We rarely spend long enough in any place on our travels. Without the luxury of being able to take an indefinite trip, our itineraries inevitably involve plenty of compromise and the list of places in a country we’d like to visit has to be ruthlessly cut down to fit the limited time allowed. Local people will often ask us whether we’ve had a chance to see A,B or C and when we say we didn’t have the time the reply is always the same: “You’ll just have to come back again soon”.
I nod politely, but deep down I know that we probably won’t return. Ever. However much we have enjoyed our visit I know that when we’re planning that next trip, the very fact that we have been to a country before will be held massively against it.
This logic applies even to those countries where we have hopped across their border just to visit a city or site (Honduras and the Copan ruins are a great example). The chances are that on our next Central American trip we’ll start in the south of the region. Getting as far north as Honduras may or may not happen but if time is short, however shallow or pathetic it may be, the fact that we’ve got the stamp in our passports does affect our eagerness to race up the coast of Nicaragua and into Honduras.
The same logic applies in Europe and its 50 or so countries. A trip to ‘the continent’ as we Brits so charmingly like to refer to it is often going to involve many of the same ingredients: quaint buildings (new or reconstructed), pretty central squares, beautiful churches, cheap beer/wine, good honest potato-dominated local cuisine and cobbled streets that will provide us with a blistered reminder of our visit. The history changes and the languages are different (although the ability of Europeans to put us to shame with their flawless English is almost universal) but the essence of a European adventure is fairly consistent. What therefore is the deciding factor in our choice of destination? More often than not it is a case of choosing somewhere we haven’t yet visited.
There are exceptions to this rule. It is perhaps odd that the places I have visited the most are the ones to which I am most likely to make a return visit. I’m keen to go to New York again as it’s nearly 7 years since we lived in Manhattan for a year and I’m curious to see how much has changed. A regular trip to Spain helps to keep up the basic Spanish I’ve managed to pick up over the years; the same applies to France, besides which Paris in particular is so easy to visit for an overnight break. Poland meanwhile is considered a special case, being the land of my parents’ birth.
Is it bad that we discriminate against a place purely for the fact that we’ve been there? It probably is. Spending a couple of days in a capital city is not experiencing a country to any reasonable level. But with a limited amount of time to travel and much of the world still on the to-do list, I tend to feel that there has to be a compelling reason for somewhere to justify a return visit.
What do you think? Are you more likely to visit familiar haunts? Or does some of the twisted logic I’ve described above apply to you too?
I’m rather similar. Given the choice of somewhere new or returning to an old haunt, I’ll usually go somewhere new. A new passport stamp always seems more attractive. There are some exceptions (I tend to go back to Australia every year, but I lived there for five years and I’ve got emotional ties) and I’d love to go back to Cape Town, Chicago, San Francisco and Madrid.
But I generally have to absolutely love a place to want to go back to it. And even then there are some places that I’ve loved that I feel I’ve ‘done’.
It really depends. I tend to travel to new places but sometimes you just have to go back. After dreaming of visiting Japan for years, I ended up going there twice in 6 months and I definitely want to go back and see more. I’ve also done the whole big California-Nevada-trip twice without seeing the Grand Canyon – might have to return one day.
One of the countries I seem to return over and over again is Italy (in part due to family reasons but I also love the food, landscapes and lifestyle there) and I’d love to go back to Marrakech, Istanbul and Hong Kong.
So yes, I know the feeling. You want to see as much as possible, but not run from one place to another, just taking a quick pic to remember afterwards where you’ve been. The real dilemma for me is the balance of experiencing and relaxing.
Twisted logic, eh? I agree, that’s twisted indeed. I personally have a goal to visit 100 countries before I die. I just turned the counter to 23 today, having just arrived in Germany due to an academic conference in Tuebingen. Anyway, I am with you. Last month, I did the same exact thing you mentioned, visiting Guatemala yet hopping over into Honduras to visit Copan (and increase my country count). Now, will I visit Honduras as a trip on its own in the future? Probably not, since there are other places I want to see, I want to amp my country count, and I’ve already seen Copan.
I guess life is just too short, and we all develop strategies to get the most of what we want in travel. In the past, I purposely booked a flight to Peru that had a very long lay-over in Bogota, Colombia. Of course, I left the airport and went sight-seeing in Bogota, for 8 hours. It’s now in my country count, and I probably won’t visit it again unless there’s an independent reason to do so.
I’m all too familiar with the polite nod, all the while knowing I probably won’t come back. On the other hand, there ARE some countries that really grabbed my heart. I know I will go back to those. Those are the few that I keep in the mix, and try to visit again while exploring new destinations. I think it’s a completely normal reaction for somebody who wants to see as much of this amazing world as they can.
Thanks for the replies; it’s good to know others have thought about this same dilemma. And as others have suggested, there are certainly places that do a better job of drawing us back than others. I must admit to seeing the pictures from the Sapporo ice festival today and wanting to return to Japan already, if only to see that.
And to go skiing in Sapporo… it is out of this world!!!
I’ve been to about 35 countries so far, and there really is only one I don’t think I’ll go back to. Much like David says, above, I feel as though I’ve “done” that country. Many of the places I’ve been to, I’ve been back to again 2, 3, or 4 times more (plus!). I’m not a passport stamp collector, although they are nice to look at!
In the interest of preventing a sidetrack, I will refrain from mentioning the 1 in 35 countries that I won’t bother going back to 😉
Thought provoking article.
