What aspect of travel do you miss the most?

[cove]

Waiting at the baggage carousel and dreaming that my bags would be first off the plane.....

 

[AIRwin]

@Scarlett may miss the inflight cutlery (and the airline may be missing a piece of cutlery):

How well do you know your airline livery?

My last isolation distraction was about how well you know your airport codes. This time it's a little different: how well can you identify an airline from a 'piece' of its livery? Most are fairly well known airlines, but the difficulty will probably come about as the images weren't the easiest...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

 

[Scarlett]

@Scarlett may miss the inflight cutlery (and the airline may be missing a piece of cutlery):

How well do you know your airline livery?

My last isolation distraction was about how well you know your airport codes. This time it's a little different: how well can you identify an airline from a 'piece' of its livery? Most are fairly well known airlines, but the difficulty will probably come about as the images weren't the easiest...

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Of course it's all legitimately acquired through eBay and such... either that or there's some weird disturbance in the space time continuum such that teaspoons always seem to be bumped from my tray table and end up lodged in carry-on luggage. "Turbulence, your honour."

On topic however: I miss the planning, the reading about far away places, finding the areas I want to stay, the things I'd really like to see and do. I've been lucky enough to have visited nearly 80 countries so far and there's always something new and interesting in all of them. And for 'visiting', my criteria is quite strict: must have left the airport; must have spent at least one night; must have attempted to use the local language; and must have used the local currency (more widespread credit card acceptance is making this a little more difficult). No token hops across a border just for a passport stamp, or drunken contiki tours for this black duck! In fact, I have a local coin from every country I've visited too, so maybe that might be a future challenge on AFF (name that country) if we all end up locked down again due to second or subsequent waves of isolation.

But what I miss most is the surprise and delight of travel. (and playing some truely spectacular golf courses - and some goat tracks too, but the journey made them special all the same - see Lac de Verde about two hours north of Bucharest!) The unplanned things that you stumble upon when traveling. Some examples:
- wandering a back street in London and having a military marching band come past decked out in red coats and bear skin hats. Joining the crowd wandering along behind them and being treated to a mini concert when they reached their destination.
- Something similar in Igls, a beautiful town perched on the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. A local marching band decked out in lederhosen went passed us whilst we were going out to find some dinner. It was a quiet weeknight with not many others around, but they marched through the streets and lanes, set up in a local bandstand and played to about 20 or 30 listeners who came out of their houses.
- On that same trip, we realised the guesthouse we were staying at was near some facilities from when the Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck. So we just walked over and on a beautiful summers day, strolled down the bobsled and luge track. Unplanned, impossible at home and simple yet memorable.
- And of course, seeing thunderstorms at night during the cruise; seeing the lights of greater Tehran (it's a big city); the descent and landing into ZQN; etcetc.

Just see my avatar really!

 

[p--and--t]

I've been lucky enough to have visited nearly 80 countries so far and there's always something new and interesting in all of them. And for 'visiting', my criteria is quite strict: must have left the airport; must have spent at least one night; must have attempted to use the local language; and must have used the local currency (more widespread credit card acceptance is making this a little more difficult).

I love this measure. Cruise ships that stop by from 10am to 4pm is by no measure "a country visited" for a real traveller.

 

[harvyk]

All of it, from the planning, to the waiting in airports, to the flying, to the first bus ride in a strange new country that I'd never been before, the checking in at hotels, to the seeing exciting new places, meeting new people and in general being able to say "I've been there, and seen it". Hey as strange as it might seem I even miss dealing with customs at each end.

I even miss the short-haul, quick trips to BNE / SYD / MEL, the sort that sees me go from airport to office to hotel to office to airport.

 

[Townsend]

I miss the anticipation! I love planning the trip, waiting for sales, booking, catching the bus in Sydney from the domestic to the the international terminals, the visit to the lounge, the first glass of champagne on the plane...I could go on and on. I really miss not being able to plan our next trip.

In addition I really miss the part of our trip that we had to cancel due to the virus!

 

[LHT]

I

 

[Flying mermaid]

I am another one who misses all of it. Spending hours and hours on the internet researching destinations and hotels. Finally deciding on the itinerary and where to stay. Then more research on what to do in each place. Waiting to pounce on discount airfares and once I have bought not looking again, as I don’t want to know if a cheaper one appears.

then all the anticipation before it actually happens.

I love everything about travelling - the airports, the lounges, the planes.

but of course the destination is amazing - meeting new people, learning about different cultures, animals, shows, restaurants, museums - it’s all wonderful compared to a boring home life Even the difficult bits are fun - trying to get money out of an ATM at Kigali airport (we failed), or learning how to use the ticket machine for the BART at San Francisco airport. After a talk to a couple from Hawaii, both parties managed to successfully beat it.

so many wonderful experiences to treasure and the occasional bad one fades quickly.

