Comments on: Getting “Off The Beaten Path”: Just Another Traveler’s Cliché http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/ The Travelzine for Today's Vagabond Wed, 17 Mar 2010 18:51:21 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: got http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/comment-page-1/#comment-7651 got Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:11:25 +0000 http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/#comment-7651 I understand your points. However, one of the reasons to travel is to get away from your normal surroundings, meet new people, see different ways of doing things, seek new experiences....and perhaps to challenge one's perceptions, understandings and even physical limits. Otherwise, why leave home? And to travel thus means to take an informed decision to put oneself into a different and new envronment - and it's up to the individual to decide how challenging they want this to be: a club in Ibiza, or the top of K2! I dont want to appear prententious (!) but you might like Baudelaire's "Invitation au voyage" - he goes on an extraordinary journey to exotic places, and when back home he recounts his fascinating travels..only to conclude that all humans are consumed by greed, lust and sin. Happy reading! I understand your points. However, one of the reasons to travel is to get away from your normal surroundings, meet new people, see different ways of doing things, seek new experiences….and perhaps to challenge one’s perceptions, understandings and even physical limits. Otherwise, why leave home?
And to travel thus means to take an informed decision to put oneself into a different and new envronment – and it’s up to the individual to decide how challenging they want this to be: a club in Ibiza, or the top of K2!

I dont want to appear prententious (!) but you might like Baudelaire’s “Invitation au voyage” – he goes on an extraordinary journey to exotic places, and when back home he recounts his fascinating travels..only to conclude that all humans are consumed by greed, lust and sin. Happy reading!

]]> By: Nora http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/comment-page-1/#comment-6418 Nora Wed, 02 Apr 2008 00:57:04 +0000 http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/#comment-6418 Wow - thanks for the comments, and I agree with you both! Here I thought I was going to come under fire for being so cynical! (I should watch what I say...it could yet still happen....) Wow – thanks for the comments, and I agree with you both! Here I thought I was going to come under fire for being so cynical! (I should watch what I say…it could yet still happen….)

]]> By: Aaron http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/comment-page-1/#comment-6358 Aaron Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:14:50 +0000 http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/#comment-6358 Bravo!! How tired I am of hearing about how I should be riding on the locals' "chicken bus" rather than on the air conditioned tourist bus. This obsession with meeting, eating with, traveling like, sleeping like "the locals" is inane. Recently an employee at a hostel in Krakow, tired of hearing people who wanted the "local experience", posed a question to me: "Why feel the need to meet locals of another country when you don't even know your own neighbors?" Aaron Bravo!!

How tired I am of hearing about how I should be riding on the locals’ “chicken bus” rather than on the air conditioned tourist bus. This obsession with meeting, eating with, traveling like, sleeping like “the locals” is inane.

Recently an employee at a hostel in Krakow, tired of hearing people who wanted the “local experience”, posed a question to me: “Why feel the need to meet locals of another country when you don’t even know your own neighbors?”

Aaron

]]> By: Amanda Kendle http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/comment-page-1/#comment-6331 Amanda Kendle Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:02:13 +0000 http://www.vagabondish.com/travel-cliche-off-the-beaten-path/#comment-6331 Very good points, Nora. I have my own theory about getting off the beaten path. I think that to "really" travel (and get off the beaten path) means to "really" experience a city/country and my theory is that it takes two years of living somewhere before that happens. First year, everything's new, second year, you've started to work out where to go when and you begin to really appreciate a place. The problem is, that gives most people a maximum of about 20 or 30 places to "travel" to in their lifetime. Not enough :) Very good points, Nora. I have my own theory about getting off the beaten path. I think that to “really” travel (and get off the beaten path) means to “really” experience a city/country and my theory is that it takes two years of living somewhere before that happens. First year, everything’s new, second year, you’ve started to work out where to go when and you begin to really appreciate a place. The problem is, that gives most people a maximum of about 20 or 30 places to “travel” to in their lifetime. Not enough :)

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