so do Westerners generally have a way of never failing to pack their time-bound, over-caffeinated, checklist-fuelled worker bee mindset with them when they travel to slower and more enlightened countries on holiday.”
Irish aren’t much better on average, unfortunately. Taleb has some great points on this - especially our incessant need to have classes for everything. We can’t just “do nothing”, we must do yoga to relax. We need apps to meditate, lifting weights becomes cross-fit classes, you don’t train you “go to war”, etc. All a bit tiresome.
“So for the time being at least our world is smaller. Which conversely means our locality has grown larger- in both importance and in terms of possibility.”
Yes, precisely. The flooding of farmers markets, and the widespread emphasis on buying local this Christmas, not to mention the myriad ways the people in my small city have stepped up to help each-other and the local businesses during this past year has been truly inspiring to see.
The following paragraphs are a beautiful message, and I really do hope you’re right. If the appreciation for ones locality translates to a universal appreciation, we may well be able to kickstart the next golden era (soaring twenties anyone?).
Great stuff as always, much to think about. Thank you for writing it, Tom.
I’ve always wondered something kind of similar about this “need” to travel and thought....how many people have actually explored (and I mean really explored) and experienced the areas in which they currently live before traveling to other places. And if they had, how would that change that “need”? Thank you for this essay. I deeply enjoyed it and once again feel like I’m floating on a similar wavelength to yours :)
First, I want to thank you for your essays. I’m in a moment of transition in life and your writing has helped confirm that I’m now ready to commit to being “part time”. I’m 54 and a consultant. During most of the pandemic, I was working 20-25 hours a week and it was more than enough. Over the last month of two, I’ve been busier and I’m not really happy. Plan to still work but on things that aren’t directly focused on building business.
As for travel, I’ve really enjoyed being abroad when I could “dive in deep”. So, two years in Israel, 6 weeks living with a French family, or a work project with colleagues in Sweden and the UK were all fantastic experiences. But I have no bucket list of places to see and no interest in taking photos of me in front of the world’s top 20 most important tourist attractions. Indeed, I live in NYC and I’m repeatedly struck at how many beautiful places I can get to with just my bicycle. Places that would be “postcard” worthy if you didn’t tell folks that you were 30 miles as the crow flies from midtown Manhattan.
Thomas,
Loved the article even though I thoroughly enjoy travelling. Even though you started from a different place I think we've arrived in a similar place. When I was reading your essay this morning I was reminded of a quote from Vagabonding by Rolf Potts: "People travel to faraway places to watch, in fascination, the kind of people they ignore at home".
I have travelled extensively over the past decade or so and have met all kinds of people travelling. The bucket list people, while annoying, are not the worst. I remember being like them when I was younger so I can relate to them. They haven't realized that a bucket list won't make them happy.
Universally, the most miserable or empty people I have met travelling are the people who are wealthy and travelling to find something. What they don't realize is that they're looking for the satisfaction that only comes from having to sacrifice for their trip, plan ahead, save money etc. You don't value what you don't have to work for as they say.
Generally, many people travelling are deluded. They're doing it for escapism, to show off or to tick things off a list. What they're really looking for is permission to just be happy now. Having travelled a lot and learnt these lessons myself I can understand why someone like Jim Carrey says that if you can't be happy before you have money, you won't be happy once you have it. It's the same with travel.
Wherever you go, there you are. You can't outrun yourself. It's a lesson as old as time.
There is is only one thing I have missed this year and that's travel. For me, every time I travel it's a huge adventure. I live in a French farmhouse which pre-dates the revolution. Many of the stones used to build it come from the medieval monastery in the next village. I am smacked in the face with the history of my immediate surroundings every day, and I love that, and will spend the rest of my life exploring them. But I am a true believer that travel broadens the mind (if done properly). To experience different cultures, different climates etc etc. (Which might explain the move from the UK to the depths of rural France 13 years ago 😉)
The beauty of this pandemic is that it has proved that an awful lot of us don't have to stay in one place. We are seriously considering sodding off after Christmas for a month or so. A small apartment in Florence, or Rome. Or a gîte in Provence. Even with restrictions the possibilities are huge. All we need is good WiFi for work and an open mind to experience day to day life as it is lived by the locals. Not a holiday. An adventure. It makes my heart race even to think of it.
Hey Thomas,
This is all very well said. Just a century ago, a travel abroad meant you'd have to stay longer (couldn't travel to Istanbul just for an extended week end), know some locals or at least people who knew some locals, and be ready to subject yourself to a stenuous and often challenging trip. The concept of leisure and "wanderlust" (the plague of the modern world) did not exist, so you'd usually had some king of a "purpose" to go there; discover the local culture as an artist - when every country in the world wasn't yet McDonald'ed - find local products like books or technical devices that could not be found where you lived, etc. Nowadays, in the age of mass-tourism, there is just no purpose in traveling except the very fact of traveling itself. Tourism isn't a discovery anymore, it's a bucket list. You must cram as much "items" as possible in the shortest amount a time; rush to the next bullet point; take the mandatory picture; move on.
When you think of it, the big boom of mass-tourism came almost at the same time as the rise of social medias. How many "travel-addicts" would just stay home if they couldn't broadcast it as a demonstration of value on their instagram? But I have a feeling it is getting more and more outdated; since everyone can pony up a few hundreds of $ once a year and go the the same places to take the same pictures, the value of travel has taken a dive: no one will look at you with their eyes staring wide when you show off your Machu Picchu pics on your iphone by the office Nespresso machine. You can feel there is a growing boredom. Almost as if travel was sold to us as the ultimate form of freedom, and the Easy-jet, low-cost airlines-made Eden didn't prove to be as effective as we'd thought.
French author Montherlant once wrote "On n'emporte que soi dans les voyages", which roughly translates to "You only travel with yourself on a trip": tourism as escapism does not work. You will not feel more fulfilled. You will not feel more "connected" to others; quite possibly the opposite. You might experience a slight boost in social validation, but that will only last until the next IG pic. Only human bonding and a sense of purpose in a community you value can bring you happiness. Tourism as localism, as you elegantly said.
As someone who shares your disillusionment with travel; and particularly dislikes time spent travelling; I sometimes find myself falling to the FOMO of peers basking in the experience of expensive, and yet oh-so overdone, commercial travel. It’s nice to see someone also out there who thinks like I do.
Yet, I see you haven’t really covered the more non-commercial methods of travel. Especially the one enabled by the growth of Air B&B type systems. I would consider travel worth the trouble if one could, for example, disappear for a month to an apartment in the suburbs of a historic city. And spend it in a leisurely soaking-in of the culture and art. What say?
I’ve been thinking about how limited our busy lives have made us. Less free, in any real sense. If anything good comes out of all the covid/wfh experience, please let it be true freedom. Freedom to enjoy the world, not stuck in an office, in a classroom, slave to the clock. Are we at the precipice of an unlimited future where work, education, play, can all be part of the wanderers experience? Is it possible? Yes, I believe, for those who want it. How? I have some ideas but it will take a massive network that I, personally, know little about connecting. (I’m better at the dreaming than the executing.) To wander...To wonder...To admire the locale...To truly BE the experience. Oh, how whimsy girl can dream....