meaning of trip good

National Geographic content straight to your inbox—sign up for our popular newsletters here

• THE BIG IDEA

Why travel should be considered an essential human activity

Travel is not rational, but it’s in our genes. Here’s why you should start planning a trip now.

In 1961, legendary National Geographic photographer Volkmar Wentzel captured two women gazing at the surf off Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. This and all the other images in this story come from the National Geographic image collection.

I’ve been putting my passport to good use lately. I use it as a coaster and to level wobbly table legs. It makes an excellent cat toy.

Welcome to the pandemic of disappointments. Canceled trips, or ones never planned lest they be canceled. Family reunions, study-abroad years, lazy beach vacations. Poof. Gone. Obliterated by a tiny virus, and the long list of countries where United States passports are not welcome.

Only a third of Americans say they have traveled overnight for leisure since March, and only slightly more, 38 percent, say they are likely to do so by the end of the year, according to one report. Only a quarter of us plan on leaving home for Thanksgiving, typically the busiest travel time. The numbers paint a grim picture of our stilled lives.

It is not natural for us to be this sedentary. Travel is in our genes. For most of the time our species has existed, “we’ve lived as nomadic hunter-gatherers moving about in small bands of 150 or fewer people,” writes Christopher Ryan in Civilized to Death . This nomadic life was no accident. It was useful. “Moving to a neighboring band is always an option to avoid brewing conflict or just for a change in social scenery,” says Ryan. Robert Louis Stevenson put it more succinctly: “The great affair is to move.”

What if we can’t move, though? What if we’re unable to hunt or gather? What’s a traveler to do? There are many ways to answer that question. “Despair,” though, is not one of them.

In this aerial view from 1967, wall-to-wall seaside sunbathers relax under umbrellas or on beach towels in Ocean City, Maryland .

A 1967 fall festival in Guadalajara, Mexico , starred traditionally costumed musicians and dancers.

We are an adaptive species. We can tolerate brief periods of forced sedentariness. A dash of self-delusion helps. We’re not grounded, we tell ourselves. We’re merely between trips, like the unemployed salesman in between opportunities. We pass the days thumbing though old travel journals and Instagram feeds. We gaze at souvenirs. All this helps. For a while.

We put on brave faces. “Staycation Nation,” the cover of the current issue of Canadian Traveller magazine declares cheerfully, as if it were a choice, not a consolation.

Today, the U.S. Travel Association, the industry trade organization, is launching a national recovery campaign called “ Let’s Go There .” Backed by a coalition of businesses related to tourism—hotels, convention and visitor bureaus, airlines—the initiative’s goal is to encourage Americans to turn idle wanderlust into actual itineraries.

The travel industry is hurting. So are travelers. “I dwelled so much on my disappointment that it almost physically hurt,” Paris -based journalist Joelle Diderich told me recently, after canceling five trips last spring.

(Related: How hard has the coronavirus hit the travel industry? These charts tell us.)

My friend James Hopkins is a Buddhist living in Kathmandu . You’d think he’d thrive during the lockdown, a sort-of mandatory meditation retreat. For a while he did.

But during a recent Skype call, James looked haggard and dejected. He was growing restless, he confessed, and longed “for the old 10-countries-a-year schedule.” Nothing seemed to help, he told me. “No matter how many candles I lit, or how much incense I burned, and in spite of living in one of the most sacred places in South Asia, I just couldn’t change my habits.”

When we ended our call, I felt relieved, my grumpiness validated. It’s not me; it’s the pandemic. But I also worried. If a Buddhist in Kathmandu is going nuts, what hope do the rest of us stilled souls have?

I think hope lies in the very nature of travel. Travel entails wishful thinking. It demands a leap of faith, and of imagination, to board a plane for some faraway land, hoping, wishing, for a taste of the ineffable. Travel is one of the few activities we engage in not knowing the outcome and reveling in that uncertainty. Nothing is more forgettable than the trip that goes exactly as planned.

Related: Vintage photos of the glamour of travel

Travel is not a rational activity. It makes no sense to squeeze yourself into an alleged seat only to be hurled at frightening speed to a distant place where you don’t speak the language or know the customs. All at great expense. If we stopped to do the cost-benefit analysis, we’d never go anywhere. Yet we do.

That’s one reason why I’m bullish on travel’s future. In fact, I’d argue travel is an essential industry, an essential activity. It’s not essential the way hospitals and grocery stores are essential. Travel is essential the way books and hugs are essential. Food for the soul. Right now, we’re between courses, savoring where we’ve been, anticipating where we’ll go. Maybe it’s Zanzibar and maybe it’s the campground down the road that you’ve always wanted to visit.

(Related: Going camping this fall? Here’s how to get started.)

James Oglethorpe, a seasoned traveler, is happy to sit still for a while, and gaze at “the slow change of light and clouds on the Blue Ridge Mountains” in Virginia, where he lives. “My mind can take me the rest of the way around this world and beyond it.”

It’s not the place that is special but what we bring to it and, crucially, how we interact with it. Travel is not about the destination, or the journey. It is about stumbling across “a new way of looking at things,” as writer Henry Miller observed. We need not travel far to gain a fresh perspective.

No one knew this better than Henry David Thoreau , who lived nearly all of his too-short life in Concord, Massachusetts. There he observed Walden Pond from every conceivable vantage point: from a hilltop, on its shores, underwater. Sometimes he’d even bend over and peer through his legs, marveling at the inverted world. “From the right point of view, every storm and every drop in it is a rainbow,” he wrote.

Thoreau never tired of gazing at his beloved pond, nor have we outgrown the quiet beauty of our frumpy, analog world. If anything, the pandemic has rekindled our affection for it. We’ve seen what an atomized, digital existence looks like, and we (most of us anyway) don’t care for it. The bleachers at Chicago ’s Wrigley Field; the orchestra section at New York City ’s Lincoln Center; the alleyways of Tokyo . We miss these places. We are creatures of place, and always will be.

After the attacks of September 11, many predicted the end of air travel, or at least a dramatic reduction. Yet the airlines rebounded steadily and by 2017 flew a record four billion passengers. Briefly deprived of the miracle of flight, we appreciated it more and today tolerate the inconvenience of body scans and pat-downs for the privilege of transporting our flesh-and-bone selves to far-flung locations, where we break bread with other incarnate beings.

Landscape architects work in their Rio de Janeiro, Brazil , studio in 1955.

A tourist photographs a towering century plant in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 1956.

In our rush to return to the world, we should be mindful of the impact of mass tourism on the planet. Now is the time to embrace the fundamental values of sustainable tourism and let them guide your future journeys. Go off the beaten path. Linger longer in destinations. Travel in the off-season. Connect with communities and spend your money in ways that support locals. Consider purchasing carbon offsets. And remember that the whole point of getting out there is to embrace the differences that make the world so colorful.

“One of the great benefits of travel is meeting new people and coming into contact with different points of view,” says Pauline Frommer, travel expert and radio host.

So go ahead and plan that trip. It’s good for you, scientists say . Plotting a trip is nearly as enjoyable as actually taking one. Merely thinking about a pleasurable experience is itself pleasurable. Anticipation is its own reward.

I’ve witnessed first-hand the frisson of anticipatory travel. My wife, not usually a fan of travel photography, now spends hours on Instagram, gazing longingly at photos of Alpine lodges and Balinese rice fields. “What’s going on?” I asked one day. “They’re just absolutely captivating,” she replied. “They make me remember that there is a big, beautiful world out there.”

Many of us, myself included, have taken travel for granted. We grew lazy and entitled, and that is never good. Tom Swick, a friend and travel writer, tells me he used to view travel as a given. Now, he says, “I look forward to experiencing it as a gift.”

Related Topics

• TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY
• VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY

You May Also Like

Don’t rely on social media: Here’s why you should keep a travel journal

How to take perfect portrait photos

For hungry minds.

Explore 6 of history’s most infamous scams and hoaxes

What's new in London's museums ahead of King Charles III's Coronation

We swapped baths for showers—but which one is better for you?

An antique process helps this photographer capture coastlines bound by Celtic soul

Humans really can have superpowers—scientists are studying them

• Environment

History & Culture

• History & Culture
• History Magazine
• Mind, Body, Wonder
• Coronavirus Coverage
• Paid Content
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Your US State Privacy Rights
• Children's Online Privacy Policy
• Interest-Based Ads
• About Nielsen Measurement
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
• Nat Geo Home
• Attend a Live Event
• Book a Trip
• Inspire Your Kids
• Shop Nat Geo
• Visit the D.C. Museum
• Learn About Our Impact
• Support Our Mission
• Advertise With Us
• Customer Service
• Renew Subscription
• Manage Your Subscription
• Work at Nat Geo
• Sign Up for Our Newsletters
• Contribute to Protect the Planet

Copyright © 1996-2015 National Geographic Society Copyright © 2015-2024 National Geographic Partners, LLC. All rights reserved

7 Personal Benefits of Travel

Forget milling around in your finest evening wear, Singapore Sling in hand: You'll be lucky to get peanuts. Flying isn't quite the party it was in Sinatra's days, and lots of time, energy, and money are expended to leave home, so why travel? How long do the  personal benefits of travel last?

Getting away from home and stepping outside of your usual routine is beneficial for both mind and body. The long-lasting personal benefits of visiting a foreign country far outweigh the costs and time to get there.

The great travel writer Pico Lyer said: "Travel is not really about leaving our homes, but leaving our habits." Here are seven ways that travel, especially  international travel, will enhance your life.

Travel Sharpens the Mind

You've done your old routine for so many years that you could run through it on autopilot. Being dropped into a new environment engages a dormant part of your mind and gets those synapses firing again.

Suddenly, you'll be required to navigate unfamiliar places, read foreign languages , try new things, make quick decisions, and choose your new eating and sleeping schedule.

Unlike at home, all the new sights, sounds, and places will require mental processing and filing. Your brain will welcome the workout! Once you return home, you'll be sharper than ever for better organizing and sprucing up your daily routine.

A Shift in Perspective

"Nobody comes back from a journey the way they started it." — Unknown

Being exposed to new cultures and people will greatly shift your paradigm and create a healthier perspective once you return back home. Seeing different social classes creates compassion and really makes you feel more blessed and content. Large portions of the world's population have to deal with daily threats such as hunger, disease , and landmines .

A hard day at work suddenly doesn't seem so bad when you see people in developing countries toiling in sun-scorched fields from morning to dark, or begging for a drink of water.

A Chance to Try New Things

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." — Ralph Waldo Emerson

While you may branch out at home from time to time by trying new restaurants or splurging on expenditures, traveling kicks you out of the comfort zone and forces you, for better or worse, to try new things!

Even if you don't enjoy your first attempt at scuba diving , at least you'll be able to relate in a new way the next time you see it in a movie or hear someone talking about it.

Becoming a well-rounded individual enhances self-confidence and will help you find new material for conversation in social settings with a wider variety of people.

Who knows, you may accidentally discover your new favorite food or find out that you want to pursue a new career in karaoke!

Meet New People

"A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles." — Tim Cahill

You'll meet far more friendly people on the road than you will under ordinary circumstances at home.

Other travelers are always looking to share experiences, give tips on places to go, and meet people from all over. Striking up a conversation with other travelers is extraordinarily easy.

A polite "so where are you from?" breaks the ice quite easily and may lead to lasting friendships with people from all over the world.

See the Real Deal

"To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries." — Aldous Huxley

Until you visit a place and form your own opinions, your understanding only comes from what you were taught in school, read in books, or saw on media, which may or may not be a complete truth.

Don't over-research your upcoming destination in guidebooks. Do your best to avoid building a bias toward a place or installing mental filters before you visit. Wait to form your own opinion, remaining objective until you can make up your own mind.

Exercise and Sunshine

Sure, you could just go sweat in the gym under fluorescent lighting, but chances are that you'll be much more active from day to day while on the road, regardless of whether your trip is an adventurous one or simply a relaxing beach trip .

You could be exploring new cities on foot, hiking , swimming, walking between places, and hopefully soaking up some needed sunshine while doing so. And it's guaranteed to smell better than the gym.

Come Home Renewed

After stepping away from home for a while, you'll return with renewed energy, a new set of mental filters, and ready to take on the next big project or challenge. Call it a life reboot.

