Dilemmas when choosing where to travel…
As a traveler I often face a dilemma and maybe it’s one that you’ve had to deal with as well which is do you always go somewhere completely new or do you sometimes think back to a trip that you’ve done and you’re thinking hm what if I go there the second time I’m
Thinking about this a lot right now I’m at the end of a Mexico trip this is chipal toek Forest I’m in Mexico City and I’m reflecting on my trip so I thought H maybe it’s time for one of those travel philosophy videos this trip is not my first trip in Mexico
In fact it’s not even my first one this year I’ve done two big trips in Mexico in the same year I have my reasons for doing that but it does remind me of that choice I had a conversation about this many years ago in a hostel in Cambodia
There was this girl who said very clearly I will never go to the same country twice she said I’ve done Thailand I’ve done Vietnam I’ve done Cambodia and there’s no reason to come back and at the time kind of makes sense there are almost two 100 countries in
The world so move on to the next thing but um yeah in the years since I’ve been going back to countries a lot and my opinion changed and a great example of this is Vietnam I went there the first time in like 2012 and I kind of didn’t like it uh of
Course there were good aspects of of that trip every trip has some cool things in it but I was scammed a lot and I went on these tours that were really like tour factory tours where I felt like I was being treated as cattle um there were many negative aspects like
Over tourism some spots were just way too full of people and I just left Vietnam thinking you know what seen it not in a rush to go back and and actually I thought I would never go back but then a few years later um I forced
Myself a little bit to go back to Vietnam because of my travel blog because many people were reading about Vietnam on my blog I there some very popular articles on it and I felt like you know what I need to go back I need to make sure the information is still
Correct and maybe I didn’t see enough of Vietnam to really tell people everything there is about it so kind of begrudging I went back and guess what that second trip was incredible in fact it was way better than the first trip it completely changed my perspective on Vietnam and I
Think it’s now maybe my favorite country in Southeast Asia so that’s like a complete 180 one of the reasons I think is that the first time I felt obligated to do kind of the classic itinery and if you’ve traveled I’m sure you’re aware that every country kind of has an
Obligatory more or less way to travel through it like there’s certain things that everyone recommends you have to do them and so you’re you’re going through that list and you don’t have time for anything else that might also be cool so the second trip felt very liberating it
Was like freedom I don’t have to do the standard things how amazing is that and then my attention turned to other alternative places which turned out to be even more interesting to me than than kind of the the the standard highlights I now had the time to spend six days motorbiking through hang
Province in the north which is absolutely amazing but yeah you need to take the time for it and you also need your own transportation and then I went to visit one of the world’s biggest caves which was nuts and I slept in a tent inside the cave actually if I had
Been doing YouTube at that point that would have been a sick video but yeah that was incredible and like the people were kind and I guess I was going to different Villages and you know where people are less cynical about tourists so doing the alternative route really
Made a huge difference the other thing that’s really cool about going back that I’m experiencing now in Mexico is that when you go back you’re a different person and you may have more knowledge or more experience you might be a different traveler and so you can have a different
Experience just yesterday I was in the town of San Christo bases and I was there I think eight years ago as well and my two experiences couldn’t be more different because eight years ago I was a maybe less experienced Backpacker I kind of traveled from Bubble to Bubble
Like a hostel can be a bubble like it’s like you go to a hostel you meet some people there you do some of the tours and activities and then you move on to the next bubble so I did get to experience a little little bit of the
Town but now going back like whoa I only skimped the surface a little bit and I learned so much more about this particular place so when you go back it’s always going to be different even if you go back to the exact same places although my tip is you also need to
Remix every time I had this experience with Indonesia for example uh one time I stayed for a month on the ghillies and that was amazing great time in my life and a bunch of years later I went back and because my memories were so good I tried to kind of
Deliberately do things differently so that I wouldn’t be trying to recreate the same memories if you know what I mean so I stayed on a different side of an island different hostel did very different things and actually it was really worth going back there I had a
