Is this the Golden age of Travel?

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I saw this article today (SMH) : Think this is a 'golden age of travel'? Think again

and I got to wondering myself. I recall my best time in Rome with the Trevi Fountain was at 05.00 my camera and Tripod set up, catching a pretty good shot of the fountain as the sun rose using a slow shutter speed

Trevi.JPG

not a soul was around, yet at 09.00 through to midnight you couldn't move.
I for one have had it with trying to battle the tourist hoards, when last in Paris, we visited the lesser known / frequented museums and galleries and had a much more enjoyable time.
our next trip will see us bypass Paris and head straight for the country.
i guess i will miss some of the highlights, but I am not enjoying the crush
 
:rolleyes: So the author is saying that once, when travel was only for the rich, it was ok. But now that ‘anyone’ (shock horror) can afford to fly they really shouldn’t, and should consider the environment instead (all the planes in the air and boats in the sea).

Sounds a bit elitist to me.
 
I don't think it is meant to be elitist.My favorite memory is of a trip to PNG and the Solomon islands in 1969.I left as soon as my final exam was over and the whole trip cost me $400.
But I was certainly travelling the road less trodden.The major part of the trip was travelling on the medical boat around the Solomons-free accom and travel.
I particularly remember my visit to Malaita.Auki it's capital,had the second highest number of European residents-12.I arrived on Christmas eve and was the third tourist for the year.Christmas lunch a traditional feast at the hospital.Boxing day took a canoe trip down the coast where a fellow I met in first year zoology was studying dolphins.
Then flying back to PNG on my birthday I was the only passenger on a Fiji airways flight.
So many wonderful memories of a trip that would be impossible today.
 
I think we're about to enter the Golden age of travel. For the past 15 years our kids have been lovingly dragged along for around 99% of our holidays.

This year marks the big break! Trips to NZ (last month), Europe, and USA have been booked for later this year.... Let the Golden Age begin! :)
 
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I saw this article today (SMH) : Think this is a 'golden age of travel'? Think again

and I got to wondering myself. I recall my best time in Rome with the Trevi Fountain was at 05.00 my camera and Tripod set up, catching a pretty good shot of the fountain as the sun rose using a slow shutter speed

View attachment 161271

not a soul was around, yet at 09.00 through to midnight you couldn't move.
I for one have had it with trying to battle the tourist hoards, when last in Paris, we visited the lesser known / frequented museums and galleries and had a much more enjoyable time.
our next trip will see us bypass Paris and head straight for the country.
i guess i will miss some of the highlights, but I am not enjoying the crush
:rolleyes: So the author is saying that once, when travel was only for the rich, it was ok. But now that ‘anyone’ (shock horror) can afford to fly they really shouldn’t, and should consider the environment instead (all the planes in the air and boats in the sea).

Sounds a bit elitist to me.

Not at all, rural France is just so much better than the larger cities these days. More civilised, much calmer, more friendly, easier to get around with short distances between the many lovely small towns and villages, great food and accommodation to back it up. Love it.
 
I certainly can't resent other travellers being interested in the same places I am. We are definitely lucky that air travel is so much cheaper and more accessible than it has previously been.
 
Travel is the second fastest growing industry worldwide (behind manufacturing)

:oops::oops: Manufacturing number one? Praise the lord and may it be so for a long time.

For me the last eight years have definitely been a golden age of travel - mainly between Australia and Europe.......not necessarily booked in that order. With an average price of $4,500 per return trip, less in the early days, I have experienced 40 First Class Sectors with QF and over 50 First Class sectors with BA. I fear it is coming to an end with loopholes gradually being closed but flying has never been better. (I am fighting BA Stockholm Syndrome.......but BA LTG next week will get me past that. :p )
 
For me, the golden age of travel was the 70s, when my employer paid for everything, when even economy seats were comfortable, when even economy passengers got proper meals and getting through airports was a breeze.

The fares may be lower now but most other things have gone to pot.
 
^ But J costs less now than Y did then, J is more comfortable than Y was then, J food/drinks is better than Y then, J gets you through airports pretty quickly, and you can catch the likes of a 787 or A350 without going deaf or your head exploding these days ... ?
 
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^ But J costs less now than Y did then, J is more comfortable than Y was then, J food/drinks is better than Y then, J gets you through airports pretty quickly, and you can catch the likes of a 787 or A350 without going deaf or your head exploding these days ... ?
It's always interesting how people remember the Good Old Days, but not the Bad Old Days. Remember smoking sections on flights?

