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Monday, October 11. 2021

Why do women like to travel so much?


Mrs. BD always wants new adventures, but in many ways I hate traveling. It's the process - airplanes, airports, rental cars, luggage, etc. I am always glad I did it after getting through the guards at JFK and headed back to my own place.


Mrs. is the travel planner, and she is darn good at it. She uses Karen Brown a lot, and knows how to use miles for first class. For me, long-distance air travel is torture regardless of the class. I try Ambien and hope not to wake up. 


Scott Adams wonders whether it's a female thing, at just past the 23 minute mark: Podcast 


Bored with their lives, maybe? Happy wife, happy life. I think mine is a good influence on me, but I never feel bored with life.



Posted by Bird Dog in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 16:48 | Comments (18) | Trackbacks (0)

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Right now my wife is on the phone with her best friend planning our trip to the Luberon next summer. I agree with you, as I get older (69) the whole experience eg. TSA etc just sucks the enjoyment out of me. Even in first class and yes with ambien.
Caveat: leaving Friday for a Bourbon Trail trip with some High School buddies.
#1 Moondog589 on 2021-10-11 20:07 (Reply)
>Why do women like to travel so much?

Status competition; it's a way of showing the world they're better than other women.
#2 OldCurmudgeon on 2021-10-11 20:15 (Reply)
Worked in a travel agency during the 1960's. In those days the wives would come in first; ask questions about the trip they had in mind---almost always England and France. Then they would go home and drag DH back. DH had already seen most of those places. When he was there he was living on dried food and burying his head under ground for sleeping accommodations at night. MOST of the TIME---THE VAST MAJORITy of the TIME--DH did not want to go see GAY PAREE--he had already seen it and going back 15 years later was not his idea of a vacation! He wanted to stay home and go see Yosemite, or Yellowstone again. The desire to stay close to home was a phenomenon recorded by the army docs.

Then Came HAWAII--you see HAWAII was also a part of some husband's experience. These guys had transferred through HAWAII in the 1940's and no matter what happened on Dec 7 1941, or the outer islands--Hawaii was still beautiful and much loved by those guys. AND. . .AND those guys WOULD TAKE their wives back to "the place they spent their time during the war!"

In the late 1970's, I went in for my yearly visit to my doctor, who knew that I worked in the travel industry. On one occasion after my yearly exam the nurse said Doc wanted to see me in his office. "OH CRAP--what the hell is this all about?" I thought? Sitting in front of his big desk--this large sized gentle, old white haired doc said to me: "I took my wife to Europe last year. It was her first trip out of country. She is crazy about going back to Paris. She doesn't want to go anywhere else--JUST PARIS! I don't know what to do. Do you have any suggestions?
"Well doc--take her by the arm and walk her through the streets of PARIS!" :-)
The wives/women of the second world war spent their time at home. Then when the war was over the helped build a great America. FINALLY, when their kids were raised and there was money in the bank--they wanted to see where DH had been all those years ago!! They were a "FORCE EXTRORDINAIRE"!

I still can't answer the question why some people WANT to leave home and see the world. But the women of WWII certainly did!!!
Here is something for you to think about. It was the tourist dollar that pulled the UK out of the financial doldrums of the late 1950's 1960's. Those gals over in the UK who had a spare bedroom in a house by the seaside, or in a lovely farmstead--they started renting those rooms out to the yanks who were coming back to show their wives where they had been!
Those tourist dollars gave the UK the lift it needed to get started again!!!

Just sayin
#3 Apple Pie on 2021-10-11 21:12 (Reply)
Why do people travel? Is it to escape to new places? To gain distinction at home for having done so? Or...what?

As someone who was raised overseas and saw a lot of the world before ten, I was baffled at the number of people who travel for travel's sake. The expense of travel far outweighs whatever fleeting benefit I imagine I may gain from it. Am I so very different?

Also, I chafe at the tourist-trap aspect of it all. If you travel to seek old cultural tastes and sights, it's getting harder and harder to find them in their pristine form. The cowboy shtick on the Grand Canyon Railroad ain't Arizona anymore than the warm coke served by an Andean youth in a cantina below Machu Pichu is Peru. And I've sponged up both.

