Real Travel

Ilan Stavans reminds us of the deep journeys, not packaged getaways.

For better and worse, it is a small world after all.  With the right cash and ticket, this time tomorrow you could be sipping umbrella drinks in Cambodia.  But real, deep travel, says my guest today, has become a rarity.  We hop on planes.   Breeze in and out of destinations near and far.

Complain if the beer isn’t cold enough, if the sheets aren’t crisp, if the wifi fails.  Real travel is not comfy, says Ilan Stavans.  It’s not tourism.  It’s a journey.  Maybe a pilgrimage.  A search.  A getting lost.

This hour, On Point:  I’ll still take a nice vacation.  But we’re talking “real travel.”
-Tom Ashbrook

Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His recent New York Times essay, "Reclaiming Travel" is here.

Robert Reid, Lonely Planet's US Travel editor.

Greg Sullivan, CEO  & co-founder AFAR magazine.

New York Times "What compels us to leave home, to travel to other places? The great travel writer Bruce Chatwin described nomadism as an “inveterate impulse,” deeply rooted in our species. The relentless movement of the modern world bears this out: our relative prosperity has not turned us into a sedentary species."

Rove "I remember the feeling only a few times in my life: overpowering euphoria. Once I got it while surfing in perfect conditions on my local break and caught my first barrel. The second time I was at Macchu Picchu, looking over a vista I had wanted to see my whole life and nearly killed myself getting to."

“Don’t Drink the Water” by Brad Paisley

Horse-head fiddle player B. Bayarsaikhan Horse-head fiddle player B. Bayarsaikhan