Do you really like traveling?

I’ve always been a curious person, and I’ve always enjoyed exploring a new place. The unfamiliarity of it, and the process of slowly discovering it, its beauty, history, and tales behind a place are fascinating to me. Observing the people, their habits and behaviors, their way of living life are also things I truly enjoy about being in a new place. Not to mention the fact that travel has helped me grow as a person, and expanded my thinking and views of the world. Because of these things, I always thought I love traveling.

However, the other day, someone I follow on Instagram said that she loved the idea of travel but hated the act itself, or something along those lines, and it got me thinking.

The truth is that I have been lying to myself when I said I loved to travel. In reality, I love the idea of traveling, too, just not a lot of the other things it involves.

I don’t crave going through everything getting on a plane entails (though I love flying). And more than anything, I hate staying in hotels, or any sort of vacation rental. They gross me out! And it’s the reason why I travel the way I do (fun fact #12 - yeah, #itme).

I’m the happiest when I’m out and about exploring, but the thought of coming back to our “home away from home” is my least favorite part of travel. And that’s not because I haven’t liked any of the hotels we stayed at - I actually enjoyed some of them, but I can never feel fully comfortable there, and for that reason, I always look forward to coming home.

As we’re heading into the time of the year with the nicest weather here in Florida, hubby and I are starting to consider exploring it beyond the Tampa Bay area, and I can’t help not having these thoughts. Especially when considering the ongoing pandemic, and the extra complications it added for travel. Whether we’ll make day trips - so I can come back to the comfort of my home at night is yet to be seen, but I still get excited about the idea of discovering a new place, especially after all this time spent at home…