Getting away for some time, even though it requires effort, will greatly enhance your attitude and productivity once you return home. Sure, you may have some mail piled up and matters to attend, but those are simple challenges easily knocked out.

Breaking up the monotony for a while is a great way to reduce stress and give your life an injection of excitement. Don't be surprised if shortly after your return, you're already counting down days until the next trip!

11 Ways to Beat Your Post-Travel Depression

The Pros and Cons of Solo Travel

10 Mistakes to Avoid on Your First Trip to Asia

Bike Travel Is Surging Around the World. Will It Last?

What Is Couchsurfing?

The 10 Best Places to Buy Luggage of 2024

Rocky Point, Mexico Travel Guide

9 Tips for Traveling With Kids During the Pandemic

Saving Face and Losing Face

10 Hotel Add-On Charges to Avoid

Travel Editors and Writers Share Their Favorite Food Crawls for 7 US Cities—From New Orleans to Austin

Zicasso Travel Agents Offer Custom Vacations for Adventurous Travelers

Tips and Advice for Dealing With Homesickness

Tips for Traveling Solo With a Tour Group

What Documents Do I Need for Mexico Travel?

The Good and Bad of Pokemon Go for Travelers

• NEW COLOURS
• Classic Tech
• Classic Plus
• Classic Pro
• Classic Flight
• Military Backpack
• Underseat Bags
• Laptop Backpacks
• Gym and Work Backpacks
• Minimalist Backpack
• > Show All
• Classic Cross Body Bags
• Packing Cubes
• British Airways
• Backpack Size Guide
• > More Backpack Guides
• Carry On Luggage Size Guide
• > More Cabin Bag Guides
• Travel Gift Guide
• Digital Nomads Hub
• Travel News
• Destinations
• Product & Style
• Travel Light
• Packing Tips
• Packing Lists
• Air Travel Tips by Airlines
• Luggage Tips
• Pre-flight Checklist
• In-flight Checklist
• Layover Tips
• CABIN MILES
• Backpacks CLASSIC NEW COLOURS Classic Classic Tech Classic Plus Classic Pro Classic Flight ADVENTURE NEW COLOURS ADV ADV Pro ADV Dry MILITARY Military Backpack SIZE 28L 30L 32L 36L 42L 44L SHOP BY FUNCTION Cabin Bags Underseat Bags Laptop Backpacks Daypacks Gym and Work Backpacks Minimalist Backpack
• Shoulder Bags > Show All SHOULDER BAGS Sidekick Flipside Flapjack Classic Cross Body Bags
• Bum Bags > Show All BUM BAGS Hustle Hip Bags
• Accessories > Show All ACCESSORIES Rain Cover Packing Cubes Gift Cards
• Blogs Product Guides Backpack Size Guide > More Backpack Guides Carry On Luggage Size Guide > More Cabin Bag Guides Travel Gift Guide Our Journey Digital Nomads Hub Travel News Destinations Product & Style Cabinzero Travel Tips Travel Light Packing Tips Packing Lists Day Trips Air Travel Tips Air Travel Tips by Airlines Luggage Tips Pre-flight Checklist In-flight Checklist Layover Tips

15 Benefits of Travelling and Why Travel Is Good for You

What comes to your mind when someone asks you about “travel”? Does travel mean a vacation on the beach while sipping some margaritas, an adventure to the unknown, or an Instagrammable sunset destination? The idea of travelling varies from person to person, but the advantages of travelling are unbounded. 

When you travel, not the trip or the vacation itself, but the whole process of planning, exploring, and returning from a trip is important. When you realise how the benefits of travelling can do wonders for you, you definitely will have the motivation to pack your bag and start travelling more. What is it about travelling that always makes you feel good after coming back from a trip? There are so many advantages behind travel, but here are the top 15 benefits.

The Health Benefits of Travelling: Travelling Improves Your Health and Mind

Improving your well-being is one of the fundamental benefits of travelling. Travelling helps to decrease the risks of heart attack and anxiety, while developing our brain health. There have been studies proving that travel can place a positive impact on our heart health. One study from Framingham Heart Studies Organization published in the American Journal of Epidemiology shows that women who would travel at least twice a year had a significantly lower risk of developing coronary heart disease or heart attack compared with those who would only be able to travel once in every six years.

One of the health benefits of travelling is that when you travel to new surroundings, you press a restart button to your body and mind, which brings in fresh energy when you get back to your regular activities. It keeps you physically fit by being active on the journey, exploring nature, hiking, or strolling the local markets. A healthy body means a healthy mind, and the stimulation you get from travelling can boost your productivity and effectiveness in your daily work. 

Exploring a new place, trying new things, and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can increase the level of dopamine in your brain. This will contribute to how we strive, focus on things and find things interesting. Remember, “Travel and change of place impart new vigor to the mind,” said the Roman philosopher Seneca. 

Source: unsplash.com

The Advantages of Travelling: Travelling Improves Your Communication and Language Skills in Many Ways

Some people enjoy the idea of travelling because it allows them to meet new people from all walks of life. Speaking to new people and getting new perspectives will change how one perceives the world and easily get engaged in various topics of conversation. Travel really helps in consolidating both effective communication and social skills as you are exposed to different cultures and outlooks. This benefit you get from travelling can be applied not only to your personal life but your work life also .

Setting foot in a new part of your country or a new part of the world means you are out of your ordinary comfort zone. Everything is new and captivating to your curiosity. The benefit of this is you are eager to learn new things and open to new ideas and concepts. This will naturally lead to the urge to open your mind and practice your people skills, whether you travel alone or with someone else. 

Travelling is when creativity comes into play in your daily communication. When you travel to a new country, there are situations where you would have to use not only verbal communication but also gestures and other non-verbal ways to express yourself. Whether you ask for directions, buy ingredients at a local market or have a conversation with a local, be prepared to utilize your body language skills! 

The Benefits of Travelling: Hedonistic Travel Ensures Peace, Calms Your Mind and Encourages Positive Feelings

When going on a holiday, we often tend to be stimulated, present and be in the moment, which brings us a step closer to achieving mindfulness. Travelling alone brings in the feeling of solitude that we don’t often get enough of. Travelling allows us to be disconnected from people, and even technology, for a while, and be more connected to our own mind and self, which leads us to our inner peace.

Whether it is domestic or international travel, travelers step out of their habitat and get exposed to other conditions of life. We find ourselves more thankful for our life and realise what we have might be what others desire. Appreciation to every little thing in life is one way or another a course for happiness. 

Travelling also changes our attitude towards life and people in a more positive way. We observe things and think from a broader perspective when our mind is open to the outside world. The benefit of travelling helps us embrace cultural and social differences more when immersing ourselves in a different environment with new people and perspectives. Moreover, coming back from a journey means ticking off one goal and proving our ability to overcome challenges. This forms the positive attitude that helps us tackle the hurdles. 

Why Travelling is Good? International Travelling Boosts Creativity through Experiences

“Why would travel have anything to do with creativity?” you may ask. First of all, it is associated with the sense of being innovative. When we travel, we try the local cuisines which we might have never tried before, get exposed to new customs and culture, and get introduced to unfamiliar ideas and beliefs. This stimulates creativity within our thinking, our methods and how we deal with certain situations. It is easier for us to come across new ideas when we get out of our usual surroundings. If we are put in boxes, how can we think “outside the box”?

Travelling teaches you to be creative and that everything has an alternative. What if you bump into a toilet that only has a hole on the ground, or a bathroom without a shower but only a bucket of water? That is travelling forces you to use your creativity to roll along with it. 

What you might have experienced but not have realised when you travel is that travelling touches your every sense. Ask yourself this question, do you feel a strong sensation by a mellow sound you have never heard, an exquisite taste from local cuisines, an evoking smell from a street food vendor, or a remarkable sight of a magnificent mountain range? If the answer is yes, then this effect of exploring a new place can be an attribute to revitalize your mind and make you more creative when you travel. 

Not only does travelling help with our creativity, but it also enhances our cognitive ability, sometimes referred to as general intelligence. This ability includes the capacity to “reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience” (Plomin, 1999). These attributes are all connected to travel. The more you travel, the wiser you become. Adam Galinsky , a professor at Columbia Business School has stated “Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms.”

The Benefits of Travelling Abroad: Travelling Enhances Your Tolerance towards Different People and New Cultures

Travelling is more than just about exploring new places. It also allows you to become more tolerant and open towards new cultures and people. It is a great opportunity to connect with locals and other like-minded people from around the globe. When you are willing to strike up a conversation with someone from a different background, the more you understand them and accept diversity, the better your tolerance level gets. Travelling teaches us to appreciate and value cultural diversity, traditions and appearances. 

Not only does travelling help us embrace cultural, social and racial differences, travelling also increases our tolerance towards tough conditions and uncertainties. When we throw ourselves into an unfamiliar or less developed locality, we begin to become more accepting. It is not always a bed of roses everywhere we travel to, and things do not always go as planned, however, when we are aware of this, we get less bothered and enjoy the journey as much as we want. 

Cabinzero’s CEO Neil Varden shared with us some stories about a time when he traveled to India - a country of hues and colors, and on top of all, a country of kindness. He was deeply touched by how friendly and greathearted local people were when he found out a notion followed in their mind, which is “Guest is God”. As he was travelling to Diu - a very small and unfamiliar town in India - on a bus, he happened to have a conversation with an Indian doctor. And since there was no direct bus to the town and it was very late at night, the doctor then invited him for a stay with his family for the night and offered him the surprisingly good generosity that he had ever received. 

Another time when he was on a bus, and there was this Indian woman who offered him some biscuits when he was hungry, while she might not have enough to eat for herself and her children. Those are just among many warmhearted stories that he stumbled upon during his travel that made him realise one thing: you can really meet people who have almost nothing but still are generous with what they have.  

The Benefits of Travelling: Travelling Is a Great Way to Boost Your Confidence

Neil also shared an example of how travelling can be a motivation for us to gain more confidence in ourselves and our passion. “Unbeknown to me, travelling when I was 22-26 changed my life long term, even today. The confidence gained by travelling to an unfamiliar country/culture gave me huge benefits when I started my business. I never had much fear knocking on doors of factories or visiting trade shows in countries I had never been to before. AND, for sure, my business and the brand would not exist if I hadn’t travelled. Since I travelled I spent all my time after trying to figure out how I could make travel a permanent fixture in my life and the business was built around this need, it is truly a lifestyle business.” - Neil Varden, CEO of Cabinzero .

Regarding this advantage of travelling, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, an associate professor of education and psychology at the University of Southern California, says “What a lot of psychological research has shown now is that the ability to engage with people from different backgrounds than yourself, and the ability to get out of your own social comfort zone, is helping you to build a strong and acculturated sense of your own self.”

Stepping out of your bubble to travel, especially alone, is one way to prove that life has no limits. Travelling makes us realise that difficulties and obstacles can be handled well without the help of friends or family. When you see the powerful force within you, you start to build more trust in yourself and fear less. You believe in the certainty that things can be tackled one way or another, and it comes with the creative mind you get from travelling - nothing can stop you from achieving your passion and goals in life!

The Importance of Travelling: You Get Real-life Education from Travelling to a New Place

Real-life education comes naturally when you travel. Think about when you plan for a trip, when you solve a problem, or when you come across a situation that you have to use your body language to communicate. Those circumstances train you to be skillful as you travel. This benefit of travelling helps in your planning skills, problem-solving skills, improvising ability, and such. As you learn from your own experiences, these lessons are what you can equip yourself with and make use of in the long run.

What you learn in books is great, but travelling offers you the opportunity to learn more about something new every day. The moment you step out of those hotel doors and go out on the street, you learn at least one new lesson. Simple things like how people greet and talk to each other, how they behave tell you a bit about their culture. What’s more, travelling teaches you failures can turn into great hands-on lessons. It is true that travelling is not always glorious and can be hard at times. Let’s say the language barriers, for instance, it is surely possible to make mistakes with words here and there. Imagine going to the market and getting mixed up with the words for tomatoes and fish, this could be a bit embarrassing, but that’s where you get to learn. 

The Benefits of Travelling: Travelling Make Memories from New Experiences

Do you usually take photos during your travel, or collect items like currencies or souvenirs after the trip? If not then we strongly suggest you to, as this is one of the benefits of travelling that could be valuable to you. Photos, or videos, that are taken from a trip, whether you keep them on your phone or post on social media, can remind you of the good time you have spent. Even an object you take home from the trip can really awaken your memories and feelings. 

