Are upper middle class family gatherings now just luxury travel pissing contests?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family will skimp on clothes (no brand names), our furniture is from IKEA, we drive economy cars, but we love to travel. Our main hobbies are scuba diving, hiking and mountain biking. So yes, we will "brag" and so do our friends. I don't understand homebodies, one can see the world on any budget.

Not any budget. Many people can barely afford to eat every day much less ever own a car and say they skimp by driving economy cars. I get your point even though your hobbies are somewhat expensive, but there are people that turn these activities into reflections that are tone deaf. Like the mom I met who said she appreciated the happiness of poor people and loveliness of being around animals after doing her 3rd safari tour staying in luxurious accommodations and being led by a guide.

Why all the shaming? So the mom can travel to her 3rd safari, so what? Why is everyone so offended all of a sudden? Did she steal her travel money? Or she should've not gone anywhere and "could've helped the less fortunate"?

Oh and "many people can barefly afford to eat every day"...no offense, but there are a lot of programs to feed the hungry. I regularly donate to our local food back and you should hear the stories about how picky some people are. There are free lunches at schools for those who qualify too.

Yes, my hobbies are expensive, I like them, I pay for them, I don't borrow or whine or b*** about how expensive things are. I'd rather travel the world than sit on my ass whining.

It's not that. It's pretending you are very thrifty when you are only thrifty about some things and make up for it with luxury on others. You are discriminating with money, not thrifty just because you don't buy luxury everything. It's pretending that the people who greet you on Safari are happy being poor when it's literally their job to be happy and welcoming and likely they could be struggling a lot. It's romanticizing poverty and acting like you understand the people just because you met some of them at a tourist destination.

You sound tone deaf on the affordability of America and the world and not someone who can understand why not everyone can afford a trip if they just save a little bit buy not buying luxury for everything.

Ugh. So I should give up my "wants" to make you or the "rest of the world" feel better about themselves? So let's stop travel. Altogether. Let's make sure countries who live off hospitality industry don't make a dime off "the rich and spoiled and tone deaf" Americans or Europeans. By the way, how much are you donating to the poor? How are you fixing poverty? Don't be shy, it is an anonymous forum after all.

Do you really think people believe you are counting change when you go on these exotic trips just because you don't buy a luxury car? Just own up that these are luxury items and have some understanding that not everyone can afford these or thinks you are special because you went on these trips. If you think you are more worldly than other family members just because you met some person on a mountain biking trip across the world that you could have just met at the metro here than that is being pretentious. I'm sure the people who like mountain biking find these trips much more interesting than the people who like other activities. You gained intelligence in mountain biking more than into other cultures. Gauge the room is all. You are probably just as bored at listening to the person who stayed here and did a staycation in DC as they are of your mountain biking trip in the alps. There is only so much that is relatable and that either party wants to hear.

Yes, let's all sit quietly at the dinner table because someone will get offended that I went on a trip or that a cousin bought a car or that a nephew got into college. Let's all be quiet.

Yup---I don't attend gatherings where I cannot be myself. I'm excited to hear about someone's trip or college or anything that is important to them.

You are guaranteed someone will be offended by something. Your kid getting into college, you getting a promotion, your family taking a trip. It forces self-conscious people to lie about things which, of course, tend to come out later. DH has a sibling whose family is always going through stuff, mostly financial, and they cannot handle if we are doing anything "fun" in their minds. We eventually stopped sharing anything with them because they would take offense. "You went WHERE? You saw WHAT? Well, we can't afford XYZ" and always with that "how dare you do things with your family while we are suffering". They started finding out about stuff much much later than everyonr else because they would also leave us comments on social media.

And before anyone says "well, why can't you help the brother out?", we did on many occasions, it went nowhere, money down the drain.

I posted before that I travel a lot.

We know many different groups of people. We obviously would not talk about all the fortunes we have around people who are struggling financially.

