4 Reasons traveling is a waste of time
I’m growing sour on travel. I have always disliked it. When I was a kid my parents took us all over Europe and the Caribbean, and it really exhausted me. Now that I’m a grown up, I am better able to articulate why I think travel is a waste of time. Here are four reasons why I think the benefits of travel are largely delusional:
1. There are more effective ways to try new things.
While it’s true that learning and broadening your experience is important, doing that one time is quite different from consistently integrating something new into your life. It’s low risk to try something for a week. Which will make more impact on your life: going to Africa for a week and seeing wildlife and living in the jungle, or retooling your weekly schedule so that you take a walk through your local forest preserve once a week? You will have a stronger connection to the forest preserve than the jungle, and you will have a deeper sense of how it grows and changes and how you respond. So if you hope that travel will change how you see the world, doing something each week to see the world differently will have more impact than doing it one time, seven days in a row.
2. Cultural differences are superficial. Economic differences matter.
Don’t tell yourself you travel to learn about different cultures. Because you don’t necessarily learn from people in other cultures. And you don’t need to leave the US to find cultures different from your own.
Frans Johansson writes about diversity, and he says that race is not a indicator of diversity any more—background is. And the most diverse backgrounds come from economic disparity. So a rich white person and a poor white person are more different than a rich white person and a rich black person.
I think this is true across cultures as well. I had a South African roommate in college. But she was just like me: rich, white, Jewish. But when I lived on a French farm for a summer, the big difference between me and the farm family wasn’t that they were French. It was that they were living on a farm. I know this because when they figured out I was unhappy, they sent me to live with their cousins in Lyon—a large city in France—and the cousins were just like me.
3. People who love their lives don’t leave.
Imagine if you were excited to get out of bed every day because you had structured your life so that every day was full of what you have always dreamed of doing. And you were in love with your boyfriend, and your job, and your new handstand in yoga. You love it all—imagine that. Would you want to leave all that behind for two weeks? What would be the point? You’d have more fun at home than away from home. So instead of traveling somewhere, how about figuring out what you’d really love to be doing with your time, and do that? In your real, day-to-day life.
4. Travel is not the time to do deep thinking.
People who need an escape so they can think deeply actually need to add that to their daily life. How about setting aside time to think deeply every few days? Sam Anderson suggests in his article in New York magazine that meditation is so important that people are going to start making time for it in the same way we make time for exercise now. So maybe that travel bug you are feeling is actually a give-me-headspace bug, and if you think you need it only for a couple of weeks, you’re wrong. You need time to think each day. Re-craft your days to honor that need, instead of running away for what can only be a temporary respite.
My guess is that the things you are aiming to accomplish while you travel are generally things you could accomplish on a deeper level if you stayed home and made changes to your life instead of running away. Routine and practice are the keys to giving deeper meaning to your life. Sure, disrupting routine is important for gaining new perspective. But you certainly don’t need to travel to the next country. There is plenty that is new right where you are now. Just look closely.
Sorry P,
Unless you live near the beach there is always a reason to travel.
Penelope, great item, with which I both agree and disagree.
I left my family to take a three-week motorcycle trip to Nova Scotia this summer, and here’s the concluding item in a series I wrote about the trip:
http://tinyurl.com/oofmpf
Ah yeah, I gave you the wrong link, sorry.
http://tinyurl.com/n7yn2b
Penelope,
As always, you have some good advise in your post. However, you really need to rethink your angle especially given the fact that many young people look to you for career advise. With the employment explosion in Asia and the shift from U.S. offshore contracts to permanent hires in Asia, you really need to get yourself out there. They are a different culture that is heavy in ritual and that ritual varies from place to place (Calcutta, Chennai, Tokyo, Yokohama, Singapore to name a few). The best employees in these cultures are looking for what they view as the best companies to work for. If you have little knowledge of their culture, you will be unable to create that work environment that they desire. Sure you will get hundreds of applicants but getting the best of the best requires a little work on your part. I’m afraid your Americanized next door neighbor from India is no substitute for understanding their culture. I can almost agree with you from the European perspective since they are a little more similar to U.S. culture.
