MJ here---
Dave and I are from the United States. We are both very well traveled within our country and love all it has to offer. I have been to all 50 states and Dave has been to 49. We hope we can get him to Arkansas in the next year or two. Our jobs allow us to travel and we have lived in 14 + states for periods of time 3 months to 7 years. Dave and I were traveling nurses for a few years and that allowed us to move around and explore. We do enjoy being ambassadors for our country and can provide suggestions for most US locations
We are currently living just north of San Francisco and have written several blogs about the local area. We generally get many comments from friends, family and fellow travel bloggers who appreciate the suggestions and comments on the local area.
Dave and I are nurses and frequently have to watch declining health in our patients and have a similar experience with some family members and we call it the SHRINKING WORLD THEORY. Our advice is to travel to far away lands while you are still young and healthy, don't mind dealing with jet-lag and snarly airport personnel. As one ages, the energy wains and you'll have additional time to drive around and explore your own country if you have not done that yet. Eventually, if you live long enough your world continues to shrink and at some point you don't feel like leaving you city, then your house and finally your 8 X 10 bedroom.
Our advice-- go far and go frequently.
Now --- we really believe that many US citizens do not travel far because they only get one or two weeks vacation. In that time frame it is easier to explore the US, Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean and those locations have plenty to offer.
Other factors lack of money, fear of the unknown. Travel bloggers enjoy, seek and almost need that new experience or new culture to keep them fresh. Others are perfectly content with the familiar. We have some good friends who like to vacation in the same spot each year. It makes them happy and there is nothing wrong with that. They have fun and look forward to that trip all year. We all find what makes us happy.
Within the US Seattle is the only place that really felt like "home" to me. I have truly enjoyed living near San Francisco, in Denver and Jacksonville, Florida. Who knows what our future holds.
Reply to this Our advice is to travel to far away lands while you are still young and healthy, don't mind dealing with jet-lag and snarly airport personnel. As one ages, the energy wains and you'll have additional time to drive around and explore your own country if you have not done that yet. Eventually, if you live long enough your world continues to shrink and at some point you don't feel like leaving you city, then your house and finally your 8 X 10 bedroom.
Our advice-- go far and go frequently
This is really great advice and an excellent philosophy. I had a similar epiphany after my first solo forays abroad. The world seemed so big and the potential of a life behind a desk seemed so limiting. Even if I were to work hard and retire early, my most productive years, energy levels and capacity to learn, adapt, and understand would be behind me. Not to mention time. The fear of not giving myself the opportunity of getting to know our little big planet during my time here had me packing my bags and hitting the road almost as soon as I graduated. Fifteen years later I'm still trucking on with no fixed abode, although now I have a wonderful wife and two children along for the ride, at "home" wherever we go.
[Edited: 2012 Mar 26 02:20 - aspiringnomad:90 ]
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In response to: Msg #153701 Great advice. I just hope that my world doesn't shrink to the 8x10 bedroom any time soon.
As for your future, Seatle gets way to much rain...go with Denver or better yet Woodland Park, Colorado!
Reply to this I'm from the UK and as well as experiences, price is also very important.
My home city of Leeds is pretty much in the middle of the British Isles but it would cost me more (and take much longer) to go and see Stonehenge or Loch Ness by train than it would to fly to pretty much anywhere in Europe. And so, outside of the North of England and London, I can't say I've seen too much of my homeland, save a few trips to the North of Wales and Edinburgh. The countryside of the UK really is beautful but without a car or the money to rent one, you're not in a position to explore it.
I'm living in Prague at the moment and bus travel here is so cheap (although not always as-the-crow-flies) so it's made it easy to visit everywhere worth going within 500k of the city.
One day though, I shall return...
Reply to this I agree with you John!
It seems that rip off Britain is putting tourists off in droves, despite that fact it is one of the most historically diverse countries on the planet. Just take a look at the long haul departure taxes alone. For a family of 4 it really does add up.
Thankfully, I saw around 75%!o(MISSING)f it during the 70s and 80s and will freely admit that for me, the UK still rates as one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The only places I haven't been to are the north east, up around the Newcastle area and the far north of Scotland.
Sadly, the country has changed dramatically over my lifetime, politically, socially and economically, to such an extent that I for one, have no desire whatsoever to return and wouldn't even shed a tear if I never set a foot on its shores again.
I now permanently reside in Vietnam and with so many wonderful countries around me to explore, when I have the time and the money, I feel that I've got it made 😊
[Edited: 2012 Apr 01 08:27 - Cockle:46288 ]
Reply to this Most people I met during the last 5 years ask me those two questions straight away:
How can you afford it?
Did you travel your country at least?
