3 ms·
On the one hand, I think you're right to an extent - when I travel, I've almost always booked all my accommodation, car hire and so on in advance, all mediated
by ajdlinux 10y ago
On the one hand, I think you're right to an extent - when I travel, I've almost always booked all my accommodation, car hire and so on in advance, all mediated through the Internet, and making my plans relatively inflexible. The internet definitely advantages the "well curated" stuff.
On the other hand, technology has also enabled more flexibility in travel. When my grandmother went on her once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe 30 years ago, she spent all day on bus tours, going wherever the tour company had chosen to take her. When my father and I went to China, South Korea and Japan two years ago, the only bus tours we went on were to visit the Great Wall and the DMZ. Our accommodation? Bar one location, all booked through sites like Hostelworld. Our air tickets? Booked directly by us, over the internet. We got to choose where and when we did things. Sure, backpackers and so on have been travelling with independence before we had the internet to help us, but technology has brought this independence to a far wider audience with a lower appetite for uncertainty and risk.
- thatfrenchguy 10y ago> When my grandmother went on her once-in-a-lifetime trip to Europe 30 years ago I think it's really sad to do a "one in a lifetime trip to Europe". Every single country has way too much to offer to do just "one trip for everything". Hell, you can spend a month a year touring France like my parents and never run out of interesting things to see after 25 years.
- emodendroket 10y agoYeah, of course, but you could do the same without ever leaving the US, or in any of the world's continents.
- ajdlinux 10y agoI agree with you, but in defence of my grandmother... A) Things were a bit different 30 years ago. Flying from Australia to Europe is expensive now, it was even worse then. B) Things are particularly different when, like my grandmother, you're a working class person, living in a working class inner city suburb, in government housing. Given those circumstances, I think planning a "once in a lifetime" trip is a perfectly reasonable thing to do.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]