Has anyone lost the travel bug?

[Elixir]

I love being in new places, but getting anywhere good is too time-consuming and painful anymore.

This, +1000

Meh. It takes at least eight hours to get out of Australia, and 16-24 hours of flying time to get to America or Europe, so a couple of extra hours at the airport is not that big a deal.

I mostly travel to visit family, as almost all of mine are as far from my home as they could be without joining the space program. But I am fortunate in that I am fascinated by the details of commercial aviation; And in that I am now wealthy enough to fly business class.

I didn't know y'all had a space program. Stands to reason though - must be a lot easier to launch stuff when it's already facing down...

 

[bilby]

Meh. It takes at least eight hours to get out of Australia, and 16-24 hours of flying time to get to America or Europe, so a couple of extra hours at the airport is not that big a deal.

I mostly travel to visit family, as almost all of mine are as far from my home as they could be without joining the space program. But I am fortunate in that I am fascinated by the details of commercial aviation; And in that I am now wealthy enough to fly business class.

I didn't know y'all had a space program. Stands to reason though - must be a lot easier to launch stuff when it's already facing down...

Yeah, we just take things to Woomera and turn off the magnets.

 

[Copernicus]

While I usually hate to fly, that hatred does not extend to all airlines. Last week, I flew from Perth to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, and economy class was actually quite pleasant. The boarding process was efficient, instead of hopelessly jammed up. The food was edible and the wines drinkable. The seats were reasonably comfortable and reclined a little more than on other aircraft. We even got a small "comfort kit" with slipper-socks and a toothbrush kit. That was economy class.

 

[bilby]

While I usually hate to fly, that hatred does not extend to all airlines. Last week, I flew from Perth to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, and economy class was actually quite pleasant. The boarding process was efficient, instead of hopelessly jammed up. The food was edible and the wines drinkable. The seats were reasonably comfortable and reclined a little more than on other aircraft. We even got a small "comfort kit" with slipper-socks and a toothbrush kit. That was economy class.

Singapore Airlines have an excellent reputation. I haven't flown with them yet, but have just bought tickets from BNE to LHR business class return in December, so I am hoping they will live up to the hype.

 

[Copernicus]

While I usually hate to fly, that hatred does not extend to all airlines. Last week, I flew from Perth to Singapore on Singapore Airlines, and economy class was actually quite pleasant. The boarding process was efficient, instead of hopelessly jammed up. The food was edible and the wines drinkable. The seats were reasonably comfortable and reclined a little more than on other aircraft. We even got a small "comfort kit" with slipper-socks and a toothbrush kit. That was economy class.

Singapore Airlines have an excellent reputation. I haven't flown with them yet, but have just bought tickets from BNE to LHR business class return in December, so I am hoping they will live up to the hype.

Business class on Singapore Airlines is something else. My wife and I flew business class on an A380 from Shanghai to Singapore once. Our individual seats were each the size of couches, so we had trouble just talking to each other across the distance. What really impressed me about economy class however, was that I was still able to get a complimentary Singapore Sling, just not in as fancy a glass.

 

[crazyfingers]

I've traveled enough for business that it's not something I engoy any more. Been to most all US states that have a tech industry. Probably 30 srates in all. Been to the UK, Germany, Holland, China, S Korea, Singapore, and Japan. Japan at least 30 times now. Mexico, Canada.

As for vacation, with 3 teens who don't get along great and a 17 year old daughter who still tantrums, I have no desire to to do the flying thing with them nor a desire to cram the 5 of us into a hotel room or two. Can't see myself spending thousands of dollars to put myself through that.

We do "travel" in two cars to our house in Maine for summer vacations but even then getting the kids to actually pack their stuff and help unpact the cars is just plain frustrating. But at least we have a whole house and not just two rooms. And plenty of outdoors to relax.

Maybe when they are all on their own my wife and I will go to Europe. She wants to see Belgium for I don't know why.

