It might be kind of obvious, why a person would love to travel. But I recently had a conversation with an acquaintance who said that he absolutely HATED to travel. The thought was so bizarre to me, and I automatically defended my own love of journeying to new places – seeing new landscapes and experiencing new cultures. He reminded me that practically ALL of the travel he does is business-related, whereas I have only taken a couple of business trips (and had a grand time, actually – though I could see how one could become sick of travel, being constantly on the road).

I thought I would try to articulate some of my reasons for loving to travel – other than the obvious, “Duh! I’m on vacation!”

1 – It puts my husband in a really great mood.   Almost all of my travel is with my husband, and it puts him in “vacation-husband” mode, which to me is one of the best sides of him. All the cares of day-to-day life just fall away. He’s affectionate, and relaxed, and in a great mood all of the time. Which isn’t to say that he isn’t those things, at home, but… well, you know, it’s different. Surely I’m not the only wife whose husband transforms while on vacation.

2 – It puts ME in a really great mood.  Cheery husband notwithstanding, I turn into an incredible optimist while I’m travelling. I appreciate all the good things about my life – not the least of which is the ability to take a great vacation once a year. And I can put the not-so-good things in my life into better perspective. I temporarily cast all of my typical worries and anxieties away and say to myself, “I’ll let tomorrow take care of itself.”

3 – I ADORE staying in hotels.  I mean it. I can’t get enough of hotel life. The room is clean when you first get there, and clean upon your return. They offer crack in the form of itty bottles of shampoo and lotion. The sheets are crispy-clean and the bed is usually bigger than the one we have at home (we can only fit a queen in our bedroom). You can darken the room almost totally black during the day, and get in some awesome power naps. And there’s just something about a hotel room that, well, encourages grown-up playtime, if you know what I mean.

4 – I am very passionate about exploring new places.  Readers of my previous entries here at UpTake may recall that I plan the heck out of any travelling we partake in. So I’m almost familiar with the place we’re heading to, even if I’ve never been there before. A basic understanding of the lay of the land enables us to fully explore our surroundings – we head in a direction just because we want to see where the road leads.  We explore out-of-the-way nooks that the typical tourist doesn’t happen upon.   We can fully savor the experience so that when it’s time to leave, we don’t feel like we’ve missed out on anything.

5 – Food food food food food.  If I could afford (both monetarily and with regards to my waist-line) to list “dining out” as my hobby, I would so totally be all over that. I LOVE getting outside of my routine, culinarily speaking. Wild game, local delicacies, stuff I can’t pronounce, I’ll try ‘em all. Leaping head-first with an adventurous mindset toward the offered menu has afforded me such experiences as halibut cheeks, buffalo medallions, herb-stuffed venison, steak tartare, and various gnarly sorts of sushi.

So, these are just five of the MILLIONS of reasons why I love to travel. Why don’t you tell us about some of your own reasons, in the comments?

Photo credits (in order of appearance):

- “We went to the beach” by Sanyam on Flickr Creative Commons.
- “The Cody” by Laura Charon.
- “A plateful of perfection” by Laura Charon.

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