Where Do You Want To Go Today?

Did you think of the old Microsoft ad campaign when you read that headline? By the end of this post I hope you’ll have a different association with that phrase.

Where do you want to go today? What I really mean to ask is: Today, where do you want to go? I’m not talking about a destination to which you’ll travel today. I mean today, what destination inspires you?

A lot of my vacation travel is to familiar destinations. Destinations that I’ve visited before. As a child, I traveled with my family to Wellfleet, on Cape Cod, for a week or two every summer. Now, my wife and I take our kids there every summer. And there’s comfort and familiarity to that. The kids love it. We do the same things every time. We have routines.

We go to the Wellfleet Drive-In. We go to the Wellfleet Flea Market. We spend long afternoons at Gull Pond, and at the end of the afternoon we get home-made popsicles at Hatches Fish Market. We spend a day in Provincetown, and if the weather is clear, we climb to the top of the Provincetown Monument and enjoy the view.  These are the experiences of my childhood, and they will be experiences my kids will always remember.

But if I woke up today to choose a travel destination, based not on my childhood history, my years of Wellfleet trips, my desire to re-experience my youth and to give my children the experiences I had, where would I go?

Maybe to Wellfleet, sure. Or maybe back to Italy, where we travelled in 1996 and 1998. Or — gasp — maybe someplace new.

Today, where do you want to go? What’s your next vacation going to be? Are you going to go to someplace familiar? Someplace you’ve visited many times? Or maybe back to someplace you visited once, so that you can take in more of it? I’d love to go back to Tuscany and spend more time in the hill towns of wine country. What about you? Or will you choose someplace new?

Here’s my challenge: Today, and for as many days as it takes, think about your next travel destination. And not only the destination, but the nature of the travel experience you want to have.

I visited the Grand Canyon recently with my family. For my daughters and me, it was our first visit to the canyon. My wife had been there once, as a child. My mother-in-law, who for six years has called Arizona her home, has been there several times.

It was truly grand. Really, words are inadequate to express the sheer grandeur, grandness, grandiosity of the experience. We only spent a few hours at the canyon, walking and driving along the South rim, taking in spectacular view after spectacular view. It was enjoyable, overwhelming even, but it was a short, tourist’s experience of one of the world’s greatest natural wonders. And what it inspired most in me was the desire to return and re-experience the canyon differently.

I wanted to hike down into the canyon; to spend the night at the bottom; maybe even to raft down the river; certainly to visit the prehistoric ruins at the bottom and then to hike back up. I wanted to get the dust of the canyon into the seams of my shoes and the fabric of my jeans. I wanted to look back up and see the rim from five miles down.

Today, where do you want to go? Are you a hiker? A camper? Or do you prefer a first class hotel and spa? Do you like exploring wilderness, or exploring the nooks and crannies and out of the way restaurants of an unfamiliar big city? Would you like to experience the nightlife of Cozumel? See Sydney harbor? Spend days in the Louvre? Backpack the Appalachian Trail?

Today, where do you want to go? Think about it. Dig in to it. Go to the library and take out some travel books. Become an armchair traveller for a week, or a month. Find a destination that puts some fire in your belly. Find someplace to go that you can get excited about. Then — and only then — start planning your next trip.

Me, I’m going to start getting my hiking muscles in shape.

The inspiration for today’s post may be found at the following link: Travel Where You Want.

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