I do the same thing! I always want to go to the new place. However, within the US I keep going back to the same cities that I love over and over.
I think it depends on what you saw the first time around and how much you had to cut out. If you missed out on a few things you really wanted to see in order to make it to the “must sees” then why not go back and take a closer look at some of the things you had to skip over.
The unknown is certainly alluring but one can find that in their own back yard as well. Just have to look. So return? Why not, just be sure to look around you – surely you’ll find things overlooked during the previous visit.
I don’t generally watch movies or read books twice either. Big big world. Want to see and experience as much as I can. However, I can revisit if I am sharing a wonderful place with someone who hasn’t seen it before, or if I have left a stone unturned ; )
I guess that I share your feelings, Andy. And I very rarely went back to a country I visited, even if I loved it and even if I know that there’s a lot of it which I missed.
The world is so big, and I’m getting older. There won’t be enough time anyway to see all the wonderful places that I dream of. So, I’d rather go and explore a new country 🙂
Hey Andy,
This is a thought provoking article. I’ve personally been to places where I know it’s a one and done deal, whereas others I’ve enjoyed coming back to again. Sometimes I find revisiting a place can provide insight into your personal growth as an individual.
It’s a very difficult to balance. My new rule is to quickly push through new places to get a flavour for them, and to go back to the ones you love. It’s not foolproof – there are countries that you would like a different part of if you went, but when you want to visit over 100 countries you have got to be cruel. I try to make at least 5 new ones a year.
Then add in trips that you go on with someone else because they dream of going to a place that you have already been, and your time and money get sucked up very quickly.
Hopping from one major city to another is only one step away from not travelling at all and one step closer to trainspotting!
(Bob Powers – Responsble for most of the Kyrgyz Muras Tweets)
thanks again for all the valuable insights (and Bob, it’s good to see the name behind the Kyrgyz tweets. For the record I’d be very happy if my plans took me back to Kyrgyzstan one of these days!)
Interesting to see the wide variety of opinions on this one. There’s clearly no right or wrong way to approach this – for some folks the kudos of setting foot in a country matters for than it does for others. Breadth or depth? It probably comes down to personality type in the end… but I’d save that line of thought for another post.
Thanks again 🙂
Actually, it works very much along the same psychic lines as it does with anything else – if you’re loyal to an individual or group, you return. If you don’t, you won’t. Also, you need to at least acknowledge the factor that returning to a place in the case of a travel writer might have something to do with it being a part of their brand or region of specialty. It’s a matter of practical necessity along with love. Last but not least, “You cannot step into the same river twice” (Heraclitus) and “Life is not a supermarket (unknown, but very apt in regard to some of the better known superstar travel bloggerati).
I’ve been to a bunch of places repeatedly — Hawaii, the Washington Coast, Vancouver… partly, it’s because they’re my turf, I’ve written about them extensively. But I’ve written about them extensively because I know them, to some degree and I can write about them with some credibility.
I’m crazy for new places and faced with an either/or, I’m going to go with the new. It’s the excitement of that. But I genuinely love the places I’ve been to over and over. I mean, I’m just crazy for the Washington Coast and the best thing I’ve ever written about it was probably on my 10th or 15th trip out there.
There’s some luxury though… you think you’ll never return to some places, but I think, “Hey, you never know. You just never know.” So I try, as best I can to not worry about that and to just be where I am at the time rather than cramming in everything for fear I’ll never see it again. If I try to hard to do everything, I barely see the first — and possibly only — time I’m there.
It’s not that you don’t want to go back or that you didn’t really enjoy the place, it’s just that there are so many other places to visit. Holidays can be far and few between and there is just so much of the world to be explored. I’m not sure if I would ever invest in a holiday home as I’d then feel compelled to keep going back to the same place.
Prague is about the only place I have visited several (three) times without having some sort of connection to it, i.e. did not previously live there, have family or friends there. Buenos Aires is on my list of places to visit again but also attractive because I can also explore other parts of the country.
Often when on holiday you meet people who tell you that every year they go back to the same place, it’s an individual choice and depends on what you seek to get out of a holiday. Last year in Cozumel we met people who had returned to the same hotel for the past seven years to spend their two week annual vacation.
Interesting topic!
I first visited northern India when I was 21 and loved it but I was looking at it through the eyes of an adventurous and in retrospect a bit of an ignorant traveller. I then returned many years later as a mum for a 2 week child-free backpacking trip in the South. Then again we returned as a family with 2 kids to live in Hyderabad for 6 months to do volunteer work.
3 times to India but such different trips! I think when you are at different phases of life and have a different mindset even the same city can be experienced in a totally different way. Perhaps in India even more so because it’s so diverse that you could spend years there and not see everything.
The article certainly makes us think about travel patterns. I would add that some of us are torn between the dilemma of discovering something new or re-discovering something we imagine we know.
I personally have to fight the urge to go back to Rome, for example.
I find it the most fascinating city on the planet – (not the most beautiful: that title probably should be granted to Prague)
Anyways: I always want to go back to Rome and every time I go I purposely leave stuff for the next trip. Every time I re-discover the city and feel it’s new to me while at the same time I feel I am going back to a place I have been happy in.
Something about connecting to a place and having experienced a happy moment there makes us want to go back there.
But one feels there is a wide world out there to discover at the same time and the struggle begins once again: “Where should we go for Christmas this year, some place new, or maybe, maybe ROME?!