Do you like to travel for fun?

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Do you like to travel with all the things that means, seeing new sights, meeting new people, going new places, eating new things, trying new activities, etc?

Try as I might, I just can not get interested in travel as a from of recreation. How about you?

Travel itself has not ever been fun. It is inconvenient, uncomfortable, and tiring. However, it can be fascinating to explore new countries and meet new people. Travel started to become less difficult with jet airplanes in the 1960s, However, with hijackings and increased security controls in the 1970s, travel has become less and enjoyable. Also, more and more places have become hostile and dangerous.

Even domestic travel has become less enjoyable as national and state parks which used to be totally open to the public are becoming more and more a regulated. Also places like Portland (which I visited in the 1970s) have become less attractive destinations.

Yes and no.

I love driving through rural Wales ♡, but I am on edge if I go outside or I travel outside my comfort zone, and being on edge is stressful and exhausting!
I like the idea of going to another country but no way would I cope with the airports or similar experiences, and the flight itself would likely panic me, and the thought of getting there and then being stuck somewhere where I am "On edge" is scary! So no. I have not been abroad. I once got the forms to get a passport as I wanted to be brave (This was before I hit the first burnout so I was more able) but I looked at the forms and could not fill them in. The complicated mass of pages... I just could not do it.

If I could get my own boat and learn to drive it and then go with only a very simple customs to check I am me, then I would be ok... I might enjoy it...

But I am a sort of person who only goes to speak to people if they are doing a certain job where I need to approach them if that makes sense? How can I explain?
Lets say I find myself on my own in a strange place. I would likely starve because I would not talk to anyone. If someone friendly approached me I would then be ok if I could remember who they are, as then I would speak to them and thenthey could introduce me to others and I would be ok. If someone is with me to "Break the ice" and go to speak to others I will open up and be ok. It is that initial contact.... Which is very odd because when I have worked, part of my job was to make initial contact and I was excellent at it, but it was all a mask... When I am not in a job, for a while I can retain that job mask, and then it wears off and I am alone...

BUT, sometimes enthusiasm for something like trains or something can spur me to talk where I would not normally talk... And if I start talking no one else can talk because I talk too much! But otherwize I can be very timid and quiet.
At home it is diffent. But out of my familiar territory without someone familiar I am.... Uhmmm.


But I ca not answer a yes or a no to the poll sorry, as I do not know what to put.

Yes!! Especially to see live sporting events.

I'm not sure how to respond. I seem to like camping, ideally in a remote place during the work week so there are less people around. I don't like to meet new people or try new activities, it's nice to get out of my city and go out in nature, sit down, shut up, wander some trails, and relax in quiet. There are places I wouldn't mind visiting, but for the most part, they are places like abandoned towns where there isn't anything to do except look around. The idea of going to someplace like New York or Paris is close to my idea of hell. Way too chaotic for me. But the reality is, I don't go out much. Even though I do find camping to be calming, I rarely go. No idea why. It would probably do me some good to vanish into the woods more often.

So in a way yes, in a way no. Probably mostly no.

I generally find it stressful. Doubly so if the country I'm travelling in isn't an English speaking country - it's hard enough talking to people in my own language.

Having said that, I have travelled a bit and I have fond memories of the places I've been. So I don't enjoy travelling so much as enjoy having travelled.

My travel tends to be to see family, or to meet friends. Seldom do I do any touring.

I wish I could do more traveling.

Tours are okay----but going off on your own, provided you know your way around, is even MORE okay!

One can research a place thoroughly.....but one will never KNOW a place until one has had the opportunity to actually BE in that place. It's good to go on guided tours sometimes---but it is also good to stake out on your own. It's great if you can board with a family in the country which one is visiting.

No! I find being in a car whether a passenger or driver scary! Left to my own devices I just drive 4 miles to my allotment, church or a bit further to visit my Dad or elderly Aunts. I feel sorry for my husband as he enjoys going places, going out for meals etc but at least now our four children are adults he goes (or used to go pre-Covid) snow boarding abroad once a year with them. I do visit family who are further afield and love them dearly, but it’s exhausting coping with the driving and i’m a bad passenger too and drive my husband mad.

I did in the past cope so much better, drove to work, held down a job etc but now I know that was “masking” ...I can still focus and cope when needed now say, when my husband has hospital appointments further from home but that aside I don’t wander more than 4 miles from home.

I love to travel

Does tripping count? I can't afford to travel but I can afford a bottles of Robitussin.

I wasn't sure what to vote, but went for yes.

I like the idea of travelling for fun in principle, and I used to love it. More recently uncomfortable experiences have taken some of the fun out of it, but not completely. It got more complicated as time went by and my trust in the staff to be helpful was eroded by a few not-very-nice experiences. It's easier travelling with friends, and my most recent journeys have been alone on long-haul economy class flights to the USA, running the gauntlet of suspicious border immigration & security staff and huge busy airports. Before 2013 all I'd done was surface travel, and the only significantly bad experience I'd had in those days was a strip search on returning alone from Amsterdam - they were looking for drugs, they didn't find any, but even so, what an abusive welcome back to the UK. Travelling was rather more informal and relaxed before all these terrorism scares started.

Over time I've grown bored with standard tourist ritual holidays, seeing "the sights" and paying through the nose for everything. I have better uses for the money. But if I can get off the beaten track I still enjoy new places. I get sick of living in a crowded city so I like to get out into the countryside and away from the crowds. I had an interesting time on the Isle of Man in 2005, Dublin in 2016, performing music and jamming with the locals in Arkansas since 2017. As for the actual travelling, as long as it's not too long I can quite enjoy the trains, boats and planes. I still like the moment when the plane I'm on leaves the ground.

Of course the pandemic has ruined a lot of travelling, so I'm not currently doing much. I'm content not to, as I enjoy being at home, but it should be good to get back to making journeys when the conditions are right. Hope it'll still be affordable.

I am interested in travel and I have visited countries like Germany, Spain, Italy and the USA over the past decade. In more recent years and especially since the pandemic started, I’ve become more aware of the environmental impact that international travel has especially to long-haul destinations and as a result, I intend to only travel within the U.K. and neighbouring countries in future. There’s a lot of great destinations to visit both here and in nearby European countries like Germany, the Netherlands and France which can be done by rail rather than flying and I fully intend to get on a train and explore these places once it’s safe to do so.

I'd travel for enjoyment if I had the money.

I don't enjoy the literal traveling -part, as in sitting in a bus/plane/train etc. but I do enjoy seeing new places, trying new things and meeting new people (not that I usually get to talk to the locals much since the only foreign language I know well enough to have a conversation with is English), so it's worth the necessary evil of sitting in a vehicle for a long period of time.

I hope the covid situation gets better by next spring so that I can go to Ireland... I was planning on going last autumn, but naturally that didn't work out.

If I have to travel, and have extra time, I can sometimes enjoy the process, but I won't initiate a trip for pleasure unless it is by bicycle or small boat. If I drive out into the country for a picnic, it takes me hours to slow down and feel present there, but going by bike, I'm "there" the whole time. I go for the scenery, not the people.