The main question is though - why do you travel? If you want the mass market experience you can get it, cheaper and quicker than before. But for me, besides work, that's not why I travel and I take a different path. So really, the start (or end) of the "Golden Age" depends on what you want.
 
I hope Ben Groundwater isn't on this forum but I'm finding his more recent articles as though he has to churn out another column and hasn't really got anything to say
 
I guess the question is "What the hell is a golden age of travel"?

Right now travel is more accessible than any previous point in history, it is faster than in any previous point in history (I'm excluding Concorde, simply because it's bread and butter was to reduce a relatively short flight down to be a bit shorter, and it wasn't exactly accessible), and some routes run planes more frequently than I have buses from my house to CBR's City.

There is a very long list of countries which I could jump onto a plane and visit tomorrow, without needing to do anything remotely like arrange a visa. I literally turn up at their customs, say I want in, any they say "welcome". I may or may not get a passport stamp out of it.

We are better connected whilst out on the road, even going back 10 years I remember looking for a payphone in AKL to call home because to use my mobile would have been outrageously expensive, yet a few days ago I called back home and talked for a really long time on my mobile and didn't think twice about it. I downloaded GB's of data over my mobile service without a care in the world. At the press of a button I was kept up to date with the goings on back home, I could make arrangements for things, with the only real barrier being time zones. I remember once when my Dad was overseas, he called us up at home, that 3 minute call cost somewhere around the AU$90 mark (and that was from an "International calling centre" as most phones in the country couldn't dial internationally).

I walked into a shop the other day, and picked the item off the shelf, and then walked up to the counter and tapped my card. I did the same thing that night at dinner in the restaurant. I could within seconds check my internet banking and confirm the transaction, see what it was actually costing me in AUD. I didn't have to worry about cashing travellers cheques, or carrying large amounts of cash around with me. I paid my electricity, gas and water bills whilst sitting in a Denny's waiting for my breakfast. Just because I was overseas didn't mean I couldn't take care of things back home.

Finally, I still had someone hang up my jacket when I boarded the plane to come home, I still got the decent meal, complete with white tablecloth, but unlike days of old, my seat turned into a bed at the press of a button, and I had a large choice of movies to watch, I didn't have the single "in-flight" movie projected onto the one main screen.

Yes, there are some attractions which are now busier than before, but there have always been attractions which are busy and popular, that hasn't changed. It's just for some reason there are people who feel that they "own" an attraction because they used to see it before it was "cool". But guess what, these days you can pull out that little device in your pocket which has the knowledge of the entire existence of human kind, and ask it "when is the best time to visit". Couldn't do that even 20 years ago.

So forget the fact that yes there are more tourists now, or even than there are LCC's now, the fact is that travelling has never been easier or better.
 
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Of course it is.
Within the next few years we will be saying 2019 year was part of the good old days.
 
I guess the question is "What the hell is a golden age of travel"?
Good question, I was at a family function this weekend and last night we were talking about travel. My mother was mentioning travel when they (Mom and Dad) travelled with kids (my brother, sister and I) upstairs of a 747 was the F lounge. How things change.
 
In the 80s every couple of years mum would fly to England. To see good friend and shop. She would stay about 6 to 8 weeks. It was a huge event of course she flew economy .
We would go to the airport to see her off .
One year through my work networking a person organised for my father, young son and myself to go onto the tarmac and see mum's plane from underneath. This was at Sydney airport. We waved to her from the tarmac we felt very special indeed.
 
One year through my work networking a person organised for my father, young son and myself to go onto the tarmac and see mum's plane from underneath. This was at Sydney airport. We waved to her from the tarmac we felt very special indeed.
Not long after QANTAS had their first 744's delivered, my uncle (flight engineer) organised to take me & have a squiz inside from nose to tail while one of them was parked (I think for maintenance) at the Sydney jet-base.

I have wondered every now & again if this would even be possible, in the current day/age.
 
:rolleyes: So the author is saying that once, when travel was only for the rich, it was ok. But now that ‘anyone’ (shock horror) can afford to fly they really shouldn’t, and should consider the environment instead (all the planes in the air and boats in the sea).

Sounds a bit elitist to me.
I think there is a bit of inference here, the words travel was for the rich don't seem to appear in the article. It was certainly harder and more expensive 35 years ago when I did my first "overseas experience" but as a backpacker I certainly wasnt rich. There were certainly paces I went to on that trip that hadn't seen whole lot of travellers/tourists and while I prefer how I travel now rather than when I was a backpacker I do certainly feel that some of the joys I experienced simply cannot be found now.

For me its not really a matter of better or worse, it's just different.
 
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