Are You Planning on Taking a Trip?

Do we travel because we are supposed to? Here are some common tips on what to think about when thinking about traveling. Most people travel because they are supposed to if they want to say they vacationed. Staying at home simply means you didn't have school or you were laid off or it was a legal paid holiday. To vacation we are programmed to think in terms of travel. Millions of us hit the roads in packed cars and go off somewhere, destination anywhere away from where we live. We are on vacation. We have satisfied that part of our societal programming that mandates holidays and off time from school or work is to be spent in traveling.
Why should we travel? When we have a place in mind that is somewhere we have always wanted to be. When we are traveling there because if we hadn't had the time off from work or school, we would be thinking about that place, reading about it and wanting to be there. We should travel when our destination has some part in our mental well being.

When should we travel? When we have saved enough money to travel in the same status as our day to day existence. In other words, if we live in a wealthy home and drive a high priced car and have frequent meals in restaurants, we should not travel looking for a cheap room somewhere near someplace that friends would recognize when we told them where we traveled on vacation to.
At this point we have 2 conditions to meet before traveling.

1. Know why we are traveling. (It could be a simple thing like gambling in a Taj Mahal, believe it or not that's a reason). I would like to travel to India and see the Taj, that's a reason.

2. Know when we should travel.

I speak from experience. Youth and some money and no tying strings allowed me to travel to many places. I used to keep a log of how many miles I put on board planes. I am old enough and vain enough to think that the frequent flyer plans were figured out around me and my more than thirty years of traveling, aimlessly, mindlessly, or as my beloved Mother used to say, Nora went and Nora came back. Now, when I am nearing her age, I know what she meant.

Where I went , I was the same person as the one who lived at home. I brought back nothing new or different. I brought back souvenirs and pictures, and I didn't add one facet to my personality.

And the reason was because I had not thought about my traveling as a growing experience but as something to do when on vacation.