It sounds like OP isn’t as well off. Travel has gotten very expensive. Even a crappy hotel in ocean city will cost you $500 per night. A trip to Europe that may have been 2-3k before Covid may cost 10-20k now. This is now becoming unattainable for many so it may seem like bragging. I know someone above mentioned 1k per night hotel rooms as high end. During peak times, those high end hotels are now 3-4k PER Night. We now need 2 rooms and often spend 4k per night. It does sound ridiculous. I wish they were still 1k per night.

When we are around other UMC/UC people, travel is a very safe topic of conversation. I’m sure many people will mention where they are going for winter break at holiday parties. Better to talk about that than trump.

If you can't deal with my obnoxious bragging, name-dropping, and wanderlust you are just poor and envious.

[Anonymous]

I'll bite. We travel a lot. We don't spend money on other luxuries so it's not like we're loaded, just selective about what our money goes to. Friends and family often ask us about our travel, I usually don't bring it up unless it's relevant to the conversation.

I do love talking about travel with 1. people I love and 2. people who are adventurous. But I also get bored of listening to people who are obviously only traveling/bragging about the AI resorts they stay at. You can tell who is a boring tourist and who is a true traveler. The latter usually has some humility, and if not that then at least they have some interesting stories of getting lost, getting robbed, meeting a quirky local etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll bite. We travel a lot. We don't spend money on other luxuries so it's not like we're loaded, just selective about what our money goes to. Friends and family often ask us about our travel, I usually don't bring it up unless it's relevant to the conversation.

I do love talking about travel with 1. people I love and 2. people who are adventurous. But I also get bored of listening to people who are obviously only traveling/bragging about the AI resorts they stay at. You can tell who is a boring tourist and who is a true traveler. The latter usually has some humility, and if not that then at least they have some interesting stories of getting lost, getting robbed, meeting a quirky local etc.

Respectfully, these are also all travel cliches at this point. Heard one, heard em all.

[Anonymous]

Look, even if you don't travel anywhere, you can still offend someone at a holiday dinner. You don't know a certain TV show? Boom, you are pretentious. You didn't read a certain book or article? You are uneducated. And so on, and so forth. You just can't win with some people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family will skimp on clothes (no brand names), our furniture is from IKEA, we drive economy cars, but we love to travel. Our main hobbies are scuba diving, hiking and mountain biking. So yes, we will "brag" and so do our friends. I don't understand homebodies, one can see the world on any budget.

Not any budget. Many people can barely afford to eat every day much less ever own a car and say they skimp by driving economy cars. I get your point even though your hobbies are somewhat expensive, but there are people that turn these activities into reflections that are tone deaf. Like the mom I met who said she appreciated the happiness of poor people and loveliness of being around animals after doing her 3rd safari tour staying in luxurious accommodations and being led by a guide.

Why all the shaming? So the mom can travel to her 3rd safari, so what? Why is everyone so offended all of a sudden? Did she steal her travel money? Or she should've not gone anywhere and "could've helped the less fortunate"?

Oh and "many people can barefly afford to eat every day"...no offense, but there are a lot of programs to feed the hungry. I regularly donate to our local food back and you should hear the stories about how picky some people are. There are free lunches at schools for those who qualify too.

Yes, my hobbies are expensive, I like them, I pay for them, I don't borrow or whine or b*** about how expensive things are. I'd rather travel the world than sit on my ass whining.

It's not that. It's pretending you are very thrifty when you are only thrifty about some things and make up for it with luxury on others. You are discriminating with money, not thrifty just because you don't buy luxury everything. It's pretending that the people who greet you on Safari are happy being poor when it's literally their job to be happy and welcoming and likely they could be struggling a lot. It's romanticizing poverty and acting like you understand the people just because you met some of them at a tourist destination.

You sound tone deaf on the affordability of America and the world and not someone who can understand why not everyone can afford a trip if they just save a little bit buy not buying luxury for everything.

