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I disagree that it’s due to boredom, or that it is overrated.

Learning about other cultures and other people’s way of life is incredibly important in an increasingly divided world. I strongly believe that if the average American spent time living with an Islamic family in the Middle East for a week, we might break down a lot of barriers between all the folks that share this rock we live on.

It’s another question as to whether that’s the type of travel people want to do, or whether it’s all collecting Instagram photos because #wanderlust is trendy and accessible right now

All of this can be done via the internet.

That's not the same.

Why?

Because you can't replace first hand experience with brwowsing the internet. There is much more to a place than you can see on a screen.

You remind me of an old lady I met while living in Southern California. This lady was extremely proud of the fact that she had never set foot outside of California her entire life (by choice, as she was quite wealthy). I asked her about it and she said “Honey, why bother? It’s paradise here. If I ever wonder about life elsewhere, I can read about it or watch a documentary!”

I mean, to each his own, but to me it’s the difference between reading documentation about code vs. writing code. The former may give you some good information, and may even be essential, but it’s not the same as experiencing the real thing.

Think bigger. Her and you have never set foot outside Earth. What makes California so different from x or y point on Earth? Really think about it deeply.

Please don't compare reading and writing code or a book for that matter to getting on a plane and staying in a hotel or a apartment.

Your comment lacks substance.

Care to explain why you have an issue with my analogy?

There are so many different cultures much closer to people. If the motivation for travel was to learn about other cultures, go to a different part of town, eat at their restaurants, go to their bars, make some friends, and learn. There are Islamic families in the US as well as the Middle East.

> if the average American spent time living with an Islamic family in the Middle East for a week

Or opposite. Dating girl from strict Muslim family was eye opening.

Learning about other cultures and other people’s way of life is incredibly important in an increasingly divided world. I strongly believe that if the average American spent time living with an Islamic family in the Middle East for a week

During the Colonial era, quite a lot of indigenous peoples were wiped out by exposure to new diseases. Last I checked, we still haven't figured out what caused Gulf War Syndrome, much less how to cure it.

I'm convinced that there are a lot more health problems related to traveling and having no understanding of what we are exposing ourselves to than gets recognized, and there are plenty of stories out there of people bringing back horrifying health issues from their honeymoon or whatever. (I'm thinking of some article about some couple that picked up some parasitic worm from walking on the beach. The photos were disturbing.)

And it can be an issue that a local wouldn't have a big problem with. Maybe they have immunity or maybe they know not do X or whatever.

I don't want to shut travel down entirely, but I think ideas like yours contain very, very large blind spots.

I had to create an account just to agree with you. I express the same opinion to my wife and whoever else will listen and so far every single one of them get mad at me. I just don't understand the attraction of traveling to some country where it's clear that most of the people don't like you. You are not alone.

However, there was that one time we went to Ireland and were the only Americans in a bar and the band found out we were from Colorado and played John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" and the whole bar was singing along. That was one of the best nights of my life. So I guess it's more complicated than just saying "traveling is so overrated it's insane".

Yeah it is definitely complicated. I think there is some degree of travel that makes sense but right now it has become a competition and a game rather than a stop and breathe, soak this in sort of thing. In that sense all this competition is for naught and much more can be learned by appreciating earth where one dwells now. Learn to see and understand the people around you in different parts of the city and better understand ho humanity impacts the environment similarly across the planet.

I'll play Sherlock.

I think that's just a controversial view you created and therefore particularly like. It's likely also one you created to explain some preferences of yours (e.g local attachment). Likely instilled from parents.

I think my view on your comment is: true as long as you're a cyborg. Personally, I travel where(and when) no one goes. Unique, remote places. It's scientifically proven that when you experience something completely new your brain it's over clocking . That's what usually drives a good % of people. The rest simply follows. Not really clever marketing.

I work remote and can travel anywhere anytime so I see it as it is rather than as a fantasy to escape boredom locally.

I work remotely and find it very hard to believe you can go "anywhere anytime".

Personal still take leave to go traveling, the infrastructure in most places on Earth is virtually nonexistent. There's a reason you won't find any digital nomads working from beautiful Pacific islands.

