i was once a big traveller.  all over western and central europe, spending months at a time in Prague and my former job had me living in Amsterdam and Antwerp for a few months of the year.  i've taken several road trips throughout the US and Mexico.  i spent 7 months on the road before moving to NY in 1996.  i even spent over 2 months in a tent on an ashram in the Bahamas.  i haven't been able to do as much since the addition of the lil dude, but still try to every once in a while.  (he lived w/us in Antwerp a couple years ago)

i don't harshly judge those who don't travel, but they do tend to be a bit provincial.

I've never left the USA (Canada doesn't count), and I haven't even traveled much in this country, yet I am one of the broadest-minded people you will ever meet.  But I do not enjoy traveling.  Why schlep somewhere I have no business being, where, thanks to global homogenization, it's going to look and sound pretty much like where I came from (New York City, though possibly more people will speak English)?  I already hate tourists, why should I suffer for the privilege of becoming something I hate?  Unnecessary travel damages the ecosphere as well, but I admit that's not a reason I feel a need to lean on.

And oh yes, I hate people who think they're Homo Superior because they travel a lot.  What a narrow-minded bunch of twits.

I will not leave my front door and you can't make me!

vix_en25, that's YOUR doorknob pictured above then, is it?

I WISH!

I love travel -- a month in Europe when I was nine got me hooked.  The biggest adventure was a year going across the U.S. and then around the world in '90-'91.  I was also privileged to have a job that took me to Europe about twice a year for three years running in the mid-90s.  I started doing major traveling again after I left full-time practice to teach law school in the '97-'00 range (Alaska, India, the Middle East, Northern Europe and the Baltics in the summer, Central Europe in the winter, Japan).  Since then I've quieted down -- Quebec has become a favorite destination for its proximity.

My wife, for an Englishwoman, is shockingly poorly travelled (a weekend in Paris vs. many repeat visits to Spanish islands -- yecch, how tedious), though obviously she gets credit for upping and moving to NYC.  I fear we have numerous trips to Liverpool in our future, but when the boy gets old enough to appreciate it, I want to show him the world and give him the gift my parents gave me.

I can't really speak for anybody else, but travel on three continents definitely enriched my life.  I've been all over North America many times and bummed through Central America--made it to Bogota before running out of money and trampoosing back to the states by way of half a dozen islands.  I'd like to spend more time in Europe.  I've never been further east than Berlin but intend to.  

So the question would be, how has it enriched my life?  For me it was a question of breaking free of how I had identified myself as a person.  I do believe that a person's sense of themself can be limited by identifying too strongly with their geography.  Getting out and about, aside for the sheer adventure of it all, helped me get beyond that.  I dont know if the correct term is self-awareness, but when I meet other people who have traveled a good deal, they seem possessed of something that homebodies lack.  

I've learned more through traveling than I have through any individual books or classes.

I wouldn't trade my travel experiences for the world, and I hope to get more.

Mr. Homebody, I feel sorry for you...

First off, not every city is the exact same, even in America.  But then, there's so many places to see that AREN'T cities, too!

I was born overseas and traveled extensively.  After we came back to the US, we left again after a year for a year in Kuwait where we had no teacher and I spent the day snorkeling, reading National Geographic (my mom's DIY home schooling)or beachcombing.  Later, I spent 18 months in Japan and 14 months at sea in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Indian Ocean along with several trips to Mombasa, Kenya.  Visited Oman and Djibouti too (and got terribly drunk with French Foreign Legionaires).  Travel expands horizons and teaches you much about how other people live, how other cultures operate, and how others view the US.  I've traveled a lot in the US too.  We take our daughter on travel with us and she enjoys it.

I used to work for a company catering to low-income backpackers (as opposed to those frightfully wealthy ones?), and so at my company, my 6 continents visited (one Asian country, a couple of African ones, only a couple in South America, plus of course the usual Western Europe + Australia bit) just barely earned me any respect at he table. I'd never ridden a jeep through Cambodian jungles! Never slept in a park in Budapest! And so on. I still want to do those things (well, maybe not so much the park bench sleeping) but my finances right now keep me in the U.S.