Ugh. So I should give up my "wants" to make you or the "rest of the world" feel better about themselves? So let's stop travel. Altogether. Let's make sure countries who live off hospitality industry don't make a dime off "the rich and spoiled and tone deaf" Americans or Europeans. By the way, how much are you donating to the poor? How are you fixing poverty? Don't be shy, it is an anonymous forum after all.

Do you really think people believe you are counting change when you go on these exotic trips just because you don't buy a luxury car? Just own up that these are luxury items and have some understanding that not everyone can afford these or thinks you are special because you went on these trips. If you think you are more worldly than other family members just because you met some person on a mountain biking trip across the world that you could have just met at the metro here than that is being pretentious. I'm sure the people who like mountain biking find these trips much more interesting than the people who like other activities. You gained intelligence in mountain biking more than into other cultures. Gauge the room is all. You are probably just as bored at listening to the person who stayed here and did a staycation in DC as they are of your mountain biking trip in the alps. There is only so much that is relatable and that either party wants to hear.

Yes, let's all sit quietly at the dinner table because someone will get offended that I went on a trip or that a cousin bought a car or that a nephew got into college. Let's all be quiet.

Yup---I don't attend gatherings where I cannot be myself. I'm excited to hear about someone's trip or college or anything that is important to them.

You are guaranteed someone will be offended by something. Your kid getting into college, you getting a promotion, your family taking a trip. It forces self-conscious people to lie about things which, of course, tend to come out later. DH has a sibling whose family is always going through stuff, mostly financial, and they cannot handle if we are doing anything "fun" in their minds. We eventually stopped sharing anything with them because they would take offense. "You went WHERE? You saw WHAT? Well, we can't afford XYZ" and always with that "how dare you do things with your family while we are suffering". They started finding out about stuff much much later than everyonr else because they would also leave us comments on social media.

And before anyone says "well, why can't you help the brother out?", we did on many occasions, it went nowhere, money down the drain.

I posted before that I travel a lot.

We know many different groups of people. We obviously would not talk about all the fortunes we have around people who are struggling financially.

It sounds like OP isn’t as well off. Travel has gotten very expensive. Even a crappy hotel in ocean city will cost you $500 per night. A trip to Europe that may have been 2-3k before Covid may cost 10-20k now. This is now becoming unattainable for many so it may seem like bragging. I know someone above mentioned 1k per night hotel rooms as high end. During peak times, those high end hotels are now 3-4k PER Night. We now need 2 rooms and often spend 4k per night. It does sound ridiculous. I wish they were still 1k per night.

When we are around other UMC/UC people, travel is a very safe topic of conversation. I’m sure many people will mention where they are going for winter break at holiday parties. Better to talk about that than trump.

If you can't deal with my obnoxious bragging, name-dropping, and wanderlust you are just poor and envious.

Poor is relative. We have a seven figure income and spend 100k+ on travel per year. Our kids go to private school. We have nice cars, nice vacation home, nice primary residence, etc. I think most people know we are well off. Most people we know are also well off. Our “poor” friends make 200-300k. Most people we know can do whatever they want, like us.

[Anonymous]

“Guys you'll never believe what I saw. It was a magical place where several million people live and do basically the same stuff we do but the default food options would be considered ethnic here! And struggling low caste local service workers I tipped treated me like gold!”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family will skimp on clothes (no brand names), our furniture is from IKEA, we drive economy cars, but we love to travel. Our main hobbies are scuba diving, hiking and mountain biking. So yes, we will "brag" and so do our friends. I don't understand homebodies, one can see the world on any budget.

Not any budget. Many people can barely afford to eat every day much less ever own a car and say they skimp by driving economy cars. I get your point even though your hobbies are somewhat expensive, but there are people that turn these activities into reflections that are tone deaf. Like the mom I met who said she appreciated the happiness of poor people and loveliness of being around animals after doing her 3rd safari tour staying in luxurious accommodations and being led by a guide.

Why all the shaming? So the mom can travel to her 3rd safari, so what? Why is everyone so offended all of a sudden? Did she steal her travel money? Or she should've not gone anywhere and "could've helped the less fortunate"?

