Today, specific travel attitudes and methodologies are as carefully calibrated as attire worn on a first date. Which is absurd. It's absurd when it means visiting only the most famous cities and landmarks, strictly hewing to the instructions of the latest Frommer's or Lonely Planet. It's equally absurd when it means avoiding cities or landmarks for the sole reason that they're popular. The net effect is the same, an attitude that views travel as a collection of merit badges to be earned, then flaunted: Saw This, Did That, Stayed at the Four Seasons, Slept in a Ditch. In some ways, both viewpoints are the legacy of Frommer and his generation of budget traveler, but each attitude completely misses Frommer's essential underlying point: what matters is not finding something your friends haven't found but appreciating and understanding that thing -- that culture, that place, that food -- on your own terms.
Related Keywords: Lonely Friends Culture Understanding Generation Reason Matters