But, really, I assume Mr. Homebody is joking or just trying to be a dick. I saw things in Bangkok that I have never seen in any of the 50 states of the U.S. (all of which I've visited). And I'm not just talking about the girls who shoot ping-pong balls out of their nether bits. The Australian Outback really doesn't look like the Mojave. And having a local guide take you out in a jeep to see elephants in Kenya really isn't like going to the Bronx Zoo. And while I've never actually been to Antarctica (I was at the southernmost tip of Tasmania, and we could feel the wind from there. It was awesome), friend of mine have, and I am assured that it is quite different to Moose Jaw. Just saying.

One is defensive when one is attacked with the prevailing presumption that the untraveled are always sclerotic-brained simpletons.

So sod off.

Anathema--you don't have to travel for the ping-pong ball trick.  I saw that right in New York City.  She could actually call the row!!!  Men actually tried to catch them for souvenirs!  I figured there was a good chance there were other things up there too, so I screamed and ducked!

Ive done my share of travelling.. been to Europe... travelled all over america on tours..  and Im with homebody.. it's a bore..

I live in the greatest city in the world anyway.. why do I need to go anywhere else?

I hate people who twat on about how much travelling broadens them.. like going sightseeing is a mind expander.. it's such a fucking bunch of bullshit.. it's corny..

Although, maybe if you grew up in a country the size of Texas filled with a bunch of pasty, uptight duds, then maybe you might feel the need to travel..

Writing a post basically calling anyone who doesn't enjoy packing a bunch of shit and shlepping it half way across the world to see some landmarks a provincial, narrow minded asshole, is a low point even for you..

Why does every blogger on Date Machine besides Zeit suck so badly?

It's interesting that the vociferous travellers and non-travellers seem simply not to get the other's view.  "Travel is so broadening" is a cliche and suffers from being a "telling," not a "showing."  So here are some examples of things, in no particular order, that I liked experiencing in person that I would not have had I not travelled (and watching it on the Discovery channel really is a poor substitute):

Sunrise at Ayres Rock (Anathema, the U.S. analog to the Outback is Monument Valley in Utah; I recommend it highly).

Touching the Berlin Wall after it came down and seeing how it divided individual streets and neighbors from one another.

Drinking hot, mulled wine at the Christkindlmarkt in front of the Rathaus in Vienna while snowflakes gently fell.

Walking the "Street of the Jews" in the old Vilnius ghetto where my grandfather likely walked 100 years previously.

Standing in the lobby of the Trieste apartment building where my mother lived as a little girl.

The Taj Mahal:  The Discovery channel really doesn't do it justice.  It's amazing in different ways from 200 yards, 20 feet and six inches.

The Pyramids:  Ditto.

The Great Wall of China:  Ditto.

Talking to an elderly man in Hue who remembered the Americans fondly and wanted to practice his English.

Silencing a table of Australians by declining more food by announcing that I was "stuffed."

A friend's husband taking me all over Moscow to things the tourists never see (including his mosque).

Arguing (civilly) politics with a Moroccan student in Aix en Provence.

Crying at Auschwitz.

Making friends with a German boy on the Adriatic beach in Dubrovnik when we were nine years old, and staying with a German couple in Dortmund whom I'd met months earlier in China.

I could go on and on, but will add one thing:  The only thing better than traveling is coming home, and travel makes one appreciate home all the more.

I wouldn't say that traveling broadened me so much as released me.  I don't even necessarily believe that travel broadens everybody, though it certainly can.  

Prof--I think you captured a lot of feeling here.

And I do believe that Americans who've not experienced their own country are cheating themselves.  Sometimes it's not even a question of enjoying or not enjoying it, but simply living it.  

Hate to be a nitpicker ProfRobert [not really, kinda love it haha], Ayers Rock hasn't been known by that name in years. It's Uluru. The renaming was considered offensive and so it's reverted back to it's traditional name.

