Is it just me, or does everybody else seem to have travel plans that sound concrete and interesting? Then, when it’s your turn to pick and choose your destination, the options seem overwhelming and you don’t even know whether to stay domestic or go international. Below are some tips on how to decide. Whatever you choose, take it from me – buy souvenirs, write a travel diary, invest in a photo canvas or two, and even start a travel blog (in 20 years when you look back, the more memories you can save now the better).
World travel pros and cons
OK. Let’s think about this. Worldwide adventure is naturally the outright winner when it comes to travel destinations, right? Well, sure. If you like. But what you’re probably doing is jumping ahead in your mind’s eye to those immaculate moments of mirth, spent in a tropical paradise or atop a mountain in the tundra, when it all becomes worth it. This is most definitely the biggest ‘pro’ to setting sail for far flung destinations.
However, getting there is a slog you won’t soon forget. All those long flights. All that time in airports when you haven’t seen the inside of a hotel room or washed in 20 hours. There’s a significant amount of loneliness involved, too, if you’re travelling alone. For truly global travel, It can feel like two days have passed between actually speaking to another human being. And the hunger – travelling means missing meals. What it all comes down to is whether the payoff is worth it in your eyes. Does the goal of reaching the four corners of the world outweigh the inconvenience of actually getting there?
Domestic travel pros and cons
Domestic travel always seems like the easy and half-thought-out way to travel, almost as if you ran out of time to book anything “better”. However, every nation is rich in history and modern sights of interest. You won’t have the language barrier to contend with. Nor will you need to change any money or renew your passport. Admittedly, you may still need to pass some time in an airport, but for domestic flights at least the travel time will be kept to a minimum.
By visiting your country’s most well-known towns and cities you will become more interesting at parties, and certainly more knowledgeable and interesting in general when it comes to making small talk with colleagues or catching up with friends. Domestic travel may not present an exotic escape, but it will certainly broaden your horizons and forgo the ills of long distance jet-setting.
Conclusion – and the winner is…
As a certain Mr Shakespeare once wrote in one of his funny little plays, “costly thy habit as thy purse can buy”. And to spell it out, if you can’t afford the heights of Mauna Kea or the depths of the Amazon basin, you aren’t going anyway, so you’ve lost nothing. But if you can afford long distance, try it. At least once. It’s the only way to know for sure if you’re suited to it.
