People choose to travel for many different reasons. Some want to take a break from everyday life. Others want to see new places or meet new people.
Why do you travel?
We get asked this often, most directly by our 9-year-old niece who asked
“Why do you guys travel so much?”
We don’t have a simple answer. But in a few minutes, we came up with 52 reasons, and that’s probably just getting started
Here’s our quick list of 52 reasons why we travel:
1. We like it
2. To experience new places
3. To see things we’ve read about first hand
4. To visit friends or family
5. To meet up with friends to explore a destination
6. To attach some fun to the end of work travel
7. For face-to-face relationship building
8. For fun
9. For adventure
10. For togetherness
11. To get out of our comfort zone
12. To see if Anthony Bourdain knows what he’s talking about
13. To see if we like the same things Samantha Brown likes
14. To take a break from our daily routines
15. For B.T. (an Alaskan saying about being together, despite distance)
16. For relaxation
17. For exploration
18. For learning
19. For understanding
20. For personal development
21. For transition
22. For clarity in our thinking
23. To enjoy the journey
24. To have a fantastic meal
25. To taste wines at their source
26. To meet winemakers
27. To try new wine bars
28. To build up frequent flier miles
29. To use frequent flier miles
30. To get “over the threshold” for frequent flier status, i.e. a “mileage run”
31. To get “over the threshold for hotel status
32. To relax
33. To stimulate our senses
34. To have new things to blog about
35. To check out places for clients
36. To better understand to articles in the Economist
37. To improve our knowledge of geography
38. To go where cell phones don’t work (this is getting harder)
39. To have quality together time
40. To enjoy regional food (hello Memphis BBQ)
41. To revisit a favorite restaurant
42. To revisit a favorite neighborhood
43. To revisit a favorite bar
44. To learn to cook new things
45. In search of the best martini
46. To get up close to alligators
47. To overcome a fear
48. To get someone else to travel
49. To take great photos
50. To scratch off more places on our “places to visit” list
51. To walk in someone else’s shoes
52. To make the most of each day
What about you? What are some of your reasons to travel?
Today: 5 Books to Inspire Your Next Travel Adventure
We love books as much as we love travel. And, while we buy fewer hardcover books since we’ve become Kindle owners, our travel books are ones that an electronic copy will never replace.
Whenever we have a spare moment to think about our next travel adventure, these five coffee table books are nearby, waiting to tempt us for a few minutes of travel dreaming and scheming.
5 Travel Books to Inspire Your Next Trip
1. Know that October is the only time available for your next journey? Where To Go When (Eyewitness Travel Guides), a gorgeous oversized book filled with jaw-dropping photos, recommends the best places to visit in the world during each month of the year.
2. Next on our coffee table is Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World’s Greatest Trips. This book is divided into nine sections, each focusing on a different type of journey, with categories such as “Across Water”, “By Rail”, “On Foot” “In Gourmet Heaven, and “In their Footsteps”– pilgrimages for “readers, dreamers and history fans”.
Each page showcases a different journey, includes photos, a map, an overview, highlights, and useful information such as when to go, how long you need, and key websites
3. Various sources disagree on what makes a country, but we like Lonely Planet’s 231 “countries” profiled in The Travel Book A Journey Through Every Country In the World. This small but thick book lists all of the travel essentials and stats on each country such population, languages spoken and area size. Kind of like geography textbook, but so much more interesting and compelling. A must for country collectors! (According to this book we’ve visited 72 of its countries.)
4. One of the ways we love exploring the world is by cruise ship so we’ve long enjoyed Voyages: The Romance of Cruising with photographs by Harvey Lloyd and details of many of the world’s best 100 destinations to be visited via a cruise ship.
5. Finally, our longest-held coffee table book that has inspired our travels is Hugh Johnson’s World Atlas of Wine.
While our 4th edition is old and faded, it has inspired many of our adventures, from Germany’s Mosel to Chile’s Casablanca Valley to Italy’s Alto Adige to the oldest vine in Slovenia.The most recent 6th version is by Hugh Johnson and Janics Robinson (who’s wine columns we enjoy in the Financial Times.)
What books inspire your travels? Please share in comments.
Note, if you click on these links and purchase a book, Kindle or other items through Amazon, you support this blog.
Born and raised in Hawaii, Donna Bender considers the islands home. She’s lived in Hawaii part-time her entire life.
Passionate about sharing the “local” Hawaii experience as only a long-time insider can, Donna authored two guides for visitors to Hawaii.
The Local Girl’s Guide to Maui started as a list of Donna’s favorite restaurants for her friends who were visiting. Over the years, the guide has grown to 50 pages, with every piece of information a visitor might want to know, from where to get the best manicure, snorkeling spot, or sunset views to a primer on local language and politics.
The Local Girl’s Guide to Oahu provides the same in-depth details on local favorites. Donna explains local food — pancit, halo-halo, or Lau Lau anyone – and gives details like where to find the best plate lunch, “Martini Madness” and half price entrees.