As for the travel business... some people will remain close minded no matter what they do and where they go. 'Travel' to them means 'Tourist'. Immersing oneself in a different culture is a concept that doesn't occur to some people. But.. each to their own. People are enriched by different things.

"Immersing oneself in a different culture is a concept that doesn't occur to some people."

Huh, is that what's up with the anti-travelers?

How sad...

Travel doesn't mean just "sightseeing" to me at all.  And loobeetchka, you took organized tours across America?  Well, there's part of your problem...

What I enjoy is having adventures, and what I learn from is having conversations with other people from other backgrounds/cultures, hands down...

Toluca--the people, hands down.  Absolutely.  Also learning how small a world it is, meeting people and connecting to common places.  

Like going clubbing with two Moroccan brothers in Sevilla.  They'd lived in Brooklyn when they were kids and were thrilled to find someone from "home."  

Singing karaoke with two Hassidic men in New Orleans.  We were all there for a shooting/hunting/outdoor show and were feeling out of place amongst the Ted Nugent sorts.  

Trading ganja for immodium with English hippies on a broken down bus in Panama and laughing ourselves silly at the sheer hopelessness of the situation.  

And just generally having a great time everywhere.  More than a couple times I found myself dependent on the kindliness of strangers who just gave and gave.  I've rarely felt any burden or hassle packing up to go experience someplace else.  

E-Claire:  In 1990 when I visited, it was still Ayres Rock, but your point is well taken.  As for cultural immersion, I confess I really never did it -- I never lived as a local in a foreign country.  With the year I had to travel, I could choose between going one or two places for a long time or many places for a short one, and chose the latter.  I tried to get as much out of it as I could, but I was more trying to get a taste of everything rather than immersing myself in it.

I grew up traveling a lot and have done some traveling as an adult too (hopefully more when I get a little less poor, like, in a while).  My mom is the child of European immigrants and my dad was a "peace corps brat" (basically an army brat, except his dad was a peace corps administrator instead) so they both grew up traveling a lot and both felt strongly about showing their kids different places too. Plus, my family is kind of scattered all over the world.  I've traveled on 4 different continents and lived in another country for 6 months and I agree with Toluca that it's taught me more than anything else ever has.

Still, I must defend some of my fellow Americans here. I get impatient with people who think traveling is just a waste of time and it seems pretty likely that our foreign policy would be a little different if more of us got out. But it ain't so easy.  Going to France from here is not as simple or as cheap as taking a train under the English channel.  I know a lot of people who would love to travel but have never been able to afford to do it (like me right now!) Just because someone hasn't traveled doesn't necessarily mean they aren't curious about the world.

Also, on a related note, here's something I've noticed during extensive European travel that I find not-so-enjoyable: A lot of the time Europeans I talk to will figure that because I'm educated, progressive, and in their country, I will be totally on board with them trashing all my fellow countrymen as ignorant, fast-food swilling neanderthals. Not so. I'm willing and eager to be critical of my country but I'm still an American and I like being one.  Hate-fests aren't for me. I don't like the implicit assumption that because I travel and am worldly and not a republican, I'm less American and won't care if a person engages in anti-American talk that's often every bit as uninformed as what I hear from Americans about "foreigners" Anybody else had this experience?

Lydia--I've definitely experienced that, but not so extensively.  I do think that Europeans who have only been to New York or L.A. or otherwise only had limited experience in the United States tend to have a media fed view of the states as a big monolithic entity, either rednecks, or affected nouveau riche soap opera sorts.  Television poisons minds all over the world.  

For the most part though I've only ever been greeted pleasantly anywhere I've been.

For better or worse I am an American and will not be mistaken anywhere for anything but.  I'm okay with that.  I'm not the least bit nationalist as I believe where you're born is as out of my hands as being born with brown hair.  I can dye it, but I'll still be a brunette with dyed hair.  Same with nationality or ethnicity.  It's all good.