My what a JAP (Jewish American Princess)you are. I have had many dealings with your kind especially from New York.
JAPS are characterized with being quintessentially self centered.
You contradict the great American novelist, Mark Twain, when he said: Travel broadens a person. Of course that is only true if you can get past yourself and learn about other people and cultures and truly see and appreciate other environments. The irony of you being unhappy on a French farm and wanting to live with farmer does not escape me.
I loved being in Europe for two years. I was stationed in Germany, learned the language and immersed myself in German culture. I learned about them rather than trying to force myself on them so that they would understand me.
Your continued narcicissim has cost all of your male romantic involvements. While you are brilliant, you utterly lack critical introspection skills. It is about the almighty dollar and your need to prove yourself worthy.
Instead of being consumed with making a living, you need to be more concerned about making a life. Travel enriches that life. I have loved the travel that I have done and plan to do more.
For crying out loud I don’t think she’s suggesting to never travel . . it’s just a good argument for staying home and getting happy with you own life.
And here I inferred from the descriptive phrase “A Waste of Time” that she was saying it was something that wasn’t worth while.
Silly me.
I agree that a lot of recreational travel is gratuitous and escapist. I am also aware that there is a dismal arrogance in many tourists, the kind who arrive in Germany or Belgium from the US or Canada and spend their holiday whinging that the Subway subs aren’t what they should be. but sometimes the need to travel is genuine.
I grew up in England. When I was 18 I got a one month European rail pass. 21 years later I move to Belgium. I learned a lot about what Europe was, and what it is to be European, in that short trip.
In between back then and now, marriage took me to British Columbia. This was six years of total hell. There was nothing for me there. My career died. My hopes died. I need to live in a rich culture, and it wasn’t to be found there. What made it a hundred times worse was that I knew that I would have to go several thousand kilometres to Mexico or Quebec to find anything significantly different. The only way I could have possibly made it work there would have been to find a way to spend several months of the year back in Europe, but by the time I realised this it was too late, my network in Europe had atrophied and the only thing to do was to go back and start again.
I do need to go to places that are different, this personal need is also a professional one, and Brussels makes it possible without getting on planes. Even Antwerp is different, and London, Cologne, Amsterdam and Paris are within two hours by train.
To be very blunt about it, a lot of North America is very bland. What is particularly frightening about this is that so many people in the United States do not know any different and judge the entire world on its capacity for vinyl siding and barbecues. These are the people who elect the most powerful and potentially dangerous government on Earth. So much as I deplore the damage done by gratuitous air travel, I have to say that these people need to get out more.
Give me a break, PT. Have you seen any of this in Wisconsin: an army of terracotta warriors unearthed in Xian China? prayer flags whipping in the wind in the mountains of Bhutan? ancient pictographs and cave-dwellings like those found in Canyon de Chelly?
You really scraped the bottom on this one.
You are obviously trying to start controversy…for so many reasons. But I’ll bite anyway…when I saw the David it made me cry because it was the most beautiful man-made thing I’d ever seen in my life. The food in Italy truly, truly, truly compares to no other. (Although Paris does come close.) When I went to school for a semester in London did I mingle with “other cultures” – NO. But you know what – it was effing different than home and above all FUN! From one formerly rich girl to another (and BTW – I DO take the time to take a look around my local town on hikes and walks and concerts in the park and restaurants and museums AND love my boyfriend – who happens to be my husband and my kids and even my job) travel ROCKS!
What two percent do you find to agree with?
I’ve been to 112 countries and I have to disagree with 98% of what you wrote in this post.
That being said, I respect your opinion. Travel is not for everyone.
If only she had stated it as her opinion, applying to herself. But no, she made it a Universal decision. Applicable to everyone, presumably.
There are lots of things I consider a waste of time. For me. I generally don’t pronounce that they are a waste of time for everyone.
