When Did The Travel Bug Bite?

I recall a thread or 2 about our favorite places, but not about when the bug bit.

The recent thread about the Berlin Wall brought back so many memories as DH and I were there in Feb 1990, just 3 months after the fall. This was my first trip overseas, spending a month driving around southern Germany. We flew into Hamburg, then to Berlin to spend a few days with some family members I had never met.

When we got back, DH and I just looked at each other and said 'where next.' The bug had bitten and big time. We made our bucket lists and started at the top.

I'll tell you mine, but you first...

Ingrid

I get the travel bug each fall when the first snow arrives. Get me out of here!

I was 14 when my BFF's family was going to Hawaii and invited me to join them to keep her company. At 16, I went on a high school trip through Europe as part of my French class. I've been addicted ever since! And we got our daughter a passport when she turned 5 just in case anything popped up. Now at 7, she describes herself as a "world traveller." The bug continues!

I with Art!!!

Travel Bug bit

us in the early, early 80's. We started out at Disney and loved every minute of it. Sight unseen we bought a 2 bedroom Marriott Timeshare and thought we were in heaven. I could go on and on, we made timeshare work for us. Good planning was the ticket to success.

My husband isn't in good health now so our traveling days have changed.

Enjoy what you're doing plans can change quickly.

My parents had to forbid me from hitch hiking across Canada at 16. So I moved out instead and the next summer hitch hiked from Calgary to Vancouver and back since they didn't know. So I've always had the bug. It is not passed to the kids though as I dragged them all over but they never caught the bug.

Joan

I come from a long line of people with itchy feet. From those ancestors who emigrated to America from Europe, then kept moving ever further west, generation after generation. I was taken traveling all over the west as a young boy, traveling by chartered train and car to S. California, and Canada and Hawaii by steamship before airplanes regularly went that far over water, and the Oregon coast.. My first commercial airplane flight was at age 8 in a DC-3. I got to stand between the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit. I was hooked!

So far 6 continents-(can't say Antarctica has great appeal to me). I can't wait to see what's over the next hill and around the next corner.

Timesharing is great, but it's only one of the ways we travel. Rental homes, house swaps, hotels, cruises. Even tent camping on the Sahara Desert as guests of 'Blue Men'. I'm not looking for the wanderlust to end any time soon.

Jim

My husband was in the military during the draft era, so immediately after college we moved from the Midwest to Mississippi, Georgia and then Germany. It allowed us to really see places we had never dreamt of traveling to, since we both were from families who had no extra money to travel. After that we were really hooked and try to make at least one major trip every year.

We laughed when we read our daughter's back to school essay in about 9th grade, when she talked about summer including "our usual trip to Europe." We decided she was a bit jaded!

My parents never went anywhere. DH and I spent 20 years in a tent traveling, then 15 more in an RV, then timeshares also since 1997. Now we can throw in a cruise or two. We will travel until we run out of health or money. I actually gave up my horses so we could have the freedom to travel. I am sitting in my little travel trailer in St Pete Fl typing this.

At 19, a pack of buddy's and I drove California. The first beach I ever experienced was at Carmel California. What can I say, totally hooked.

JudyH said:

My parents never went anywhere. DH and I spent 20 years in a tent traveling, then 15 more in an RV, then timeshares also since 1997. Now we can throw in a cruise or two. We will travel until we run out of health or money. I actually gave up my horses so we could have the freedom to travel. I am sitting in my little travel trailer in St Pete Fl typing this.

Click to expand...

Judy, that sounds so awesome. Could I ask what type of little travel trailer since you are experienced?

I would like to travel to various parts of the USA when we retire in a couple of years. We don't have the big bucks for big fancy $100,000+ RV's like some folks do. So, I've been trying to figure out how it could be done, but much smaller and much, much cheaper.

Thanks,
Rene

When I was little up to the 12th grade my Dad always took us on a vacation somewhere in the USA or Canada camping.... pop up trailer no fridge, stove heater etc... in the 5th grade we traveled to nine different countries in Europe... that was back in the 70s... since then I have taken my own family twice to Germany and I myself just finished my fourth trip to Tanzania, Africa for mission work.... in the last three years we have now got the TIMESHARE BUG... and my wife, daughters, husbands and our grandchildren have gone to Las Vegas, Hilton Head, Myrtle Beach and have reservations for the Disney area in Florida this summer.... 2016 back to Tanzania for me and a week back at Hilton Head for our family..... Have I said how much I love Timesharing.... :whoopie: my wish list is Hawaii and British VI.... Dave

I think I was born with a travel bug. When I was a kid we didn't travel for pleasure as much as we moved a lot. I attended thirteen schools in twelve years. It was the family joke that if the new phone book came out, and our address was right, it was time to start packing. When I enlisted in the Navy at age 18 I had to document every address I'd ever lived at - and I lost count after 27 houses.