Really fun time a shorter trip that time but yeah making is important if you go back hey buddy hey buddy this for is absolutely filled with squirrels very distracting I feel like that dog from up I’m like squirrel of course the cool thing about going somewhere for the first time is
That is super exciting you know you didn’t know what to expect you’re kind of nervous you get off that plane and you’re in a totally different world when that’s just different from what you’ve experienced before so there’s a lot to be said for that which is also why I
Don’t really understand people who are like uh country counters or people who really want to see every country on planet Earth before they’re 30 I’m like what are you doing are you crazy it’s a fact of life that you can only go to a country for the first time once in your
Life it’s it’s not a renewable resource this this is something that is very precious so why are you blasting through all these first times just doing them quickly quickly quickly and wasting those wonderful moments of like dropping yourself into a totally new situation I’m trying to Pace myself I I want there
To be countries I have never been when I’m 50 and 60 70 hopefully if my health allows 80 the way I think about it is sometimes it’s important to go somewhere completely new and get out of your comfort zone but sometimes it’s kind of nice to go deeper and to go back and
Have another completely different experience in the same culture or in the same country uh share your comments below and also I’m curious about your own personal experiences with going back hm Food For Thought by the way there’s now Three Squirrels surrounding me there’s one there there’s one there it’s really
Hard to make videos when you’re surrounded by cute fluffy animals ah I’m going to I’m going to say hi to them now and I’m going to say goodbye to you and uh please stay tuned because more videos are coming soon
I’m back after a few months’ break! In 2023 I went on not one but two big trips through Mexico, which made me reflect on the pros and cons of revisiting countries vs. going somewhere totally new. How do you decide where to travel next?
00:00 – Choosing where to travel
01:20 – Giving a country a second chance
04:25 – New perspectives
05:19 – Remixing your trip
06:50 – Saving countries for later
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5 Comments
I am definitely in the return camp. I think that you can learn so much on your first trip to a place about neighborhoods and things to do that you can then use to plan a return trip that is even more enriching. I also think that many places, but not all, deserve a second chance if the first trip does not work out exactly right. Lots of things can affect your perception of a place like your accommodation, the weather, or some off putting experience with a local or a tour. I usually look to see if my negative impression of a place might be affected by things that would likely be different for a return trip.
i have been nomading around the world these years. I would push myself going to some new countries just to keep myself aroused and refreshed. But I know i am just human being who relishes those fond memories and comfort zones from time to time. The world is oyster. Just a new subscribers and thanks for these video:)
Wow, your thoughts are spot on! I totally dig your honesty, and I'm grateful you brought this up. Been on the road for a while now, and your book? It was clutch in getting my headspace right before my trips. You know how it is, we're bombarded with info left and right, but that craving to explore new spots never fades. Visiting a place again with "new eyses" and with a different perspective, also make the place feel "new" to me.
Wow, so you are alive, huh? 😀
When I was younger and started travelling, I thought I won't really visit any place twice. As I got older, and slowed down a bit – I don't mind doing that and for some places I would love to! I went twice to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, first time was better because now it's way too touristy and Tulum was a dissapointment. But there are places I want to visit once more because I feel like I haven't been present enough? Or I didn't have a chance to be lol. Like, for example, Peru… the culinary kingdom.. for about 10 days of my 3 week trip I got a food poisoning (Pisco Sour…) like never before. I even had to cancel some of my plans (Nazca Lines) because I was afraid to be that far from the bathroom… like in the sky, hell no haha! So I would love to visit again, also it was an incredible country. Same for Panama/Colombia… I did the 4 day / 3 night trip from Panama to Colombia on the Guna Islands… and on the bus to Medellin the next night, my camera was stolen. All the memories gone. Still in my head, but unfortunately nothing I can look back at. And again, that was an amazing trip, sleeping in the hammocks, fresh seafood… why not do it once again!
I found your channel recently and you are very insightful! I was going to ask how old you were when you started travelling and how old you are now but as I typed this I saw your video on the side about Travelling when older. I really like your content. I am a new traveler, I started just a year ago in my last year of my 20s and want to continue (time and money permitting) keep up the videos! Much love.