Well, coming from Canada, hitchhiking the country used to be some sort of rythm of passe. You know, something you most do.
I did not do it. I am lucky enough that I travel quite a lot with different sport team as a teenager. I went to Ontario and Manitoba often and was going across Quebec 10 to 15 time a year.
However, I never been to the west coast or north.
Everything change when I joint the Olympic torch realy in 2009 and I was paid to travel to almost every small town of the country from East to West and all the way to the northern point.
I am lucky.
I am born in Ireland and it will always be proud of it. Growing up in Canada was a fantastic experience and I consider myself Canadian first for a long time now.
Nick
Reply to this When I was a kid and teenager my parents used to take us all over the south of England and to Wales on holidays and day trips so I was lucky to see some of my own country then, but at that age the grass is always greener and I wanted adventures in exotic far-flung lands.
After the first time I went travelling abroad I came home and really wanted to see more of the UK. One of the big reasons was so many people I met from other countries had been to the UK and seen more of it than me, I was partly embarrassed by this and partly it just gave me the incentive to go see what they had seen. I then cycled across the UK to try and see more of it, went to the Scottish Highlands and the Lake District for the first times and realised they are easily as beautiful as places I had oohed and aahed about in New Zealand.
After my latest trip abroad I have come home with an urge to travel my own country again. I think going away can give you the perspective to then want to see your own backyard again, not just escape the same old. Luckily I've had the time to do a bit of exploring my own backyard since I got back so if I stop getting distracted by the forum I'll blog about some of the things I love in the UK!
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In response to: Msg #153724 I can't agree with You. This 'excellent philosophy' turns everything upside-down. If one doesn't know his land, it doesn't help either to run around the fare exotic countries. Just simply - You can't to compare. Every kid sees at first his room, his house, his street and his school. That's the natural way to see the world. I know many people which never had go abroad. They are aware of that but are happy enough in their homeland. And I know my colleagues which have been elswhere but don't know what's 20 km from town. I don't think it's the best programm. Nobody can see all, be everywhere. But to begin to travel, to see mountains and seas and cities one should from his home. Otherwise finally he hasn't one at all.
Reply to this Yes, it's true: 'at home' and in far lands always are places, which are not good known even from near neighbours. Tourists mainly see what is shown to them. That's good, too, but that's not all. But the main thing I would stress once more: to begin one should with his/her own home and homeland and then go further. If it goes parallel - very good, but the beginning - my home, my family, my ancestors, my land and then - all what I can get in my life (in all senses).
I'll see Your three blog entries for sure, but not at tis very moment.
PS Sorry for errors in my previous entry No: 28 Msg: #154802 .
Reply to this As a matter of fact, I do. But there is still so much to cover, little that my country is. I have yet to visit Sagada, Northern Palawan and Cebu, and many parts of Mindanao. I'm in touch with young travel bloggers from the Philippines but can't keep up with their energy. I'm no backpacker, and neither am I traveling in luxury.
Here in TravelBlog, I devoted a trip to my home country. http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/liliram/Trips/13027
I also have a category in my other site (http://marilil.wordpress.com) for Philippine Travels, but this is more geared towards a local audience.
Reply to this I guess that, wherever you live, it's all too easy to overlook wonderful places that are on your doorstep - the sights, smells and ways of life are probably too familiar - and we instead venture forth in search of all things foreign.
I'm British, born and bred within sight of Wembley Stadium, but I think I must have been born with a lust for travel - a lust that was only partly relieved by more than 35 years spent working in the overseas travel industry. However, during the years spent flitting around the world, I vividly recall the welcoming sight on my homeward flights of the Thames or the patchwork of England's green fields far below me, and, on return ferry journeys, of Dover's white cliffs. I looked forward to those views - and still do; they mean I'm nearly home again.
Now retired and still escaping to far-flung places, I've also been catching up with some of the wonders of this little island we call home - Wales figured prominently in
2007 and
2011, as did Scotland in
2009 and England's West Country in
2010.
Norfolk,
London and
Shrewsbury have all featured too. There are lots more places that I've been to but never got around to blogging about - perhaps I need to rectify that omission.
Sure, there's room for the likes of India and Canada but I, for one, will always look forward to seeing more of my homeland.
Reply to this I replied to this thread a while ago and going back home to England from my new home in Prague got me thinking. It made me think about how strange it is going back to where you grew up for a hoiday and how I'm quite disparraging about where I'm from even though it is really nice. I suppose that I either build up overseas destinations in my head or that I unfairly dismiss ones that seem to be too familiar and pedestrian.
Anyway, I wrote my thoughts here if you'd care to take a look: http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/West-Yorkshire/blog-720240.html
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