How people travel.

Zoodlebop

I just want to get an idea of how people prefer to travel. In some threads I've posted in recently, there's been a huge amount of hostility towards some modes of travel. I want to understand where this comes from, as well as to learn why we prefer to travel the way we do (is it background, finances, etc).

For me: I've brought my views up before, but here I'll expound fully on them. I view traveling as a learning experience. You learn about the culture you're moving through, it's history, it's people, it's customs. You also learn a lot about yourself: how you deal with loneliness if you travel solo, how to deal with committee decision making (can be very frustrating) if you're in a group. I've always learned better by doing, rather than through non-active stimuli (looking, for instance) and I think most people do. It's for this reason that I avoid tour groups, always choose couchsurfing (and always will, not matter how much cash is available). This is why I will go eat in the local market instead of the nearest backpacker food joint. I don't want the buffer of that country's tourist industry. That's not the country. To me, that's just a business. It's not really because I'm a terrible stinge, it's because in this method I have the most interaction with with real people and culture of the country I'm visiting. For me this is the goal.

Background: English family moved to Ireland when I was young. Artist father, writer mother. School in Ireland, college in Trinity. Studying Astrophysics.

Finances: Not great. Have an internship this summer though, so things are looking up.

N.B. I'm honestly not asking these questions in some stupid attempt to make tours seem less valuable, or to try and make people who wouldn't dream of couchsurfing feel like they're missing out. I'm asking and answering the questions because I want to know.

Neamhshuntasach

I travel the same way as you except i don't do the couch surfing that much. I prefer to meet locals in a more social environment rather than the internet. I have done the couchsurfing before and met some cool people but i prefer the more real world way of meeting people. My favorite contient is South America and i'll include Central America in that too. The fact that i can speak Spanish allows me to just go to a cafe, sit on a park bench, go to a bar, or the gym and strike up conversations. Sometimes it's just a short convo but other times it's an invite to stay with them or go out with their friends or to a bbq or something. Not saying you can't get those experiences through CS, i just prefer the more conventional method.

Civilian_Target

Agreed. I sort of like couchsurfing, but it does attract a lot of the sort of people who can only make friends on the internet, and some people do tend to confuse it as a dating site.

Zoodlebop

Can totally see that. I'm yet to meet anyone through CS that wasn't great fun though. CS is just a tool.

Neamhshuntasach

Yeah it's pretty cool. Although as mentioned by civilian i have come across a few that seem to be great craic when they write through email but then in person they have no social skills. And while you are in their house you can tell why cause they are never off the feckin internet.