31–40 of 49 posts
Traveling with people SUCKS. The best times of my life have been being by myself a hundred miles from civilization. I can do whatever the hell I want when I want, and no listening to whining or posing for instagram moments.
Travelling alone sounds like a dream. But I'm an introvert on the ASD, so... I'm probably the exception.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems obvious to me but it needs to be said: perhaps you're not looking deep enough. Read the article again, the key message of "connecting with people and their cultures" is hard to miss. Shallow self gratification of sun, surf, sex and art, these are not going to inspire you, challenge you, or help you grow. But I feel like you already knew that, so why did you post this.
There are diminishing returns to everything, travel included. If you go deep enough, you’ll typically just uncover the mundane, everyday realities, that people are often not willing to share with a foreign, relatively wealthy tourist.
My best travels have been with two other members forming a group which now includes a charter making it the envy of many others.
The rules are defined. We rotate hosts. The host is responsible for arranging lodging, destination, and guide. No additional members or visits to others. Rules require we share all meals, exploring, lodging. This syncs up schedules and garnishes agreement.
This is our tenth year. The rules were codified in the third after an ongoing disagreement that now serves as a long running joke.
Back in '17, I took my car across the Atlantic to the US, and drove coast to coast and back again for a total of 10 weeks. The majority of the trip was spent driving alone. My original plan had been 12 weeks, but coming around the 7th-8th week, as I was driving back to the East Coast, I was hit with a severe sense of home sickness, so I decided to cut my trip short. It was a great trip, and I met a lot of people on t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
About what? In what circumstances? Walk up to people tending their front yard and strike up a conversation? At bus stops? I've tried at least the latter but people generally aren't up for it in western Europe at least This advice article could be a whole lot more concrete
Where would you normally talk to people in your home city or area? Would you talk to strangers tending their yard? Or would you try more sociable places like cafés and bars? So too with solo travel and conversing, people are generally the same everywhere. They'll be on their guard if a stranger comes up to them at a bus stop or in front of their lawn, but they'll be much more approachable in social areas.
Wanna know why I don't speak German after four years of living here? ;)
Without going out of your way for a language course, the interaction with German in Germany is limited to "by card please", "have a good evening/weekend", "a ticket to Aachen please", and forms/contracts like municipal registration, tax returns, and rental contract. Which are way too complex so you use a translator. Similar for a job in German: without first learning it, you can't get one, so you take an English job and the cycle continues.
Yes, I really need to be taking a language course like yesterday already. I'm aware, but that still would not get me chatting with locals; rather, other immigrants and a teacher or so.
> Or would you try more sociable places like cafés and bars?
When we go to cafés, I'd find it super weird if someone came up to our table to make small talk. Worse than at a bus stop. Bars are afaik for people (mainly teenagers) to get drunk together at but I don't drink so I've not been to one, rather walked past outside and can't say that what comes out of that entrance looks appealing to interact with.
Traveling with people is a nightmare. They always want to get up at different times to do things, see different things than you, stay longer at certain places or shorter.
And everyone wants to eat different things at different places at different times.
Back in '17, I took my car across the Atlantic to the US, and drove coast to coast and back again for a total of 10 weeks. The majority of the trip was spent driving alone. My original plan had been 12 weeks, but coming around the 7th-8th week, as I was driving back to the East Coast, I was hit with a severe sense of home sickness, so I decided to cut my trip short. It was a great trip, and I met a lot of people on t…
Wow, what a story! What motivated you to transport the car across the sea instead of rent/buy a car in the US?
My primary motivation was this was something I wanted to do in that specific car. When I checked prices, I discovered that shipping a vehicle was actually cheaper than renting. One way across the Atlantic was about $1,500. Good luck renting a car for 10+ weeks for $3k.
The car was a 1998 Citroën Xantia Activa V6. So my tour of North America primarily involved visiting Citroën enthusiasts across the country, of which - apparently - there are plenty, even though Citroën hasn't sold a car in North American since 1974.
Of course, I had no spare parts there, so I brought an oil filter and a drive belt with me. So amongst the car's history is a bill for an oil change in California. I had no problems with the car, except a brief bit in Louisiana during a heavy rainfall, that the left windscreen wiper leapt and landed on my side mirror. Fortunately, there was an exit almost immediately, and I was able to pull over to a fuel station to fix it (I obviously kept a toolkit in the boot).
So yeah, part of the motivation was also having Citroën fans in the US see a car they rarely see. And - perhaps something only I appreciate - the look on people's faces when they see a car on European plates (and not just fake front plates).
The “magic” seems little more than not having to compromise, allowing you to be selfish without the guilt of hurting others. With friends, the magic comes when the holiday has finished and you start saying “remember that thing on that holiday!”. The worst form of loneliness is only having memories nobody else shares.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree on the value of shared memories from traveling with friends. But as you said, by definition the memories will be of experiences that were shaped by compromise. When traveling alone, the experience is yours alone and defined by the memories you want to make.
Is the value of shared memories worth the tradeoff of potentially missing out on some memories you were looking to have? I think it depends a lot on the person, the trip, and the group, but it seems silly to suggest there's an obvious right answer that's universally applicable.
The point of articles like this isn't that solo travel is the only valid way to do things either. But it offers an alternative for consideration in a world where group travel is the default. And the worst travel experience is one you don't have at all because you didn't have anyone to go with.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Seems obvious to me but it needs to be said: perhaps you're not looking deep enough. Read the article again, the key message of "connecting with people and their cultures" is hard to miss. Shallow self gratification of sun, surf, sex and art, these are not going to inspire you, challenge you, or help you grow. But I feel like you already knew that, so why did you post this.
There are diminishing returns to everything, travel included. If you go deep enough, you’ll typically just uncover the mundane, everyday realities, that people are often not willing to share with a foreign, relatively wealthy tourist.