Memories from travelling are often connected with positive emotions, when you try something new, or the excitement you get from going to a new place that makes you feel at one with yourself and others around you. There are definitely times when you face unexpected obstacles on the journey, however, after you figure how to settle them, those memories are the life lessons that you have got a chance to learn. 

If you travel in a big group, special memories from the trip can be turned into engaging stories that can last for a lifetime. When we travel, we are relaxed and open to show our true colors, which even adds more spices to the fun. This is the reason why travelling can be such a great bonding activity for families or groups of friends. 

Why Travel is Good for You - How Travelling Helps You Understand Yourself More is Very Important

Travelling alone facilitates a process of introspection, allowing you to reflect on your own emotional and mental well-being. This is a wonderful benefit of travelling that you might not have thought of. When you are away from the stress of your daily life, be present and live in the moment, you are more likely to be conscientious about how you think and feel. 

When you travel internationally, you get to observe how you feel being far away from your own culture. You observe the differences in people’s manners and behaviors, how people think and react to specific situations. From there, it is human instinct to compare the differences. You then start to explore and compare how it is different from your own culture and mindset, how other people are different from you, and why. Eventually, travelling will help in the process of understanding yourself more and give you a reflection on how you feel and think.

On the other side of this self-discovery process, travelling even changes you. You are not the same person after returning home from a journey. You have tons of intriguing stories to tell, you are more open and accepted. Moreover, travelling helps you reinvent yourself and re-evaluate your values in life after the lessons you learn on the road. Travelling teaches you to be more patient and curious about the world around you. This benefit undoubtedly helps in understanding and developing yourself.

The Benefits of Travelling: Travelling Helps Reduce Stress and Eases Anxiety

When you choose to leave your daily work to travel, you give yourself an opportunity to be more connected with nature. Fresh air and sunshine are a benefit to your health, fresh air boosts oxygen in your body and sunshine provides you with vitamin D. Being connected to these elements of nature makes you feel calmer, which definitely helps with stress and anxiety. 

Whether you are a fan of hiking, cycling, climbing or diving, they are all a cure for depression while you travel. Fun and adventurous activities help you to relieve stress as you get to live and enjoy the moment. Leave your daily hassles away, pack your bag, go on a trip and get some air! 

Why People Are Travelling - Travelling Gets You out of a Rut of Daily Life

Travelling is one of the great ways to get out of the hustle and bustle of your everyday life. It frees you from your daily schedule and allows you to have time for yourself to relax and explore. To some people, 9-5 jobs are occasionally mundane and repetitive, which makes a break from work totally a must. It is easy to get stuck in the workload and forget about our purposes and direction in life. Therefore, travelling gives us a pause from ordinary life and helps us get more focused on ourselves. 

The Benefits of Travelling: World Travel Teaches Us to Appreciate the Beauty and Fragility of Nature and the Earth

If you ever wander off the rice terraces in the Philippines and Vietnam, dip in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, or fall in love with the cherry blossoms season in Japan, you definitely feel a great sense of appreciation and gratitude for what Mother Nature has offered. Travelling opens your eyes to the absolutely breathtaking wonders of the Earth, especially if you gaze upon them with your own eyes. 

World travellers are people who have witnessed the diversity of nature and wildlife, and how fragile this Earth can be. Travelling is eye-opening and enriching our responsibility of protecting the planet that we are living on. It makes us realise that nature and animals are suffering from human activities and raises more awareness about our crucial role in developing a more sustainable future. 

Why Is Travelling Important? Travelling Helps You Find a New Purpose and Forces You to Take Action

For some people, travelling can be a life-changing experience. If you are at an important transition in your life and thinking of making a decision, travelling is a breath of fresh air to slow things down and it gives you time to think it through. If you are looking for a purpose and direction in life, try planning a trip to unfamiliar surroundings and experiencing it as much as you can. What if you see a meaning out of it and figure out what you are looking for? 

Believe it or not, travelling can turn you into a better decision-maker. Travelling is about decision-making in the whole process, from planning a trip, to deciding a place to eat, or where to go, you need to be determined and actively leading the way. If you are confident in making those little decisions, it will build up your determination in bigger decisions in life. 

Travel Makes You Embrace Your Home and Ordinary Life More - One of The Advantages of Travelling 

We often tend to dream of travelling and those days off hitting the road while we’re working 9 to 5. However, when we travel, there are certain situations that you may find yourself miss the feeling of home and how convenient it is to be in your own comfort zone. You will begin to appreciate the essentials you have at home when you travel. The feeling of a comfy bed and pillows at home may pop in your mind when you spend days and weeks sleeping in hostels or camping tents. You may miss your own bathroom when you share it with other travellers in dorms and hostels. Those are the little things that you will appreciate when you are back home from a long journey.

What’s more, the language barrier is another aspect that can make you miss home when you travel. Of course, during the trip, you might be able to use some basic communication with the locals and can pick up several phrases here and there. However, you will definitely miss the feeling of being able to join in a more in-depth conversation, discussing politics, or expressing your opinions at some point. 

The Benefits of Travelling: You May Find the Love of Your Life When You Travel and Meet New People

“Could you find love on the road?” Yes, it is possible. You meet plenty of like-minded people when you spend days hitting the road. Someone who shares the same values and mindset as you might come along unexpectedly and suddenly you feel connected to them. Especially when you travel, you open your mind and heart to new experiences, therefore, falling in love with someone is very likely to happen. 

Travelling can indeed bring people closer, which is why couples choose to spend time together on a vacation to spice up their relationship. But what about meeting a total stranger and falling head over heels unexpectedly, while strolling on the riverside or a random beach? That sounds more intriguing. That random stranger might just be a fling or can turn into the love of your life, who knows?

It caught my attention when you said that you can get helping reducing stress when you engage in fun and adventurous activities while you travel. As you said, traveling gives you an opportunity to be more connected with nature. With this in mind, I will consider finding great travel ideas so I can plan my vacation. Since December last year, I have been feeling so stressed due to the divorce process that I had to go through, so it is important for me to find places where I can feel recharged and relaxed. Thanks for sharing this. https://www.homegrowngreat.com/discover/attractions/

It’s great that you mentioned that one of the health benefits of travelling is that when we travel to new surroundings, we press a restart button to our body and mind, which brings in fresh energy when we get back to our regular activities. My husband and I will go on vacation to a family resort this weekend with our family. I’ll share this with him since we really need to travel more often and destress from work. Thanks! https://edgeofthewilderness.com/resort-lodging-minnesota-northern.html

Interesting article. So many reasons to travel!

Leave a comment

Please note, comments must be approved before they are published

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

You may also like

• Hispanoamérica
• Work at ArchDaily
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Cookie Policy

Why Do We Travel?

• Written by Nicolás Valencia
• Published on September 13, 2019

Everyone wants to travel the world, whether it's to meet new people, taste new food, or visit new places. Travel is consequently an extremely lucrative industry, but tourist destinations are getting more crowded than ever and associated pollution emissions are only worsening the climate emergency .

Why do we travel? In this edition of Editor's Talk , four editors from ArchDaily based in Lebanon, the United States, and Chile share their thoughts on the meaning of travel, and why tourists enjoying a beach in a location like Brazil should also care about the cities they visit.

Nicolas Valencia: Travel was June's Monthly Topic . Back then we published articles about architecture guides and travel-related typologies, but we didn't talk about the experience of traveling. What does travel mean to you?

Dima Stouhi : I was born and raised in Lebanon, but I'm moving to Switzerland next month. This will be the first time that I experience living abroad. Because Lebanon is so different from any other country, traveling is incredibly important for me to see how other people live and what other cultures are like.

Eric Baldwin: I often introduce myself by saying that I’m a farm kid from rural Iowa. My idea of the world, including different cultures and ways of working, was limited for much of my youth. In college, that worldview expanded greatly. I was able to study and travel around the world, in places like China, Italy, and Greece. I believe that context is everything; travel is one way to expand your context.

Christele Harrouk : I was born in Beirut too, coming from French roots, so It was always easier for me to travel, and it was always an option for me to live abroad. Nevertheless, I never opted for this choice: I did spend a couple of months here and there, but to me, the notion of home was more important. Traveling has opened my eyes to what this world holds, and it has also made me better appreciate what I had and took for granted.

Nicolas Valencia:  But it's still a luxury nowadays.

Eric Baldwin:  Travel has been priceless to me, but it’s also become terribly destructive to our environment. In many ways, it is a luxury. As Greta Thunberg showed when sailing across the Atlantic on a zero-emissions yacht, we have to come up with better ways to travel. Our current conditions are becoming more and more unsustainable.

Dima Stouhi:  Traveling is definitely a luxury now. Especially for people who need visas to travel, like me.

If you travel, you are a loser

Nicolas Valencia: In June we published an article titled The Age of Travel is Over . The author says that "if you travel to earn your living, you are a loser. If you travel to see places, or to learn, you are an enemy of the planet."

Eric Baldwin: I think it was meant to be a sort of provocation. Travel is still so important, but that doesn't mean there aren't better ways to travel. Or that we shouldn't continue to imagine new modes of connection that bring us together and expand our context without harming the environment.

Christele Harrouk:  Traveling is a pure form of learning, possibly the most genuine way of getting information, but I always go back to the idea that if you don't do anything with these experiences, they become useless and the whole process becomes futile in a way. The more I meet people, the more I discover that a lot of them, who pretend to roam the globe, are so closed into themselves.

Dima Stouhi:  The idea of traveling is different now. People want to travel to show everyone that they traveled or just for the sake of traveling. There isn't much thought to what they harm along the way.

Nicolas Valencia:  Dima has a point. Traveling has become a sort of meta-traveling:  visit  a place to say you visited a place.  I'm very critical of those who don't learn anything from traveling, but then, I think, "Why should they experience it the same way I do?"

Dima Stouhi:  That's the thing, it's a matter of perspective. I doubt that people "never learn" from traveling. Regardless of how different each individual is, at least one experience, building, or even meal is going to get stuck in their head. It's just a matter of what people are paying attention to while traveling.

Eric Baldwin:  We travel to work, to discover, to connect with family or friends, to get the perfect Instagram post, to escape. As long as we continue to question why, and whether we are doing so responsibly, I think travel will continue to have meaning. Beyond location, I think being a "good" vs. a "bad" tourist is part responsibility and part perspective. If you travel to escape your daily life and enjoy a beach in Brazil, but you don’t care to learn about the city, people, or culture you visit, is that inherently bad? Again, it’s a matter of context.

Cities for rich tourists

Nicolas Valencia: Bloomberg published a chart on Instagram a few days ago explaining that "tourist destinations are only going to get more crowded," especially in Europe. We recently saw Venice ban large cruises from its historical center . How do we think other cities are going to deal with tourism?

Dima Stouhi:  I support Venice's decision. I went to Vatican City last year in August. I remember at one point I just wanted to leave because of how crowded it was. We couldn't even stop for one second to look around us. There was no place to stand in the Sistine Chapel. It's sad.

Eric Baldwin:  It’s a tricky thing. It’s tied to preservation: when does saving something relegate it to becoming frozen, functionless scenery? Again, I go back to context. What does tourism give to a city, and what does it take away? Does heritage have a part to play? No city remains the same, and in turn, tourism and travel have to change too.

Dima Stouhi:  But Eric, the way we see it, preservation comes first because we know and appreciate the value of historical sites. The majority of people don't.

Eric Baldwin:  I question the value of historical sites. How do we measure relevance or heritage? Why are the pyramids worth preserving? It’s a question — and battle — of values and those things that define us. In turn, it’s directly related to why we travel.

Nicolas Valencia:  Countries such as Spain rely strongly on tourism — the industry accounts for around 13% of its GDP. It's hard to regulate if your city's economy relies so strongly on tourism. Anyway, I'd assume that restricting access to tourists will eventually punish middle-class tourists. 

Christele Harrouk:  Well, I'm not sure about this. Maybe not restrict accesses but make them more organized.

Dima Stouhi:  I don't believe that increasing prices and limiting access to rich tourists is the way to solve it. I think it's like what Christele said: it's how governments organize it that might make a difference.

