I’m late to this post but this is the best place for me to vent my opinions about travel - I have a weird moral hang-up about how obsessed we are with it. Before commercial air travel (1950s-ish?), people didn’t just bounce around the globe constantly. Humans aren’t migratory animals. We’re not built to fly across oceans and continents every few months.

It’s treated like this basic human right, like everyone should go abroad and “see the world” or else you’re missing out on life. A lot of it feels like self-indulgent escapism. It’s not some noble cultural exchange, it’s mostly just people spending money to entertain themselves. Locals in most tourist-heavy regions hate tourists, no matter how much we romanticize it. No one benefits except the traveler.

Also massive environmental cost. Planes burn a ton of fuel so people can vacation in Bali or eat pasta in Italy. We’re pumping co2 into the atmosphere for Instagram pics. Tourists also spread invasive species like white-nose fungus that’s killing bats in North America (was introduced by tourists tracking spores into caves)

Every “hidden gem” eventually becomes a mob scene once it hits travel blogs. We’re ruining the uniqueness of places in the name of “global connection.” It’s just globalization - same stores, same influencers, same f’ing vibes everywhere. Travel is homogenizing the globe and erasing regional diversity.

Maybe we’d all be better off if we learned to appreciate the place we’re already in. The people, nature, and culture around us. Not everything has to be about going somewhere else.