 

[ovtraveller]

For the first time in more than 25 years of OS flying, had booked return flights in J on Qatar and carrying my P frequent flyer card was looking forward to a second visit to the first class lounge @ Tullamarine. All that planning for a seven week trip to Europe and catching up with US living son and daughter in law gone to waste, not forgetting the hassles of getting refunds, credit vouchers etc. First world problems, I know, but sitting home, gnashing teeth is a poor substitute for a late European spring and Adriatic beaches.

 

[Flashback]

As we all sit at home, I was wondering what specific part about not travelling everyone is missing in particular?

Personally, I love flying but it's not the reason I travel. What I really miss is meeting interesting people from very difficult cultures, trying local foods/cuisines from all over the world, and simply the challenge of international travel - especially in countries where I don't speak (but have the opportunity to learn) the language. Now that I'm back in Australia, life is comfortable and predictable... and for me, that's another word for "boring".

I'm in the same boat. Travel centres me, which when I'm not feeling the best is a good thing. For now I've managed to 'hang on', but there has been the odd slip up. Perhaps this is what's needed to help / force me understand how to and find joy in the simpler things in life?

Like Flying mermaid, a lot of the fun is also in planning the trip. Given I can lift and shift most of our 2020 plans to 2021 that leaves little planning to do, unless I can do an even higher density of trips next year..... but with border openings still being iffy I just don't see that happening. I'm still worried about moving trips to April 2021, even.

 

[Deleted member 71772]

I love flying so miss the planes and just being around airports and the lounges. Most of all I miss not having family home for Easter including a daughter who was meant to fly home for a two month stay but is stuck in Mexico for who knows how long.

 

[PDF]

I miss the planning. I miss the excitement of driving to the airport at dawn to catch a flight. I miss arriving home, parking in the driveway, and turning off the engine knowing I'm home.

But most of all I miss not being able to flash my WP baggage tag around when lining up in the premium line among Silver and Golds

 

[pauleg]

I am another one who misses all of it. Spending hours and hours on the internet researching destinations and hotels. Finally deciding on the itinerary and where to stay. Then more research on what to do in each place. Waiting to pounce on discount airfares and once I have bought not looking again, as I don’t want to know if a cheaper one appears.

then all the anticipation before it actually happens.

I love everything about travelling - the airports, the lounges, the planes.

but of course the destination is amazing - meeting new people, learning about different cultures, animals, shows, restaurants, museums - it’s all wonderful compared to a boring home life Even the difficult bits are fun - trying to get money out of an ATM at Kigali airport (we failed), or learning how to use the ticket machine for the BART at San Francisco airport. After a talk to a couple from Hawaii, both parties managed to successfully beat it.

so many wonderful experiences to treasure and the occasional bad one fades quickly.

Perfectly put - I couldn't agree more!!

 

[cove]

We bought Japanese Yen for family birthdays believing the Olympics were on in Tokyo.

 

[tomlee1986]

I dont travel that much.. but i miss all of the time relaxing during a holiday

 

[Matt_01]

I was wondering if you were all getting a bit tetchy. Having the other half home here who travelled domestically anyway, almost as much as you, sure changes things on the home front. I have to cook something every night now, no more baked beans on toast for dinner!

Yes we have been tetchy I was worried that MrsM would throw one of these at me

so I brought out the big guns
.

 

[jakeseven7]

I’ve decided I actually do miss one thing -more interesting travel related threads on AFF!

At the moment it’s people counting corona cases or people watching as VA1 goes up in flames.

I miss reading people’s trip reports

 

[JohnM]

Not having those 1A BPs in my hot little hand...

 

[tomlee1986]

I’ve decided I actually do miss one thing -more interesting travel related threads on AFF!

At the moment it’s people counting corona cases or people watching as VA1 goes up in flames.

I miss reading people’s trip reports

I think you are right on all accounts... most definitely looking at either the COVID cases and how it will look in the short term OR seeing VA 1 burn to the ground in a huge ball of financial flames!

 

[MARTINE]

Hi. In the spirit of this post I’ve spent some time looking through my holiday memorabilia (you know a bath mat from an incredible spa overlooking Lake Geneva, wearing all my international hotel slippers gathered over the years). I keep interesting DoNotDisturb signs ... this one brought a smile from last July at the Four Seasons in Moscow .. good to know we will be checked and it’s impossible for something untoward not being detected in one of their hotel rooms by management!!!