I’m ambivalent about the views expressed in this post.
I’ve traveled a fair amount and spent short times living in two other countries.
Travel is exhausting. The touristy version really doesn’t get you nearly as much as going deep at home will. P’s points on that front are well taken.
However, done on occasion to fill a desire for exhausting adventure seeing new sites, even this travel is fun for lots of people. I personally find it over-rated. You have to rest from your vacation and the occasion is not usually life-changing.
Much better is to go somewhere for a longer period of time, at least several months, to dive into the worldview, and experience the rhythms of life from a different standpoint. Especially if you are going there to serve (not condescendingly, but with open hands to receive as well), this is usually life-changing.
Can we get this at home? You bet. We can take a different spiritual stance, one of listening, attending to the reality of another person who is from a completely different background, diving into the community and culture of another “group” among us.
But most of us don’t do this. There is something disarming, that makes us new and open and fresh, about traveling elsewhere to do this. Most of us require this “getting out of our own place” to experience this.
Truly, most of the benefit of travel can be had by a person who goes on a spiritual adventure, reading broadly, and truly “entering into” the lives of other people from various backgrounds, probably all within ten miles of their home.
If you have the ability, though, it can be quite fun to do this “in situ” in other, incredibly beautiful and fascinating places in the world. Just do it at a slow pace so you get the real benefit without the exhaustion.
Plus, it can be quite smart financially to be located elsewhere (or many “elsewheres” serially) — per the book by Tim Ferriss, whom P hates :-).
I suggest the show No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. It really makes you feel like traveling. And not in a tourist-y way. At least it does for me.
Interesting post – it definitely gave me something to think about. Having thought about it…
… for the 7 or so years that my husband and I were saving for and then purchasing and renovating our first home, we completely took travel costing any money out of our budget. During that time we did make an effort to see the delights close to our (very metropolitan) home, hike in the nearby woods, taste food at local markets, etc. I would say we got really cosy with it. We occasionally travelled for work.
We kind of forgot that there was any point otherwise.
Then our budget eased up and recently we’ve started to travel again and oh MY had we forgotten the best parts. It’s mostly the things you wouldn’t see or experience at home… but that you can’t conceptualize until you get there. And sharing those totally new, wild moments – crazy ones, like how to deal with gypsies in Rome – that add a lot to a relationship. Sometimes you just have to be there.
And no, that’s not about “relaxation” or “thinking important thoughts” or “if only I were in a villa in Florence I would finish my novel.” — all true. But it is about being somewhere.
Anyways… reading your post I am hoping you really are experiencing the pleasures of home and not just cutting out the pleasures of travel because you have to. I don’t believe it’s really a dichotomy like that, but that there are seasons for each (if one is fortunate).
Penelope,
You make a good case for this, and I know lots of people who would prefer to stay at home than travel, but I must disagree. Full disclosure: I’ve worked for 15 years in a large financial services firm, where I’ve had to sell to and support clients in Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia.
For leisure, traveling does the following for us: (1) gets us away from gray, foggy San Francisco with its 58 deg ocean temps to somewhere sunny and warm, or to pretty winter mountain scenery and the challenges of ski slopes; (2) gives us a break of the everyday chores around the house/yard, as well as client deadlines & negotiation; (3) allows us to actually spend a block of time as a family without having work obligations/household chores get in the way; (4) enriches us by seeing a new culture in person, rather than reading about it or watching it on the Travel Channel.
For business, technology has made travel less necessary thru WebEx presentations/video conference calls, but provides following benefits: (1) Establishing face-to-face relationships, making friends (especially important to socially conservative cultures outside of US); (2) Getting better feel for cultural/language obstacles; (3) Providing on-site support in same time zone, without being woken up in the middle of night, or being on a conference call late in the evening; (4) competitive advantage, i.e. if you’re not traveling, your competitor probably is.
