It's Not a Vacation! Reasons to Travel

There are a million reasons to travel! To travel is not always to take a vacation; I rarely view the trips I take as vacations, because generally the underlying purpose of my trips are to visit specific friends or family members or accomplish specific goals, and the adventuring comes along the way.

I've found that the biggest barrier to traveling is only yourself. When confronted with a great deal on a ticket to a place a person has been yearning to visit, they generally still hesitate. With airfare deals, no one ever knows how long they will last, so hesitation often means missing out on the fare. If you know where you want to go, and especially if you know why, my best advice is to be prepared to purchase a ticket financially, mentally, and physically in case a great deal comes up.

When I travel, I always try to find more than one reason to justify visiting a place. It always makes it more worthwhile. Here are a handful of reasons to travel, besides simply to take a break from the real world:

• Visit Friends and Family
• See Historic Sites
• Experience Various Forms of Architecture and Art
• Food! (Need I say more?)
• Attend Concerts
• Attend Sporting Events
• Attend Other Various Events
• Work
• Service/Volunteerism
• Adventure and Outdoor Experiences
• Photography Opportunities
• And Many More!!!

I'll give a brief example of a time I have taken a trip for each of the reasons listed above.

Visit Friends and Family. I started out traveling as a toddler in order to visit my relatives on my mom's side in Thailand and on my dad's side in Ohio. For most of my life, this was the only reason to travel. I have also started visiting my relatives and friends as they have spread out across the world after college. For instance, I visited one of my cousins living in England during the 2012 Olympics and made a huge Europe trip out of it. I have many friends living in various global cities, and as I travel, I only make more friends to come back and visit next time!

Native American Memorial at the Little
Bighorn Battlefield

See Historic Sites. I am a history nerd! I absolutely love being in the same place as some historic person or event. Part of the Power of Place is that it connects you to the past. Whether you travel to view sites, buildings, and monuments dedicated to great military battles (like the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument), meaningful religious sites (like Nauvoo, IL if you're Mormon, or even the Garden of Gethsemane), or remnants of an ancient empire (like in Rome and even Istanbul), history has an undeniable power over our hearts and draws us to special and sacred places.

Visiting the Blue Mosque
in Istanbul

Experience Various Forms of Architecture and Art. As an urban planner, architecture is near and dear to my heart. Experiencing a physical place that represents something significant, like walking through the Sistine Chapel or the Aya Sofia, stirs visceral feelings inside me that looking at a painting usually does not. But people travel all over the world to see magnificent works of art in all forms. Art in all its forms has played such a large role in the evolution and progression of cultures throughout the world, and there is nothing that can replicate the experience of viewing a great work of art in person.

Food! While it may be a little crazy to travel the world just to eat a specific dish or at a specific restaurant, no travel experience is complete without trying the local food! The way food is prepared, cooked, and infused with flavor tells a lot about the history and culture of a people. While I have not decided to visit a place solely for the local cuisine, I have to admit that it is a large deciding factor when I'm trying to pick a place to visit. Food options definitely determine how I plan my days when I travel both at home and abroad. For example, I chose to have a layover in Istanbul last January, and the AMAZING meats and breads that I had there did not disappoint! 

Attend Concerts. Music makes the world go round! When you don't live in a major city where your favorite bands and/or musicians like to perform, you can go to them. In this day and age, there are a plethora of music festivals and concerts to choose from. I have personally made a trip to visit my relatives in Ohio driven by the fact that Muse was having a concert in Cleveland at the same time (before they added Salt Lake City onto the schedule). And I am forever grateful for that opportunity to spend a lot of time with my family.

Running in the Ragnar Wasatch Back

Attend Sporting Events. I have traveled both to watch sports and to participate in them. I have run several half marathons, a Ragnar Relay, and the Disneyworld Marathon across the country, and I have traveled to watch USC play in various football games since I graduated nearly 5 years ago. Attending sporting events brings people together like nothing else can. The atmosphere and spirit of the people at a game of anything is really amazing, although it's not for everyone. But there's something to be said about how patronizing sports has been a part of human culture for thousands of years.

And Other Various Events. Along with the Olympics, there are many other events that draw people from all corners of the globe. People travel far and wide to see Megaevents like the World's Fair and the Olympics, and they also travel to see and participate in local festivals like the Holi Festival of Colors in India (or even in Spanish Fork, UT), La Tomatina in Spain, Songkran in Thailand, or event Oktoberfest in Germany.

Work. When you must travel for work, it's easy to use whatever spare time you have to have a little adventure and explore a little if you choose to do so. Academic and professional conferences have sent me all over the United States, most recently to Savannah, GA to learn about historic preservation. I flew out a few days early and took that time to explore Savannah and Charleston a little bit more. There's nothing like a little traveling to make work fun.

Some of the kids I worked with
on Isla Mujeres

Service/Volunteerism. There are many ways that anyone can travel in order to provide service to others, both domestically and abroad. Personally, I had the chance to visit and do service projects on Isla Mujeres and Isla Contoy in 2009 on an Alternative Spring Break to Mexico through the USC Volunteer Center. It's always a win-win situation because while you are helping others, you also get unique experiences that no ordinary tourist gets to have. Tourists are not allowed to spend the night on Isla Contoy, a National Park and bird sanctuary, so I had the chance to kayak out there with the park rangers and to watch the sun rise and set on that island in the middle of the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

In the newspaper for our service projects on Isla Mujeres

Kayaking in Patagonia

Adventure and Outdoor Experiences. Having adventures in the great outdoors is always a great reason to travel! There are so many places to experience the wilderness at varying degrees. Some National Parks offer paved walkways and easy trails to see some of the most awe-inspiring natural features, and sometimes the wilderness is so vast that you need a lot of know-how (or at least a guide) to help you on your way. Both provoke legitimate outdoor adventures. One of the first solo trips I have taken was to visit Torres Del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia last March. I did get a guide for that trip, and it was one of the most amazing travel experiences I have ever had.

Photography Opportunities. While I am not a great photographer, I love to take pictures to document my trips. As I have traveled a lot on my own lately, I have become a master of taking a travel selfie while no one is around to help. A picture says a thousand words and helps you to relive your travel experiences as well. I do have friends who travel a lot to capture amazing photographs (check out @rockinrakozy on Instagram for one of the best examples), and I wish I could do what they do! Photographs not only represent your travels, but they also inspire others to take action in their own lives as well.

My attempt at photography
on the streets of Brussels

And Many More!!! With the intense globalization of society and advances in transportation technology, people are traveling more and more for every possible reason. There are people who travel for medical tourism, cultural and heritage tourism, religious tourism, and many more categories of tourism. There is basically a form of tourism for every niche out there. Tourism and travel is so diverse, and that is one of the reasons that I believe it is such a beautiful thing! It has the power to change people like nothing else in this world.

As I continue with this blog, I will give many more examples of travel and tourism experiences I have had for many different reasons. I also hope to develop my ideas on the Power of Travel in a way that can inspire and resonate with all of you. So for now, just remember that if you really want to travel, be prepared! Having a place in mind and a definitive reason to go will only help you get there.