Especially if it's more than a five hour flight and I'm adjusting to more than five hours of time zone difference.
Here's my stance: I enjoy experiencing other cultures - not so much the travel that's usually intertwined to it.
An 8 hour flight to a Western European country? Nope, not fun at all. Experiencing cities such as Galway and Edinburgh and Seville? That's cool and fun.
How about a 10+ hour plane ride to Southeast Asia, say to Japan or the Philippines? Put me in deep sleep and wake me up when we get there please.
New Zealand? Kenya? Syria? Can I teleport?
Jet lag also sucks.
I'm sort of a rule follower so though I will rue the idea of customs I'll bite my tongue and deal with an hour or two waiting and dealing with custom officers. I still wish I can transport 20 ounces of jam from some Central European country to the States but rules say no.
When people write down in their bios, or when asked about their interests, passions or hobbies, often times "travel" is listed, at least in the past two decades or so. I will probably never put "travel" down. Instead, maybe be "experiencing other cultures" or something similar to that. But "travel"? Yuck.
Don't get me started on how antithetical the people who are into the whole "bike/walk/public transportation ew cars and highways" love traveling given the amount of queuing and time wasted up in the air can take. Just don't. Just don't get me started. If I take the car to the groceries it's because it's a necessity. If I take the car to accomplish some errands it's because it's a necessity. If I take the plane to travel it's because travel (where "travel" is used technically for leisure) it's a choice; one can live without travel for a couple of years.
Does this make me a neanderthal? Maybe. Uncultured? Who cares.
Traveling is tiring. It often sucks and it isn't glamorous. Jet setting sucks for 99% of the people who aren't put into first class or don't have the logistics planned and their tickets paid by someone else, especially transatlantic and transcontinental trips.
Traveling is literally getting on a flying bus where I'm stuck in the air for 4+ hours with a bunch of strangers in a weirdly shaped oblong metal tube darting through the air. It's a cool concept; it works, but it's a drag. I rode the bus many times and it ain't fun. It's a necessity because I can't teleport.
But dang, the Aran Islands are beautiful though, and a proper English pub is a great place to settle down for a pint. It's just getting there.
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