I don’t agree with Penelope (I love traveling and always will!) but I think you get more out of learning a foreign language than traveling. I know that my experiences in Italy is completely different than most people because I can carry a conversation. I am by no means fluent but I can definitely get to know a person.
Also, I don’t think we Americans get as much out of travel because our vacation time is too short. Two weeks is simply not enough. You often have to choose between a relaxing cruise/tourist resort or a more ‘real’ experience walking through a city or town. Most people pick the tourist resort or breeze through a European city (i.e. 2 days in rome, 1 day in paris et..) which is not enough to get to know a place or meet people.
Erm. I don’t know. From reading this blog you had icky childhood stuff, so I’m sort of inclined to think maybe you weren’t in the best frame of mind to enjoy your travels as a child. And I’m sort of inclined to think you are too broke and busy to get to go anywhere just for fun right now and so you want to harsh the mellow of those of us that do.
I just spent a full week on the beach in Destin Florida. If you want to think that wandering around a local park or doing yoga with your boyfriend at home is as good as a full week on a beautiful beach, keep telilng yourself that. The rest of us are going to enjoy ourselves.
Sounds like you need a vacation. How long has it been? The beauty of trips away – anywhere away but far is usually better- is that they reset your perception of your everyday life. Your state of mind may not change, but when your environment is shaken up you are forced out of a rut anyway. I recommend survival camping (where you hike not drive to the campsite).
Penelope, I must say you have really become insufferably egotistical. Your closed-minded, self-congratulatory drivel that you get away with because you’ve supposedly founded all these successful companies that you’ve never deigned to name and which cannot be located now has worn thin. Face it, most of your resume is fiction–anyone who googles you for a while will find that out. Stop giving your opinions on things you know nothing about.
Ever notice how Penelope sours on everything she can no longer afford or achieve: a real career, living in New York, a husband, travel..? ;-)
Blogging! Greatest thing in the world, yep. Because it’s the only thing you can do, Penelope.
Clarke: She can’t blog either. She just baits people.
She is just an Internet troll. If everyone would ignore her, she might go away. We can only hope…
I respect that you do not enjoy travel. I do love traveling. I love the planning aspect – it’s so great to have something to look forward to. I love the packing – what to bring? I love the excitement of the airport. I love seeing a new destination and meeting the locals. If I wasn’t a traveler I would have never tried some really great foods, or heard new music, or even learned how to do a new crochet stitch!
I love my home, I love my job, I love my husband – but that isn’t always enough. I love traveling too.
Right now, with the recession, travel is off the table. I find that I really miss it.
I would like to respond to comment #3 – my parents retired and moved to their dream location. They love their house and their life and they do not travel in the summer at all. They chose to live where they do so they could have a great summer at home and still be close enough to an international airport so they can travel the rest of the year. When you enjoy something you make the time for it.
You have just explained why Americans are the least travelled, lowest passport holding,most navel gazing race in the Western world.
There are plenty of Americans here disagreeing with Penelope; try keeping generalizations to a minimum.
Touché!
@Sara
And thank goodness there are so many people disagreeing because there are a fair number who seem to see her point – which is scary considering the power America as a whole wields in the world.
Despite being an incorrigible travel fiend, the funny thing is I agree with a lot of this. Thanks for writing it. A lot of people do simply need to break out of their routine, head for the nearby park they’ve never visited, or go to the ethnic area of town and try some new food. But if you love travel you will leave your old life, no matter how happy you are because exploring new things, pushing yourself our of your comfort zone, exposing yourself to new languages and having your prejudices overturned is what you love best. And after travelling it feels great to be home again:)
Either you are an idiot — or you just like posting things that make no sense.
Travel is THE MOST productive and mind opening thing you can do.
My initial thoughts regarding your post:
It feels a bit like you are justifying your dislike of travel. And if the reasons you cited for not traveling are the reasons you think people (you) are supposed to travel then no wonder you don’t like it.
I think you’ve hit on 4 good concepts that should NOT be one’s reasons for traveling.
