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yeah, I am sure all the Americans and Canadians who flock to the Caribbeans have a lot of interaction of and learn a lot about the spanish speaking local people and culture. Cancun for example is the centre of Mexican culture.
You do realize that beaches exist everywhere around the world, right? You know that, right?
Travel means going to a different location to get to see, know and experience different landscape, people, culture, history, lifestyle, achitecture, heriage and come back knowing more about the world than when you left.
Not everyone shares this specific definition of travel. If that's what it means to you, that's fine. But that's not what it means to everyone.
No it doesn't depend on one's definition of travel. Travel means going to a different location to get to see, know and experience different landscape, people, culture, history, lifestyle, achitecture, heriage and come back knowing more about the world than when you left.
I'd invite you to point out the dictionary that defines travel as this. I found 18, and strangely not a single one adheres to what you believe the word means.
1. to go from one place to another, as by car, train, plane, or ship; take a trip; journey:
to travel for pleasure.
2. to move or go from one place or point to another.
3. to proceed or advance in any way.
4. to go from place to place as a representative of a business firm.
5. to associate or consort:
He travels in a wealthy crowd.
6. Informal. to move with speed.
7. to pass, or be transmitted, as light or sound.
verb (used with object), traveled, traveling or (especially British) travelled, travelling.
10. to travel, journey, or pass through or over, as a country or road.
11. to journey or traverse (a specified distance):
We traveled a hundred miles.
12. to cause to journey; ship:
to travel logs downriver.
noun
13. the act of traveling; journeying, especially to distant places:
to travel to other planets.
14. travels.
journeys; wanderings:
to set out on one's travels.
journeys as the subject of a written account or literary work:
a book of travels.
such an account or work.
15. the coming and going of persons or conveyances along a way of passage; traffic:
an increase in travel on state roads.
16. Machinery.
the complete movement of a moving part, especially a reciprocating part, in one direction, or the distance traversed; stroke.
length of stroke.
17. movement or passage in general:
to reduce the travel of food from kitchen to table.
adjective
18. used or designed for use while traveling:
a travel alarm clock.
No, you don't need to visit an art museum or taking a heavy history lesson, but you come back knowing more about the world.
Quote:
Originally Posted by botticelli
If you just go to a warmer place to swim and tan, that's not travel. It is called vacation. It is like going to your uncle Jim's cabin the mountains once in a while just to be in nature. It is vacation, not travel, because it provides absolutely no new information to your brain. It is not so different from flying 10000 miles to play 6 hours of basketball and come back. Do you call that "travel"? Of course frequent Carribbean beach goers want to convince themselves they are "travelling", well, too bad. It is a vacation, but you are not a traveller.
This argument is based on the flawed assumption that anyone traveling to a tropical beach is going there just to swim and tan, but even if that were true (which it isn't) they are still traveling. Your pedantic hair splitting over your pet definitions are completely irrelevant.
You swim in a 1000 different swimming pools, small and large, wide and narrow, blue or green, warm or cold, with or without life guards, all you did was still swimming and they are still just swimming pools.
Wait, when did a foreign beach location and all the different food/culture/climate/etc. that it involves become a 100 meter long swimming pool?
Oh yeah, it is when someone is desperate to cling to a poor argument.
yeah, I am sure all the Americans and Canadians who flock to the Caribbeans have a lot of interaction of and learn a lot about the spanish speaking local people and culture. Cancun for example is the centre of Mexican culture.
I've never been to Cancun, but had a coworker who went.
While there he went to see the Mayan ruins at Coba, El Ray, Museo Maya, and a few other Mayan-related archelogical sites that I don't recall the names. He brought back tons of pictures, was very excited about it, and ended up getting really into reading about Mayan and Aztec cultures. The next year, because of his experience in Cancun, he got really out of his comfort zone and booked one to Belize since he could make a side trip to spend a few days in Guatemala and see Tikal. I've been to Tikal, that is some amazing stuff whether you're into Mayan civilization or not. Again a trip to a tropical beach, that he gained cultural enrichment from.
Sure he didn't go to the "centre of Mexican culture" (boticelli's latest silly personal qualifier for travel being travel) but his experiences alone torpedoes your ridiculous theory that tropical beach locations do not enable one to learn more and have cultural enrichment.
To take this further, imagine a couple who's first international travel experience is a beach holiday in Phuket, not an uncommon scenario. Phuket is about as touristy as Thailand gets. They will probably learn/experience:
Strolls through local produce and live food markets
How the chaos of traffic in a 3rd world Asian country works
Sampling street food
Bargaining for goods instead of just having a price tag
Monks in saffron robes walking past
Lots of local wats like Srisoonthorn, Phra Thong, Khao Rang where despite tourists they see how locals behave at temples
Locals playing speak takraw
Maybe even a cooking class that includes trip to market to buy ingredients
The list goes on and on, just because it isn't some center of Thai culture doesn't mean people don't gain insight into other cultures and exposure to new things they wouldn't see back, despite it being a tropical beach holiday. You see people like this all the time in places like Thailand taking pictures of day-to-day life things like live eels at a market, locals burning incense at a shrine, a scooter going by with a family of four on it, local kids fishing with bamboo rods off a bridge, etc. all because it is a new cultural experience for them.
You don't go to a tropical beach where your experience is in a vacuum devoid of anything but some sand and water, and something doesn't need to have a certain level of cultural enrichment to still expose visitors to local customs and culture.
I can't believe this thread is still going on. *pulls out whip to beat dead equine*
Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang
You don't go to a tropical beach where your experience is in a vacuum devoid of anything but some sand and water, and something doesn't need to have a certain level of cultural enrichment to still expose visitors to local customs and culture.
Plus, who says experiencing other cultures is the only valid reason to travel? When I went to Indonesia, I didn't go to experience Indonesian culture (although I did get a taste of it), I went to see a total solar eclipse. If I ever go to the Caribbean, it won't be to soak up the culture of the islands, it will be to see Caribbean coral reefs and to spot birds that don't live in the US. Ditto Africa: it's the animals that are the draw to me there.
Botticelli may not be very interested in the natural world, but for me it's the primary reason I go to new places. And they're both good reasons to travel. (So is just relaxing and soaking up a few rays on a beach.) Travel's not a contest, and fortunately anyone can do it without first obtaining a permit from the Internet Travel Police.
I've never been to Cancun, but had a coworker who went.
While there he went to see the Mayan ruins at Coba, El Ray, Museo Maya, and a few other Mayan-related archelogical sites that I don't recall the names.
Pretty much everyone I know that's gone to Cancun after they graduated from college has spent a good number of day trips to Mayan sites and then raved about them.
I go to one city and depending on the size of that city, I will take the train to other cities. I prefer to immerse myself in the culture, live in a typical flat in an average neighborhood. I don't think you can do that by spending your trip rushing to the next city then the next. But that is just my opinion. when I was in N. Italy, I stayed in Bergamo and traveled to Milan, Venice, Brescia and Verona from there. When I was in Barcelona, there was so much to see and do, I didn't leave the city except for a winery tour.
We all have our own style of travel. the most important thing is to Travel!
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