Is "travel" over rated?

[ExtraSlow]

When thinking of retirement, I've said ti before, but I think retiring and working some small Calgary condo, but spending a few months a year in interesting places, sounds pretty good. Owning a vacation property while retired sounds like a lot of work TBH.

[Manhattan]

Travel when done the right way is the best educator. and cure for ignorance. There's no better way to expand your understanding of the world and different cultures through these personal experiences. Good travel also helps to understand your own culture by viewing the world thru a different lens & seeing your own innate biases.

Even domestic travel or close to home travel has its merits. You don't experience grand canyon in the same way when viewed thru a 4K vs being in the middle of it and hiking or rafting down the Colorado river to fully appreciate its grandness.

That being said it seems a relatively small portion of people travel this way. Call it virtue signaling if you want but I see most people take the same resort vacations year after year or family to Disney or Vegas every year...that's something else entirely.

[killramos]

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When thinking of retirement, I've said ti before, but I think retiring and working some small Calgary condo, but spending a few months a year in interesting places, sounds pretty good. Owning a vacation property while retired sounds like a lot of work TBH.

Vacation properties are dumb.

Live somewhere you want to be.

Paying for it is the issue.

[zechs]

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Personally, I think it's overrated. I have for a long time.

Experiencing new things with family and friends is the biggest benefit of travel for me; travelling is one way to do this, but it's a means to an end.

100% this.

However, traveling with a purpose is different. I think if you travel with some sort of meaningful goal in mind, that it can be beneficial.

But site seeing for the sake of site seeing is pretty meh. I've been to Mexico quite a bit, and I don't feel any more culturally enriched for it.

With all the racing I've done across North America, I've learned a lot about Canada and the USA, regional differences, and the people that make up the countries. But because I was there in a capacity for more then just "walking around looking at things", it really made the interactions typically more serious and meaningful.

My 2 cents.

Definitely a getting older thing as well, not much beats going to a friends, cooking steak and having beers around the backyard campfire.

[Buster]

Retirement in a vacation property sounds like a boring hell to me, but I get it.

[bjstare]

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Vacation properties are dumb.

Live somewhere you want to be.

Paying for it is the issue.

What if you want to live in two places? Like one place from Nov-Apr, and the other May-Oct? Is it no longer a "vacation property" and becomes a "second home"?

[ExtraSlow]

On the point of "relaxing and disconnecting from work and normal routine" I think that's where travel CAN really shine if you let it.
Hard to menially get yourself out of your normal thought patterns if you are physically in the same place you are when you are on the daily grind.

[killramos]

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Retirement in a vacation property sounds like a boring hell to me, but I get it.

Define vacation property?

[Manhattan]

There needs to be a distinction between 'travel' and 'vacationing'.

[DonJuan]

I'm not talking vacation property. Permanent move. A home here would be the vacation.

Small plantation near beaches to keep the body and mind going.

[killramos]

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What if you want to live in two places? Like one place from Nov-Apr, and the other May-Oct? Is it no longer a "vacation property" and becomes a "second home"?

I could wrap my head around this, im just not convinced one of those places would be Calgary.

[max_boost]

With money anything is possible

[msommers]

The experience of seeing some where, or some thing, in a digital medium is a feeble attempt at experiencing it at all.

You don't have to go far to understand my meaning. Google has Street view images of hiking trails in the Rockies. This will not replace the experience of seeing and being there in the flesh. There's the effort, the air, the smell, the scale, the plants, the animals. Consciously or not, these all build an interpretation by using your physical senses. We don't have the technological means to replicate that.

[Manhattan]

I will try to avoid watching youtube of places I'm going to during trip planning because it ruins the awe & surprise factor quite a bit just like when trailers give away the whole plot and biggest scenes.

[Swank]

My oh so favorite parts of traveling:

Planning
Booking
Currency conversion
Passports/documents/insurance
Vaccinations
Getting time off work
Packing
Getting up stupid early
Airports
Taxis/car rental process
Airplanes
Souvenir obligations
Shopping
Language barriers
Non-stop photo ops
The price $$$
Going back to reality
Unpacking

[Thaco]

I don't care to travel, my brain just doesn't retain trivial stuff like that, so the "experience" is a waste of money for me, i wont remember most of it anyway, lol.

[Buster]

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On the point of "relaxing and disconnecting from work and normal routine" I think that's where travel CAN really shine if you let it.
Hard to menially get yourself out of your normal thought patterns if you are physically in the same place you are when you are on the daily grind.

Travel is not relaxing. Travel is an annoying grind, with a few insta opportunities.

[DonJuan]

Someone needs to explain "souvenir obligations" to me. Why do other people want trinkets from places they haven't been?

Edit:
Also not being poor would fix a lot of these headaches @Swank

[Buster]

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The experience of seeing some where, or some thing, in a digital medium is a feeble attempt at experiencing it at all.

You don't have to go far to understand my meaning. Google has Street view images of hiking trails in the Rockies. This will not replace the experience of seeing and being there in the flesh. There's the effort, the air, the smell, the scale, the plants, the animals. Consciously or not, these all build an interpretation by using your physical senses. We don't have the technological means to replicate that.

Replicate? no

But I can drive half an hour and experience what you are describing.

[ExtraSlow]

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Travel is not relaxing. Travel is an annoying grind, with a few insta opportunities.

It sure CAN be that as well. Certainly the way some people travel.