But the whole flying thing is just torture these days.

I will likely have to go to NYC and DC. a few times this year for work. I'll likely take the train just to make it less stressful and some improvement in comfort.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While not to that extent, my partner's Dutch passport has the Dutch spelling of her last name, and her permanent resident card has the English spelling of her last name. For that reason, they almost refused to let her board when we were flying home from Florida last year.

I get the sense that stuff like this is a bigger problem in American airports, though. We'll see when we fly to Europe in the fall.

Yeah, we don't deal with as much language diversity and so language-munched names aren't as common here.

 

[gmbteach]

Kinda sorta.
I mean, I enjoy seeing new things, new places.

But 38 years of business and military travel has certainly diminished the excitement over the process of traveling to new places.

I understand what you mean. When I was a PSF, I relished the couple of days every weekend when I was home. However, I still planned two ‘holidays’ for myself and it was a different feeling.

I want to travel more, however, given my liking for luxury when doing so, finances don’t permit it as much as I would like.

Having said that, there is a lot more of Australia to see yet, as I have only really extensively explored an area roughly the size of Texas in north west Queensland and my own little 100km wise circle of south east Queensland, as well as Kakadu in the NT. Oh, I forgot exploring the Rocks in Sydney.

 

[crazyfingers]

I have to go to NYC from Boston Wednesday for work and I'll take the train. Kinda looking forward to what the Acela is like. I have to go to downtown Manhattan and it will be nicer to arrive at Penn Station than LaGuardia, that's for sure.

In June I have to do the Tokyo trip. We put as much on my United credit card as we can so that I can get an upgrade to Business class. But even then the flights can be whacked. On the way over is Ok. Boston to Montrial to Narita Tokyo. Air Canada is pretty good. Nice business class pods.

But coming home the only trans pacific route I could get first takes me from Tokyo to Seoul, S. Korea and then Chicago and then Boston. The first two segments are on Asiana Airlines. A Korean airline. I have never flown them before. I hope they have nice pods like Air Canada.

I would love to never fly again. But I have to.

While looking at Amtrack I surfed around. It's interesting that their sleeper cabins seem pretty nice. They even have private family suites on the long haul trains. Wifi, private showers, etc.

Once I reach retirement years and should my wife and I actually ever want to go on a long trip, I'd consider a suite on the train over flying.

My wife really wants to go back to Europe though. I wonder if passenger ships still go to Europe.

But still travel by airplane sucks in every way.

 

[crazyfingers]

I will never forget waiting in the Singapore airport for 12 hours waiting for a typhoon to pass Hong Kong to fly from Hong Kong to Chicago to Boston. Arrive in Hong Kong only to wait another 6 hours for the delayed flight from Chicago to arrive. Arriving in Chicago I got a hotel room for 3 hours sleep and a shower. Beautiful suite to spend 4 hours in...

I will never forget finally taking the ferry across from Zhuhai China to the Hong Kong airport and feeling I had arrived in a safe environment, free wifi to Skype home, and then on to Tokyo where I have been so many times and feel totally safe. Flying sucks but I'd rather be in Tokyo than Zhuhai China.

Bejing China is all one concrete slab. Was glad to be out of there! My escort was a charming Chinese young lady with a beautiful smile but clearly was unfree to express her opinions. I could see it in her eyes. She wanted to be free. I feel sorry for her. I hope she is Ok.

I will never forget the snow storm in Chicago that delayed my flight to Tokyo by 9 hours and arriving at Narita at 4am.

I will never forget the freezing rain in Boston that delayed my flight to SFOand connection to Tokyo that I had to run a mile in the SFO airport to get my connection to Tokyo all sweating and out of breath arriving on the plane only to have a rear facing seat.

Red eyes from LAX to Boston really suck. Red Eyes from Las Vegas suck more.

It takes forever for Las Vegas airport to deliver the bags on arrival. The only airport that's worse is Boston, Logan.

