Go Back or Go Somewhere New: Prioritizing Travel
Ask ten people for their top ten travel goals and you may hear 100 different answers. Every traveler has a short list of places they’d love to visit, but nobody has time to visit everything on their list. When traveling, Americans may use weekends to visit nearby cities and parks. Longer domestic trips may be possible if one is lucky enough to have the money and time off from work. If really lucky, an international trip is even possible. Everyone day dreams about taking those major trips, but there’s a happy travel problem left after taking them: How do you prioritize travel back to a destination you loved when you still have other places you dream about visiting? Choosing to return to a destination you love means sacrificing the possibility of finding another. It’s a tough reality that’s not often considered but one we face regularly as long term travelers.
Chandni and I are very lucky that long term travel has taken us to many beautiful destinations. We found ourselves constantly comparing one destination to another, sometimes even before leaving. Our common conversation starter of “next time we’re here we’ll have to ____” eventually included questioning how likely we were to return at all. That became what we discussed most. Why should we return? Most places we visit are relatively expensive to reach from home, so why prioritize returning to a destination we’ve visited when there’s nearly a full planet left to explore? Three topics always came up with those questions: What major attractions did we miss, how delicious was the food, and what would we want to experience again.
The first and most obvious reason we prioritize return travel is to visit major attractions we missed.
These are mostly indoor activities often so iconic that it’s shocking we missed them at all! For example, between the two of us, Chandni and I have traveled to Rome five times, yet neither of us have been inside the Colosseum. We’re apparently terrible at buying tickets early enough to enjoy a visit. Visiting the Colosseum is absolutely a reason we want to return to Rome instead of visiting another major city. However, major attractions don’t attract everyone equally. Milan is home to the Teatro Alla Scala, a world class opera house that’s considered an essential visit when traveling to Milan. We were unable to visit and totally fine with that.
Recently, a local from Milan told us that we had to return for a visit to the opera house because our experience of Milan was incomplete. We disagree. We appreciate that the Milan Opera House is among the world’s best in class, but we aren’t interested in opera or music history enough to prioritize a return to Milan just for a performance or tour. Watching a performance there won’t change the flavor of Milan’s risottos, how well its people treat us, or define our time in Milan outside that building. Our time in Milan was enjoyable but there’s no major attraction calling us back. Consider if visiting a single landmark changes how you feel about a place overall.
The second reason we prioritize return travel is excitement for food.
On a literal Swiss mountain top we met a traveler in his twenties from New Jersey. He hadn’t visited many places outside the United States but he was loving his time in Switzerland except for one thing - the food. We chatted for a solid hour before he shared that he had mostly been eating McDonald’s across Switzerland. He wasn’t eating there because of the high cost of eating out, he was eating there because he didn’t trust foods he’s never tried. Chandni and I were absolutely blown away! We couldn’t relate because food is one of our biggest reasons to travel, and a huge reason we prioritize return travel.
Food is culture. Eating like a local opens your mind to new flavors of life that can’t be replicated outside their origin. Try brisket outside of Texas and tell me if you like it just the same as back home. My vegetarian readers that can’t relate, try thinking bean and cheese tacos for me with the same analogy. Choosing a new travel destination without exciting food actually makes it less appealing compared to a place that we know has great food. Eating food you aren’t excited for can put a damper on daily life, but it can absolutely ruin the impression of a travel destination.
The third reason we prioritize return travel is to repeat experiences we loved.
Nothing compares to experiencing something for the first time that you now love. However, you can relive similar experiences when traveling. Every year we prioritize a trip back to New Orleans even though many travelers avoid it based on poor assumptions. We rarely visit the wonderful museums in NOLA, we avoid Mardis Gras season, and we’re not that interested in jazz. Those are New Orleans essentials, but so are food and drink. The city plates some of the best flavors in the world, and their iconic dishes are nearly impossible to find elsewhere. Why go somewhere new specifically for food when we’ve never had a bad pate in New Orleans? We won’t ever get to experience that first hit of delicious red beans and rice again, but we’ll always love searching for the best version of it around town!
Earlier I mentioned Chandni and I have visited Rome a fair amount. We’ve spent hours staring at paintings, sculptures, and architecture across Rome because nothing like it is found anywhere else. Rome keeps pulling us back thanks to its art. We don’t only prioritize return travel for indoor experiences like food and museums. Hike the same trail enough and you may no longer be amazed by the views that once blew you away. However, while a trail may always have the same views, it won’t have the same weather, wildlife, or banter with friends. We prioritize the same trails not for the destination, but because we love our journey there and back. Repeating travel for the same experiences should be encouraged because that’s the only way you’ll ever get to know something.
It can be very hard picking between somewhere you love and somewhere new to travel. And that’s okay! That means you’re excited for more than one set of experiences and that there’s not a bad choice. Every monument, museum, city, and country is worth at least one visit because everywhere and everything has something to offer. That outlook has become the basis of how we prioritize travel, because regardless of the destination, we travel expecting to appreciate rather than expecting to enjoy. In rare cases, expecting to enjoy your experiences as a traveler may lead to disappointment, but you’ll never be let down if you prioritize appreciation.
