Well, exactly.
The website, whereivebeen.com defends cliche destinations, those places and activities that have been done sooooooo many times before as to be stale. Kissing under the Eiffel Tower. Las Vegas. Cancun, etc. How corny, the snooty travel types say.
The site is right to call out that line as baloney.
I’ve been to some of the most obscure places — crossing the Himalayas to Tibet, backwoods Tanzania, Baikal, the wilds of little Ulster islands and the like. OK, good for me. But I’ve had a wonderful time in Branson and think that Washington, D.C., is the premier visitor city anywhere and that if only New York City could drum up something for a visitor to do or house a few more interesting characters it, too, might be almost interesting. I love Cape Cod and salt water taffy, particularly in the winter. I thought Las Vegas is a hoot, so over the top is it. The Grand Canyon is one grand canyon. And I strongly recommend kissing under the Eiffel Tower. Or anywhere.
Hey, it’s your vacation.
Don’t listen to those who say it only counts if you’re in Mali or the Outer Hebrides. Good for them for going there but good for you for going where you want to go and where you are the happiest.
I had a plan for travel that was built around the idea that I should see the hard places, the distant locales, the adventurous destinations when I was “young” and leave the safe and sounds places for when I was older and had less capacity for travel. Well, I was a dope to think that way. I am now 28, and have been 28 for a very very long time, and I certainly underestimated the wonderful ability of mature people to travel to the most amazing places. On a zipline in Panama last month, I was not at all the oldest guy up there — and I was not as good at it as some others older than I am. And I’ve done a lot things better than people half my age. That’s just the way it is.
It may be corny or cliched to someone else to go to Paris but that city is never corny to me. I had a great time with the kids at Disney. I’ve done the “Goober in the Big Apple” number over and over and the thrill never fades. London? Beijing? Cairo? Siberia? Sure. But are they so very much better than hometown Beantown or Atlantic City or a rental on a lake for a week? Not better, different.
That’s Why We Travel.
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