The 20 years I spent in the Navy took me literally around the world, and it still wasn't enough. I've been to 43 of the 50 United States, and I'm itching to see those other seven. I try to make at least three or four one-week or two-week trips a year, which helps keep my wanderlust under control. Sort of.

Reading about all the great places you Tuggers travel to just makes me want to start packing - again.

Dave

I was a full-time student from 2000-2011, so that was many many years of pent up non-traveling. Also add in the fact that we had a pet that was in her last stages of life during 2012.

Since then, the travel bug has caught us crazy. In 2014 so far, we spent 80 days in timeshares. This doesn't count my business travel or the time spent in Florida. Next year, we have reservations for about the same amount of time.

Europe has become my new infatuation. I'm totally obsessed and I'm dying to go back as soon and as long as possible. I spent hours online last night trying to figure out how we can spend more than 90 days in the Shengen Area. Not that I have 90+ days off from work, just shy of that in the summer.

I first got struck by wanderlust as a small child.

I remember two really long car trips, the first one that I remember I was between 3 and 5 and we drove from our home in Lancaster CA to see my grandparents in Astoria, Oregon. Several times a long the way, we would go to the beach to have a picnic. I remember one of the first stops, there were starfish out on the beach. And a few stops later, there were sea lions lolling on rocks. I was amazed at the different animals at different beaches.

A year or two later, we had moved to Texas (I don't remember a thing about the drive from CA to TX) and were once again traveling to see my grandparents in OR. During that trip, we went through Carlsbad Caverns and then a day or two later, we were driving among big redwoods. I remember a log that was down that I couldn't climb over. I don't know if we were in Yosemite or in one of the more Northern CA parks, but wherever it was the trees were huge.

I still love beaches and big trees. And big cities. And museums. And natural wonders. And theme parks. I love camping. And staying in fine hotels. And B&Bs. And in timeshares. And visiting friends and family in their homes.

I love experiencing different cultures and eating different foods. I can pack in 20 minutes and be ready to go anywhere.

After marriage

The one time my family went on a real vacation I was about 6 and we went from California on a train to Chicago to visit relatives. We came home after two weeks and then drove to Disneyland for 3 days. That was it.
Family of 7 and my Dad worked two jobs to make it. We had a house and a car that ran for about 15 years before they bought another car. Mom stayed home to raise us.
We could have gone on a few other vacations but I sort of spoiled that. I always made all stars in baseball around vacation time so no regrets.
My wife flew to Hawaii with a girlfriend after her high school graduation and she was hooked. Once we got married the travel stared and 80-100 trips later we're still going with no plans to stop. My kids got to go on about 60 of these trips including Hawaii about 3 times each and 2 cruises each. The timeshares are just second homes to them

Beach Trips

My love of travel started before I can remember. My parents used to take us to a cottage every summer, starting when I was 5 months old. Never traveled out of my home area of Boston,until I took a trip to NYC with my sister, cousin and her friends. First plane trip to California at 21 with my sister. Then more beach trips with family and my husband. We got into time sharing in 1980, took a weekend trip to Vermont was a sales pitch, I was not sold on the idea until my husband said, if we do this at least I will take one week a year off. Was the best thing we did travel wise. We moved to Florida in 1987 and exchange our Vermont timeshare for many other places. We have also purchased a few more timeshares at other resorts. Now that the kids are grown, we have been taking more vacations and we use weeks to travel back home to see family. Been to Europe, Bermuda, Bahamas, Canada, California, New Mexico, Virginia,Hawaii,Nevada,Pennsylvania, Tennesee, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, North and South Carolina,Branson, MO, you can see I have always had the travel bug! More plans in the works! Love it!

TerryC

Grew up seeing different parts of the U.S. but then was in the Navy for 4 years. Traveled to the Philippines and surrounding areas such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, etc. Decided that was pretty exciting and my wife had toured Europe in high-school so we enjoy doing what we can.

Company I retired from sent a bunch of us to Miami Fl. in 1981 from PA..We drove large line trucks and it took 3 days...Big Fun....We stayed from Jan to April....During this time my sister had recently moved to St Thomas, USVI...Figured I'd visit...I was HOOKED.....Been traveling caribbean & Mexico ever since.........My rule of thumb: I never travel north of PA....The older I get, the more I hate winter..

My parents took us to the Caribbean every summer when we were kids. Loved traveling.

One day my husband, kids and I were in Key West and it was unseasonably cold - so we went on a timeshare presentation. Bought. Since sold but have traveled considerably with the timeshare and since then.