 

[Toni]

I don't get to travel nearly often enough. Last time I was on a plane was almost a year ago. I still get that feel of excitement at take off, love looking at the clouds. Last flight into Washington D.C. there was a rainbow!

Please note: I've never had to travel for work so I'm on 'vacation time.'

It's not that nothing has ever gone wrong. I once arrived at an airport to find that the flight I was holding tickets for did not, in fact, exist. I was re-routed and flew a tiny little commuter plane to get to the actual airport where my family was waiting for me. I've had baggage lost, and some turbulence, not nothing terrible or awful. I've done some time on a tarmac and I've missed a flight and had to drive like mad through some bad weather to get to the next leg of my flight at a different airport. I've flown into cities where I've never been, once with an infant and a 4 year old and a massive case of mastitis to find a home in the city where we would be relocating (pre-internet days). It's not always been fun and games. But it is always a thrill.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While looking at Amtrack I surfed around. It's interesting that their sleeper cabins seem pretty nice. They even have private family suites on the long haul trains. Wifi, private showers, etc.

Once I reach retirement years and should my wife and I actually ever want to go on a long trip, I'd consider a suite on the train over flying.

My wife really wants to go back to Europe though. I wonder if passenger ships still go to Europe.

But still travel by airplane sucks in every way.

Last time we were in China we took an overnight train. She couldn't sleep through the various starts/stops during the night. No more night trains for us!

 

[Copernicus]

While looking at Amtrack I surfed around. It's interesting that their sleeper cabins seem pretty nice. They even have private family suites on the long haul trains. Wifi, private showers, etc.

Once I reach retirement years and should my wife and I actually ever want to go on a long trip, I'd consider a suite on the train over flying.

My wife really wants to go back to Europe though. I wonder if passenger ships still go to Europe.

But still travel by airplane sucks in every way.

Last time we were in China we took an overnight train. She couldn't sleep through the various starts/stops during the night. No more night trains for us!

That may just depend on circumstances. My wife and I have taken a couple of them in China and experienced no problems.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

While looking at Amtrack I surfed around. It's interesting that their sleeper cabins seem pretty nice. They even have private family suites on the long haul trains. Wifi, private showers, etc.

Once I reach retirement years and should my wife and I actually ever want to go on a long trip, I'd consider a suite on the train over flying.

My wife really wants to go back to Europe though. I wonder if passenger ships still go to Europe.

But still travel by airplane sucks in every way.

Last time we were in China we took an overnight train. She couldn't sleep through the various starts/stops during the night. No more night trains for us!

That may just depend on circumstances. My wife and I have taken a couple of them in China and experienced no problems.

It's just it turns out she can't sleep through the station stops. (She had never taken a night train before and didn't know it was going to be an issue.)

 

[spikepipsqueak]

I suppose I could be said to have lost the travel bug, but perhaps I never really had it.

As a kid, the only travelling I did was 2 hours drive from the city to a place just across a narrow channel from where I currently live. International travel, even interstate, wasn't as common then, but I didn't envy my wealthier mates. I loved where I was spending my holidays.

By the time I was 24 I had flown from Melbourne to Port Moresby in a single engine Cessna with 3 mates, driven up the east coast as far as Bundaberg and taken the train across the south coast, but I didn't feel driven to travel in the way people sometimes talk about. I went on a very regimented trip to China when I was 28 but haven't used a passport in the intervening 30+ years.

I have filled in the gaps, in Aus. since. Tassie twice, I could live there.

N.T. twice. Once for Kakadu (That was my first holiday in 14 years and I only went because mates thought I was insane for being happy where I was.), once to work on a cattle station 400ks west of Catherine.

There is a huge area west of Broken Hill (excluding the line from Alice Springs to Kakadu) and north of Geraldton that I've never even flown over, never mind seen close up but, while it calls me, faintly, I am unlikely to answer it beyond getting to Broome at some point.

Do others experience the travel bug as compulsion?