Oh and "many people can barefly afford to eat every day"...no offense, but there are a lot of programs to feed the hungry. I regularly donate to our local food back and you should hear the stories about how picky some people are. There are free lunches at schools for those who qualify too.

Yes, my hobbies are expensive, I like them, I pay for them, I don't borrow or whine or b*** about how expensive things are. I'd rather travel the world than sit on my ass whining.

It's not that. It's pretending you are very thrifty when you are only thrifty about some things and make up for it with luxury on others. You are discriminating with money, not thrifty just because you don't buy luxury everything. It's pretending that the people who greet you on Safari are happy being poor when it's literally their job to be happy and welcoming and likely they could be struggling a lot. It's romanticizing poverty and acting like you understand the people just because you met some of them at a tourist destination.

You sound tone deaf on the affordability of America and the world and not someone who can understand why not everyone can afford a trip if they just save a little bit buy not buying luxury for everything.

Ugh. So I should give up my "wants" to make you or the "rest of the world" feel better about themselves? So let's stop travel. Altogether. Let's make sure countries who live off hospitality industry don't make a dime off "the rich and spoiled and tone deaf" Americans or Europeans. By the way, how much are you donating to the poor? How are you fixing poverty? Don't be shy, it is an anonymous forum after all.

Do you really think people believe you are counting change when you go on these exotic trips just because you don't buy a luxury car? Just own up that these are luxury items and have some understanding that not everyone can afford these or thinks you are special because you went on these trips. If you think you are more worldly than other family members just because you met some person on a mountain biking trip across the world that you could have just met at the metro here than that is being pretentious. I'm sure the people who like mountain biking find these trips much more interesting than the people who like other activities. You gained intelligence in mountain biking more than into other cultures. Gauge the room is all. You are probably just as bored at listening to the person who stayed here and did a staycation in DC as they are of your mountain biking trip in the alps. There is only so much that is relatable and that either party wants to hear.

Yes, let's all sit quietly at the dinner table because someone will get offended that I went on a trip or that a cousin bought a car or that a nephew got into college. Let's all be quiet.

Yup---I don't attend gatherings where I cannot be myself. I'm excited to hear about someone's trip or college or anything that is important to them.

You are guaranteed someone will be offended by something. Your kid getting into college, you getting a promotion, your family taking a trip. It forces self-conscious people to lie about things which, of course, tend to come out later. DH has a sibling whose family is always going through stuff, mostly financial, and they cannot handle if we are doing anything "fun" in their minds. We eventually stopped sharing anything with them because they would take offense. "You went WHERE? You saw WHAT? Well, we can't afford XYZ" and always with that "how dare you do things with your family while we are suffering". They started finding out about stuff much much later than everyonr else because they would also leave us comments on social media.

And before anyone says "well, why can't you help the brother out?", we did on many occasions, it went nowhere, money down the drain.

I posted before that I travel a lot.

We know many different groups of people. We obviously would not talk about all the fortunes we have around people who are struggling financially.

It sounds like OP isn’t as well off. Travel has gotten very expensive. Even a crappy hotel in ocean city will cost you $500 per night. A trip to Europe that may have been 2-3k before Covid may cost 10-20k now. This is now becoming unattainable for many so it may seem like bragging. I know someone above mentioned 1k per night hotel rooms as high end. During peak times, those high end hotels are now 3-4k PER Night. We now need 2 rooms and often spend 4k per night. It does sound ridiculous. I wish they were still 1k per night.

When we are around other UMC/UC people, travel is a very safe topic of conversation. I’m sure many people will mention where they are going for winter break at holiday parties. Better to talk about that than trump.

If you can't deal with my obnoxious bragging, name-dropping, and wanderlust you are just poor and envious.

Poor is relative. We have a seven figure income and spend 100k+ on travel per year. Our kids go to private school. We have nice cars, nice vacation home, nice primary residence, etc. I think most people know we are well off. Most people we know are also well off. Our “poor” friends make 200-300k. Most people we know can do whatever they want, like us.

