I totally agree with this article.

May 26, 2025, 8:46 PM

One of my biggest blessings in life was being able to travel, from an early age, right through my college years. I've told how my dad had millions of hotel points, frequent flyer miles, and credit card points. He ran the system back in the day when it could be run. By my last year of college I'd been to Mexico (15+ times), Belize, Guatemala, St. Martin, Barbados, St. Lucia, Hawaii, Australia, Greece, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Morocco, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany. I'd been to San Francisco, Vegas, Phoenix, the Grand Canyon, New York, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Vail/Aspen, Seattle, and Kansas City, all in the US, beyond the southeast. This is all by 23yo.

https://www.deseret.com/lifestyle/2025/05/25/silver-linings-how-travel-builds-trust/

And my wife and I are POLAR OPPOSITES traveling. When she travels, she wants to see the sights, the tourist places, do tours, etc. When I travel, and when my parents traveled, we NEVER did tours, all inclusive, or any of that. I grew up wanting to see the places, but most importantly, to MEET THE PEOPLE, see their lives, and drink their drinks, and eat THEIR food, and hear their stories. And along the way I've met many people, from many cultures, and many places, and it's been amazing. I remember meeting a 12yo kid named popcorn in Belize, on Caye Corker. A guy named Gregory taught me how to climb a coconut tree in St. Lucia. I remember meeting George Savakis in a Taberna in the Plaka in Athens. We ate at the places HE ATE, and it was amazing food. Drank the Retsina HE DRANK, which we would have never tasted but for running into him. Something an average tourist would never see. I remember Raife, Tina, and Martin from Zermatt. Australia, Miami, and Hong Kong, checking in. They were students in hotel school in Switzerland.

End of the day, it's the people that make travel fun. The lady we met last Summer at La Samanna in St. Martin. Her mother and father built that hotel. She lives in Chicago now, but was raised right there in St. martin, IN that hotel. She told us the best places to eat, the best beaches, and what to do on the island. The guy at the Hertz place informed me that they have Chinese cars to rent that are DIRT CHEAP. He explained why our car was nice, and the cheapest to rent. I never knew there existed a $13K crossover SUV.

For our wealth, and population, Americans are some of the LEAST traveled people on Earth. I seek locals, local bars, restaurants, and explore from there. My father taught me this, and it's the BEST way to travel. We're going to the UK in a few weeks, and I will drive my wife crazy diverging from her "plans", and she will deal with it, because it will be awesome.

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I never traveled much as a boy, too poor. Use to ride my bike to GSP airport and sit at the bar my buddies mom ran. I watched all the international flight folks come and go. If lucky they stopped by the bar/restaurant for a drink or food and I could over hear them talking. It was my way of poor white trash getting a taste of foreign folks.
While I perfer to travel the Anericas, mainly North, there is a since of completeness and some adventure if I travel to foreign lands, do some tourism but mainly meet locals for food and drinks.
Mrs Pabst cuzzo lived in Paris for 10+ years. So we have spent a good time traveling there and all around. I do wish we'd gone outside France more but just too much to do, people to meet and great food and drink lol.

You could spend you entire life touring North America and never see it all or meet all the great people.