Christele Harrouk:  This is the responsibility of the cities: they have to advertise different areas. It's not difficult, but they just don't take the initiative. Changes in marketing strategies can indirectly reduce the concentration of tourists in one place and divide it into many regions, making new areas grow and develop as well.

Nicolas Valencia:  If I'm going to Venice, I'm going to visit downtown, not a peripheral neighborhood.

Christele Harrouk:  But if there is a Zaha Hadid building in the periphery, you will go there, and spend less time downtown.

I Love City Branding

Nicolas Valencia:  We have been talking about Europe, but what about Latin America? Africa? Asia? Have you visited these regions?

Dima Stouhi:  Dream destinations, big budgets!

Nicolas Valencia:  In Latin America, we are more interested in visiting Europe and the US, rather than our own region. This is despite the fact that airfare has plummeted in this region, so it's cheaper than ever to travel across Latin America.

Christele Harrouk:  This may be global, but don't you think this is where city branding comes in hand?

Nicolas Valencia:  Sure, city branding defines what we think about them. But one thing that freaks me out about traveling is that after spending a week abroad, people think they gain a certain power to explain what a whole country is like. We each have different backgrounds of emotions, ideas, and expectations, so a gay man visiting a city after breaking up might have a totally different experience from a heterosexual woman who meets a guy in that same city. Each person's visions of the same city are completely unique, which means these narratives can't be universal.. 

Dima Stouhi:  I think these assumptions are a normal human reaction. Whatever is different from what they usually see, they pin-point it as if it were a flaw..

Eric Baldwin:  I think that's a very hard thing to change. You inherently have more perspective than someone who has never been there, but at the same time, you have an inherently limited understanding as well. I think the after-visit stereotypes will continue to happen, as Identity is always tied to travel and context. How that context is shaped happens in a myriad of ways, and defines who we are.

Image gallery

• Sustainability

想阅读文章的中文版本吗?

编辑论坛：旅行，是对城市片面的定义

You've started following your first account, did you know.

You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.

How to Make Your Travel Meaningful

Written By: The Planet D

Travel Tips

Updated On: November 28, 2023

Many people feel that meaningful travel is strictly about going on a volunteering vacation, but there are many ways to make your travel meaningful. Dave and I have always added meaning to our travels. Be it traveling responsibly, raising money for a cause , stopping at sanctuaries or projects, and interacting with the locals, there are many ways to enrich your travels while making your life and other people’s lives better.

Table of Contents

How To Make Your Travel More Meaningful

What is Meaningful Travel?

To us, meaningful travel is when travel enriches your life in some way. That could be done by focusing on making your own life better by discovering and learning new things about the world and yourself.

It can also be making the lives richer for the people you meet, the communities you visit, and the environments you explore . Meaningful travel is about being aware of your footprint and doing what you can to help the places that you visit.

Ways to Make Travel Meaningful

1. travel for a cause.

When we started ThePlanetD.com we originally focused on changing our own lives by cycling through Africa , but it evolved to helping others. We decided to ride for Plan Canada and raise funds and awareness for the “ Because I am a girl campaign. ” We stopped at projects along the way to see the work they did and share it with our readers. Read more: Best Travel Charities

The trip may have started with us wanting to do something epic in our travels, but it evolved to become a trip about discovery, education, and helping others.

We’ve found that the more we learn about the world and the cultures we visit the more it enriches our lives. The more you give back, the more you feel fulfilled. When volunteering or helping others you expect nothing in return, but it ends up giving you so much. It is the greatest feeling to know that you are making the world a better place in your own little way.

There are so many ways to make travel meaningful. While the first thought that comes to mind is to volunteer or to give money, thinking responsibly can make your travels more meaningful too. When we travel, we try to support the local economy by hiring local guides. When we land in a destination, we search for people who run their own companies and have their own small business.

2. Support Local Businesses

Just as we like to shop small and support small business in Canada, the same can be said for our travels. Small business makes the world go round and by shopping at local markets, hiring local guides, and eating at small family-run restaurants, you will be helping the economy of the place you visit and create a more meaningful travel experience for yourself.

We have remained friends with many of our guides and had a more authentic local experience by keeping our travels local and away from the resorts and packaged tours.

3. Raise Money for a Charity

When we did the Mongol Rally, we drove across 2 continents for the Christina Nobel Foundation. A foundation based in Mongolia that houses and educates orphaned and abandoned children. When cycling the continent of Africa we raised funds and awareness for  Plan Canada.

By being in the destinations, we could stop at projects and see where our money was going and how funds were being used. It gave our cause more of a purpose to put a human face to the charity. When we saw that they were benefitting directly from the money raised, we felt motivated to help more.

4.  Visit a Charity

It’s easy to find a project to help or visit when you are traveling. Talk to the local people and ask them for advice.

In Sri Lanka, we met a tuk tuk driver named Ajith who became our friend. As we got to know him, we visited a charity that he started on his own to donate shoes to local school children. They’d otherwise be going to school bare foot in the jungle, but he raised funds to get them shoes and keeps working tirelessly to help the local economy.

Our guide Makau, in Kenya  started a project to empower his own village . We visited his family and friends and he is working to bring water to his village, empower women and give them the means to go to school and he got them a cement maker to build a new school.

In China, we visited a school that helps handicapped children . We interacted with them, bought arts and crafts made by them and help to spread the word about their organization.

When visiting these charities, we see first hand where money is going and how it is helping. We can then spread the word, purchase local crafts and talk with people to find learn about their struggles and what we can do to help.

5. Book Local Guides

Hire Local Guides and shop and stay locally. When we climbed to Mount Everest Base Camp, Mount Kilimanjaro , Gunung Batur, and Mount Kinabalu , we hired local guides after we arrived in the country. It’s a great way to contribute to the local economy and to support small business and we made good friends doing it.

We still talk to our guides from Everest and Kili. Plus because we travelled with people from the area, they cared about their footprint, were respectful of culture, and filled with information for us to learn about the destination.

6. Shop Local

Local artisans make their money through tourism. So do farmers, local businesses and markets. Instead of buying at duty-free or at your resort, go to the market and buy local. It’s cheaper and it’s handmade and authentic. Plus you get to meet the people.

Other Ideas To Add Meaning To Travel – Self Growth

7. take a cooking class.

Food is the best way to experiences culture and a cooking course is an amazing way to meet locals and learn about their way of eating.

We’ve done cooking courses in China, Morocco, Thailand, Italy, Spain, and Greece and nearly every one of them takes you to the market to buy your fresh ingredients. This helps you support the local economy and mingle with the locals. We then normally go back to a private home or kitchen to learn how to prepare. It’s then a feast to enjoy!

8. Go on a Retreat

Yoga is not only amazing for well being and fitness, it’s popular around the world! Our best retreats have been when finding ones lead by local operators once we arrive in our destination.

We spent a month in India with a Swami we met on a beach for $2 a class! While others booked their retreats in North American paying thousands of dollars to take a course from a Western Instructor, we had an authentic experience and learned a lot about spirituality and culture in India while supporting a local business.

9. Wildlife Conservation

Elephant Sanctuaries, conservation areas and national parks are a way to add meaning to your travels meaningful.   When local people see that animals bring tourist dollars, they’ll stop over hunting and start conservation.

In India, the tiger is nearly extinct, but now they’re working hard to bring it back and National Parks are being set aside to keep them safe. In Sri Lanka and Thailand there are elephant organizations that are helping elephants live in peace . We visited an elephant orphanage in Kenya where orphans are reintegrated back into the wild. When tourists show up to sanctuaries they show that there is an interest in saving and supporting wildlife.

10. Attend a Festival

An amazing way to get to know local culture and meet people is to attend a festival. We’ve had some of our most memorable travel experiences when attending a celebration. From the annual pilgrimage up Adams Peak in Sri Lanka, to Thaipusam in Malaysia and Holi in India, and Songkran in Thailand.

it has added new meaning to our travels. Festivals help us to understand the beliefs and religions of countries we visit and it helps us make new friends and meet new people. Read more: The Best and Biggest Festivals Around The World

There are countless ways to make your travels more meaningful. All you have to do is take the first step. Think about what you love and how you want to help and you too will be having a more fulfilling travel experience.

Why meaningful travel is beneficial?

Not only does it help the communities that you visit, it also helps you. We’ve always said that travel is the best education anyone could have. It breaks down barriers and strips away prejudice. It opens people’s minds and when you come home, you pass on your thoughts, observations, and feelings about the places you visit.

As Mark Twain said “ Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime .” See other inspiring travel quotes .

So much of meaningful travel helps with sustainability too. When you volunteer or help with conservation, it keeps communities or wildlife reserves from being exploited. So much of meaningful travel is simply about being aware of your environment and  respecting customs and culture.

meaningful travel – Things to Remember

• Think about your impact. How are you affecting the community you visit.
• Will you traveling there enrich their lives?
• Will you have the opportunity to experience the culture, nature, environment? Or will you be isolated and cut of from truly experiencing the destination?

Meaningful travel is not as daunting as people think

When it comes to adventure travel, we always say, start with baby steps. The same can be said when it comes to making your travels meaningful.

It may be as easy as asking a local person at your destination where you can volunteer for a day, or where you can visit children, or donate money to a school or organization. Once you take that first step, you’ll learn and discover more opportunities.

Our first foray into more meaningful travel happened in 2003 in Cambodia. We were sitting on a beach and a man asked us if we could come to his class to speak English to his students for an afternoon. He said that while he can speak English, it helps to have the students hear a proper accent. It was one of the most fulfilling things we had ever done and it kick-started our desire to do something wherever we went. We learned so much that day.

We were humbled, inspired, and moved by their stories and struggles. They enriched our lives as much as we helped them with their English.

What way do you make your travels more meaningful?

• Importance of Responsible Tourism in Chiang Mai
• Best Travel Tips From 20 Years Traveling the World
• Best Adventure Quotes For Outdoor Lovers

Travel Planning Resources

Looking to book your next trip? Why not use these resources that are tried and tested by yours truly.

Flights: Start planning your trip by finding the best flight deals on Skyscanner

Book your Hotel: Find the best prices on hotels with these two providers. If you are located in Europe use Booking.com and if you are anywhere else use TripAdvisor

Find Apartment Rentals: You will find the cheapest prices on apartment rentals with VRBO . 

Travel Insurance: Don't leave home without it. Here is what we recommend:

• Allianz - Occasional Travelers.
• Medjet - Global air medical transport and travel security.

Need more help planning your trip? Make sure to check out our Resources Page where we highlight all the great companies that we trust when we are traveling.

You May Also Like

41 Best Travel Apps In 2024 You Need To Download Today

Expert Family Travel Tips – Traveling With Kids

11 Things to Make You Feel Safer Traveling Now

About The Planet D

Dave Bouskill and Debra Corbeil are the owners and founders of The Planet D. After traveling to 115 countries, on all 7 continents over the past 13 years they have become one of the foremost experts in travel. Being recognized as top travel bloggers and influencers by the likes of Forbes Magazine , the Society of American Travel Writers and USA Today has allowed them to become leaders in their field.

Join thousands of others who get our monthly updates!

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

10 thoughts on “How to Make Your Travel Meaningful”

Some great ideas on making your travel meaningful. Shopping local and using local tourism companies is really important, volunteering is amazing though making sure you do it the right way and aren’t taking jobs off locals. I love doing cookery classes in different countries too 🙂

If I ever get a vacation time, Before Going somewhere I will read this post again and then plan my traveling schedule.

Meaningful travel is indeed a two-way street where the travelers’ lives are enriched while stimulating the local economy. One thing, I believe, is also important in achieving meaningful travel is to keep an open mind. The traveler must think that the people as well as each place he/she visits have their own beliefs, culture, traditions and lifestyle. It is a mistake to think that people in one place share the same lifestyle as that of a neighbor.

I think the best way to make your travels more meaningful is to support the local economy and small businesses. I mean do you really need to go to McDonald’s or Outback Steakhouse in (enter location here)?

I also have to agree with Brayan above, about that volunteering causes people to depend on handouts. There are however, some organizations out there that show people in third world countries how to be self reliant by teaching them the skills they need. Some of those organizations are: Pencils of Promise, Heifer Foundation, etc.

