@Jacob: Thank you for having the moxie to voice this hugely nonconformist opinion. People will of course have different values, but the observation that collecting hyped-up travel experiences is often just another form of consumerism (you can’t buy happiness, but you can always fly there!) is a natural and insightful extension of your philosophy. Travel was a rarefied luxury until quite recently, yet people still managed to lead meaningful and interesting lives without it (and even learned quite a bit about foreign cultures, if so inclined). Varied experiences are definitely important to living the good life, but those arise from doing lots of different things (which will inevitably bring you in contact with lots of different people), not from just going lots of places.

There is a balanced Middle Way.

Well said, Alan!

And like you, I found many differing experiences from just the good ol net or watching a show/reading something about said faraway place.

Is it the same thing? No, but using the frugal manifesto as a beacon, it’s about the only option I can truly live with.

Lastly, the comment about the sub orbital flight is a classic example of the frugal manifesto as well, trading DAY TO DAY overall happiness for the 5min AMAZING, yet FLEETING space travel.

Seems easy to me.

Life is the climb, not the summit.

I’ve been to a couple of countries and they have loaded me (who lived mostly ignorant) with guild. Years after seeing what I saw, My brain sometimes flashes back to ghettos where I’ve partied and it hurts.

I now understand that my ability to make huge amounts of money with the skills I have is an extremity in this world and it is a prime motivator for me to try and use as little of the money I make and to store as much of it as possible, to enable me to at one point in the near future retire (extremely) early in one of these locations.

I would not have been able to come to this conclusion were it not for my travels.

Is there incongruence between “keep the dream of cruising around the world alive” (in the about me section of this blog) and this “travel is not worth it”?

The biggest illusion the tourism industry has duped most people into believing is that travel is expensive. It is not.

Travel can be green, very frugal (read Matador post on how to travel the world for free), educational, creative (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKcu_ztYCtk) & more.

One of the biggest benefits of quality slow travel, is that it forces one to live in the now & Bryson says it best:

“To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted”.

That openhearted wonder & awe of the open road, being close to nature, experiencing people and life with more vulnerability and gratitude …is priceless!

We have been on an open ended world tour as a family since 2006 with no plans to stop as we have found it to be the best way to educate our child & a VERY enriching way to live.

We’ve traveled over 175,000 miles so far (most overland) to 4 continents, 32 countries and almost never take planes. We have used every mode of transportation from cargo ship to camel, but mostly we walk, bike, use mass transit & a small RV.

Pretty similar to a slow sail around the world (which we may switch to at some point), I have never met anyone who has done THIS kind of deep immersion (we’ve wintered the last 4 in a tiny village in Spain where my child goes to local school in her second language) & slow travel that hasn’t loved it.

We travel the world & live large on MUCH less than we could or did at home. We spend less than 700 dollars a month each & could do it on much less ( & we haven’t even gotten to the far east yet or South America yet).

For us, travel is worth it & perhaps the most free way to live & experience life.

I’m an avid traveler, and if you travel as much as me, you quickly realise that traveling to sight-see is a waste of money. Pictures on a computer monitor really do suffice. Those famous old buildings are nothing more than brick and wood. In 30 years, when you look back at all your travels, you won’t be remembering the details of that ancient cathedral or how white that beach was. No, you’ll probably remember the person you spent it with and the local people you met that taught you something about how the other side lives. You’ll remember the experiences and emotions. Memories, IMO, are pretty invaluable.

For me, I travel for the escape and the experiences. It breaks up the monotony and keeps my sanity in the daily slog we call the working adult life. Traveling does not necessarily mean flying somewhere either. You can have just as much fun for low cost driving somewhere. You don’t have to fly half way around the world to experience different culture or ways of living.

I believe this backpacking tourism, travel, airport hopping, etc. to be very overhyped, especially amongst in the 20-something crowd. I’m not saying you can’t learn anything or challenge yourself but the way that most people go about it, the skills are not that great. Finding a place to stay, a place to eat (and eating something strange), and transportation to the next spot is not difficult. (Getting a job there is and I don’t see many travelers doing that. They just keep moving until they run out of money.) It is a very expensive way to gain those thinking-on-your-feet skills and knowledge. Why not learn these things by getting paid for it?

By the tenets of this blog, the money saved by not buzzing around to different places around the world as a nonproductive traveller can be used to buy financial independence at a very young age. I know people that spent their 20s travelling and today and because of those lost years they are in only the middle of their studies or early in their careers and they will probably be “living” in their offices for the next few decades until they are 60.

I don’t really see them as being more mature or worldly compared to someone who went on business trips, say. I mean, anyone like moving around, get a job as a stewardess, or sign onto a ship. Those who want to relocate to another country and work there, it’s slightly trickier. If you have the brains, you can go the academic route like a researcher (which I did). If you have the ambition, get hired by a transnational company. They will start sending you around the world once you reach the management level in your early 30s.