When we leave our home we removed all the routines and are ourselves again. Out of the machine! Into life! It is to see where you are as an individual. And for this reason, the right travel makes sure that this is not disturbed.
Good travel isn’t about luxury, but individuality. Which is why I never take the cheapest seats, never fly with the cheapest airline. It’s not the tightness of the airplane that is the key problem, but if you have bad company. That enhances the lack of space and can become a bad trip.
Space. Privacy. This is worth something. I booked a seat with more space for my legs. And because it is more likely that the more civilized people also want to travel with more civilized people, they also spend more and you can find them in the airline seats above basic economy and on airlines that do not cater to the cheapskates.
With a hotel it is similar. Any cheap hotel is a horror and you might as well not travel at all. Even mid-range hotels have a stuffiness to them that doesn’t make you feel welcome as an individual.
I tried out AirBnb this year and my first experience, in my former hometown Vienna, was great. For the money of a mid-level hotel I got a great apartment and I wasn’t pressed into the guest cliche at a hotel. Also, by renting an apartment you are not part of the no-mans land of a hotel with it’s corporate design, but travel individually.
In my AirBnb apartment I mostly cooked myself, and so I didn’t spend much money day to day. Not to save money but I preferred it. I just went to one really great restaurant on one night to celebrate the food. Other than that, my key interest was to photograph, to walk the city, to read, and to let my thoughts wander. And not to be disturbed in any way doing that, that is for me the true luxury of travel.
You can do without expensive restaurants, shopping, tours… but I find that anything that inhibits individuality ruins a trip.
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