1) Someone else suggested you are speaking about utility here, not literally that Wisconsin = Africa. I assume so. Don’t travel to “integrate new things into your life” for only two weeks. Do that at home.
2) Absolutely agree regarding economic differences. But I don’t suggest traveling in the pursuit of having some epiphany through a conversation with a Parisian.
3) The assumption here is that you aren’t happy with your day to day life and need to get away from it all. I feel sorry for you (I’m not speaking to Penelope here) if that’s why you travel, living for those two weeks on a beach at a resort. At the same time if someone said to me “I love my life here and don’t need to leave (town/region),” red flags would wave warning me that I’m speaking with a person who has no intellectual interest in what the world has to offer. I have trouble reconciling a high level of worldliness and intellectual curiosity with a lack of interest in travel. But I assume Penelope is just such a person.
4) Again, I agree. Do that at home.
Your conclusion suggests to me that you see travel in a way that makes it a miserable experience. You see it as “running away,” it’s meant to integrate new and deeper meaning into your life, you’re meant to accomplish something through travel, etc. As I said, these are not reasons to travel. Traveling in the pursuit of something life altering and full of meaning is most likely to leave you disappointed and exhausted.
From the short time I’ve been reading this blog I get the impression that Penelope’s seemingly workaholic, type-a personality goes with her while traveling and the combo doesn’t mix.
That doesn’t mean that there aren’t reasons TO travel.
A friend of mine says he doesn’t like to travel because he doesn’t like seeing whole cities full of other people getting along perfectly well without him.
If I have loads of cash, why wouldn’t I travel? And if I am tight on cash, how can I travel? You mentioned that wealth matters more than culture, but only a person who is wealthy and has traveled would say something like that.
Every person has multiple identities: religion, gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. Culture is just another dimension, another perspective on life, how can you say only money matters?
How I love your unique view of things. You are such a breath of fresh air. I’ve traveled a little and it failed to have much of an impact on my life–this always made me feel like I may have missed the point. I’m sick of listening to the reverential talk about how we need to/must/should travel the globe.
Thank you for sharing your views.
Yes to everything you said Veronica
Being an avid traveller, I can see a little bit of truth in 1,3,4, even if I don’t like to admit it. But 2. Oh my, I disagree! Culture is not just about race, ethnicity or social status.
What about looking, tasting, sensing, smelling. History, religion, art, landscaping, fashion, food, health, beliefs.
If you appreciate culture fx. in the shape of architectural diversity, you have to get out of the US once in a while. And that is just one example.
Wanting to live an aesthetic, sensual and open-minded life, means travelling to me.
I used to share a similar point of view. I would joke and say there is no reason to leave the USA. We have everything here.
Leaning Towers – Niles, IL – near a car dealership
Alps – Rockies
Beaches – Hawaii and FL
Cities – NYC, Chicago, LA
Slums – any major city
Old buildings – East coast is full of buildings George Washington slept in. Indian mounds.
But having now traveled quite a bit as an adult, I think traveling internationally does make one a more well rounded person. No one can really understand what an economic might China is becoming without seeing the growth yourself. If one wants to understand what it is like to live in a country that is growing, visit a city in China. There are buildings and roads being built everywhere. Everyone you meet is looking to do business and make money. No one ever talks politics.
Or to better understand what an impact WWII had on Europe, you must go and see how the fighting was literally in every little town and hamlet. There are buildings today in Europe that still have bullet holes from WWII.
It also is useful for networking. I met a plant manager of an auto manufacturing plant in China 5 years ago. He was a westerner who told me in our conversation that GM would file bankruptcy in 5 years. He was right on. I have also met Victoria Secret bra designers (not as exciting as one would imagine) and Swedish industrial engineers (designed lamps, a more exciting profession than you would imagine). All of these people I added to my rolodex and keep in touch with.
I think living a life on the road like you do between business and speaking engagements can wear you down. But I suspect that after you have been home for a few weeks or months, you start to get the urge to travel and need a change of scenery. I know I do. I love living in my small midwestern town. But I do enjoy getting out and experiencing the world.
