For years, journey tradition prized the brand new. New international locations, new cuisines, new passport stamps. Social media rewarded the obscure and the once-in-a-lifetime. The unstated rule was easy: in case you’d been someplace earlier than, you had been doing it flawed, writes Zoë Erasmus.
Esra Korkmaz / Pexels
However currently, one thing has shifted. Extra travellers are returning to the identical cities, the identical guesthouses, even the identical café tables. As an alternative of chasing novelty, they’re selecting familiarity. And in a world that usually feels unpredictable, that call makes quiet, emotional sense.
The consolation of understanding what to anticipate
Journey may be exhilarating, but it surely will also be exhausting. New logistics, new languages, new currencies, new social codes. For a lot of, particularly after years marked by world instability, the thought of touchdown someplace that already feels navigable is deeply interesting.
Going again to a spot you recognize means you perceive the rhythm of the streets. You keep in mind which neighbourhood feels most secure at night time, the place to purchase good bread within the morning, which seaside catches one of the best late mild. There’s aid in that information. It permits you to skip the anxious orientation section and settle in virtually instantly.
Acquainted locations take away determination fatigue. As an alternative of researching each element, you arrive with a psychological map. The vacation begins sooner.
Depth over breadth
The primary time you go to a spot, you’re typically skimming its floor. You tick off landmarks, chase views, observe lists. The second or third time, you progress otherwise. You’ll be able to afford to linger.
Returning permits for depth. You discover seasonal adjustments. You recognise faces. You start to grasp how locals really dwell slightly than how a metropolis presents itself to newcomers. The bakery proprietor remembers your order. The waiter suggests one thing off-menu. The expertise shifts from spectacle to relationship.
In a journey tradition lengthy obsessive about what number of international locations you’ve visited, some are actually asking a distinct query: what if understanding one place effectively is extra significant than briefly seeing ten?
Emotional landmarks matter
Locations maintain reminiscence. The café the place you wrote each morning. The coastal path you walked after troublesome information. The market the place you celebrated ending exams. If you return, you’re not simply revisiting a vacation spot. You’re revisiting a model of your self.
Acquainted locations grow to be emotional landmarks. They anchor you. In unsure instances, that anchoring can really feel extra useful than novelty.
For some, it’s a childhood vacation city. For others, it’s a metropolis found throughout college or a solo journey that shifted one thing internally. Going again shouldn’t be a couple of lack of creativeness. It’s about tending to a spot that has already given you one thing.
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The rise of the “second journey”
Journey planners and hospitality suppliers have seen a rise in repeat bookings, notably to regional locations that really feel accessible and manageable. As an alternative of a high-pressure, once-off “dream journey,” travellers are choosing locations they will return to frequently.
This development additionally aligns with sensible realities. Rising journey prices make experimentation riskier. If you happen to’re investing considerably in flights and lodging, selecting someplace you already love feels safer. There’s much less probability of disappointment.
Shorter breaks additionally play a task. If you solely have an extended weekend, chances are you’ll not wish to spend half of it figuring issues out. Returning to a well-known setting means you’ll be able to slip straight into relaxation mode.
Familiarity as a type of relaxation
There’s a distinction between stimulation and restoration. Novelty stimulates. It calls for consideration. It asks you to be alert and adaptable.
Familiarity, alternatively, may be restorative. When you recognize a spot, your nervous system relaxes extra shortly. You’re not scanning for cues. You’re not decoding each interplay. You’ll be able to merely exist.
For travellers juggling demanding work schedules, research commitments, or household tasks, the promise of true relaxation is highly effective. A repeat vacation spot turns into a sanctuary slightly than a problem.
Rewriting what “journey” means
Selecting familiarity doesn’t imply abandoning curiosity. It could merely mirror a broader definition of journey.
Journey may be making an attempt a brand new neighbourhood in a metropolis you already love. It may be visiting in a distinct season. It may be staying longer and dwelling extra like an area. It may be inviting somebody new into a spot that when felt completely your personal.
The concept that journey should continuously escalate to stay significant is shedding its maintain. There’s rising recognition that repetition may be wealthy. That ritual can coexist with discovery.
A quieter, extra private strategy to journey
As journey tradition matures, many are stepping again from performative itineraries designed for feeds and algorithms. The query shifts from “The place haven’t I been?” to “The place do I really feel most like myself?”
Acquainted locations provide a distinct form of story. Much less about spectacle, extra about continuity. Much less about gathering, extra about returning.
In selecting familiarity over novelty, travellers aren’t essentially shrinking their worlds. They could, in truth, be increasing their relationship with place. They’re permitting journey to be cyclical slightly than linear, relational slightly than transactional.
Typically, essentially the most significant journey is to not someplace completely new. It’s again to someplace that already feels, in some small approach, like residence.
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