What do you think of this itinerary?” a fellow traveler once asked. His message listed 29 countries on six continents, with line items such as “Brazil: 5 days, Argentina: 6 days, Chile: 3 days, then fly to Australia: two weeks.” The list went on and on like that, for a period covering one year. My reply was, in short, that she should throw out two-thirds of the destinations and start over.

The U.S. is living in a competitive society. Even when we try hard to avoid it, we are under pressure to stand out, to do better, to win every contest. We’re wired to try to come out on top whether in our jobs, our sports contests, our classes, or our excursions to the mall or the car dealer. Raised on this competitive spirit, many travelers have trouble letting go when they decide to circle the globe for the first time. They want to see the most places, get the most passport stamps, and check off the most pages in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.

Unfortunately, their whirlwind year abroad leaves them with mere snatches of memories. They form few relationships that last more than a day. Far too many of their stories revolve around the process of travel: bus rides, train rides, ferry rides, and time spent waiting for all of the above. Instead of stopping to smell the papayas, they choose to smell more diesel fumes.

I once read an article in one of the glossy travel magazines about a 65,000-mile round-the-world journey by one of the magazine’s writers. It ended up being an article about planes, airports, and checking in and out of hotels. The writer wasn’t content to actually spend some time in places and see what made them tick. Instead he had to turn it into something fit for reality TV: a challenge, a race, an endurance test. How long did he spend using this $5,300 batch of tickets through 46 cities? Less than two months. The longest he spent in one place was four days. He proudly listed the average hours of sleep per night at 4.5 and the number of cups of coffee at 249. When he says, “All too often, I could be found running breathless for my next flight,” I couldn’t help but mourn the giant waste of opportunity.

This is an extreme example of course, and probably one that only someone with a fat expense account would undertake. But the guiding mentality is not uncommon for those planning their first journey around the world. Many of them want to “do it all,” as if this will be their only trip away from home for their entire life. As a result, their impressions of a city are limited to monuments and transportation depots. The only locals they meet are ones trying to sell them something.

On our third time circling the globe, my wife and I suffered a particularly hellish ferry ride out to the Togian Islands off Sulawesi in Indonesia. The overstuffed boat left after midnight (hours late) and hit rough seas, forcing nearly everyone into a state of regurgitation. In the morning the sun came up on our boat, which was moving along the equator, and we all baked until arriving at our destination a couple of hours before sunset. When we finally threw our packs down in our beach bungalow, Donna and I vowed not to leave for at least a week. Another couple came over with us on the same ferry. They had already breezed through South America, Africa, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in a mere 10 months and were frantically trying to cram in their list for Asia before their RTW ticket expired. They ended up staying three nights on this blissful (and blissfully cheap) tropical island, then bid everyone goodbye. They had places to go, sites to pose in front of, things to check off their list. They only had a year to see the world and, by god, they were going to see it all. “This is the longest we’ve ever stayed in one place!” they explained cheerfully...

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Article by Tim Leffel, He has published over 50 travel articles in magazines and newspapers and has reviewed over 600 hotels in nine countries.