Francis Bacon, the eminent Renaissance intellectual, once wrote that “He that travelleth into a country… goeth to school”; in other words, that travel ‘broadens the mind’, as it is often put. This is almost a universally-accepted truism today; visiting other countries and faraway places on holiday is seen as a positive enriching experience, deepening our understanding of other cultures and the world as a whole.
However, this view was certainly not always so universal. A few decades before Bacon published his little essay On Travel (1625), Roger Ascham wrote in The Schoolmaster (1570) about young men travelling, specifically to Italy. His view was that “but one year at home in England would do a young gentleman more good, I wiss, than three years travel abroad spent in Italy”. Why? Because these young, impressionable gentlemen might come home infected with the manners of Italy, in particular “papistry or worse; for learning, less, commonly, than they carried out with them; for policy a factious heart, a discoursing head, a mind to meddle in all men’s matters; for experience, plenty of new mischiefs never known in England before; for manners, variety of vanities and change of filthy living.” Far safer to stay at home, then, and read of such matters, than experience them and risk becoming a damned popish sodomite!
Today, Ascham’s views seem hysterical, even comical – xenophobic and closed-minded, very much the words of a man of his age. I think you would be hard-pressed to find anyone sensible who would agree with him today. Yet it is also true that it would be almost as hard to find anyone who disagrees that travel ‘broadens the mind’, and as such it is rare that the concept is critically examined.
Let us start with a scenario, if you will. You are a fairly prosperous individual, who has decided to book an up-market cruise holiday, perhaps around the Mediterranean. The ship is luxurious, catering to your every need, and stops off regularly at the various ports in Spain, Italy, Greece, wherever. Each time the ship enters port, you leave the cosy confines of your cruise ship for a few hours to go and buy some souvenirs and eat in a restaurant (recommended by the crew, of course). You might even be able to snap a few pictures of the ‘sights’. After your allotted few hours is up, it is back to the ship. The cruise was wonderful, and when you get back home you can show all your friends and family the souvenirs from all the different countries you visited. You can now proudly say that you have visited five or six more countries than you had last year. A seasoned traveller indeed!
However – has this experience of travel really ‘broadened’ your mind? You spent a few hours in each port and bought a few souvenirs from tourist-trap shops, and maybe took a few photos in front of some famous landmarks. How much do you really know about that country’s culture, history, way of life? Does the fact that you have now visited 15 nations rather than 10 actually mean anything, other than adding to your checklist?
Indeed, checklists appear to be a feature of a lot of modern holidays. So many guidebooks are structured around lists – “Top Ten Sights in Rome”, “101 Places You Must See Before You Die”, etc. The focus often slides into simply seeing something, rather than learning about it. How many times do you go to a museum and see herds of tourists slide past, clicking away madly on their cameras at everything, yet never stopping to actually look at or think about what they are photographing? What have they learnt from taking that photo? Not much, most likely.
This is especially true for package holidays and guided tours. The travellers are whisked from place to place, their experience entirely managed by the guides. The places they visit, the people they meet, the food they eat – all is made to cater specifically to tourists. They may never speak a word to a single native of the country they visit. When they come back home, they have hopefully enjoyed a relaxing break, bought a load of tasteless-but-harmless souvenirs, and perhaps even acquired a sun tan – but not much else.
I am not trying to be derogatory here. There is nothing wrong with going abroad for this purpose – a change of scenery, a relaxing break, a few nice photos. I’ve been on quite a few of these holidays (as I’m sure many readers have), and they’ve been great fun, especially when I was a lot younger. But let’s not kid ourselves and say that this sort of travelling experience broadens the mind – it doesn’t. I doubt that it is much more culturally enriching than going to a seaside resort a few hours’ drive away from your house, unless the foreign holiday location is particularly spectacular.
Does that mean travel can never broaden the mind? Of course not. But for this to happen, a deeper immersion into foreign cultures is required.
The only true way of understanding a culture it to ultimately be born into it or live within it for a long period of time – or at least it seems so to me. Does that mean holidays are entirely useless? Certainly not. But what is required, I think, is a sense of deep curiosity and willingness to walk off the beaten track. To visit areas that are not tourist traps, to be willing to get lost a little, to spend time talking to the locals, to not allow yourself to be completely managed by a corporate travel guide.
