Take a mental note of what happens when you think of the word travel.
If you’re like most people, a location popped into your head. Maybe a beach. Maybe Paris. Maybe that place you’ve always wanted to see but haven’t made it to yet. That’s normal. We’ve been conditioned to think about travel as a destination problem. Where should I go? What should I see? How do I get there?
But I’d argue that’s backwards.
For years, I couldn’t articulate why travel lit me up. I’d come home from a trip absolutely buzzing with excitement, wanting to tell anyone who would listen about what I’d learned and experienced. My business partner Jennifer would nod politely. My wife would change the subject. Friends would smile and wait for me to stop talking so they could tell me about their beach vacation.
When I had conversations with people about their travel it was clear they had a good time, enjoyed being away, and looked forward to going on another trip but most didn’t get genuinely excited about travel the way I do.
What I eventually realized is that I wasn’t excited about going places. I was excited about connecting with locals who had a different perspective of history and a different experience of life. I loved observing cultures that have existed for thousands of years, or destinations that have evidence of cultures from thousands of years ago. Walking through ancient ruins and imagining what life would have been like while learning about the rise and fall of the civilization I’m experiencing in the moment. Learning about artists, architecture, and cities from their perspective instead of an American one.
That’s my purpose for travel. Cultural exploration and immersion.
But here’s the thing. It’s not everyone’s purpose. And it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out.
Jennifer understood my passion and shared it to a point, but not to the same degree. When I tried to explain why I wanted to spend three hours in a small museum learning about medieval trade routes, she’d rather be touring a cathedral and imagining what royal life would have been like in that space. She wasn’t interested in the history lesson. She was interested in the beauty, the reverence, the opulence, and the stories of the people who lived there.
At home my daughter shares my passion for exploring the world and gaining new insights and understandings but my wife works long hours at an emotionally demanding job, and when she goes away she wants to relax on a beach. Period. She has zero interest in my archaeological tangents or walking tours that involve phrases like, “and this is where the aqueduct system would have been located.”
For two years, every chance I got, I spoke about why I love traveling. Our marketing tag-line became “vacations that combine history, culture, and fun.” When speaking to people face to face the message resonated with a small percentage of people, others nodded along politely, and some tuned out completely (complete with the thousand yard stare and occassional snoring). As we repeated the message, the people who were intrigued by it found us, booked with us, and had amazing experiences.
But we were missing everyone else.
Through conversations with potential customers and networking conversations where we were asking for referrals, I realized that the message of history, culture, and fun was only powerful to a small percentage of people. We’d get questions like, “Do you plan beach vacations? Quick getaways to warm locations?” It was like we were speaking a language that only some people understood.
The idea started to gel when I looked at the people closest to me. Jennifer wasn’t interested in history and culture the way I was. She loved religious tours and buildings and learning about her specific interest in royal families. My wife wanted relaxation and warm weather. One of our customers wanted to learn about her family roots as an extension of a multi-generational trip where she hoped her adult children and young grandchildren would gain an appreciation for cities with an interesting history.
I realized that people travel for different reasons, without consciously realizing it, and without thinking that there could be more reasons to travel than the one they default to.
Virtually everyone travels to get away and relax, and that’s what they think vacation is. It’s the default setting. But once they realize there are more reasons, the world opens up to them in new ways. Their experiences can become memory making, story retelling journeys that go way beyond having visited a place or getting a tan on another beautiful beach.
What Changes When You Know Your Purpose
Let me tell you about that customer I mentioned. Her ancestors had lived in a small village a few hours from the cruise port where her family was ending their Mediterranean cruise. Her initial idea was simple. Visit the area, maybe walk around, see where her great-grandparents had lived.
We had a different idea.
We arranged for her family to have a driver for the day and a local politician and historian of the small village to show her family around personally. They took her to city hall to see familial records. They walked through the streets where her ancestors had lived and worked. They visited the church where generations of her family had been baptized and married. They sat in a small café and talked about what life would have been like for her family in that village a hundred years ago.
She talks about that experience multiple times a week, two years later. It wasn’t just a side trip. It became the most meaningful part of their entire vacation.
That’s what happens when we understand someone’s purpose. We plan differently. We customize trips in ways that the average person couldn’t imagine.
A customer mentioned that one of his main hobbies is cooking with his children. When his family vacation was going to Italy, we arranged a private cooking class with a local chef who taught them techniques and recipes.