Meaningful travel is definitely more than just volunteering – this article is an excellent example of this. I also took a tour with Intrepid tours, I found they were awesome at keeping me mindful of the culture around me, and of ways to help the community and such. I especially love going to local festivals to understand the culture better – I also believe that learning the local language is an excellent tour for creating a more meaningful experience, connecting more with the people around you and understanding the culture of where you are.

I think festival is a good way to meet people if they have activity for you to play with others.

Otherwise, festival is really boring if you go along by yourself.

For example, I went to the bar and club one night, I have no friend going with me.

It is really boring, I don’t even want to dance.

It is just like looking at people.

If I have friend, I will be the wild one.

It is the same for festival, it is like a dance at bar or club.

Great suggestions! I love volunteering- especially with wildlife, and just simply interacting with locals.

I’m so happy you wrote and shared this article! I really want to make my travels from January more meaningful by stopping at volunteer projects on the way, perhaps finding a way to raise money for charity and just simply connecting and supporting local communities. For someone who’s not travelled long-term I sometimes feel like I don’t know where to start to achieve this, this article is great inspiration! I never thought about doing something to raise money for charity at the same time as stopping at their projects on the way, I really like that idea. Hope the show went well!

As you said, meaningful travel is so much for than volunteering. In fact, I’ve been reading a lot lately that some volunteering actually hurts because it causes dependency. Building a house for someone may meet an immediate need, but it also creates an expectation of entitlement. Mentoring that same person on how to get a job, develop a craft, or start a business? That will teach them how to build their own house.

But this doesn’t answer your question. My biggest way to support meaningful travel is to shop local businesses. It’s an enrichment for both sides of the party. I try new things, and they earn revenue.

Great post. I love traveling too and it makes me hard on how to take my travel so meaningful. Thanks for the tips.

17 Reasons Why Around the World Travel is Good For You

Why travel around the world.

We’ve compiled a list of the best reasons why everyone should enrich their life with around the world travel. And while we’re at it…all these reasons can also be taken as our motivation for doing what we do at AirTreks.

1. Traveling is easier than you think.

We believe that traveling around the world shouldn’t be hard: it’s actually something everyone should be able to do at least once in their lives. Whether you choose to spend a few years or just a couple months traveling this beautiful planet, it’s important to see what’s out there. It’s up to you to make the dream come true and take the first step. Launch TripPlanner to piece together and price your ideal route. Not sure where to start?  You can always call one of our travel consultants and get some complimentary advice!

2. Travel opens your eyes.

If you’re open and willing, travel will make you an incredibly more well-rounded human being. And that’s really the goal, isn’t it? If you don’t know where to start, check out our Around the World planning guide .

3. Traveling helps you learn who you are.

All the challenges and opportunities travel lays at your feet help you discover who you are in a way that’s only possible on the road.

4. Travel creates meaningful relationships

People you meet while on the road become some of the most valued names on your contact list. They become places on the map to visit later on. These folks give you a glimpse outside your hometown circle of friends, and force you to take in new and refreshing perspectives, and ultimately realize that everyone is the same.

5. Traveling develops skills you didn’t know you had

Sometimes it’s only far from home that you realize you you’ve got skills you’ve never used. It’s travel that brings them to the surface and makes you smile, satisfied to have reached the mountain top, or  crossed a gorge  or helped a villager clean up after a storm, or even to have successfully ordered a meal at a rural Chinese restaurant.

6. Travel helps you learn new languages

There’s something satisfying about being able to throw around a few words of Greek, knowing how to say thanks in Thai, pulling out that long dormant Spanish to book a room in Santiago, or simply hearing a language you didn’t know existed just a few weeks before.

7. Travel means adventure

Zip-lining over the jungle canopy in Peru, successfully navigating the maze-like streets of Venice, bartering for the best price in the traditional markets of Marrakech, taking a speedboat ride in New Zealand, or hopping in a Land Rover and heading out to watch animals grazing  in Tanzania: these are adventures worth having. People are hardwired for the excitement of adventure and travel may just be the best way to tap into it.

8. Traveling gives you perspective

Meeting people from other cultures will teach you that the way you’ve been looking at the world isn’t the way everybody else does. In fact, your point-of-view might have some major blind spots. Seeing the world for yourself will improve your vision and your grip on reality.

9. Travel helps you move forward

If you’re between jobs, schools, kids, or relationships, around the world travel can be a perfect way to move from one of these life stages into your next great adventure. A big trip won’t just ease your transition into the next stage of your life , it’ll give you a chance to reflect on where you’ve been, where you’re going, and where you want to end up.

10. Travel is education

Seeing the world provides an education that’s absolutely impossible get in school. Travel teaches you economy, politics, history, geography, and sociology in an intense, hands-on way no class will.  Fortunately, the school of travel is always taking applications , no entrance exam required.

11. Travel challenges you

Getting your daily latte at the same place and staring at your screen at your nine-to-five every day not nearly interesting enough? Even if you choose to work on the road (and keep staring at the screen), you’ll have to find a new place to drink your latte, and depending on your destination, finding coffee, and foamy milk or a good place to sip them could prove to be a sizeable challenge. Travel is full of moments of joy and challenges. Overcoming the challenges gives you some of the greatest joys of all.

12. Travel shakes things up

It sucks to be stuck in a rut. Everyone knows what that’s like. A big trip can be your perfect solution. Fly around the world, stopping over in all of the places you’ve always wanted to visit. Go ahead and plan your ideal route around the world  (it’s easier than you think!)

13. Traveling proves that dreams do come true

You imagined it, daydreamed about it, envisioned it. Guess what? It can be done. Around the world travel is possible, you just have to decide you’re willing to take the first step and start planning your itinerary.  What are you waiting for? We’ve put together some specials to inspire you to live your dream .

14. Travel gives you cool stories

Let’s face it. Even for folks who can’t tell a story, just the words “last year in Mongolia” get you instant party points.  Even when events seem trivial, nostalgia and distance create an irresistible spin that makes mundane things like getting your laundry done in Zanzibar, entertaining. Just don’t be that person and overdo it!

15. Travel is literally food for thought.

You’ll be constantly surprised at the flavors the world has to offer.  The way people in other cultures and countries prepare food, and break bread together (not that all cultures even eat bread) will astound you.

16. Travel gives you a sense of accomplishment

If you’re the kind of person that dreams big, you’re probably one to reach for new challenges. Finishing a trip gives you the satisfaction that you were able make a goal to travel and  accomplish what you set out to do–see the world.

17. Traveling for the hell of it

Why travel? Because you can. Because you want to. Because it beats the alternative (staying home). Why not  pick up your tickets and get the ball rolling!

Build Your Trip

What is travel? We answer the big, burning question

‘What is travel?’ is an interesting question, but more for what it tells you about the people doing the asking. The meaning of travel, despite ‘definitive’ articles to the contrary, is pretty subjective. And your relationship to it changes as you get older and begin to spend your weekends doing things like browsing health insurance policies. Reasons and motivations begin to wrinkle, just like us, revealing character.

Because when you’re young travel is sensory and simple. It’s that white-knuckle feeling of a plane taking off for the first time, when your stomach drops and your ears pop. The sustained hyper-real sensation when everything is new and brightly coloured. Ice-creams taste sweeter, smells are stranger. You can almost feel the synapses firing, taking it all in.

By middle age the motivations behind travel get more complicated, like your tax returns. It becomes an escape from cubical drudgery, a sun-soaked interlude from Real Life, or an existential change of perspective: the cultural equivalent of surfacing for breath. There’s more awareness about where you’re going, and what’s waiting for you when you get back home.

In his famous essay Why We Travel , Pico Iyer said , ‘We travel, initially, to lose ourselves; and we travel, next, to find ourselves.’ And to be honest, he kind of nailed it. The very fact that people dwell on the nature of travel, try to get at its secret truth like hungry kids scrabbling at a piñata, is because we feel deep down that there’s something magic in there: it makes us happy . And not just happy in the way you feel when you upgrade your iPhone. A more deep-seated, integral sort of happiness (maybe ‘content’ is a better word – more wholesome, less fleeting).

This happens even when we’re uncomfortable on our travels – perhaps especially when we’re uncomfortable. When we lose the map in Hanoi and have to improvise with pigeon-Vietnamese and hand gestures. When the tent leaks in Yosemite and we wake up with wet socks. When our legs ache on the Inca Trail and we’re pretty sure the small Peruvian porter is judging our lack of fitness. All temporary discomforts that somehow add up to…what? Personal discovery? A sense of accomplishment? A good over-dinner anecdote? It’s hard to pin down why, but we know instinctively that there’s gold there.

Image Pankaj Kaushal, Flickr

I think it’s got something to do with the way we live now. Most things in our lives are geared towards convenience and gratification, which is another way of saying most things are predictable. We spend a lot of energy trying to eliminate discomfort from our meals, television watching, phone calls, work spreadsheets, morning commute. Basically deleting anything resembling a surprise. Is it any wonder we’re so bored?

But travel isn’t like that. When travelling, discomfort finds you . The whole thing is unpredictable at a fundamental level. That’s kind of the point. When you order chargrilled gizzards in Tokyo’s Memory Lane or fight for seat space with chickens on a bus in Ecuador, you don’t know what’s going to happen next. And isn’t that incredibly liberating in a way? It’s like a search for something that can’t be Googled. Something that has to be earned through effort, not given by chance.

There’s a great quote from Robert Pirsig in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance that goes: ‘It’s the sides of the mountain which sustain life, not the top.’ Which is a pretty apt description of travel, all things considered. Life occurs in the hard uncomfortable bits, not the breezy view from the summit. And sometimes the old chestnut is true after all: the destination doesn’t matter, all we want is somewhere to get lost on the climb.

Feature image c/o Karl Grenet, Flickr 

Feeling inspired?

James Shackell

I was born in 1987 and aged from there. I like the sound of pop-rocks and dislike the sound of styrofoam. The length of my forearm is approximately the same as the length of my shin. My favourite Beatle is Ringo. I believe that junk food tastes so good because it’s bad for you and that your parents did the best job they knew how to do. If Johnny Cash wrote a song about my travels it would be called ‘I’ve been to several places but still have many other destinations on my to-do list, man’. Sometimes I have trouble finishing sen

You might also like

The 7 best places to go on a..., 10 surprising facts about ethiopia, galapagos or madagascar which unique destination should be..., travelling to chile here’s the best time to..., 10 reasons to visit samoa, the 10 antarctica questions you want answered, australia or new zealand where to go on..., 10 epic spots to stop at on your..., small group travel vs coach tours: which is..., costa rica or mexico: which country to check..., 7 of the best destinations for solo travellers....

• Daily Crossword
• Word Puzzle
• Word Finder
• Word of the Day
• Synonym of the Day
• Word of the Year
• Language stories
• All featured
• Gender and sexuality
• All pop culture
• Grammar Coach ™
• Writing hub
• Grammar essentials
• Commonly confused
• All writing tips
• Pop culture
• Writing tips

Advertisement

to win a trip to Paris.

Synonyms: junket , jaunt , tour , excursion

It's a short trip from Baltimore to Philadelphia.

• round trip ( defs 1, 2 ) .

his daily trip to the bank.

• a stumble; misstep .
• a sudden impeding or catching of a person's foot so as to throw the person down, especially in wrestling.

Synonyms: oversight , lapse

• an error or lapse in conduct or etiquette.
• a light, nimble step or movement of the feet.
• a projecting object mounted on a moving part for striking a control lever to stop, reverse, or otherwise control the actions of some machine, as a milling machine or printing press.
• a sudden release or start.
• a catch of fish taken by a fishing vessel in a single voyage.
• an instance or period of being under the influence of a hallucinogenic drug, especially LSD.
• the euphoria, illusions, etc., experienced during such a period.

The class reunion was a real trip.

She's been on a nostalgia trip all week.

Those early years in college were a bad trip.

verb (used without object)

to trip over a child's toy.

Synonyms: err , blunder , bungle

• to step lightly or nimbly; skip ; dance .

She tripped gaily across the room.

• to make a journey or excursion.
• to tip or tilt.
• Horology. (of a tooth on an escape wheel) to slide past the face of the pallet by which it is supposed to be locked and strike the pallet in such a way as to move the balance or pendulum improperly.

He tripped out on peyote.

verb (used with object)

The rug tripped him up.

• to cause to fail; hinder, obstruct, or overthrow.

to trip up a witness by skillful questioning.