Last, the social costs need to be analyzed these days. It is due to the, in many cases, frivolous ocean hopping that some engage in, that our airlines, cruise lines and national borders are under constant attack. Everyone from Arab terrorists and open borders activists, to our CDC and Karen state governments, target this discretionary service we call 'travel' repeatedly. Maybe we should be cutting back on this whimsical peregrine-ing about, and spend the time and money on more lasting things.
-S
#4 steveaz on 2021-10-11 22:34 (Reply)
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. ~Mark Twain
#5 RL on 2021-10-11 22:46 (Reply)
OTOH, people who fly internationally are de facto global warming denialists. Nowadays, we shown that business meetings can be done via Zoom, children can learn about other cultures via the Internet, etc.
#5.1 OldCurmudgeon on 2021-10-12 10:21 (Reply)
Twain had very few nice things to say about foreigners in
"The Innocents Abroad"
#5.2 Matt on 2021-10-12 15:52 (Reply)
If one chooses not to travel, is one 'bigoted,' 'unwholesome,' and 'vegetating?' In 2021? Hmmm.

I think Twain overreaches here a bit, as authors, given a captive, train-bound audience, are often wont to do.
#6 steveaz on 2021-10-11 22:57 (Reply)
Twain overreaches a lot.

Never understood why it became Gospel if Twain uttered it.

Reasonably clever guy to be sure, but not some omniscient super-genius.
#6.1 DrTorch (Link) on 2021-10-12 11:42 (Reply)
I have known for many years that I'm not a typical female and it holds true this time. My husband and I have the same attitude towards travel. We took several long trips after I retired 5 years ago--including during 2020 when no one else was traveling and it was delightful! But that's out of our system now and we are happy to stay home and take, at most, short trips to place we can drive in half a day. We just got back from 4 nights away (that we very much enjoyed) and both swore we never want to go anywhere ever again.

That said, I have always been our family travel agent and enjoy the planning. We hate traveling to cities and the thought of a trip to either Paris or London makes both of us shudder in horror. We prefer remote, wild areas, preferably off season.
#7 T Migratorious on 2021-10-12 06:57 (Reply)
I talked to my husband about this topic and he said we were both kind of lukewarm about travel because we both used to travel a lot for business. I think he's right and perhaps that has something to do with the male/female split in attitudes. Traditionally, women didn't travel for work and saw travel as fun and recreation. Men, OTOH, didn't find it that novel.

I wonder if this has changed much in younger generations.
#7.1 T Migratorious on 2021-10-13 06:53 (Reply)
I think guys prefer to travel to do things, like hunting or fishing or hiking or looking at the Botticellis. Not just for "travel".
#8 Bird Dog on 2021-10-12 08:05 (Reply)
Nothing compares with directly experiencing far-away places with unfamiliar scenery, language, food, customs, and architecture. The process of getting there, however, is increasingly horrible, not to mention that most hotels are airless soul-sucking spaces. The best thing for me is to rent a spot that's more like a home and stay put for the duration, exploring nearby.
#9 Texan99 on 2021-10-12 10:32 (Reply)
I would speculate that women like to travel because it gets them away from cooking and keeping house.

Simple as that.
#10 feeblemind on 2021-10-12 12:19 (Reply)
Exactly. The reason my wife would not go camping, travel trailering. or RV'ing. She maintained she would never go on any trip that required bringing along the sink or stove.
#10.1 rocdoctom on 2021-10-12 12:46 (Reply)
As a recently divorced man I have noticed on the dating websites that almost all women list travel as something they enjoy.

It occurred to me that there's a social stigma attached to a woman traveling alone. Singular dining and activities can be awkward and there is a real danger being alone in an unfamiliar place, especially for women.

Travelling isn't my thing, but being the cad that I am I list it as a favorite activity in an effort to be more attractive to women.

It doesn't seem to be working.
#11 Jim on 2021-10-12 15:05 (Reply)
Until March 2020 I traveled weekly as part of my work duties. Almost always domestically (North America). I have taken a good number of overseas trips and domestic vacations, and enjoyed every one of them. But I do not ever take the initiative to choose a destination and plan a trip of leisure. I am quite content to stay home. My wife is regularly researching some new place to go. It is only recently that I have been willing to answer "nowhere" when asked where I want to travel to next. I'll be able to get away with that answer so long as I'm willing to accompany her on her chosen excursion.
#12 steve walsh on 2021-10-12 21:38 (Reply)
Entirely the opposite in our family. If I hadn't married my husband my vacations would have consisted of going to the Cape every year. And I.am.definitely. getting fed up with the hassle before he is, even though I am.younger.
#13 Cathy J on 2021-10-13 20:44 (Reply)

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