 

[gmbteach]

I suppose I could be said to have lost the travel bug, but perhaps I never really had it.

As a kid, the only travelling I did was 2 hours drive from the city to a place just across a narrow channel from where I currently live. International travel, even interstate, wasn't as common then, but I didn't envy my wealthier mates. I loved where I was spending my holidays.

By the time I was 24 I had flown from Melbourne to Port Moresby in a single engine Cessna with 3 mates, driven up the east coast as far as Bundaberg and taken the train across the south coast, but I didn't feel driven to travel in the way people sometimes talk about. I went on a very regimented trip to China when I was 28 but haven't used a passport in the intervening 30+ years.

I have filled in the gaps, in Aus. since. Tassie twice, I could live there.

N.T. twice. Once for Kakadu (That was my first holiday in 14 years and I only went because mates thought I was insane for being happy where I was.), once to work on a cattle station 400ks west of Catherine.

There is a huge area west of Broken Hill (excluding the line from Alice Springs to Kakadu) and north of Geraldton that I've never even flown over, never mind seen close up but, while it calls me, faintly, I am unlikely to answer it beyond getting to Broome at some point.

Do others experience the travel bug as compulsion?

Funny that. Prior to lunch time yesterday, Bilby and I were looking forward to a quiet week off at home, relaxing, watching Ashes to Ashes and maybe doing a couple of medium sized sorting jobs that need doing. As of 2 pm yesterday we decided to do a 2000 km road trip to see my severely ill uncle and take my parents for the ride. So planning mode kicked in and we are off.

Apart from the fact my uncle is ill and therefore necessitating this trip, I quite like planning a spur of the moment trip.

 

[rousseau]

I suppose I could be said to have lost the travel bug, but perhaps I never really had it.

As a kid, the only travelling I did was 2 hours drive from the city to a place just across a narrow channel from where I currently live. International travel, even interstate, wasn't as common then, but I didn't envy my wealthier mates. I loved where I was spending my holidays.

By the time I was 24 I had flown from Melbourne to Port Moresby in a single engine Cessna with 3 mates, driven up the east coast as far as Bundaberg and taken the train across the south coast, but I didn't feel driven to travel in the way people sometimes talk about. I went on a very regimented trip to China when I was 28 but haven't used a passport in the intervening 30+ years.

I have filled in the gaps, in Aus. since. Tassie twice, I could live there.

N.T. twice. Once for Kakadu (That was my first holiday in 14 years and I only went because mates thought I was insane for being happy where I was.), once to work on a cattle station 400ks west of Catherine.

There is a huge area west of Broken Hill (excluding the line from Alice Springs to Kakadu) and north of Geraldton that I've never even flown over, never mind seen close up but, while it calls me, faintly, I am unlikely to answer it beyond getting to Broome at some point.

Do others experience the travel bug as compulsion?

Might just be the cynicism in me but I've always figured that a lot of what people do can be attributed to lack of imagination.

Human behavior can usually be well understood by what a person would do if they did the least amount of thinking as possible. The heuristic in that case is often 'what does everyone else do', and if one has money.. they travel.

Even if you have nothing better to do with your time and money than travel, fair enough, but even then I find a lot of what people do when they travel uninspiring. You'd be downright amazed at how many people I know who go to Toronto solely to visit the new Aquarium that just opened up.

I don't mean any of the above as a criticism, but I do think there is a huge, amazing world out there if you put a little extra thought into the things you do, and open yourself up to doing things that you find 'weird'.

 

[crazyfingers]

I don't mean any of the above as a criticism, but I do think there is a huge, amazing world out there if you put a little extra thought into the things you do, and open yourself up to doing things that you find 'weird'.

If there is enough time built into a business trip somewhere far enough away from home that the wildlife may be different, I try to build in time to practice my hobby of wildlife photography. Even in a big city, aside from the ubiquitous city pigeons, there will always be some bird I haven't seen before.