• to catch in a slip or error.
• to break out (an anchor) by turning over or lifting from the bottom by a line tripping line attached to the anchor's crown.
• to tip or turn (a yard) from a horizontal to a vertical position.
• to lift (an upper mast) before lowering.
• to operate, start, or set free (a mechanism, weight, etc.) by suddenly releasing a catch, clutch, or the like.
• Machinery. to release or operate suddenly (a catch, clutch, etc.).
• wedge ( def 17 ) .
• to tread or dance lightly upon (the ground, floor, etc.).
• Archaic. to perform with a light or tripping step, as a dance.
• a group of animals, as sheep, goats, or fowl; flock .
• an outward and return journey, often for a specific purpose
• any tour, journey, or voyage
• a false step; stumble
• any slip or blunder
• a light step or tread
• a manoeuvre or device to cause someone to trip
• any catch on a mechanism that acts as a switch

trip button

• a surge in the conditions of a chemical or other automatic process resulting in an instability
• informal. a hallucinogenic drug experience
• informal. any stimulating, profound, etc, experience
• often foll byup, or when intr, by on or over to stumble or cause to stumble
• to make or cause to make a mistake or blunder
• troften foll byup to trap or catch in a mistake
• intr to go on a short tour or journey
• intr to move or tread lightly
• informal. intr to experience the effects of LSD or any other hallucinogenic drug
• to activate (a mechanical trip)
• to switch electric power off by moving the switch armature to disconnect the supply

Discover More

Derived forms.

• ˈtrippingly , adverb

Other Words From

• un·tripped adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of trip 1

Origin of trip 2

Idioms and Phrases

Mother's been trying to lay a guilt trip on me about leaving home.

• trip the light fantastic , Facetious. to go dancing.

More idioms and phrases containing trip

Synonym study, example sentences.

The show will also include documenting the winner’s ISS trip, including their launch and 10-day space station stay, as well as their return journey and landing.

They’re waterproof, which makes them good for whitewater trips, too.

Some said, “That’ll be the trip of your life,” while others noted, “That place will change you.”

It’s here that my parents told me to take a trip to the village to search for these answers on my own.

Case would even offer to fly out promising and hard-to-reach startups to have them join the trip.

Finding the shop is a trip in itself and an introduction to a slice of history.

Anthony Goldstein probably chose a trip to the Quidditch World Cup over his Birthright trip to Israel.

After my first trip to his place in Tucson we called one another on the telephone.

“During this trip, I did as a lone wolf, I risked a lot,” he said.

My trip takes the reverse path, and I begin by assessing the depth of my Shakespeare knowledge in his birthplace.

The Comet started on her first trip up the Arkansas, being the first steam boat that ascended that river.

Liszt has returned from his trip, and I have played to him twice this week, and am to go again on Monday.

But Punch was five; and he knew that going to England would be much nicer than a trip to Nassick.

The Italian trip was discussed, and considerable ignorance of geography was, as is usual, manifested by all present.

I knowed, a-course, that I could go kick up a fuss when Simpson stopped by his office on his trip back from Goldstone.

Related Words

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

• Dictionaries home
• American English
• Collocations
• German-English
• Grammar home
• Practical English Usage
• Learn & Practise Grammar (Beta)
• Word Lists home
• My Word Lists
• Recent additions
• Resources home
• Text Checker

Definition of trip verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• She tripped and fell.
• trip over/on something Someone will trip over that cable.
• I tripped over my own feet and fell down the stairs.
• (figurative) I was tripping over my words in my excitement to tell them the news.
• (figurative) Lawyers were tripping over each other (= competing with each other in a hurried way) to get a piece of the action.
• trip over/up Be careful you don't trip up on the step.
• She tripped on the loose stones.
• One of the boys tripped over and crashed into a tree.
• accidentally
• trip and fall

Definitions on the go

Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

trip in British English

Trip in american english, trip in american english, trip in american english 1, trip in american english 2, examples of 'trip' in a sentence trip, cobuild collocations trip, trends of trip.

View usage for: All Years Last 10 years Last 50 years Last 100 years Last 300 years

Browse alphabetically trip

• trioxoboric acid
• trioxoboric(III) acid
• trip a switch
• trip computer
• All ENGLISH words that begin with 'T'

Related terms of trip

• View more related words

Quick word challenge

Quiz Review

Score: 0 / 5

Wordle Helper

Scrabble Tools

Learn English Today

Free materials and resources for learners of English.

• Grammar list
• Exercise list
• Vocabulary Contents
• Idioms: by theme
• Idioms: alphabetical lists
• Today's idiom
• Ph Verb Lists + Exercises
• Business letters
• Presentations
• Interview questions
• All business content
• Stress-noun-verb
• Silent letters
• Online word games
• Printable word games
• Resources for learners
• Resources for teachers
• New words in English
• Environment
• Fun activities
• Sitemap: list of contents

See TODAY'S IDIOM

English Grammar

TRAVEL - TRIP - JOURNEY - TOUR - VOYAGE

Meaning and use of the words 'trip', 'travel', 'journey', 'tour', and 'voyage'..

The explanation below should help clarify the meaning and use of vocabulary related to travel.

Try an exercise

back to grammar

Copyright www.learn-english-today.com - All Rights Reserved.

The materials on this website may be copied for use in the classroom or for private study. Any other use without permission is forbidden.

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

What Does It Mean When You See “SSSS” on Your Boarding Pass?

Y ou're standing among the bustling chaos of an airport terminal. The nerves and excitement for your next travel destination are palpable. You crane your neck to get a better look at the line approaching the airport security check . You're not too worried—the airport wait times don't seem bad. But as you get to the front of the line and hand over your boarding bass to a stern-faced TSA agent , a tension begins to build. You both notice the ominous "SSSS" on your boarding pass, a hiccup in your travel journey.

But what happens next? What do those four letters mean, and how did they get on your boarding pass? Here's what you need to know about navigating this security situation.

Get Reader’s Digest ’s Read Up newsletter for travel, humor, cleaning, tech and fun facts all week long.

What does "SSSS" mean?

"Secondary Security Screening Selection (SSSS) is added to boarding passes when that traveler has been selected for additional screening procedures," says R. Carter Langston, press secretary for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). "The agency incorporates unpredictable security measures, both seen and unseen, to accomplish the transportation security mission." According to Langston, "SSSS" may appear on a traveler's boarding pass at random, which will lead to additional screening measures.

What additional screenings can you expect? These may include luggage inspections , pat-down screenings or swabs for explosives.

Why do you have "SSSS" on your boarding pass?

According to the TSA website, security measures for air travel start well before your arrival at the airport. The TSA works with intelligence and law enforcement agencies to share information and flag any individuals who could pose a security threat. These measures are in effect from the moment you reach the airport until you reach your final destination—and it doesn't matter whether you're at one of the busiest airports or most reliable airports .

But while an "SSSS" may appear on your boarding pass due to these security measures, you may also have been selected at random. Seasoned flyer and frequent international traveler Wendy Thiessen has had the dreaded "SSSS" on her boarding pass multiple times.

"I asked the person conducting the secondary screening why I always seem to be the chosen one in our family, and they were kind enough to explain that it was a random security check," says Thiessen. "I actually felt so much better knowing it wasn't just me looking suspicious or something more nefarious. It's nothing you did or how you look, it's random."

And if you're wondering whether pre-screening programs, such as Clear , NEXUS, Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check , prevent the "SSSS" on your boarding pass, that's not necessarily the case. Being on these pre-approved lists does not keep you from being selected for additional screening, as security measures are designed to override these programs.

What can you expect if you have "SSSS" on your boarding pass?

If you discover "SSSS" on your boarding pass, you've been selected for additional security screening beyond the typical airport body scanner . You might have additional baggage screening to ensure you're following TSA carry-on rules or they might swab your items for explosives.

"They [tested] everything for bomb powder residue and [did] a quick check of carry-on items," says Thiessen, describing her own personal experience. "I have never been taken to a mysterious room or anything worrisome. Friends and family [may] be able to see the person while the secondary inspection is conducted, but they should be prepared to meet their party at the gate or further from the inspection area."

In some situations, you may be selected for a pat-down screening. The purpose of this screening procedure is to check for concealed prohibited items or security threats on individuals. The passengers will be informed of the procedure beforehand, and the pat-down is conducted by a TSA officer of the same gender as the passenger. The TSA officer will use the back of their hands over sensitive areas, and in rare cases, they may use the front of their hand for added screening.

Can you get "SSSS" off your boarding pass?

If you have "SSSS" on your boarding pass, you cannot bypass the additional screening prior to boarding your plane.

However, travelers who are consistently selected for additional security screening and believe they are unfairly selected, can apply to the Travel Redress program , more formally referred to as the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, or DHS TRIP. Apply online and check the status of your application through the DHS TRIP portal. But remember: This program is designed for future trips and does not affect current trips with an "SSSS" boarding pass.

How common is "SSSS" on a boarding pass?

There are a variety of factors that may indicate why someone receives "SSSS" on their boarding pass. While the additional screening is often selected at random, that is not always the case. Due to the complexity of the screening, and the fact that the TSA does not publish specifics related to this security measure, it's impossible to know exactly how common it is to receive this particular code on your boarding pass.

About the experts

• R. Carter Langston is the press secretary at the Transportation Security Administration. He is a senior public affairs professional with more than 20 years of federal, military and private sector experience.
• Wendy Thiessen is a seasoned traveler as the volunteer director of PiFò Haiti . She has brought many youth groups from Canada to Haiti over the past 12 years, which has led to great learning opportunities for travel and empathy for others on the journey.
• TSA : Security Screening
• Ask TSA : "What to expect during pat-down screening"
• TSA : "DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program"
• Department of Homeland Security : "DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP)"

The post What Does It Mean When You See “SSSS” on Your Boarding Pass? appeared first on Reader's Digest .

Man or bear? Hypothetical question sparks conversation about women's safety

Women explain why they would feel safer encountering a bear in the forest than a man they didn't know. the hypothetical has sparked a broader discussion about why women fear men..

If you were alone in the woods, would you rather encounter a bear or a man? Answers to that hypothetical question have sparked a debate about why the vast majority say they would feel more comfortable choosing a bear.

The topic has been hotly discussed for weeks as men and women chimed in with their thoughts all over social media.

Screenshot HQ , a TikTok account, started the conversation, asking a group of women whether they would rather run into a man they didn't know or a bear in the forest. Out of the seven women interviewed for the piece, only one picked a man.

"Bear. Man is scary," one of the women responds.

A number of women echoed the responses given in the original video, writing in the comments that they, too, would pick a bear over a man. The hypothetical has people split, with some expressing their sadness over the state of the world and others cracking jokes. Some men were flabbergasted.

Here's what we know.

A bear is the safer choice, no doubt about it, many say

There were a lot of responses, more than 65,000, under the original post. Many wrote that they understood why the women would choose a bear.

"No one’s gonna ask me if I led the bear on or give me a pamphlet on bear attack prevention tips," @celestiallystunning wrote.

@Brennduhh wrote: "When I die leave my body in the woods, the wolves will be gentler than any man."

"I know a bear's intentions," another woman wrote. "I don't know a man's intentions. no matter how nice they are."

Other TikTok users took it one step further, posing the hypothetical question to loved ones. Meredith Steele, who goes by @babiesofsteele , asked her husband last week whether he would rather have their daughter encounter a bear or a man in the woods. Her husband said he "didn't like either option" but said he was leaning toward the bear.

"Maybe it's a friendly bear," he says.

Diana, another TikTok user , asked her sister-in-law what she would choose and was left speechless.

"I asked her the question, you know, just for giggles. She was like, 'You know, I would rather it be a bear because if the bear attacks me, and I make it out of the woods, everybody’s gonna believe me and have sympathy for me," she said. "But if a man attacks me and I make it out, I’m gonna spend my whole life trying to get people to believe me and have sympathy for me.'"

Bear vs. man debate stirs the pot, woman and some men at odds

The hypothetical has caused some tension, with some women arguing that men will never truly understand what it's like to be a woman or the inherent dangers at play.

Social media users answered this question for themselves, producing memes, spoken word poetry and skits in the days and weeks since.

So, what would you choose?

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes
• Raising Kids

How To Create Your Own Family Traditions—And Why You Should

Family rituals provide a sense of connectedness and belonging. Learn how these symbolic moments help families bond while creating lasting memories.