These days, whenever I am in a new city I like to just wander around and explore, with no set destination, no guides and no directions from google maps. Does this mean I get lost? Yes, sometimes. But with a handy paper map, friendly locals and the road signs (the reading of which often requires a little understanding of the local language, which is always helpful), I’ve never had a serious problem. If I go to a historic landmark, I like to know about its history and background before hand, and to spend some time just observing it in detail rather than instantly reaching for the camera. If I go to a restaurant, I try to find those frequented by locals rather than tourists, working on the principle that the former know best. It might not work for everyone, but I far prefer this sort of travelling experience to the ones detailed above.
I don’t want to portray myself as some model traveller, because I’m not. But I like to think that I get at least a flavour of the local culture when I go on these trips and that my mind does broaden just a little each time I visit a new place in this way. Even if I learn only a smidgen, I like to think it has enriched me in some way.
Travel can be relaxing, it can be exciting, and it can be enriching – the greatest strength of travel is the diversity of experience it can offer. By all means, holiday in whatever way seems best – but let’s not pretend that everyone who comes back from week’s trip is suddenly a wise, worldly globetrotter.
Great article. My grandparents are semi-retired, and as such have both the free time and the means to take a great number of trips. They are quite fond of guided and semi-guided group trips, especially river cruises. My grandfather now refers to himself as “wordly.” While he has visited far more countries now than I likely ever will, how much has he really gained by these trips?
Now I’m not knocking going on a relaxing holiday, but I think you make an excellent point that frequently travel can be just as insulating as your daily life, unless you make an effort to go outside your comfort zone.
-John
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Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Certainly, you hit the nail on the head here – for me, good experiential travel should be about leaving your comfort zone – all these guided/package/cruise tours are designed to avoid that completely, which while is great for a relaxing holiday, is not conducive to ‘widening your horizons’.
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You make a good point! I used to believe that travel broadens the mind, and I still think it very often does, but I’ve since come to realise that it doesn’t always – not only because of curated, packaged holidays (I’ve also been on several and they are fun but not always a very immersive experience) but because some people are so stubborn that they simply see what they want to see when they travel… as in they collect a bunch of examples that confirm their pre-existing stereotypes and ideas of a country and then continue to spout them in a generalised fashion, except this time with the added qualifier that they’ve been to the country so are now an expert (e.g. “all Indians are like this, I know because I went to India” or “all Australians are like this, I’ve been there, trust me”) – or simply to reiterate why they think their own country and culture is so much better. Makes me sad when that happens, and I kinda wish they would stop travelling!
But I think as long as people aren’t too stubborn and narrow-minded, trips to places can indeed broaden the mind, especially if there is genuine interaction with locals involved (or better yet, being hosted by locals) and genuine attempts to appreciate and learn about the culture and history of the place, so that it’s not just about ticking a bunch of sights off the list or snapping pics.
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I couldn’t agree more. The effect of travel ultimately depends on the individual traveller. If you go in with an open mind, curiosity and a desire for new experiences, it can be very rewarding. If not….it can have the opposite effect.
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This post totally made me think of Bill Burr’s sketch about cruise ships… But yes I totally get what you mean about wanting to experience a culture beyond just checking things off a list!
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I hate to say it, but this does reek a little of “travel snobbery”. I mean, what difference, really, is there between a group of greybeards on a cruise ship, all doing the same things in different places, and a group of bright young things in youth hostels, all doing the same things in different places?
You may find this blog interesting: http://www.artofmanliness.com/2016/05/31/against-the-cult-of-travel-or-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-the-hobbit/
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P.S. I must ask: do Brits do the “Grey Nomad” thing?
Here in Australia, one sees literal caravans of ageing Baby Boomers roaming the land in expensive campervans, like cashed-up Travellers. Due to a number of events being on in Tassie recently, we’ve had dozens of the old coots camping near our place for months.
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Yep, the Brits get them as well, though usually they come together on buses rather than campervans.
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I apologise if it came that way across – it wasn’t my intention.There is absolutely no problem with doing the usual sight-seeing holiday if that is what you enjoy (as I do myself); it is just that you cannot expect to truly gain any insightful cultural experience from it.
Ah yes, good old Art of Manliness. I had that exact post floating in the back of my mind when I wrote this one!
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Great read! I had a good laugh with the picture and the caption!
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