There are almost as many ways to travel as there are people on the planet. That being said, one can whittle the collection down into a few categorized types. Knowing which of these you fit into (as well as your travel companions) can help you manage your bucket-list and plan. You might also consider shifting categories if you recognize you would rather be someone else during your vacation.
Collectors
This is the hunter-gatherer category. They are hoarders of the exceptional. Hopefully, you won’t see them collecting endangered species or looted antiquities. These people travel as if they were carrying a museum in which they gather up uncommon experiences in unusual places. Once collected, these experiences become an integral part of the traveler’s conversation. Collectors tend to enjoy pronouncing place names precisely and will generally know more details about the places they travel to than some of the guides in the destinations do.
Traditionalists
Traditionalists travel for social acceptance first and foremost. Destinations are chosen from a list of places that have heard others have visited. You will find traditionalist across all social classes. They are happy to be exploring places that others have investigated before them. In fact, they seem to derive joy from seeing habitually explored venues.
Photographers
These are the type of travelers who travel around the year through time and space through images and taking panoramic and mind-boggling pictures of the places around them. These selfless travelers head to capture the beauty of this world and share it with us on Instagram and other social platforms rather than experience the places for themselves. There is a professional branch of this group who have become adept at selling these images to others.
Escape Artists
You can spot the people in this category by their use of their favorite phrase: “getting away from it all”. Some resorts and destinations actively market to these travelers using exactly those words. These travel fugitives of the everyday are living with the delightful delusion that anything at all - boredom, worry, heartbreak, work, guilt, failure, conflict, the face in the mirror - can be improved with distance. They may not be right, but you won’t know until you have tried.
Thrill-Seekers
Some people feel that they have not had a real vacation if the possibility of a heart attack was not an integral part of it. Whether they are attracted to activities that deny the existence of gravity or they decide to spend time in places where humans have not evolved to survive in (like deep under the sea), these travelers need to face some form of possible death in order to remind them that they are alive. Some are willing to tie their ankles to a rubber band and leap off a bridge while others will run down tiny alleyways in small Spanish villages in order to make sure they are not gored by wild beasts three time their size. Of course, not all of them set out for these extremes. Some thrill-seekers are happy with more mundane adventures like sampling fish that may contain a deadly toxin or trying to convince airline personnel to let them take oversized luggage on the plane.
Self-Enhancers
These are the “self-actualization” travelers. They get up early, are out late, and make the most of all that a new place has to offer. A big smile, sensible shoes, and outstanding stamina are the hallmarks of these travelers. They tend to do their research prior to travel, pack a lot of books and to return with even more. They will tell you more about how their trip changed their life than what they experienced during the trip itself.
Pilgrims
These are the travelers looking for shrines and the trails that bring them to these destinations. Their devotion may exhibit itself in visits to Lourdes, Mont St Michel, or St James Way, but you will find some of them visiting Game of Thrones and Harry Potter filming locations or the house where J.R.R.Tolkien wrote the hobbit. You can even see these pilgrims visiting commercial establishments like the Guinness storehouse in Dublin or Europe’s largest mall, the Champs Elysées.
Early Adopters
These intrepid travelers are always looking to be the first ones in the next destination. A bit of an endangered species, these travelers are running out of new, undiscovered destinations. The Pioneers of today are not the wandering explorers of old. Some of them are trying to be the first to discover a destination they can later talk about as being the first to be there. Phrases like “I remember Lisbon before it was charming” are the typically pronounced by these fearless travelers as they set out to discover a new venue where no Starbucks can be found.
Reasonables
There are some people who need a reason to travel, and a vacation or simple discovery does not fit the bill. They go because it is a honeymoon, destination wedding, hockey game in the desert, or some other event that gives them a reason to be there. Everything outside of the event itself is considered a simple bonus and often described with the very popular term “nice”.
Undiscerning
Believe it or not, there are bored travelers. They are not paying attention, not interested in where they are and wishing it was all over. You can spot them sitting in a sidewalk café glued to the twitter stream on their phone that is informing them of fantastic and eventful incidents that are happening back home. If you like traveling with disgruntled teens, these are the perfect partner for you.
