Travel Philosophy

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I began traveling in 1992; in doing so, I embraced Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Doors. This book launched my passion for traveling. I enjoy and revere the style in which Rick Steves' travels, and find his writing humorous, frank, entertaining, and helpful. I have adapted his travel philosophy so that you may understand my values as they relate to traveling.

•  Travel is intensified living ~ maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom. It's recess, and we need it.

•  Extroverts have more fun. If your trip is low on magic moments, kick yourself and make things happen. If you don't enjoy a place, maybe you don't know enough about it. Seek the truth. Recognize tourist traps. Give a culture the benefit of your open mind. See things as different but not better or worse. Any culture has much to share.

•  Of course, travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys. Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something's not to your liking, change your liking.

•  Travel is addictive. It can make you a happier American as well as a citizen of the world. Our Earth is home to six billion equally important people. It's humbling to travel and find that people don't envy Americans. They like us, but, with all due respect, they wouldn't trade passports.

•  Globe-trotting destroys ethnocentricity. It helps you understand and appreciate different cultures. Thoughtful travel engages you with the world ~ more important than ever these days. Travel changes people. It broadens perspectives and teaches new ways to measure quality of life. The most prized souvenirs are the strands of different cultures you decide to knit into your own life.

Traveling as a Local  

•  We travel all the way to Europe to enjoy differences ~ to become temporary locals. You will experience frustrations. Traveling is often stressful, as we don't always have everything at our fingertips to feel comfortable and at ease. For instance, eating between meals is often inconvenient in France; most restaurants close between 2-7pm. Certain truths that we find “God-given” or “self-evident,” such as friendly waiters, ice in drinks, bottomless cups of coffee, hot showers, and bigger being better, are suddenly not so true. For the overall well-being and enjoyment of the group, it is essential that politeness is maintained at all times -- even, or rather especially, during times of distress.

•  One of the benefits of travel is the eye-opening realization that there are logical, civil, and sometimes, even better alternatives.

•  France is an understandably proud country. To enjoy its people, you need to celebrate the differences. A willingness to “go local” ensures that you'll enjoy a full dose of French hospitality.

•  If there is a negative aspect to the image the French have of Americans, it is that we are big, aggressive, impolite, rich, loud, superficially friendly, and a bit naïve. Americans tend to be noisy in public places, such as restaurants and trains. Our raised voices can demolish France's reserved and elegant ambience. Talk softly.

•  While the French look bemusedly at some of our Yankee excesses ~ and worriedly at others ~ they nearly always afford us individual travelers all the warmth we deserve.

•  Why visit France as a tourist when you can “live” as a local?

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