Why Family Traditions Are Important

Family routines vs. family traditions, non-holiday family traditions, family holiday traditions, how to keep family traditions going.

Family traditions or rituals are experiences or activities that are passed down between generations. These traditions can be as unique and special as the family itself. In addition to being something to look forward to, traditions also establish a foundation for family values and serve as special bonding experiences .

Traditions can provide families with a sense of identity and belonging. They can inspire positive feelings and memories that family members can share. Family traditions also provide a sense of continuity across generations. They are a way of transferring the family's values, history, and culture from one generation to the next. Learn more about the benefits of creating and keeping family rituals, including 33 family tradition ideas to try.

Paul Plews / Cultura / Getty Images

People create and maintain family traditions because they bring meaning to celebrations and foster special bonds. More importantly, traditions create positive experiences and memories and a sense of security for everyone by nurturing a family's connection and giving them a sense of belonging.

Family traditions also help children understand who they are and what is important to the family to which they belong. Traditions create a connection for children that comes from feeling like they are part of something unique and extraordinary. Family traditions can even contribute to a child's self-esteem and enhance their well-being. After all, children find comfort and security when things are predictable and consistent.

Benefits of Family Traditions

• Make memories for families that last a lifetime
• Provide children a sense of security by providing continuity
• Give family members a strong sense of belonging
• Help pass on family values including cultural and religious heritage
• Keep generations connected and give them a family history to share
• Can promote a physically active lifestyle

Family traditions differ from everyday family routines, which also occur repeatedly, but lack the symbolic meaning that family rituals hold. While family traditions carry a special significance for all family members involved, family routines are often basic activities that are necessary to keep the family unit functioning. A regular family dinner each weeknight may be part of the family routine, for example, whereas a family dinner at a favorite restaurant for your child's birthday may be a tradition.

Many families have traditions that endure for generations. These special activities or events often generate fond memories that everyone cherishes and attempts to carry on. Some traditions relate to the family's heritage, like going to a cultural festival or cooking a meal from the "old country" on a certain day each year.  

Other rituals may have to do with special events, such as a pearl necklace that is passed down at each wedding. Still others are simply fun activities that family members enjoy repeating.

To create traditions for your family, think about things that your family enjoys doing and build upon those things. Keep in mind too, that family traditions sometimes form on their own. Some of the best family traditions happen by accident—you do something on a whim and the entire family loves it and wants to repeat it again. Before you know it, you have created a family tradition.

When most people think of family traditions, they naturally think of holiday traditions first, such as those surrounding Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hannukah, or Ramadan. Events surrounding these holidays, like picking out a Christmas tree, lighting the candles on the menorah or kinara, and gathering for dinner with extended family can become regular traditions.

But families can also have non-holiday rituals that are unique to them. Think: Apple picking every fall or letting the birthday child pick the restaurant for their birthday dinner.

Here are a few family traditions ideas that you can adapt for your family or use as inspiration:

• Volunteer each spring in an annual community cleanup.
• Cook hamburgers on the grill on Saturdays during the summer.
• Take a silly family selfie during summer vacation each year.
• Buy food for the local food pantry once a month and deliver it together.
• Have a bonfire to celebrate the last day of school.
• Picnic in a park on the first day of summer.
• Serve in a local soup kitchen together once a month.
• Go apple picking or visit a pumpkin patch each fall.
• Do karaoke, laser tag, bowling, roller skating, or some other fun activity on a set day each month, such as the last Friday.
• Take your kids for ice cream to celebrate every report card.
• Have a particular food on a set day each week, such as brunch on Sunday, breakfast for dinner on Friday, or tacos on Tuesday.
• Build a fire and make hot chocolate on the first day of winter.
• Go on a maple syrup hike each winter.
• Organize a family book club.
• Take part in an annual fitness challenge as a family.
• Go on a family walk or bike ride every Sunday afternoon.
• Watch the sunrise together on the first day of summer and the sunset on the last day of summer break.
• Plan a regular family game night and play cards or board games together.

Here are some holiday traditions to choose or adapt for your family.

• Give everyone a new set of pajamas and take a family photo in your matching PJs.
• Give each child a board game or  puzzle  and play the games or assemble the puzzles as a family.
• Watch a favorite holiday movie each Thanksgiving.
• Cook a meal together as a family on your family's special holiday.
• Make fun and creative Leprechaun traps for St. Paddy's Day .
• Get hot chocolate and watch a community tree-lighting ceremony.
• Tour your community to look at the light displays on homes or businesses.
• Make and decorate holiday-themed cookies.
• Host a family or neighborhood cookie exchange.
• Do holiday crafts together, such as for Thanksgiving , Hanukkah , Christmas , Easter , or Valentine's Day. Then use what you make to decorate your home or give as gifts.
• Assemble care packages for family members who are away during the holidays.
• Write heartfelt letters to family members you can't spend time with during the holidays.
• Host a white elephant gift exchange.
• Attend a holiday performance or concert each year, such as the "Nutcracker," the local symphony, or Trans Siberian Orchestra.
• Get a new piece of holiday-related decor, like a Christmas ornament, each year, or make an ornament to commemorate the past year.

Establishing and maintaining family traditions is a way for families to bond over shared experiences and a way for them to connect to one another and their shared past. But keeping family traditions going takes some commitment and planning .

While most people look forward to the stability and predictability that comes with repeating the same activities each year, it also can be daunting if the family traditions are highly involved, overly expensive, or require a lot of planning.

Try to keep your family traditions simple. Think about playing games, sharing special recipes, going on a hike, seeing a performance, and so on. These simpler traditions are more likely to be repeated and carried on. Likewise, your traditions don't need to be expensive. There are plenty of ways for families to bond without spending a lot of (or any) money.

Be open to trying things out—and scrapping them if they don't work. You also don't need to repeat an activity over and over just because it's become a tradition. The goal of a family tradition is that everyone has fun and looks forward to repeating it year after year. Feel free to change things up and only keep the traditions your whole family loves.

Your Family Rituals . American Academy of Pediatrics . 2015.

Researching family practices in everyday life: Methodological reflections from two studies .  Int J Soc Res Methodol . 2014.

Children's and Adolescents' Happiness and Family Functioning: A Systematic Literature Review . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2022.

Family environment and self-esteem development: A longitudinal study from age 10 to 16 . J Pers Soc Psychol . 2020.

The Role of Family Time Together in Meeting the Recommendation for Physical Activity among Primary School Children . Int J Environ Res Public Health . 2020.

How could the transfer of food knowledge be passed down? .  Procedia Soc Behav Sci . 2013.

  The ties that bind: Materiality, identity, and the life course in the “things” families keep .  J Fam Hist . 2018.

Research on the effects of family rituals on subjective well-being of Chinese college students . Curr Psychol . 2022.

Related Articles

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

During a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend. During a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend. During a weekend backpacking trip in the Catskills, 17-year-old Sam navigates the clash of egos between her father and his oldest friend.

• India Donaldson
• Lily Collias
• Sumaya Bouhbal
• Valentine Black
• 2 User reviews
• 15 Critic reviews
• 80 Metascore
• 3 nominations

• Restaurant Patron
• (as Becca Brooks Morrin)
• (as Sam Lanier)

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

User reviews 2

• chenp-54708
• Jan 28, 2024
• August 9, 2024 (United States)
• United States
• International Pigeon Production
• Smudge Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed

Three surfers on a dream trip to Mexico were brutally killed. Here’s what we know

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

A trio of tourists on a surfing trip in Mexico were living an idyllic life. They were posting photos of themselves on the beach, on rooftops, drinking beer, listening to music as they explored the country’s scenic coastline.

Then, they disappeared.

Here’s what we know about what happened:

Who were they?

The men who were killed were Australian brothers Callum Robinson, 33, his brother Jake, 30 , and their American friend Jack Carter Rhoad, 30.

Callum was a high-level lacrosse player. He played Division III college lacrosse at Stevenson University in Maryland.

World & Nation

Bodies found in Baja California during search for missing tourists, Mexican officials say

Mexican officials say three bodies are found in the Baja California area where two Australian brothers and their American friend went missing while on a surf trip.

May 4, 2024

“He lived an extraordinary life, but what is most impressive about Callum is what a loyal friend he was. Once you were his friend, you were friends for life,” said Stevenson University lacrosse team coach Paul Cantabene.

“My heart is shattered into a million pieces,” wrote Callum Robinson’s girlfriend, Emily Horwath, in an Instagram post.

His brother Jake was a doctor, and Jack Carter Rhoad founded an online apparel company in San Diego called Loma Apparel. He also worked for a consulting company called ITCO Solutions.

Rhoad had recently proposed to his girlfriend, and his final Facebook post, from July 2023, showed pictures of the proposal.

What were they doing in Mexico?

The three men were on a surfing trip in Baja California and were expected to check into an Airbnb in Rosarito on April 27 but never showed up, according to Debra Robinson, Callum and Jake’s mother.

The three arrived in Mexico on April 26 for their idyllic beachside trip. Callum Robinson posted photos of the trio drinking beer on a rooftop, as well as pictures of the men at the beach and in a rooftop Jacuzzi.

3 bodies in Mexican well identified as Australian and American surfers killed for tires

Mexican authorities say three suspects killed two Australians and an American on a surfing trip in Baja California to steal tires from their truck.

May 5, 2024

Their disappearance triggered a manhunt and investigation by local Mexican police, the FBI and the Mexican marines.

What happened?

Mexican authorities have determined that the three men were killed by thieves who were looking to steal their white pickup truck in order to sell its tires.

The Chevrolet truck was posted in the first picture Callum Robinson shared when the men arrived in Baja California on April 26. It had a California license plate.

The bodies of the victims were found about 4 miles from where they were killed, just south of the city of Ensenada. A tent the men were staying in, as well as their burned-out truck, was found nearby.

María Elena Andrade Ramírez, chief state prosecutor of the state of Baja California, said investigators discovered their bodies 50 feet deep in a remote well.

Inside the well was a fourth cadaver as well, she said.

Three Mexicans are being held in connection with the case, the prosecutor said.

This gentrifying Mexico City neighborhood has a Soho House — and a migrant encampment

An encampment in the Juarez neighborhood of Mexico City shows how migration is impacting countries south of the U.S. border.

May 7, 2024

What does it mean for tourists?

The killings have set off pitched discussions over safety as well as the prioritization of solving the homicides of other tourists killed in Mexico.

On the Talk Baja Facebook group, concerned surfers and potential visitors to the Northern Mexico state have discussed whether they should still visit the area.

The U.S. State Department said in its 2023 report that Americans should “reconsider” travel to Baja California due to kidnapping and crime. The “reconsider” category is the second-worst category, after the department’s “do not travel to” recommendation.

More to Read

Three friends drove from California to Mexico for a surfing trip. Then they disappeared

May 3, 2024

U.S. couple likely thrown overboard by boat hijackers are dead, Grenada police say

Feb. 27, 2024

Foreigners among 45 dead from Hurricane Otis in Mexico, as search for bodies continues

Oct. 30, 2023

Start your day right

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Noah Goldberg covers breaking news for the Los Angeles Times. He worked previously in New York City as the Brooklyn courts reporter for the New York Daily News, covering major criminal trials as well as working on enterprise stories. Before that, he was the criminal justice reporter for the Brooklyn Eagle.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Video shows moment sheriff’s deputies shot, injured La Puente man holding paint roller

10-year-old’s torture, abuse was ignored for years, Orange County lawsuit claims

Flooding in Americas, brutal heat in Asia and Africa: Extreme weather across the globe

Snoop Dogg puts mind, money on bowl. Not that kind of bowl. A college football bowl game

Call for Student Entries: Students Asked to Participate in America's Field Trip 250

WHAT DOES AMERICA MEAN TO YOU?

In 2026, the United States will mark our Semiquincentennial: the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Today’s young people are the leaders, innovators, and thinkers who will shape the next 250 years — and it’s important their voices are heard as we commemorate this historic milestone.

America’s Field Trip is a new contest that invites students across the country in grades 3–12 to be part of America’s 250th anniversary by sharing their perspectives on what America means to them — and earning the opportunity to participate in unforgettable field trip experiences at some of the nation’s most iconic historic and cultural landmarks.