Oh hi, 15,000sqft primary residence lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My family will skimp on clothes (no brand names), our furniture is from IKEA, we drive economy cars, but we love to travel. Our main hobbies are scuba diving, hiking and mountain biking. So yes, we will "brag" and so do our friends. I don't understand homebodies, one can see the world on any budget.

Not any budget. Many people can barely afford to eat every day much less ever own a car and say they skimp by driving economy cars. I get your point even though your hobbies are somewhat expensive, but there are people that turn these activities into reflections that are tone deaf. Like the mom I met who said she appreciated the happiness of poor people and loveliness of being around animals after doing her 3rd safari tour staying in luxurious accommodations and being led by a guide.

Why all the shaming? So the mom can travel to her 3rd safari, so what? Why is everyone so offended all of a sudden? Did she steal her travel money? Or she should've not gone anywhere and "could've helped the less fortunate"?

Oh and "many people can barefly afford to eat every day"...no offense, but there are a lot of programs to feed the hungry. I regularly donate to our local food back and you should hear the stories about how picky some people are. There are free lunches at schools for those who qualify too.

Yes, my hobbies are expensive, I like them, I pay for them, I don't borrow or whine or b*** about how expensive things are. I'd rather travel the world than sit on my ass whining.

It's not that. It's pretending you are very thrifty when you are only thrifty about some things and make up for it with luxury on others. You are discriminating with money, not thrifty just because you don't buy luxury everything. It's pretending that the people who greet you on Safari are happy being poor when it's literally their job to be happy and welcoming and likely they could be struggling a lot. It's romanticizing poverty and acting like you understand the people just because you met some of them at a tourist destination.

You sound tone deaf on the affordability of America and the world and not someone who can understand why not everyone can afford a trip if they just save a little bit buy not buying luxury for everything.

Ugh. So I should give up my "wants" to make you or the "rest of the world" feel better about themselves? So let's stop travel. Altogether. Let's make sure countries who live off hospitality industry don't make a dime off "the rich and spoiled and tone deaf" Americans or Europeans. By the way, how much are you donating to the poor? How are you fixing poverty? Don't be shy, it is an anonymous forum after all.

Do you really think people believe you are counting change when you go on these exotic trips just because you don't buy a luxury car? Just own up that these are luxury items and have some understanding that not everyone can afford these or thinks you are special because you went on these trips. If you think you are more worldly than other family members just because you met some person on a mountain biking trip across the world that you could have just met at the metro here than that is being pretentious. I'm sure the people who like mountain biking find these trips much more interesting than the people who like other activities. You gained intelligence in mountain biking more than into other cultures. Gauge the room is all. You are probably just as bored at listening to the person who stayed here and did a staycation in DC as they are of your mountain biking trip in the alps. There is only so much that is relatable and that either party wants to hear.

Yes, let's all sit quietly at the dinner table because someone will get offended that I went on a trip or that a cousin bought a car or that a nephew got into college. Let's all be quiet.

Yup---I don't attend gatherings where I cannot be myself. I'm excited to hear about someone's trip or college or anything that is important to them.

You are guaranteed someone will be offended by something. Your kid getting into college, you getting a promotion, your family taking a trip. It forces self-conscious people to lie about things which, of course, tend to come out later. DH has a sibling whose family is always going through stuff, mostly financial, and they cannot handle if we are doing anything "fun" in their minds. We eventually stopped sharing anything with them because they would take offense. "You went WHERE? You saw WHAT? Well, we can't afford XYZ" and always with that "how dare you do things with your family while we are suffering". They started finding out about stuff much much later than everyonr else because they would also leave us comments on social media.

And before anyone says "well, why can't you help the brother out?", we did on many occasions, it went nowhere, money down the drain.

I posted before that I travel a lot.

We know many different groups of people. We obviously would not talk about all the fortunes we have around people who are struggling financially.