Yeah, the infrastructure most places isn't there. I remember recently a HN thread on why one would need a powerful laptop for work, when you should just SSH into a server...

Then I recounted my experience trying to do that from a decent hotel in Lusaka.

Weird. I travel quite often. More often than not in remote places. In my experience there's ALWAYS an airbnb/resort/hotel that has WIFI satellite. Also, coding/designing/answering emails very rarely requires a fast internet connection. Some anecdotal examples: Galapagos, Socotra, Lofoten, Sacred Valley, Island of the Sun, Patagonia and Atacama's desert.

I know it can be hard to hear views that you don't agree with especially if you fantasize about doing something once/twice a year for vacation or escape.

I suspect many of the people in this thread would benefit from reading about the Typical Mind Fallacy:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/baTWMegR42PAsH9qJ/generalizi...

>> Traveling is so overrated it's insane.

No it is not. It is only overrated for folks who are trying to "gain" something from it.

>> Okay let's be honest for a second what does most traveling boil down to?

The whole point of traveling is to be in an environment foreign to you. Interacting with locals, eating local food, trying local shit. This was all more fun before globalization since you couldn't fly into Phillipines and walk into a McDonalds. But now, you can and that reduces the charm.

You might find traveling overrated because it is monetarily and passport-wise easy for you.

You might find it overrated because even after going to a far away land, you're using uber to go from point A to point B instead of what locals use there.

You might find it overrated if you are trying to use traveling to make you feel special. You want to be the only instagrammer who has gone to Bali? Too bad, so many others have.

The real fun of traveling is really meeting people from around the world in a foreign land, doing local activities, seeing amazing sights (natural and man made) learning their way of life and opening mindsets. It's crazy how wonderful this little blue rock in space is.

The real question you have to ask yourself is why is it foreign to you? You are breathing air, eating food that boils down to the same components, you are experiencing gravity at the same rate, you are seeing one moon, you are seeing one sun, you are interacting with homo sapiens. The differences are mostly psychological perceptions where you are bored and want to feel something different.

>> The differences are mostly psychological perceptions where you are bored and want to feel something different.

Only if you have a shallow perception of differences. You need to engage.

This is what your idea of traveling looks like (minimal interaction with locals, going to familiar brands, looking at everything from a sheltered familiar lens): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdSppr-ltd0

This is what fun, engaging and interesting traveling looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PJ7670mV6E

You really have to enjoy getting out and meeting people for this to work. If you're only in it for social media or with a defeatist armchair philosophical perspective, it won't be fun.

"You are breathing air" - True, but it smells like a different place.

"eating food that boils down to the same components" - Only in the most technically reductive sense. There is no locally sourced crocodile where I live.

"eating food that boils down to the same components" - But entirely different stars

"you are interacting with homo sapiens" - With cares and life experiences utterly different to my own.

Believe it or not it’s possible to have a more meaningful experience when you travel. For example, I spent three weeks staying with a Mayan family in Guatemala while I learned Spanish. I’m not sure I took more than a couple of pictures the whole time I was there.

I think you should take a broader view here. Traveling is not to just go from point to point, traveling is wonderful, it open up to new opportunities and exposes to new ideas, culture and places that you would never know existed. Traveling teaches you so much about life and breaks singular view on world.

You can get a lot more exposure locally if you learn about your community and try to build and grow your country. Most of things you learn traveling or moving to some country named by a person over a war perhaps can be learned online.

You tell me how you learn what it’s like to eat a pupusa between sips of horchata, made by an old blind lady on a beachside stand in El Salvador, while chickens run around between your feet and the local bar is playing bachata music from going on line.

Why can’t you do both ? How can you learn about some 3rd world country, their culture, their social issues and innovations by living in first world community? Learning online about others is like learning to swim online.

It's literally one of the few things that I assign to "meaning" in my life. Seeing the world.

I understand. It is really important to a lot of people. But the world is right there in front of you there is something to be said about appreciating where you are.

You're treating these things like they're mutually exclusive. They're not.

I appreciate where I live MORE because I see other things. Because you notice the differences and appreciate what makes it special. I spend 98% of my time there, and it's better because of the 2% of my time I spend elsewhere.

I love, and enjoy, the place I live in. I'm definitely not "bored".

I still travel.