I’m Not A Traveller

People love to travel. Having wanderlust is a norm these days, and as soon as you acquire a bit of money you’re expected to spend it on a long holiday to a faraway place. Filling up a scratch map is one of the highest achievements among my generation and you wouldn’t believe how many of my high school classmates went on a backpacking trip through Asia after graduating. Whenever I do a Q&A with my viewers, the questions always pop up sooner or later: if you could travel anywhere, where would you go? What’s your favourite travel destination? Will you visit country X? I always feel like my answers to these are very disappointing, because here’s the thing… I’m just not a big traveller. At all.

I’m happy to hop on a two hour flight to visit one of my favourite places and spend a few days in the hills. I visit my family abroad regularly, and there are a few destinations my family has been coming to annually for years which I love returning to. Part of my heart is stuck on the British Isles, and I’ll always be happy to return and explore there. There are a few places in Europe I’d still like to see one day, but that’s about the extent of my wanderlust.

You see, the thing I enjoy most about travelling isn’t being in another place. The most valuable thing to me is being able to spend undivided quality time with the person or people I’m with. No work, no technology, no duties, just having a good time together. And as it happens, you don’t need to go far to enjoy those things, in fact you don’t need to leave the country at all. If you had enough discipline you wouldn’t even have to leave your home, but I’ve never managed that :) When I travel, more often than not it’s to visit someone or be with someone, and many of the places I travel to I’d never go alone.

One of the main reasons I don’t like travelling is that I hate losing control in a situation where I already feel like I barely have a grip on what’s going on. Running into any kind of trouble abroad, be it big or small, stresses me out incredibly and the only trips I’ve taken where I haven’t had any panic attacks were to places I’d already visited before and where I knew what’s what. The feeling of utter despair I experience when I get stuck somewhere in an unknown place because public transport didn’t do what it’s supposed to, when I can’t get my hands on any safe food and fear I’ll go hungry that night, or when I need something from someone (or they from me) while being unable to communicate with them clearly through a language barrier is devastating and quite frankly just not worth it to me. I’m incredibly lucky to live in one of the safest, happiest countries in the first world. Seeing that I frequently feel vulnerable and unsafe even here, travelling to countries with other social norms (which means more unpredictable behaviour), and potentially higher crime rates is something I struggle with. Also, and I realise some might find this close-minded or supercilious… I like a certain level of comfort, especially when I’m on holiday. Travelling to a place where the conditions seem worse to me is not something that appeals to me personally and that I’d like to spend a considerable sum of money on.

Actually, the only thing I really find it worth travelling for is nature. The Netherlands are a remarkably plain country with, for the most part, a very boring landscape. That’s actually the only downside I find to living here, as I absolutely adore mountains and forests. I yearn for them and if I don’t get to any for a while I can feel the need to go visit grow within me. To experience mountains and proper forests I need to travel, there’s no way around that. Luckily the type of nature I love the most can be found pretty close to the Netherlands. The vast forests of Scandinavia, the sunshine of Southern Europe, the beautiful mountains and hills of Central Europe… And let’s not forget about two of my absolute favourites: the Scottish highlands and the wonderful cliffs of Ireland. I’m simply not drawn to exotic, faraway locations like I am to these. There is such a wealth of different landscapes and cultures to be discovered in Europe, I feel like I could easily satisfy all my travelling needs and wants right here. Which aren’t many, haha!

Now from another point of view… For as long as I can remember I’ve dedicated myself completely to moulding the best possible life for myself, and I’ve been pretty succesful at it, if I may say so myself. I don’t have many requirements in life but the ones I do have, I do everything I can to meet. I feel like what I have going in day to day life is so good, no other place in the world is really better. Although experiencing new destinations can be exciting and being in nature is absolutely wonderful, after a week or so I’m usually more than ready to go back home again and return to normal life. I’m a classic homebody, not to mention the travel anxiety I still experience to a certain extent.

In a way I also think I’m spoiled in the sense that I’m from a generation that has the world at their fingertips. Beautiful images of all the wonders of the world are readily accessible. Whatever we want to see, whenever we want to see it, it’s there. We can talk to people on the other side of the world from the comfort of our own home. Anything we want to buy that’s exclusive to a place, we can have shipped. And, if we want to, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to hop on a plane and be anywhere in the world within a matter of hours. Travelling has become so normal and widely broadcasted (take one look at Instragram for countless examples), it’s taken some of the excitement and exclusivity off. Not to mention many of the places that are most worth visiting are so flooded with tourists nowadays, being there is not at all the experience it’s supposed to be.

I realise that I’m in a priviliged position for even having the opportunity to travel at all. Many people would love to travel but can’t, and I’ve received my fair share of baffled reactions to passing up opportunities to travel before. I understand where those people are coming from, but the sole fact that someone else would kill for an opportunity I have has never been a valid argument for me to take it. I don’t believe in doing things just because you can, just because they’re considered cool and exclusive, or just because other people enjoy them, if you don’t. We all value different things in life and travel isn’t as high on my list as it is on many other people’s.

I’ve just accepted the fact I’m not that big on travelling. And you know what? That’s ok. Not going on long-haul flights or frequent flights in general is decidedly a good thing, from an environmental point of view if nothing else. Travelling less often, less far and in simple ways saves a lot of money. The one person I know who enjoys travel even less than I do is actually my boyfriend. I have to drag him out of the house by the ears, so he’s lucky I’m his girlfriend and it doesn’t happen a lot, haha! The world really doesn’t need more tourists, and if the enjoyment isn’t worth the footprint, I’m happy not to contribute to the overcrowding of beautiful places.

How do you feel about travelling? Do you have wanderlust? Is there any place you’d absolutely love to visit one day?