Moving from one place to another for short durations of time due to various purposes like recreation, work, exploration, experience or knowledge is known as travelling. In today’s world travelling has become quite popular due to various reasons, some of which include world class transportation facilities, focus on alone/family time and how it helps in improving our mental health and thus productivity and efficiency in our working life as well as better lifestyle opportunities and goals. So many other people travel the whole world only to gain more knowledge and hands-on experiences of different cultures.

Why can’t reading about different cultures suffice?

We have read about different places in the world, their cultures, the lives of people living in them, and we can learn as much there is to learn from books, but the one thing we will never be able to do is perceive things differently without travelling. When we travel we see how people in different cultures do different things, we see real beauty and the real picturesque locations that are far more serene than pictures in books could ever do justice. When we interact with people of different places, we develop a better understanding of small and big things. For example, if someone from India travels to the United States they would learn how they can better their lifestyle in terms of hygiene, development and education. But if the same person travels to a remote country in Africa they would learn how better their lives actually are, when compared to other people, who do not have access to basic amenities.

Why is travelling a good thing?

Travelling  not only helps build someone as a person but it also helps in providing clarifications on big questions like ‘the purpose of life’ for a lot of people. No book in the world could do what a real life experience can.  When we step outside in the real world, our experiences will always guide us to move forward in a much better way than academics will. When we travel to a new place, we meet new people, make new friends and some of these friendships get cemented so strongly despite the difference between cultures and countries. Travel creates room for people in our lives that we never even knew existed, we fall in love with new places and realize that the world is a very small place and life is too short to not visit the place completely, at least once.