Comments on: Visiting the same country twice: the return visit dilemma

By: Alfredo

Alfredo — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 15:58:31 +0000

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?!

By: Sue Ann

Sue Ann — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 05:11:27 +0000

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.

By: Selena

Selena — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:07:46 +0000

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.

By: pam

pam — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:27:00 +0000

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.

By: Hal Peat

Hal Peat — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:38:19 +0000

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).

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:25:44 +0000

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 🙂

By: bob powers

bob powers — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 11:16:21 +0000

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)

By: James Harrington

James Harrington — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:45:40 +0000

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.

By: Nomadic Samuel

Nomadic Samuel — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:20:00 +0000

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.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:47:39 +0000

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 🙂