First time poster, long time lurker. Keep up the good work. I enjoy your writing.
I can’t say I’m much for travel, because I hate sight-seeing. We do go “up north” just about every weekend, though, and I enjoy that because my family hangs out and cooks and makes campfires. So that’s not really travel.
I think “traveling” and “getting away” are two different things.
I agree it’s important for all of us to think about the goals we have for travel. This post gives 4 reasons for why travel may be a waste of time and many of the comments give many reasons why it may not be. This controversial post in blog format demonstrates how much more valuable this post is for the comments it generated than the one-sided print broadcast format.
Even though you are growing sour on travel at this time and have always disliked it, I think you could just as easily have written a post on the benefits of travel. I can understand your perspective on travel based on your experiences with it. I wouldn’t dismiss it as a waste of time, however, since it appears to me you have done it for the most part not on your own terms – destination, itinerary, the people you do it with, etc. Also the places to which you have traveled have changed and you have changed. Your points are well taken (disciplined schedule, meditation, exploration of local areas of interest, etc.) and for me serve as an adjunct to travel. I’m hoping you’ll post about the benefits of travel in the future. There’s certainly enough fodder here in the comments to do so.
I do wonder, though – how much do people really “grow” when they travel? I’ve seen plenty of people come back from 12-month $25K trips around the world whose only growth was their weight.
I have to admit, someone who is interested in their own personal development will grow, travel or not. And someone whose only motivation to visit Europe is for beerfests and hot women won’t see much difference staying in their hometown.
So obviously it depends on the PERSON not the act of travel itself. My, what a shock.
Maybe the farmer wrote the post?
How shockingly small minded. You seem to think that people are all the same, grouped only by how much money they earn; whether they are rich or poor. I can only assume that you’ve undertaken some kind of mammoth, global research project to draw these atounding conclusions.
Believe it or not, some people genuinely have an interest in seeing how other people live in different countries and finding out for themselves what the differences or similarities are.
How much each person gets out travelling depends on them, it’s not for everyone. I like meeting people with completely different views from me whether it’s at home or abroad as this helps me to grow.
If you only interact with people like yourself you’ll never have any of your views challenged, never be exposed to different ways of thinkging. Some people like that, others don’t.
People travel for different reasons. I like the variety, no matter how much I love my life I get a huge amount out of experiencing different place and different cultures. Not everyone does, but they tend to be the people who start complaints with “in my country…” and they propbably should have stayed there.
Going away can sometimes make you appreciate how lucky you are. And I’m (usually) always glad to get home to everything I love, which to me is the perfect way to end a lovely trip.
Lady, are you completely insane? The “logic” behind your post makes me sick. I can’t even wrap my head around what you’ve said. As a grown adult woman, I would expect… I don’t know, something more. Here I am, 22 years old having just set out in the world on my own personal journey (of travel, life, good food and wine, culture, languages, and art!), and you’re throwing dog shit all over it.
justapinchofsalt.com
In re #2, you also don’t learn a thing about a culture in one week. We bought a place in Germany and you have to spend at least three months in a place to truly get a feeling for it and the people.
Plus, most people are simply hitting the tourist spots. It’s off the beaten track that you really get to taste and relish anything remotely close to authentic.
I certainly understand not wanting to travel when it comes to business travel. It all looked glamorous at one time, living on an expense account, etc. But for a stretch before my oldest son was born, I traveled three weeks out of four, and it got old pretty fast (and I always lost money because I’d forget or lose receipts for expenses that should have been reimbursed). These days, when it comes to business travel, I prefer to connect, when possible, by video conference. I use Skype when my kids talk to their grandmother, and Avistar when I talk to my remote team members and my clients.
>I’m growing sour on travel
Isn’t it a tiny bit stupid to make judgments on such broader generalities? Think about:
travel on business vs pleasure
abroad vs next town
long vs short
There absolutely nothing in common between travel on business for a day across 400 miles and a two-week trip to a tropical island… Still, both are “travel.”