It sounds like OP isn’t as well off. Travel has gotten very expensive. Even a crappy hotel in ocean city will cost you $500 per night. A trip to Europe that may have been 2-3k before Covid may cost 10-20k now. This is now becoming unattainable for many so it may seem like bragging. I know someone above mentioned 1k per night hotel rooms as high end. During peak times, those high end hotels are now 3-4k PER Night. We now need 2 rooms and often spend 4k per night. It does sound ridiculous. I wish they were still 1k per night.

When we are around other UMC/UC people, travel is a very safe topic of conversation. I’m sure many people will mention where they are going for winter break at holiday parties. Better to talk about that than trump.

If you can't deal with my obnoxious bragging, name-dropping, and wanderlust you are just poor and envious.

Poor is relative. We have a seven figure income and spend 100k+ on travel per year. Our kids go to private school. We have nice cars, nice vacation home, nice primary residence, etc. I think most people know we are well off. Most people we know are also well off. Our “poor” friends make 200-300k. Most people we know can do whatever they want, like us.

Oh hi, 15,000sqft primary residence lady.

I’m not clear what point she is making or who she is arguing with.

[Anonymous]

My extended aunts/uncles all just got their inheritance and retirement and it’s nauseating - we were solid MC families who did road trip vacations and maybe one flight a year… now they’re planning month- long tours of a continent

I’ve been a traveler my entire adult life, I’m not jealous just annoyed by it all

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Guys you'll never believe what I saw. It was a magical place where several million people live and do basically the same stuff we do but the default food options would be considered ethnic here! And struggling low caste local service workers I tipped treated me like gold!”

Yep. After awhile it ceases to be a unique experience. Fun sure. But not unique.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My extended aunts/uncles all just got their inheritance and retirement and it’s nauseating - we were solid MC families who did road trip vacations and maybe one flight a year… now they’re planning month- long tours of a continent

I’ve been a traveler my entire adult life, I’m not jealous just annoyed by it all

No , it sounds jealous. I like hearing about travels. My co-worker spent a month in Europe, went to the Olympics, did list of fabulous things. I was excited for him and wanted to hear all about it. It’s not in my budget, but still interesting to me.
You, my friend, are a hater.

[Anonymous]

I promise, our international trip over Thanksgiving was done solely because we wanted to do it, not because we wanted to be able to tell people about it. I only mentioned it if directly asked, it's not like we were telling everyone where we were going/went all the time.

I find hearing about people's trips interesting. If you don't, just step away. It seems like you have something that's bugging you about it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel-holics are only traveling to brag. The internet ruined everything because it removes the adventure aspect from even the most remote places. You can watch a video about your future plan trip to Nepal, the taxi you will take from the airport, watch a video about the Nepalese hostel you want to stay in, the sites you will see and the food you will eat. It both removes the mystery of the trip and the excitement of feeling like you are doing something very few others are doing. And every global city has been homogenized.

You saw some buildings, took a hike, and looked at some paintings. So what? You had some food at a hole in the wall off the beaten path? Wow, you sound just like Bourdain. There's not much food abroad that you can't find here in the states. All the destinations are crowded; hotels, airbnbs, and restaurants are scamming you. The show White Lotus captures this pretty well.

Mass traveling doesn't make you sophisticated, it should be much more stigmatized. Travel-holic NPC dweebs are ruining towns across the world.

I’d much rather talk about the show White Lotus than hear about someone’s actual trip to that location.

OK and? Many of us do love to travel and would love to hear about trips to "White Lotuses".

Every single topic of conversation doesn't have to revolve around your interests.

What is White Lotus and why would I want to talk about a show? Is it a reality show?

White Lotus is a television series on HBO. Referenced in this thread because it's about idle wealthy taking trips to ritzy resorts where they just eat, booze, lay in the sun, and get pampered by phony service workers who mock them behind their backs. To me, it underscores how pointless and superficial travel has become. Some people just seem to really get off on "the help" being at their beck and call. And even when the trip is cliche-filled, uneventful and monotonous, travel-holic strivers always return with EPIC stories.

