What made you want to travel?

Why do people decide to go traveling? Is it because a holiday for a week or two is not enough? Or is it more then that?

For me all through my life, I always had a long weekends some where local or a city break & maybe one or two (if I was lucky) holidays a year. As much as I loved holidays, I had always had the urge of going away for longer. Not just to get away, but to find out about other cultures, see some fantastic sites, learn about foreign history, meet new people etc.

Orginally I had wanted to going travelling after I finished uni, I was 21 then, but I never managed to save the money & I split up with the guy who was supposed to come with me. Few years past, & I always thought I was now too old to go. But when I was about 26/27, I pondered about what I achieved in my life, & realised time was slipping away. I convinced my boyfriend we should go to SE Asia & we started saving money. There was loads to organise, we both have property, so we had to make plans to rent them out. We both managed to get unpaid leave off work & off we went.

I'm so glad I did this, hope I can do it again.

What are your thoughts? I'm interested why people want to live out a back pack & travel around the world.

is there more to life ??!!!

To see the world that is created for us!

my first travel experience was as a result of cheap airfares with ryanair to norway. me dad didnt really want me going alone so i sorta went in defiance of him to show - i can do this thing - and the rest fell into place after booking those flights. i really didnt have a clue what it was going to be like but now im hooked on travelling. Its the way to go as far as holidays or life goes for me.

why would i wanna sit on a beach for two weeks or whatever length of time and get turned into a beetroot. no way ho sey.

probably the same reason as everyone els... the passion to see the world and expirience different cultures. Travelling realy makes anyones life complete

I have to agree with 'grasshoppa'. A desire to see as many cultures and parts of the globe as we can with time/money available. When you look at a map of the world and put a pin in where you have been, it is pretty humbling.

My father singing along to Engelbert Humperdink (I mean, what kind of name is that anyway) vinyl records almost every night back in the early 70's.
I owe old Engie a huge thank you.

for me it was curiousity, i work for an international company and meet people from various backgrounds and cultures, i wanted to know why they thought the way they did so decided the only way to do it was to start travelling there, i haven't been to many but i'm working on it ...

I think grasshoppa couldn't have put it much better. beyond the culture its the history tho...as a california native, better yet, as an american, my/our history is so limited. i backpacked europe after graduating high school and ill always remember the first time i saw a building with a date on it that was three digits! It blew my mind.

In short...we're all stuck on this planet, but there's no limitation to where we can be on it.

Obviously there were many reasons, but I think I have always had a real romantic notion of what it means to travel.

I think more than a desire to see any "sights", I've always relished those odd little moments of travel; wandering around lost, speaking to people I'd probably just walk by at home, the feeling of not having anything to do but just look around and enjoy, even just hanging out in a strange airport. My parents had me travel a lot as child and what I remember most are the most random things, and those are the memories that I think drive me to want to travel more.

I can't name an Engelbert Humperdink song, but I grew up listening to a lot of music by a guy named Jimmy Buffet. Most of his songs are just good stories about a life of traveling and sailing. I guess I always just thought that when I get old, I'd like to have a lot of good stories to tell.