Travelling Close to the Ground

Hi:

Further to yesterday's post about being a tourist or a traveller, here are some thoughts about the phrase "travelling close to the ground."

The basic idea is that the closer you live with the people who live in the country, the more you will experience of that country. If you are staying in a five-star hotel you will be meeting others who stay there. These people might be business people, wealthy people, and other travellers.

You won't be meeting the average local citizen and talking to him or her.

The premise that money separates people couldn't be truer than in travel. That being said, the premise that if you stay in a five-star hotel you can't meet the mingle with the locals is also not logical. That is, unless you never leave your hotel room.

The point of happenstance, serendipitious experiences and unplanned encounters is perhaps the greater point of living close to the ground. The ongoing daily life of walking into a small coffee shop in Portugal is different than the $200 a day hotel dining room.

Experiencing traditional food, people at work, milling about the streets, shopping where the locals do and sharing a bit of fun with them is what makes travel so interesting.

That being said, great hotels provide a bit of a buffer against the onslaught of sensory overload that is India, for example. It provides quiet, good beds, cleanliness, and much needed rest. Safety is generally better.

It provides something very important to some people, and that is a sense of the familiar. It probably reflects Western culture, and some people love to interact with the country during the day and get back to where they are comfortable at night.

Elitism exists in travel also. Don't fall for it.

M.

retirement travel