You do realize it’s a fictional TV show, right? It’s not some documentary meant to encompass the full reality of travel.

I think it perfectly captures what luxury travel has become and that's partially why it's so popular: Bored idle rich (and wannabes pretending to be idle rich) flying somewhere to look at stuff (boring) and booze all day while they boss around service workers. And schemers and thieves orbiting you (rich Americans) so they can scam you.

“Look at stuff”? Is that how you define the Louvre, Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, etc?

You sound incredibly ignorant.

It's hilarious you proletariat strivers think because you waste life flying somewhere in cattle class, use your American Express to eat stale sandwiches in an airline club, and take pictures of tourist traps you're suddenly high-culture bourgeoisie. You're a trained seal.

Sorry, hun. We travel Delta One. Can’t remember the last time I flew coach.

+1

We also stay at nicer hotels and eat at fine dining restaurants many times during a trip.
The PP is likely a troll just stirring the pot, and jealous that they cannot afford to travel business class and stay at 5 star hotels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Travel-holics are only traveling to brag. The internet ruined everything because it removes the adventure aspect from even the most remote places. You can watch a video about your future plan trip to Nepal, the taxi you will take from the airport, watch a video about the Nepalese hostel you want to stay in, the sites you will see and the food you will eat. It both removes the mystery of the trip and the excitement of feeling like you are doing something very few others are doing. And every global city has been homogenized.

You saw some buildings, took a hike, and looked at some paintings. So what? You had some food at a hole in the wall off the beaten path? Wow, you sound just like Bourdain. There's not much food abroad that you can't find here in the states. All the destinations are crowded; hotels, airbnbs, and restaurants are scamming you. The show White Lotus captures this pretty well.

Mass traveling doesn't make you sophisticated, it should be much more stigmatized. Travel-holic NPC dweebs are ruining towns across the world.

I’d much rather talk about the show White Lotus than hear about someone’s actual trip to that location.

OK and? Many of us do love to travel and would love to hear about trips to "White Lotuses".

Every single topic of conversation doesn't have to revolve around your interests.

What is White Lotus and why would I want to talk about a show? Is it a reality show?

White Lotus is a television series on HBO. Referenced in this thread because it's about idle wealthy taking trips to ritzy resorts where they just eat, booze, lay in the sun, and get pampered by phony service workers who mock them behind their backs. To me, it underscores how pointless and superficial travel has become. Some people just seem to really get off on "the help" being at their beck and call. And even when the trip is cliche-filled, uneventful and monotonous, travel-holic strivers always return with EPIC stories.

You do realize it’s a fictional TV show, right? It’s not some documentary meant to encompass the full reality of travel.

I think it perfectly captures what luxury travel has become and that's partially why it's so popular: Bored idle rich (and wannabes pretending to be idle rich) flying somewhere to look at stuff (boring) and booze all day while they boss around service workers. And schemers and thieves orbiting you (rich Americans) so they can scam you.

“Look at stuff”? Is that how you define the Louvre, Angkor Wat, the Taj Mahal, Stonehenge, Machu Picchu, etc?

You sound incredibly ignorant.

It's hilarious you proletariat strivers think because you waste life flying somewhere in cattle class, use your American Express to eat stale sandwiches in an airline club, and take pictures of tourist traps you're suddenly high-culture bourgeoisie. You're a trained seal.

Sorry, hun. We travel Delta One. Can’t remember the last time I flew coach.

Sure, sure. You mean to say you get to upgrade sometimes with all the miles from your consulting job and credit card churning.

DP: we pay for Delta One (or whatever airline we are flying---if you purchase business/first, it loyalty does not matter)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Guys you'll never believe what I saw. It was a magical place where several million people live and do basically the same stuff we do but the default food options would be considered ethnic here! And struggling low caste local service workers I tipped treated me like gold!”

We get it---you don't like to travel. So don't travel. Your loss, and our gain because it's one less person (I doubt you have family) traveling.