Why People Love to Travel

Traveling is a concept that has been around for a very long time. If you think about it, most of our ancestors were travelers. Like us, they felt the need to do something new, to explore, and lucky for them, there was a whole “new world” just across the ocean! They packed their bags and set sail on an adventure that would completely change their lives.

So here we are today, wanting to do the exact same thing. Well, minus the part about pilgriming to a “new world.” But we do find ourselves feeling the need to explore and travel to places that we’ve never been. Maybe this history of travel has been embedded in our genetic makeup, maybe not. But either way, we humans love to travel.

Curiosity

Humans are naturally curious! It often gets boring to do the exact same thing every day, at your job, or at school. We are intrigued by things that we don’t know anything about. It might just be me, but exploring a place that no one else has ever been to, sounds like one of the best adventures possible! That desire to experience something that few people have, is part of what makes me want to travel. Being curious about what’s out there is a huge reason that people are drawn to traveling. And it’s a good thing! It’s good to be curious and to want to get to know the planet you live on.

Learning

Curiosity and desire to learn are two very similar things. We want to learn new things because we are curious! Learning about other cultures is incredibly important to developing a broad view of the world. My parents, having sailed around the world, met people from many different cultures, and learned about their way of life, sometimes a little of their language, and about their traditions. These learning experiences are part of what makes travel appealing.

Challenge

Many of us like a challenge in our lives. Usually, things are challenging at the beginning, and then become easier. Once that something becomes too easy, it becomes boring, and we crave a new challenge. Traveling offers a lot of different challenges, most of which I have yet to encounter, but because of the nature of travel, almost every day brings a new challenge of some sort. This lifestyle of unexpected situations teaches you a lot, both about yourself and about whatever challenge you’re encountering, and people love it!

Catching the Travel Bug

For the most part, people want to travel because of different, personal reasons—many because they’re sick of their job, they just finished a chapter of their lives, or maybe because they just read an article about a place that seemed interesting to them. All these reasons, and many more, are what start people on their travels. But more often than not, whatever reason you had at the beginning of your trip tends to fade away a bit, and then turns into what we call a “travel bug.”

This means that you are now hooked on traveling! I got this “bug” about a year or two ago, even without much travel experience. I started reading a few travel blogs, planning imaginary trips, and mapping out places I wanted to go. I began to add “stars” to Google Maps on my phone, to mark different destinations I want to travel to. Now, that map is covered with stars, and I have learned to accept the fact that I simply want to travel EVERYWHERE!