If you want to see Maui or Oahu as a local does, Donna’s guides are for you.
Donna is also a certified Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau Destination Specialist. She books lodging and air-land-car vacation packages for Maui and all the Hawaiian islands. Her condo booking site showcases a variety of Maui condo properties for rent.
In addition to Hawaii, Donna’s other passion is exploring the globe, from Tanzania to Bora Bora to the Florida Keys. (We note a warm weather theme!)
We were curious learn more about Donna’s passion for travel and Hawaii.
The Jones: What inspires you to travel?
Donna: Travel for me is immersing myself in a totally different culture and experience. It’s putting myself in a place that is different than my normal day-to-day life and reveling in that experience. It’s always been for me: “Can I do this? Can I navigate this?”
Have you always enjoyed travel? What contributed to your love of travel?
Donna: I didn’t start traveling except to and from Hawaii until I was in mid twenties and after starting to travel I was mega hooked. Once I started traveling I loved the adrenalin rush of being out of my comfort zone and learning and experiencing something new every day.
What is your favorite destination?
Donna: I have loved everywhere I’ve been. Because I have no expectations I am never ever disappointed when I go somewhere.
If you have preconceived ideas and expectations for how a country, a hotel or even a cruise should be you are setting yourself up for heartache.
Tanzania, where I’ve been twice on safari, was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had. Anthropology was my undergraduate degree so I have always been drawn to Africa. I did the safaris with Andrew Beckett Safaris, Journey into Africa and plan to do another one with Andrew before I leave this planet. Andrew is truly a life enhancer and his safaris are perfection.
If I were to choose another place that I want to return to, having only been there twice would be Bora Bora. Gorgeous.
What destination has surprised you the most, either good or bad?
Donna: I wasn’t prepared for how hard Egypt was going to be. I did a tour because it was too difficult and impossible to do it on my own. What was hard was the unbearable heat and how I was treated by the majority of men that I came in contact with.
It wasn’t easy finding Egyptian women to talk to. The women, hidden under their burkas, came out at night to do their shopping.
Right now Egypt isn’t a destination I recommend because of the political turmoil.
However, it is a place to go to if you are serious about Egyptian antiquities.
Abu Simbel Temple, built 3000 years ago blew me away. I will never forget the color of blue the Egyptians used in their jaw-dropping murals.
Why do you think that travel is important?
Donna: It allows us discovery: discovery of ourselves and how well or not well we handle new experiences.
Travel is also a discovery of cultures and people who are so different yet we find to be so alike.
A lot of people are afraid to travel because they think they need to speak French in order to go to France when in fact you can have the time of your life and only know how to say croissant!
You were born in Hawaii and have lived there part-time most of your life.
The most delicious and inexpensive dining, if you eat where locals eat. The nicest, most generous and kindest people on the planet live in Hawaii.
We want you to come to Hawaii to share our Aloha.
What do first-time visitors to Hawaii need to know before they go?
Donna: You have to be willing to be adventurous.
It kills me that most tourists to Hawaii only eat in chain restaurants or hotels instead of venturing in to Mom-and-Pop family-owned restaurants. Hawaii people love to eat and know how to cook.
Hawaii is multi-cultural in that we have Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, Chinese, Tongans, Japanese, Samoans, Hawaiians, Mexicans, and Micronesians, all living happily together sharing culture, food and love.
I want people who travel to Hawaii to meet “real” people in Hawaii and not just other tourists.
Living in a hotel bubble doesn’t allow you that experience. I also want visitors in Hawaii to slow down in their cars and lives so they can drink in that sunset and palm tree and beautiful scent of a plumeria flower. I see tourists running amok, rushing around and not slowing down to enjoy what they have paid so much money to see.
If visitors understood Hawaii culture better I think their visit would be enhanced and how Hawaii folks perceive them would be much more positive. Hawaii people have a love-hate relationship with tourism. It’s Hawaii’s only industry and we want tourists, but we also see them shopping and eating in chain stores and staying in corporate properties instead of locally owned and operated establishments.
Hawaii needs tourists and their money, but it’s not really getting to local Hawaii people when you stay and eat at the Sheraton, Westin, Marriott, etc.
Do you have a practice or insight that makes your travel experiences more enjoyable?
Donna: Absolutely. No expectations. Don’t set yourself up for a disappointing trip by having expectations for a place.
35 years ago when I first went to Bora Bora I complained to a fellow traveler that the service wasn’t very good at this expensive hotel where we were staying.
The traveler said to me as he picked up a napkin “You are lucky you have this napkin to wipe your face! Do you know what it took to get this napkin to you from America or France? Many planes, many boats, many people to get you this one napkin. Be thankful for everything you have when you travel.”
Thank you Sergio Aragones, renowned cartoonist! Lesson learned.
We enjoy learning about other people’s travel discoveries as much as making our own.