A good criteria to check whether your statement makes sense is to try the opposite. So, even if you say “I like travel,” you likely woundn’t enjoy a cost-to-cost day trip on business with 9 hours of meetings? Likely not.
As always, you can’t simply state your personal dislike for something, in this case travel. You have to turn it into a diatribe against travel, with deeply flawed reasons.
First, how sad that you didn’t enjoy yourself. Maybe you didn’t try to hard. Travel IS about being open to others…not focusing on yourself, which of course is always your primary thing in whatever you do.
The many people I know, myself included, travel for many reasons (curiosity; passionate interest in people, places and culture; to just explore and learn something new; etc.)
They’ve had some fun times, some scary times, and some times when they looked around and said: Oh, boy. What were we thinking. But for the most part, they have incredible memories that cannot be duplicated by anything else. (You can read about a place and no matter how great the writer, it will never be the same as BEING THERE.)
Of the people I know who do travel regularly, ironically, they are the most content with their everyday lives. They don’t travel to GET AWAY from anyone or anything. They travel to MOVE TOWARDS something, whether it’s a culture, people, etc. They travel to reach out, to explore and to be open and receptive to what is out there.
That distinguishes them from those who just get on a plane and change geographic location. Those folks are not travelers. You have to be an active participant and not some passive tour-group follower.
Travel is, of course, only as good as you make it. Many people leave a place and no matter where they go, try to duplicate their life at home. Real travel is about opening up yourself to different places, people, etc. Not to just be yourself in another physical location. I cannot begin to describe what I learned about others, as well as myself, without trying to be “deep” or analytical.
For once, I’m glad to see people speaking up on what you wrote (I do so tire of your “followers” who seem to blindly echo or agree with what you write, with not a bit of critical thinking.)
But, again, I think you write to rile people up, again, cause you just love the attention.
What kind of narrow mind thinks travel is a waste of time? Sorry, I disagreed with everything stated in this particular post. (Which is not to say I disagree with every PT post.)
I enjoy travel but I don’t passionately chase it like so many of my classmates at Harvard do. After living abroad twice, I appreciate discovering novelty here in the States more than I enjoy traveling. After my internship ended, I used my three weeks of vacation to stay in LA and rest, write, think, and meet up with friends. Every day I feel closer to having that life PT described–the one where you are doing everything you love to do. And she’s right! I don’t want to leave it! In fact, I’m going to Napa this weekend, and I find myself wondering why I can’t just create my own wine-tasting adventure here in LA with a group of friends. Long live the staycation!
Travel today due to terrorism, the recurrence of piracy and the necessary evil of harsh security measures has reduced the romance factor of travel to almost zero.
Furthermore, travel with or simply on the same plane etc as small children (and some adults) can be unpleasant sometimes.
All this being said the feeling of awe and wonder at experiencing the beauty that new locales have to offer and the memories it provides.
I still feel the excitement of traveling to see the Western Wall in Jerusalem, visiting foreign museums and breweries, looking off the Empire State Building on my honeymoon and joking with the guide that the really big monkey seemed to have gone missing.
Each person defines their own area of pleasure and wonder but the digital age seems to have taken us one step nearer to not wanting to leave “the Matrix”.
For a person who does a lot of travelling to say it can be a waste of time is similar to someone having daily sex implicating to someone not receiving daily sex it is not a big deal. To the person who doesn’t get to travel or is not having sex it is a big deal. I presume the point was don’t look to travel to accomplish the specific items you mentioned with certainty. Personally I like to travel but I am not doing it as an educational exercise or to acquire new perspective but to enjoy visiting other places and people.
Hey Penelope
Your insightful comment is so necessary! I agree with your position. I have lived on three continents, and the primary difference is economic differences. Experiencing economic differences however, makes a great deal of difference to most people. I think there is a value in experiencing economic differences. Most of us have a hard time imagining anything other than what we live with, until we see people who live differently.
