Comments on: Travel is a Privilege https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/ Travel Better, Cheaper, Longer Thu, 13 Jul 2023 22:02:57 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.2 By: Kristina https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1676034 Tue, 13 Apr 2021 21:15:41 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1676034 I agree with you 100% it is a privilege and I believe if we have an opportunity to do it we should! I grew up traveling to local places in the US and Mexico as a kid with my family and knew it was a privilege and as time went on I graduated from college and moved to Costa Rica. Traveling is part of my daily life whether its going to Croatia on $2 a day with one meal when I had no work to trips to Panama and Nicargua to catch waves or visit historical sites. I feel blessed that traveling is part of my life and that I found Costa Rica and made it my new home. Thank you for a great article! Your blogs are fascinating.

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By: Gustavo Woltmann https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1661086 Sat, 20 Mar 2021 22:22:05 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1661086 This reminds me of someone saying “travelling isn’t a hobby, it’s a class indicator.” Not that I agree 100% one way or the other, but a fascinating thought and article nonetheless. – Gustavo Woltmann

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By: Lombardo Travels https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1655250 Wed, 10 Mar 2021 04:55:19 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1655250 I see this article was written in 2020. With COVID still being an issue as of this writing you bet Travel is a privilege. How many of us took it for granted that we can go anyplace in the world for vacation at an amazing all inclusive resort in Mexico or the Dominican Republic or just about anywhere in the Caribbean. Hopefully soon everybody won’t take it for granted once this COVID is under control.

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By: Andrew https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1613673 Mon, 07 Dec 2020 18:33:49 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1613673 Thank you for this post. Travel is a privilege, it is not a RIGHT (as one commentator on this page posted). The pandemic has made us realise this. My experience in my youth was that at University I could not afford to travel – I worked in holidays to help my single Mum family and pay my own way. My idea of an exciting holiday was a road trip in Australia or staying on the South Coast of NSW.

I chose law which was expensive (books alone costs thousands of $). I still graduated with a large HECS (deferred Australian student) debt. I got offered a job as a lawyer straight out of law school. It was a massive privilege to be offered the job. I really wanted to save for a year, travel then work in my profession. This choice was also a privilege but it was a recession (1993) and Mum said “Take the job, it may not be around when you get back and I can’t support you”. I’ve been working ever since. If I’d had both parents, the opportunity to save my income, no student debt and not had to help my family plus had the luxury of saying no to a job offer then I would have travelled. Now I am 52 and I’ve made a few trips for which I am very grateful. But nothing like 3 or 6 or 12 months of freedom.

I spent ages in my youth listening to intensely selfish people who had travelled bragging about their privilege and assuming everyone could do the same things as them. I’m sorry but by comparison to struggling to pay for food or utilities, having the opportunity to save even $10,000 minimum to be able to fund 3 or 6 or 12 months backpacking in South America or trekking in India and Nepal or drifting through Europe was and is a privilege no matter how many youth hostels you stay in.

My children have now done a bit of travel and I have three rules for them: 1. Always be grateful for what you have. 2. Don’t assume other people have what you have including opportunities. 3. Never brag about your privilege, especially travel. Enjoy your life experiences but don’t inflict them on others.

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By: wayamaya https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1489969 Tue, 03 Mar 2020 17:09:40 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1489969 You’re totally right. Travel is a privilege for all of us. Thanks to travelling we have the opportunity to see/be/feel other cultures, traditions or even identities. We’ve been saving money for 8 years to have the opportunity now to live a life we have never expected – to live by travelling. 2 years ago we decided to end our boring and stressful life to start something new and exciting. It’s hard to have own blog and travel and keep everything in check. But now we know that we won’t go back to life we had.

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By: Danielle Pinals https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1468065 Sat, 25 Jan 2020 12:47:05 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1468065 I am currently traveling around the world with my husband, and I think about this ALL THE TIME. We started doing research using your website about 3 years ago, but I’ve honestly been planning this trip for 13 years, and the only reason I can be here is because my parents taught me to save money early on. And the only reason they could teach me that is because they had money and their parents taught them to save early on! I’m so grateful for my privilege but constantly reminded of how little others have.

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By: TIN NGUYEN https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1331550 Sun, 24 Mar 2019 03:12:05 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1331550 I can see both sides of the coin but tend to agree with you. I think the plight of most modern humans is that they simply cannot afford luxuries like travel. But I believe those people can find ways to explore more in their local neighborhood, city, state or country. Travel doesn’t have to mean far away and expensive. Some of my most enjoyable experiences have been close to home. Well said, though. I think some travel bloggers try to sell travel in a way that gets likes, clicks and shares. But sensationalizing travel and travel blogging seems really out of touch with modern living and modern problems

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By: Aura https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1163086 Tue, 22 May 2018 19:48:47 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1163086 In reply to Jeremiah.

That is a good question! Just throwing my opinion in here – privilege is always relative. When speaking about privilege, the only way it can even exist is if there are more than one person, and there is a difference between those people in a given context. So, even though generally more underprivileged people experience their lack of privilege in many contexts, in this case of going to Mecca, they have access to something you don’t, hence they are privileged in that CONTEXT. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be more privileged than them in other situations, for example, socio-economically. The context is everything when talking about privilege!

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By: ART https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-1002578 Mon, 26 Jun 2017 22:28:11 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-1002578 Excellent article! I have been waiting to read something like this for a long time. I am 30 years old and have visited only 9 countries in my life. Don’t get me wrong, as much as I desire to keep travelling and seeing the world, I realize that I am extremely lucky to have even travelled as much as I have. The majority of people in the world are to busy surviving and trying to meet the necessities of life to even think about the possibility of even getting on a plane and going anywhere. Even those of us who can only take a trip once in a while (as in maybe once every 2 years) are still in a small minority of the world’s population.

The interesting thing about it is that when you actually do travel to underdeveloped parts of the world especially, you realize even more how lucky you are just to have been able to travel there! I have met people in India and Peru who have never even left there home town/region, let alone ever travel outside of there country or see the world!

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By: Heather https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/travel-privilege/#comment-999691 Mon, 12 Jun 2017 02:31:06 +0000 https://www.nomadicmatt.com/?p=36262#comment-999691 Travel is definitely a privilege, but unfortunately many of us don’t understand that privilege until we are actually able to go. There’s nothing like appreciating clean water from a tap or garbage pick up, or a professional police service until you’ve gone travelling. Coming home and listening to people complain about dandelions or pot holes makes you realize just how privileged we are in the West. Wish everyone could experience travel for that very reason!

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