What fuels your travel passion? Please share in comments.
Our friends are taking a family vacation to Ft. Myers, Florida for spring break this week Their children are 14, 11 and 7 years old.
Image of Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Florida from space. NASA July 1997.
Besides enjoying the beach, what are the must-see family attractions near Ft. Myers?
Since we’ve only been to Ft. Myers on business trips, we had few ideas. But we were intrigued to find some recommendations for our friends.
Between an in-depth internet search of travelers reviews, and a request through social media to fellow travelers, here’s our list of 10 family-friendly activities for the Ft. Myers, Florida area.
1. Walk over a slough with alligators, wild pigs, herons and egrets at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve 7751 Penzance Blvd Exit #131 off I-75 between northern Lee County and Estero Bay. A 1.2-mile boardwalk winds through the 2200-acre wetland, and includes two observation platforms and a photo blind. The Interpretive Center is open Tuesday – Saturday 10 am -4 pm. Guided walks are offered at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Free admission; parking fee.
2. Watch the Boston Red Sox in Spring Training. The City of Palms Park in downtown Fort Myers hosts theBoston Red Sox for Grapefruit League spring training. This week the Sox play both the New York Yankees and the Mets. Advance ticket purchase is recommended.
3. Learn about two famous America inventors/industrialists at the Edison & Ford Winter Estates. Inventor Thomas Edison began wintering along the Caloosahatchee River in 1886. In 1916, Edison’s friend Henry Ford built his winter home, Mangoes, next door. Both are open to the public and include Edison’s botanical gardens, laboratory and a museum. The Estates are open daily 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM with guided and self-guided tours
4.Learn where the “fort” was in Fort Myers at The Southwest Florida Museum of History, housed in the restored Atlantic Coast Line Depot located on 2031 Jackson Street in downtown Ft. Myers. Open Tuesday – Sunday, the museum traces the history of the Ft. Myers area from prehistoric times to the present day, with exhibits such as a Pullman car, a late 1800s “Cracker” home replica and a World War II P-39 Cobra On Wednesdays or Saturday the museum offers an hour and a half walking tour of historic Ft. Myers along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River, departing a 10 am.
5.Catch a glimpse of manatees at Manatee Park, a non-captive refuge for the Florida manatees located at 10901 State Road 80. Admisssion is free but there’s a $1 per hour parking fee. Visit in the morning for the best chance to see manatees. The park – located by a power plant – offers walking trails as well as canoe and kayak rentals.
6. Sample Florida’s famous Indian River citrus and fresh-squeezed juices at Sun Harvest Citrus, a family-run citrus growing, packing and retail gift store operation in Fort Myers.
7. Spend a day in the Florida Everglades. Journey to the Everglades – think alligators, snakes and an airboat ride. For a half day adventure with an hour-long airboat ride in the swamp, book Captain Bob Excellent Adventure Eco Tours. The Funmobile picks you up from locations in the Ft. Myers area, transporting you to the northwest corner of the Everglades while sharing the history of the unique ecosystem.
For a more in-depth experience with Florida’s wildlife, book a daylong Everglades Day Safari. Guides lead small groups by airboat, van, riverboat, and on foot. Lunch (with alligators!) is included.
8. Fish, canoe, roller blade or ride a miniature railroad at Lakes Regional Park 7330 Gladiolus Drive A popular recreational area in Fort Myers, this 279-acre park has 158 acres of fresh water lakes and a 2.5 mile paved path. The Fragrance Garden is a unique sensory experience. The scale model railroad offers 15-minute rides through the northern areas of the park beside the lake, through a tunnel and past several displays.
9. And, go north, Beth Roden @BethKRoden22 advises. The Sarasota Mote Marine Aquarium, “is great for kids” and “;and you “can’t beat Busch Gardens” in Tampa.
10. John Boykin a photograher and publisher of Boomer magazine says just across the causeway “Sanibel and Captiva Islands are the best shell collecting beaches in America.”
Another shell stop: The Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum 3075 Sanibel-Captiva Road in Sanibel featuring mollusks from around the world. Exhibits are devoted to shells in art and history, shell habitat, fossil shells, common Southwest Florida shells, and more. A half-hour video, Mollusks in Action, is shown on the hour, while the museum store offers a wide selection of shell books and is open daily 10-5.
Have you visited Fort Myers, Florida? What must-see attractions do you recommend?
, a gorgeous oversized book filled with jaw-dropping photos, recommends the best places to visit in the world during each month of the year.
This book is divided into nine sections, each focusing on a different type of journey, with categories such as “Across Water”, “By Rail”, “On Foot” “In Gourmet Heaven, and “In their Footsteps”– pilgrimages for “readers, dreamers and history fans”.
. This small but thick book lists all of the travel essentials and stats on each country such population, languages spoken and area size. Kind of like geography textbook, but so much more interesting and compelling. A must for country collectors! (According to this book we’ve visited 72 of its countries.)