As for weird, eating still-twitching squid tentacles, raw horse meat, raw chicken and other interesting stuff, I'll generally try any food once.

But these are usually attempts to make the best of a trip that I would not otherwise make but that it's required for my work. There was a time in the 80's and 90's that I was on an airplane probably three times a week on average. Done with that! The Internet and webinars have eliminated a lot of that need.

Pleasure travel on a airplane? Not in the cards for me. Other than the cost of airfare, hotel and car rental for a family of 5, I think that my teenagers would drive me crazy and possibly go berserk so confined and stuck in close proximity.

Far better to take two cars and go to our place in Maine to spend my vacation time.

Miles of ocean shoreline to browse, lot of biking, hiking, places to take them swimming, great birding places for me, a house instead of a room to live in. Relatives nearby, I'd rather go to our happy place over and over than spend a ton of money on what will almost certainly be a trip with too many problems and trauma.

 

[rousseau]

I don't mean any of the above as a criticism, but I do think there is a huge, amazing world out there if you put a little extra thought into the things you do, and open yourself up to doing things that you find 'weird'.

If there is enough time built into a business trip somewhere far enough away from home that the wildlife may be different, I try to build in time to practice my hobby of wildlife photography. Even in a big city, aside from the ubiquitous city pigeons, there will always be some bird I haven't seen before.

As for weird, eating still-twitching squid tentacles, raw horse meat, raw chicken and other interesting stuff, I'll generally try any food once.

But these are usually attempts to make the best of a trip that I would not otherwise make but that it's required for my work. There was a time in the 80's and 90's that I was on an airplane probably three times a week on average. Done with that! The Internet and webinars have eliminated a lot of that need.

Pleasure travel on a airplane? Not in the cards for me. Other than the cost of airfare, hotel and car rental for a family of 5, I think that my teenagers would drive me crazy and possibly go berserk so confined and stuck in close proximity.

Far better to take two cars and go to our place in Maine to spend my vacation time.

Miles of ocean shoreline to browse, lot of biking, hiking, places to take them swimming, great birding places for me, a house instead of a room to live in. Relatives nearby, I'd rather go to our happy place over and over than spend a ton of money on what will almost certainly be a trip with too many problems and trauma.

I meant that to include your own backyard too. I always find it a bit interesting when people are eager to travel long distances, and yet have covered a very small proportion of the place they actually live in, for whatever reason. Hang-ups seem to be not at all uncommon.. 'guys don't go to museums', 'why would I go to a bookstore', 'I can't get to a restaurant by myself', 'this restaurant is too fancy'.

I'm still convinced that a lot of it is somehow tied to social status. "Did you know I've been to [x]". Well what did you do there? Why did you want to go there? What interested you about it? The interest is less in the place itself, more how it adds to the story.

 

[Tharmas]

I'm still convinced that a lot of it is somehow tied to social status. "Did you know I've been to [x]". Well what did you do there? Why did you want to go there? What interested you about it? The interest is less in the place itself, more how it adds to the story.

Well, I agree that there may be some people who travel “just to say they’ve been there,” but I’m not so sure I’ve ever met any. Personally I’ve enjoyed my travels immensely and recall the details frequently with great pleasure.

Here’s an interesting case though. In one of our trips, my wife and I traveled by rail all the way from Vladivostok Russia, on the Pacific, to St. Petersburg, a distance of over 9,500 km. It took us two and a half weeks, because we stopped for a day or two in several cities and towns along the way.

All along this trip we were berthed in the same compartment as another couple, who happened to be Australian. It seemed like every minute this other couple expressed how terrible they thought everything was, from the food to the train to the Russians we met to the towns we visited. It got really hard to take.

In addition, it turned out this couple had traveled extensively throughout the world, and thought every place they’d been was terrible, compared to ‘ome. The one exception was their trip to the U.S., which they thought was fabulous.

What was their motivation to travel? Just to prove they wished they’d never left home? I still don’t get it. Go figure.