Students may submit artwork, videos, or essays in response to the contest’s prompt:   “What does America mean to you?”

Rules can be found here.

You may make a submission here.

• Share full article

Opinion Lydia Polgreen

The Student-Led Protests Aren’t Perfect. That Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Right.

Supported by

By Lydia Polgreen

Photographs by Mark Peterson

Ms. Polgreen is an Opinion columnist and a co-host of the “Matter of Opinion” podcast for The Times. Mr. Peterson is a photographer based in New York and a member of Redux Pictures.

• April 26, 2024

On Wednesday morning, on a corner across the street from Columbia University, a man dressed in black, a huge gold cross around his neck, brandished a sign that featured a bloodstained Israeli flag and the word “genocide” in capital letters. He was also shouting at the top of his lungs.

“The Jews control the world! Jews are murderers!”

I watched as a pro-Palestinian protester approached the man. “That is horribly antisemitic,” she said. “You are hurting the movement, and you are not a part of us. Go away.”

The man shouted vile, unprintable epithets back at her, but the woman, who told me she had come to New York from her home in Baltimore to support the protesting students, walked away.

Hours later, a well-known congressional reporter covering House Speaker Mike Johnson’s visit to Columbia’s campus posted a photograph of the same man. “One sign here at the Columbia protest,” the reporter, Jake Sherman, wrote. “This man is ranting about Jews controlling the universe.”

The man wasn’t at the Columbia protest. The university’s campus has been closed to outsiders for over a week — even as a journalist and an alumna, I had trouble getting in. He was, several people on social media told Sherman, a well-known antisemitic crank completely unconnected from what was unfolding on campus. Indeed, last week I had seen a man wearing an identical cross carrying a similarly lettered sign that read, “Google it! Jews vs. TikTok” protesting outside Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Lower Manhattan. He was, for the record, standing on the pro-Trump side of the protest area.

But the incident is emblematic of how difficult it has become to make sense of what is actually happening on college campuses right now. As the protests have spread to dozens of campuses and counting , competing viral clips on social media paint vastly different versions of what’s happening inside these pro-Palestinian camps. Are they violent conflict zones, filled with militant protesters who hurl antisemitic abuse and threaten Jewish students, requiring, as some political leaders have suggested, deployment of the National Guard? Or is it a giant love-fest of students braiding daisy chains and singing “Kumbaya”?

I tried to figure this out the only way I know how: by reporting. I happened to have been on campus on April 18, the day Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, decided to call in the New York Police Department to clear the protesters from campus, and I returned a week later to spend the day reporting on the protests and the mood on campus.

What I saw were moving, creative and peaceful protests by people seeking to end the slaughter in Gaza, where more than 34,000 people have died, a majority of them women and children. I also saw things that left me quite troubled and heard from Jewish students both inside and outside the camps navigating a campus fraught with emotions. But while reporting on the protests up close gave me insight into how unsettling some aspects of activism can be, it doesn’t mean the protesters’ actions are misguided. These young people seek a worthy cause: to end what may be the most brutal military operation for civilians in the 21st century.

In the days since Shafik called for the N.Y.P.D. to break up protests, copycat encampments have sprung up on dozens of campuses across the country, and at least 17 of them have faced police intervention. My social media feeds have filled with horrifying images of students and professors being violently dragged away by the police. In one especially shocking video from Emory University captured by CNN, a police officer shouts at Caroline Fohlin, a middle-aged economics professor: “Get on the ground! Get on the ground!” The officer grabs her and flips her onto the grass as she screams: “Oh my God! Oh my God!”

On Wednesday afternoon during his visit to campus, Johnson made it clear what he thought was happening there. He all but called the university a war zone and declared the protests as antisemitic, conflating, as many proponents of Israel do, opposition to Israel’s policies with hatred of Jews. “It’s detestable, as Columbia has allowed these lawless agitators and radicals to take over,” he said. “If this is not contained quickly and if these threats and intimidation are not stopped, there is an appropriate time for the National Guard. We have to bring order to these campuses.”

While Johnson was meeting with a group of Jewish students, I was wandering among the lawless agitators, who have been camping out on a lawn on campus. In one corner of the encampment, a small group of students sat cross-legged, discussing the poem “Kindness” by the Palestinian American poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Another group had broken out art supplies to reapply the paint to its Gaza Solidarity Encampment banner. Others were napping or doing yoga. There was a well-stocked food tent, with options for all — gluten-free, vegan, nut-free and more. I have spent more than my share of time in war zones. This felt more like an earnest folk music festival.

On campus, I spoke to Muslim and Arab students who told me how frightened and angry they were. I spoke to Jewish students who participated in the pro-Palestinian protests and scoffed at the notion that the protests endangered them. I also spoke to Jewish students who told me that they felt the protests targeted them as Jews and made them fear for their safety.

Whether you are watching student protesters on social media or experiencing the protests in person, the way you understand these protests depends on your perception of what they are protesting. It could not be otherwise. If you feel that what is happening in Gaza is a moral atrocity, the student protests will look like a brave stand against American complicity in what they believe is genocide — and a few hateful slogans amid thousands of peaceful demonstrators will look like a minor detail. If you feel the Gaza war is a necessarily violent defense against terrorists bent on destroying the Jewish state, the students will seem like collaborators with murderous antisemitism — even if many of them are Jewish.

I heard both of these perspectives from Columbia students themselves on campus. “When I sit in statistics class and I am hearing ‘globalize the intifada,’ ‘from the river to the sea and so on,’ I cannot study, and I cannot focus on the class,” Saar, a junior at Columbia who asked that I not include her last name, told me. “I don’t know who will sit behind me in class, who might follow me after class, and God knows what might happen. You’re living in fear all the time. People are hiding their faces. You don’t know who is who.”

David Pomerantz, a sophomore who was among the group that met with the House speaker, told me that he didn’t personally feel he was in imminent danger but worried about others. “I think especially my friends who are visibly Jewish, who walk around in kipa, get dirty looks, get chastised for that,” he said. “I think they do feel like they’re in real physical danger. It’s a problem that can’t continue.”

While Jewish students who object to the pro-Palestinian encampment navigate fear and uncertainty, those inside the camp are facing a different type of threat. I spoke to Jared, a Jewish student participating in the protests. He had given an interview in which his full name appeared, and he said someone in his family had received a threatening voice mail.

“They like to dress us up as a token minority or as self-hating Jews,” he told me. “But I was raised as a Jewish person to call attention to injustice whenever I see it. Palestinians should be the focus, not my safety on campus. The only threat to my safety comes from the administration.”

Just outside the campus gates, the scene was more tense. The protests have become a destination for opportunists of all kinds. Nasty purveyors of chaos. Gavin McInnes, the right-wing founder of the Proud Boys, turned up , student journalists reported. On Thursday, Christian nationalists descended on Columbia to stage their own, ostensibly pro-Israel protest, screaming through the campus gates to the student protesters inside: “You want to camp? Go camp in Gaza!” according to a reporter on the scene.

At times I saw pro-Israel protesters seek to provoke pro-Palestinian groups into confrontations. A white-haired man in a khaki military-style shirt with a small Israeli flag stitched onto the chest approached a group of protesters I was interviewing just off campus. They were standing around, not chanting or holding signs.

“Israel has had 400 Nobel Prize winners,” he falsely claimed (13 Israelis have won the prize), tapping the flag. “How many has your side won?”

One of the protesters, a man with a kaffiyeh wrapped around the top of his head, replied: “I don’t care about Nobel Prizes right now. I care about dead Palestinian babies.”

Interactions like those make up the flood of “evidence” we’re seeing online, much of it placed there by the moral combatants themselves. Some videos, like one that supposedly depicted a Jewish Yale student getting stabbed in the eye by a Palestinian flag, turn out to be misleadingly portrayed by the victim. Others depict what appears to be clear harassment of Jewish students, such as the one filmed outside the gates of Columbia’s campus where a protester shouted, “Go back to Poland,” at Jewish students and another declared that Oct. 7 would happen “10,000 times.” Many videos show peaceful, even joyful protests or feature Jewish students who support the pro-Palestinian protests and declare that they feel safe on campus.

What are we to make of these competing claims? Having spent the past week immersed in these protests, I understand the desire to fix upon some singular piece of evidence that will decode, definitively, their moral core. But there is plenty of evidence ready-made for any side to claim moral high ground here. The camps are on the whole peaceful but it must be acknowledged that problematic things are being said.

On Thursday, video from January began circulating of one of the student protest leaders at Columbia, Khymani James, saying that “the same way we are very comfortable accepting that Nazis don’t deserve to live, fascists don’t deserve to live, racists don’t deserve to live, Zionists, they shouldn’t live in this world,” and “be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists.” On Friday James released a statement apologizing for the video.

On Monday, after the arrest of more than 100 N.Y.U. protesters, the demonstrations outside Police Headquarters went on all night. I live nearby and went down to see the protest for myself. It was a different vibe from the night the Columbia students had been arrested. There were more chants, delivered with much tighter unison and at greater volume.

“From the river to the sea, Palestine is almost free,” one chant went.

“Move, cops. Get out the way. We know you’re Israeli trained.”

“There is only one solution: intifada revolution,” went another.

I winced upon hearing the last chant. Not so much the word intifada, which has many meanings and intonations depending on the context. But why choose the word “solution,” one so redolent of the Nazis’ “final solution,” which murdered six million Jews across Europe?

When the time came for a late-evening prayer, some protesters laid down their banners to use them as prayer rugs, turning toward Mecca, which in this case meant bowing down before a line of police officers in riot gear. After the prayer concluded, some of the men wandered over to the line of officers who stood behind barricades. They singled out one officer in particular, a dark-skinned man who they seemed to think was a fellow Muslim.

“There’s no way he is a Muslim and he supports the killing of 15,000 kids,” one of the protesters said (it’s estimated nearly 14,000 children have been killed in Gaza since the war began). “Impossible, unless he is not a Muslim.”

“May Allah forgive you, bro,” another said.

The officer stared straight ahead, betraying no reaction to what he was hearing. Standing next to him was another officer, a Black woman. Another protester seemingly shouted her way: “Your ancestors are ashamed of you. Your ancestors were murdered by colonizers, and you are here standing with the colonizers.”

Almost instinctively, I took umbrage at the sight of a group of light-skinned young men badgering a Black woman doing her job. Personally, I found these tactics unpleasant, even repellent. It made me uncomfortable. I can see how they may make someone feel unsafe. But to me, this discomfort came nowhere near constituting a crisis requiring extraordinary interventions, like bringing in the National Guard.

Pretending that there is no antisemitism whatsoever in the movement is foolish and self-defeating. Antisemitism is widespread, not to mention on the American right . It stands to reason that there are some people who hold antisemitic views among a mass movement of protesters.

It is easy when looking backward to remember the fight for a good cause as pure and untainted, even if it did not seem so at the time. In the same way, we now remember the Vietnam War as an American tragedy. The students at Columbia University who protested it seem, in retrospect, to have been right. But our memories elide some of their more outré tactics. A list of popular chants employed by antiwar protesters at a time when thousands of American soldiers were dying each year fighting in the war included things like “One side’s right. One side’s wrong. We’re on the side of the Viet Cong!” and “Save Hanoi. Lose Saigon. Victory to the Viet Cong!”

These slogans are sickening. But by 1968, when the protests reached their peak, the U.S. government had already realized, according to the Pentagon Papers, that the war was all but unwinnable. Yet its brutal killing machine ground on for five more years, and an additional 38,000 Americans and countless Vietnamese, Cambodian and Laotian people died pointless deaths in a senseless, futile war.

There are clear signs that Israel is prosecuting a war just as brutal and unwinnable as the United States did back then. Some people may not like the slogans, tactics or proposals of today’s pro-Palestinian protesters. But the truth is that a majority of Americans have qualms about Israel’s pitiless war to root out Hamas, whatever the consequences for civilians. As politicians send riot police onto campuses to try to smother a new protest movement, we’d do well to keep in mind why we’ve forgotten the ugliest aspects of the Vietnam protests: Those memories have been replaced, instead, by an enduring horror at what we did.

Mr. Peterson is a photographer based in New York and a member of Redux Pictures.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

Lydia Polgreen is an Opinion columnist and a co-host of the “ Matter of Opinion ” podcast for The Times.

Advertisement