The Art Of Travel

The Art Of Travel is a modern, philosophic take on the joys of going away, exploring why we do so in the first place and how we can avoid falling into today’s most common tourist traps.

When I first started working for myself, I couldn’t wait to live the laptop lifestyle. You know, cold drinks at the beach, while occasionally peering at my screen. But then something funny happened. I traveled around the world with a friend and eventually, it started feeling like a job. I realized travel isn’t a cure to any of our really important problems. So, after coming back, instead of a digital nomad, I became a digital settler.

Travel is a means, not an end. It’s a poor form of escapism, because at the end of the day, you’ll still be you. What I learned on that trip was the same lesson the fictional character Jean des Esseintes discovered in the 1884 French novel À rebours. Esseintes is a French recluse, who spends all his time reading. But once he reads Charles Dickens, he feels a desire to go see London. He books a train ticket and packs his bags.

Excited about his trip, he buys a guidebook and goes to an English pub just before setting off. Once the time comes to board the train, however, he feels he’s so worn out from all the ‘Britishness’ he’s experienced that he never actually leaves home. We often dream up high expectations of far-away destinations, but especially if they’re distractions from our own flaws, they can only disappoint.

Another modern-day travel issue is what I call fact fatigue. We go to new places, armed with long lists of sights, events, and experiences we want to dedicate time to. Then we quickly get tired from all the information we’re presented with and eventually zone out, not using our time well at all. De Botton suggests that the time for travelers to collect facts may simply be over. There’s a wonderful book by a German author called Measuring The World. It’s about Alexander von Humboldt‘s great voyage around the globe, in which he measured, tracked, and documented many natural phenomena for the first time in history. Humboldt was in constant amazement because he was constantly busy, something modern travelers aren’t. His trip had a purpose. Nowadays, travel is a luxury, we can afford to do it in our spare time. Also, most of the world’s facts have been recorded and are available at the click of a button. That means we must find new ways of exploring, of adding meaning to travel. De Botton suggests asking more philosophical questions and I personally find travel to be the most fun…