When I went to Greece, knowing my main purpose is cultural and historical immersion, we arranged for a tour of an active archaeological dig. A historian took us behind the scenes, showed us how they excavate, what they’re finding and hoping to find, and what lessons they’re learning about the civilization they’re studying. I could have gone to Greece and seen the Parthenon like everyone else. Instead, I got to understand how we know what we know about ancient civilizations.
These experiences don’t happen by accident. They happen when someone articulates their purpose, or gives us enough information that we can figure it out for them.
The Seven Purposes I’ve Identified
Over the years, I’ve identified seven primary purposes that drive meaningful travel. You might recognize yourself in one or more of these.
Cultural Exploration and Immersion. This is my purpose. Learning about history, understanding how other cultures live and think, experiencing art and architecture in its original context. It’s about the world as a classroom.
Expedition and Adventure. This is for people who want to push boundaries, see wildlife in natural habitats, experience landscapes that challenge and inspire. Safaris, Antarctica expeditions, hiking Patagonia. It’s about experiencing the raw beauty of the natural world.
Faith and Spiritual Journeys. Visiting holy sites, walking pilgrimage routes, experiencing religious history in the places where it happened. Cathedrals, monasteries, sacred spaces that connect faith and history.
Family Heritage and Ancestry. Tracing your roots, visiting the places your ancestors lived, understanding where you came from. Like our customer who visited that small village and connected with her family history in a profound way.
Special Interest Travel. Hobbies, passions, interests that drive your travel choices. Cooking, photography, golf, wine, music, art. When your hobby becomes the lens through which you experience a destination.
Relaxation and Fun. Yes, this is a legitimate purpose. Sometimes you just need to disconnect, recharge, and not think too hard about anything. Beach vacations, all-inclusive resorts, cruises where you prioritize rest over enrichment.
Multi Generational. Travel designed to create shared experiences across generations. Grandparents, parents, and grandchildren making memories together in ways that work for everyone’s age and ability level.
You’re not limited to one purpose. The same person can take a beach vacation and come home relaxed and rejuvenated one trip, and take an expedition safari the next. Every purpose has its own benefit. When you combine purpose with thoughtful planning any vacation that incorporates purpose is going to be amazing.
There’s No Wrong Way to Travel
Let me be clear about something. There is no shame in wanting to lay on a beach for a week. None. Sometimes a relaxing vacation is exactly what’s needed. I’m not suggesting that you need to turn every trip into an educational expedition or a deeply meaningful pilgrimage.
What I am suggesting is that most people have never consciously thought about why they travel beyond “I need a break” or “I want to go somewhere warm.” And when you do think about it, when you articulate what actually matters to you in a travel experience, the planning process becomes completely different.
Instead of asking “Where should I go?” you start asking “What do I want to experience?” Instead of picking a destination because it’s popular or because someone else recommended it, you pick experiences that align with what lights you up.
When you book a trip with a clear purpose in mind, everything else falls into place. The destination becomes obvious. The activities become meaningful. The memories become stories you’ll tell for years.
I’m sure there are purposes beyond these seven. I find more often that there are sub-categories within the seven that I hadn’t thought of. People with special interests and hobbies that I didn’t realize had entire communities and travel options built around them.
The point isn’t to fit neatly into a category. The point is to think about your why before you think about your where.
Because the person who travels to Greece to relax by the pool is going to have a completely different trip than the person who travels to Greece to walk in the footsteps of ancient philosophers. Both trips can be perfect. But only if you know which one you actually want.
What’s Your Purpose?
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably starting to think about your own travel purpose. Maybe one of these seven resonated immediately. Maybe you’re realizing that you’ve been defaulting to relaxation when what you really crave is cultural immersion or adventure. Maybe you’ve never thought about any of this before and you’re not sure where to start.
That’s normal. Most people haven’t consciously identified why they travel. They just book trips and hope for the best.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll be writing deeper explorations of each of these seven purposes. What they look like in practice, what destinations and experiences align with each purpose, and how to plan trips that deliver on what you’re actually looking for.
In the meantime, if you’re thinking about your next trip and you’re not sure what your purpose is or how to plan around it, that’s a conversation Jennifer and I have with customers all the time. Visit the Start Planning page we’ll help you figure out what kind of travel actually lights you up. Sometimes it takes asking the right questions to realize what you’ve been looking for all along.