Unfortunately, few people get the experience of living under different economic limitations while traveling. Indian beggars are just like American panhandlers until you go beyond the Slumdog Millionaire paradigm and look at how real Indians live. Many of the U.S. family vacation trips digs down to how the locals actually lives. It is middle class living on a hotel somewhere else.
I do believe those trips do have a value though, and it is not about what you experience from other cultures, it is about creating common experiences with your own family. Most families have good sides and bad sides, and creating opportunities for positive common experiences ties a family together in a good way.
Keep up the good writing lady! You are one of my favorite writers and I get positive feedback from most of the people I share your writing with. You provide us all with chutzpah and inspiration!
Penelope writes on how traveling is a waste of time, yet she tweets about traveling to DC to meet with a couple of angel investors. Doesn’t this whole situation just drip with irony?
Haha, PT – I never thought I would say this (really, never) but you missed the boat entirely on this one.
I think it would have been better to say
4 Reasons Vacationing is a Waste of Time
I agree with point #1 that it’s low risk to try something for a week. That’s a vacation, and not really TRAVEL to connect with anything in particular. I lived on a desert island off the coast of FLA for a month (part of a 6 week trip) to test my limits. And it wasn’t very low risk and boy did I learn lots of new things.
I agree with point #2 if you vacation to other places. If you actually have to submerge into the culture (the first time I had to go grocery shopping in China I almost passed out from the stress of figuring out what to get to put together a meal I could eat) I had plenty of money to spend at the store and it was a very nice store, I was just in culture shock.
LOL on point #3 – PT, I love you because you hate life so much and I read your blog to wince at the angst. So I guess I’ll have to counter you one with – miserable people with kids and jobs they hate don’t leave either- (ergo they can never travel, only vacation). I think both have nothing to do with travel. I think we need to apply point two to this theory. State of mind doesn’t matter. Economics do.
Point #4 – There is a Daoist theory associated with changing your placement in the universe changes your brain or something to that effect. I think the -culture shock- of fundamentally changing your location and removing yourself from the daily grind of life, money, text messages etc is a huge opportunity for deep thinking. I changed the course of my life after a 10 day solo hiking trip through Arizona because I had so much quiet time to think. Of course, I rarely have the -vacation- mindset so you’ll never find a blackberry with me or screaming kids and Disneyland.
So in summary, herewith find my vote to change the title to something accurate like, vacationing is a waste of time. I do realize that you are not running a democracy at Brazen Careerist so thank you for at least providing the forum for me to express my opinion. :)
A+
I have been lurking for a month or two and I was hoping Penelope would be a good source for inspiring, helpful blurbs on career, work/life balance, etc. What I have learned is that she has a decent writing style but has no real substance. She grew up in a wealthy family and has never had to take a traditional job in her life. She claims to know how it is to be “living almost in poverty” at $200K a year (who cares if it was NYC). When she goes on food stamps or has to bunk down with relatives/friends because she lost her home and can’t even afford rent then tell me she knows anything close to poverty. She has had the privilage of not only travelling (or vacationing) in places where many people will only ever wish to go but to live in a foreign country too. Wow, how tough for you. I know she says her family was abusive and I have no reason not to believe her and that is awful. Nobody should have to put up with that. But the bottom line is she seems like nothing more than a privilaged, self-absorbed, princess who wants nothing more than to be whorshipped by the younger generation as some wise sage of start-up, do-nothing productive with your life if you can avoid it nonsense.
Tsk Tsk … Penelope, Are you becoming parochial towards your Madison home base? To quote St. Augustine: “The world is a book and those that do not travel read only one page.”
You know, I haven’t visited this blog for months. Don’t think I’ll be back soon. I’ve traveled around the world for business and pleasure and have indeed learned a lot in the process. If you have your eyes and mind open, you will too.
It’s flat out ridiculous to make a blanket statement that aligns love of travel with unhappiness on the home front. Good grief, Penelope, does your blog now only seek to ignite controversy? Oh sad.