A while ago, a local TV station asked me to comment on why people travel. It seemed like a straightforward interview, so I agreed. But when the reporter actually asked me the question, I found myself spouting platitudes about experiencing different places and cultures and I realized that I sounded sort of … canned. The fact is that people travel for so many different reasons; it’s very difficult to convincingly sum them up in a pretty answer. You know why you travel, and if you try to explain why, or to describe an experience to someone, chances are they’ll nod their head and say, “How wonderful!” but you still won’t be convinced that they really get it. So you end the conversation by smiling and telling them that they really have to go for themselves. It’s hard to tell a really evocative and wonderful travel story, one that doesn’t venture into what we called “purple prose” in graduate school. You know what I’m talking about: too many adjectives, too much effusiveness. (Unless of course something really outrageous happens while you’re traveling, in which case it’s not that hard to be entertaining—like the time—ahem, last month—that I walked into a glass door in a very trendy restaurant and nearly broke my nose.)
More often, the really special moments we experience on a trip are quiet, and personal. A while ago I interviewed Isabella Rossellini for “My Favorite Street,” and her favorite street was actually the pedestrian walkway along the Seine in Paris [for that matter, please read more fantastic Parisian picks in this month’s 1 City/5 Ways]. Rossellini’s choice resonated with me because I also love wandering along those quiet byways, taking in the architecture and the people and storing away my impressions in my personal memory card. I also love to shop and eat good food and see crazy art and drink wine al fresco, of course, but I find myself remembering those solo excursions the most.
Whether we’re traveling for business or pleasure, one of the greatest elements of travel is the fact that we have gotten away. And that allows us to look at the world with fresh eyes. When we’re not worrying about the load of whites that’s been sitting in the washing machine (which reminds me …) or the garage door opener that won’t open (like mine, this morning), we make a little room in our brains to store new impressions, whether it’s of a moment or someone new we meet or a particularly wonderful grilled fish or even a book that takes on new significance because we’re reading it on the deck of a sailboat. I realize I’m coming dangerously close to those dreaded platitudes, but my point is that we travel to see new places, yes, assuming we’re not just going someplace because that’s where the client is. But it’s what we take away from those places, and the people we are when we’re there, that help define us when we get home. So I’ll leave you with the question: Why do you travel?
A final two cents: If you have children, and you can possibly swing it, try to send them abroad in high school or college, for all the reasons everyone says it’s a good idea (usually involving the words expand and horizon).