>>1123415

I do both, within reason.

I like going to new places and won't bother traveling if I don't have at least a week to spend in any given country. I've been trying to explore more of Latin America since my first visit last year and am currently on a quick ten-day trip. However, I don't have any guilt about going back to the same few spots over and over again. I've been to Turkey a handful of times since 2013 and have been to India five or six times as well. I've had friends in real life ask me why I don't just go somewhere I haven't been before, but I'm not bothered. I've spent more time in Delhi than any other city in the world aside from that in which I currently live and it really does feel like a second home to me. I have a ton of friends there I miss and can't make myself stay away.

So I guess I don't feel the need to "get to know" every place very in depth. If a particular city or country rubs me just the right way, I'll stay there longer or keep going back. I don't think there's any one right way to travel, although I do believe it's a little silly to gauge the worth of a person by the number of countries they've been to or how long they've spent in each. Just to do what floats your boat.

I feel like I'm relatively well traveled and am definitely the best traveled at the hostel I'm staying at. But it doesn't matter; other people I've met are awesome and enjoying their trips, and you'll always meet someone who has been to more places. I met a british lady last year who had been to almost every country in Africa.

i prefer spending a short time in a lot of places. i don't socialize well with strangers and i don't make new friends easily, and i'm okay with that, so i don't feel the need to spend a lot of time in one place to get "in" with the locals and learn all the small secrets of an area.

that being said, i do have a respect for people who like to really get in-depth in just a few countries or cultures.

takes all kinds, ya know?

>>1123415
I prefer to spend a long time in each place because it's
1) less stressful - I fucking hate travel days and I don't understand how people can pick up and go every other day and not want to kill themselves
2) more rewarding - I don't think you can really experience any city worth visiting in 1-2 days. I try to do at least a week and even then I realize I'm barely scratching the surface

But to each his own. I can see the benefits of traveling widely and quickly, but I can't fucking stand people who pop into Paris or Amsterdam or whatever for a night or two just to say they've been there. No you haven't.

>>1123415
When I say that I like traveling, I not only mean that I enjoy being in new places, I literally mean that I enjoy the act of traveling from one location to another. If I spent more than a month in once city in my mind it would just become a new hometown and I would want to leave just as much as anywhere else.

>>1123415
Less countries, more time for me. Trying to cram as much as possible in the shortest amount of time turns the trip into a logistics adventure. You also miss out on anything that isn't a popular tourist trap and barely scratch the surface of a country's culture. I find it more fun to just slowly discover all the little oddities than run through a sights checklist.

>>1123415
I'm more the latter, once I got to India I realized it was so god damn big and so culturally diverse that I couldn't help but go 2 more times for 2-3 months each. Almost no tourists really explore the non-famous places in India and it's full of amazing ruins and cultural quirks; it should be a travelers heaven.

That said, my next trip will not be to India even though I really want to go back. I figure I can't just keep going to the same country every time, I need to see if there's another "India" out there ready to totally surprise me.

>>1123415
I've done both and really enjoyed them in their own ways. I spent a number of years as an expat, so I had a home city in a non-native country, and got to know many other parts of it over the course of my time there. I've also taken a lot of short business trips to places I probably would not have visited otherwise, and done two-week trips to three or more countries. I enjoyed the novelty of a new airport, currency, and nation after just a few days. Tiny glimpses of distinct places are still interesting, even if they are superficial.

When I am traveling purely for personal pleasure, I don't usually enjoy spending less than three nights in any one city, or less than a week in a country. Too much rushing around, and I'm lazy. But if someone has only a couple of weeks and would like to go somewhere like Europe, where a lot of pretty distinct cultural experiences can be had within a few hours' ride from one another, I don't think there's anything wrong with whirlwind tours of a bunch of countries. Tiring for me, certainly, and nobody would mistake it for an in-depth cultural knowledge of a place. But interesting by any measure.

This often happnes to me:
arrive to a city, excited, visit for an hour or two and have the impression that I saw everything there was to see. Any time spent after that is "what am I doing here?" time.
I don't get the whole "blend with the locals" thing - the locals just live there. Most of their lives is the work- shop- home triangle plus an occasional get-together with friends - like everywhere else.

This said, I do sometimes get a feeling that I'd like to live in a place for a few months - but that wouldn't be traveling, it would be living there.

Then of course there are places which you need at least a few days to explore - they are just not that numerous.

>>1123415
In-depth staying in fewer places but for longer. You really get to know locals out there. Nothing like walking through a foreign street and having faces you know come up and say hello/shake your hand

>>1123482
This, I normally travel with my wife (occasionally my close friend) and I only have around a max of 3 weeks to visit a place. I hate meeting new people, and I am perfectly content just going and experiencing new countries as a whole.

>>1124056
I should also point out I think there is alot of distinction on what constitutes a "short time" in a country or city. In my opinion a week in a country is very, very short. I would consider anything less than a month a short visit. Although it seems like some people in the thread think a week or more is a long visit to a city/country.

>>1123415
I think which is better depends on the situation. Solo, less places in depth. If you are travelling with other people, significant other or family especially, more places, shorter time, less in-depth.

When you are with other doing things and experiencin things with each other makes it harder to the in depth thing,because so much of it requires focusing on third party things. Traveling with other people is about the interactions between the party versus interacting with the destination. Destination is just a backdrop. Different dynamic with friends or other travelers, than family and significant others

Depends on the country. I was happy seeing Myanmar in 10 days and Cambodia in 7. I wouldn't have left the Philippines for 3 months if I had the choice.

Much of it comes down to the ease of meeting locals (especially local girls) in a place. If I meet some great people that like to show me around then I want to spend longer in a place.

>>1124042
>through a foreign street and having faces you know come up and say hello/shake your hand

Has happened to me. Great feeling. Since first day in the country I always used one small street to go from my hostel to the centre and since everybody stared at me (tall, white) I always smiled, waved and said something stupid like "Hey man what up", one week in people started shouting it enthusiastically when I passed. Kiddos wanted pictures with me...

Was fun.

>>1123415
>one's worth is judged mostly by the amount of countries they've been to.

Cultivate not giving a single fuck when judged for something about which not a single fuck should be given.

Travel (or do anything else) to suit your own goals, expectations and interests -- traveling to meet somebody else's goals would be sort of dumb.

>>1123761
The point is to see how the locals live, eat, see the world, etc so you can learn from them. Everyone does shit differently, if you get enough cultural data points then you can kinda figure out the best way to live that makes you the healthiest and happiest you can be.

At least that's why I travel, I'm always trying to find something new to learn.