Travel versus vacationing: Best not to mistake the two

We don’t travel 2,000 miles or more just to eat at a new restaurant. Or do we?

Well, yes. Vacationing involves pleasant sights, new food, excitement, and relaxation. Vacationing is good for everyone, but not everyone is good with travel.

Seventh century Chinese monk Xuanzang was a traveler. He backpacked 10,000 miles from China to Pakistan in a trek for Buddhist scrolls that took him 16 years.

English adventuress Isabella Lucy Bird, during the late 1800s, managed to climb mountains, ford rivers, and cross burning deserts. Her travels took her to every continent, and every mysterious locale including the Australian outback, Tibet, Singapore, and the Sandwich Islands.

Traveling, you might say, doesn’t necessarily involve comfort. For young people, who haven’t had a lot of luxury anyway, traveling in the broad sense can be appealing. Hostels and train travel are romantic at age 19. According to Cassandra Michael, writing for goalcast.com, backpacking and adventure traveling provide an opportunity to grow. Michael says that travel enhances personality traits like courage and resilience.

One thing is for sure: If your next outing requires courage and resilience, you aren’t on vacation.

In her 2009 memoir, author Susan Jane Gilman writes of her harrowing experiences in China in 1986, a time when the country barely had seen a Western face. Gilman and a friend, both naive coeds fresh out of Brown University, faced hunger, sleeping rooms covered with cockroaches, and danger. They were so unprepared for their journey, one of the girls had a psychotic breakdown. In one simple experience, the two were famished and tried to order fare from a local booth. Since language was a problem, she held up two fingers. When she received seven portions instead of two, she was shaken to the core: Even finger counting was not the same.

For those who truly want to immerse themselves in local culture, travel can boost creativity and what he calls cognitive flexibility, according to Adam Galinsky, a Columbia Business School professor. Other travel experts praise the ability of travel to rewire the brain, boosting self-confidence and mood.

Unless, of course, one finds oneself in a hotel room covered with cockroaches.

Best advice on travel: Don’t over-romanticize. Be prudent and prepared. Don’t ever take chances with the local law.