Travel

Your Travel Wishes – Follow Up

Retirement Reflections

Thank you all for your creative and thoughtful feedback to my post last week. As promised, I submitted each of your comments with my assignment. The instructor, and fellow writers, were very impressed by your thought-provoking words.  Without further ado, here is what I submitted in answer to the question posed.

The Travel Genie Grants You Three Wishes. What are they?

I recently posed the title question to the blogosphere. The responses were both inspiring and stimulating. I wanted to join each and every commenter on the journeys that they described. One reply began to quietly simmer at the back of my brain. It simply stated: “This is a challenging assignment that requires much thought.” So, instead of hurriedly delving into this writing task (as I would often do), I paused and reflected.

“With great power, there must also come great responsibility.’ Stan Lee, Spider-Man.

Thus, Dear Genie, I have carefully considered my three wishes. My top travel desires are:

  1. Everyone would have access to the Travel Genie and would be required to use this gift wisely. We so often hear about the ‘ugly tourist’ and the wide-spread devastation caused by thoughtless excursions. Our Travel Genie would guide us in making responsible, sustainable choices. This Genie would also lead us to mutual respect and understanding of our world’s people, cultures and the environment.
  2. While we are improving humankind through travel, I wish for genuinely sustainable transport. Electric vehicles, active transportation and fossil-fuel-free transit are desperately needed to address the fragile health of our planet.
  3. I humbly request to join my blogging buddies on their bucket-list adventures. Jiving along in an electric-powered hippy van with The Widow Badass, cocktails with Aimer in her breathtaking ocean hut, and a (ridiculously) long trek with Tassie Kaz are just a few of the highlights. You’d be most welcome to join us. Dream-destination travel with like-minded friends who share their incurable wanderlust – what could be better?

The secret of my list, dear Genie, is that until you arrive, the crux of my travel desires is within our grasp. It will take each of us being accountable, speaking out, and working together for change. The time for this transformation is now

Feature Photo Credit: Alexander Schimmeck, Unsplash.

Published by Retirement Reflections

Prior to retirement, I lived and worked in Beijing China for fourteen years (Middle School Principal/Deputy Director at The Western Academy of Beijing). Leaving international life behind, my husband and I retired to Vancouver Island in June 2015. To document both this transition and our new adventures, ‘Retirement Reflections’ was born. I hope that you enjoy reading these reflections, and will be willing to share your own.

56 thoughts on “Your Travel Wishes – Follow Up”

  1. I am enjoying this different aspect of your travel writing. Agree with no.2 here’s too more sustainable travelling. Plus the long trek. Isn’t the best part of travel is the idealistic destination and all the dreaming and planning associated with reaching it?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. Sustainable travel and tourism in itself is a “thing,” Donna! I love that you brought this up. I remember talking with my students in another class about leisure and tourism and the many types of tourism there are! Folks often describe Sacramento as a commuter town, the place to pass through or stop by for a few hours as they head either toward the SF Bay area or east to Lake Tahoe. Our city leaders so desperately want tourists to stay here, yet one city just raised the prices of the e-bikes now found throughout downtown and midtown Sacramento. Go figure?

    Like

    Reply

  7. So many people (retired?) wanting to go places..everywhere is feeling inundated with tourists. There was a picture posted on Facebook of a traffic jam of people climbing Mt. Everest. All the ferries from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo were fully booked on the 18th of Sept. But as baby boomers get “travelled out” it might die down. Electric trains/boats/planes might help.

    Public transit is challenging if your balance off. Pushing through the crowds to get to the door and remain vertical on a moving bus and then make a leap for the sidewalk is challenging but you gota do it.

    Like

    Reply

  9. Hi Donna, somehow I missed the previous post, but I just went back for a quick read. Love the idea of a travel writing course and the assignment you shared obviously prompted a variety of thoughtful comments. Rethinking our habits as consumers would go a long way toward sustainable travel, so I really like your #1. There seems to be a movement away from popular tourist destinations, which I sincerely hope is real and continues. I have to believe that there might be some responsible, eco-friendly tour groups out there that could start a new trend. Great post, love your list!

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi, Suzanne – Thank you so much for this thoughtful comment. I sincerely hope that you are right about travellers becoming more aware of their environmental impact and trying to reduce this. That’s a trend that I would love to see continue to expand!

      Like

      Reply

  10. I am glad your tutor liked our comments. I am starting a trip to St. Petersburg next week so I will have plenty of time to reflect on the effects of tourism on the countries being visited.

    Like

    Reply

  11. You had my attention with that beautiful graphic. I remember being in awe of the women in French mounting their bicycles for errands and work…in dresses!! And looking glamorous and healthy at the same time. Came home thinking I would ‘bike’ to school and home, 5 miles one way, which is not a tremendous distance at all. But when I really looked into doing it, I realized the kinds of traffic I would be up against and became terrified that I would end up as roadkill.
    You are such a thoughtful, loving, kind friend to the earth. I appreciate this post and the way it made me think.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi, Leslie – What a thoughtful and kind comment. Thank you! I too have long admired how some women can be fully dressed up, ride their bikes to work, and still look fresh and gorgeous at their destination. I’m self-aware enough to know that this would not be the case for me! 😀

      Like

      Reply

  12. I love the possibility that’s inherent in the planning process – especially in the beginning. I also love that as tourists we’re becoming more educated and aware and don’t choose activities (eg animal tourism) in the way that we might have even 5-10 years ago.

    Like

    Reply

  14. You know as much as I like the idea of travel in theory, when it comes down to it I prefer to stay at home. I wonder if your genie could please make staying at home somehow seem like exciting travel abroad. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  15. Very nice wrap-up of your travel wishes writing assignment! I’m looking forward to our next crowd-sourcing assignment ;). Although just about every form of travel has an impact on our planet, I think this is one reason we like slow travel so much. No rushing from here to there using fossil fuel, no joining the throngs at the latest must-see tourist destination. That being said, I’m also happy to come along on just about any journey that allows me to experience this great big, beautiful world.

    Like

    Reply

    1. Hi, Janis – Your ‘crowd-sourcing’ comment totally cracked me up. Probably because it’s so true! I did already complete my homework assignment for this week. I have another two posts (one not yet written, and one a guest post) that I will likely publish before that. But then, for Assignment #3, I will be back requesting advice from the blogosphere. At least you won’t be able to say that you weren’t warned! 😀

      Like

      Reply

  18. I admit, J haven’t thought much about making travel more earth friendly, but yeah, if you’ve got the genie’s ear go for it.

    Totally agree with the understanding and respecting part. A little more of that please. What’s the point of travel if you expect everything to be the same as it is at home? Uh…feel free to remind me of this the next time I see a toilet without a seat!

    Like

    Reply

  20. Hi Donna! Good for you for making your travel wishes aimed at sustainability. I’m hoping that concept is on all our minds after this weekend with all the Climate Activism underway. I think our travel and our lives need to be more conscious and active in that regard. And hopefully we, and the generations to come, will have our amazing planet to explore long into the future. ~Kathy

    Like

    Reply

  21. I enjoyed reading everyone’s wish list, Donna…and I like how you concluded the assignment, too.
    Being climate-conscience is very prominent in my thinking and view just now with the UN Climate Conference and Greta Thunberg’s rise to prominence….

    Like

    Reply

  23. What great wishes! “Yes” to responsible, sustainable travel. It would be great for travellers to develop greater respect for the world’s people, cultures, and the environment, while also keeping a low carbon footprint (less air travel).

    I confess, with embarrassment, that my wishes in my answer to your previous post were all about me and my love of travel.

    Jude

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment