Does constant travel desensitise us to each new experience?

I don’t know if this is a phenomenon that any of you out there has experienced but I recently had the good fortune to see the Grand Canyon when I flew over to Boulder City from Las Vegas. I had first experienced the Grand Canyon over twenty years ago when i was visiting a relative in Phoenix, Arizona and decided — almost on the spur of the moment — to hire a car and drive there. It’s a good 4.5 hour drive each way and I only got to spend about two hours there before driving all the way back but boy did it make a huge impression on me! Indeed, it was probably the first time that I ever truly appreciated the expression ‘breathtaking’ as my first view over the southern rim literally did take my breadth away. As I say, I was there again a few weeks ago, albeit at the western rim and although the canyon was there in all its great scale and majesty, I just didn’t get the same buzz that i did the first time round. This therefore begs the following two questions:

1. Have I become desensitized in the intervening 20 or so years because I have seen/experienced so many wonderful places around the world in the interim that I am now harder to impress?

2. Or is it because the southern rim of the Grand Canyon is the more impressive site in which to experience all that this natural phenomenon has to offer?

Hopefully it’s the latter as I would hate to think that unbeknownst to myself, I have started to become more blasé about what the world has to offer. What do you think? have you had a similar experience? If so, would you like to share it with other readers of this blog?

August 6, 2018

The gems right on our doorstep!

We’re probably coming to the end of what can only be described as the best Irish summer in living memory. I certainly can’t remember a better one and I was born in the 50’s! It got me to thinking about one of the main reasons why Irish people holiday abroad each year and that it is the likelihood of good weather since it is something that can never be guaranteed at home. Yet despite all

April 7, 2019

A long overdue reunion with an old acquaintance

Back in 1988, I undertook the first of two trips to Jamaica to scout out properties for a large incentive group that had confirmed a booking with me when I was managing a tour operating company in Dublin. The company in question was Chieftain Tours and at the time, it was the only operator of charters to Toronto in Canada where it partnered with a large Canadian tour operator called Sunquest Vacations. I had pitched

October 15, 2012

Looking for a bit of sun and heat?

I think that we are universally agreed that this year's summer was one of the worst on record and with the long range weather forecast for the next eight years not particularly encouraging, perhaps it's time that we had a conversation about the 10 hottest places around the world that we should consider for that next holiday. By some measures, Bangkok is actually considered the hottest big city on earth. The average temperature for the

December 17, 2012

Something for the Bucket List!

Christmas tends to be that time of year when everyone has that conversation about what their ideal present would be. Such talk as often as not segues' into bucket lists and what would populate people's lists of the top 10 things to do in their lives. If you've ever had that conversation then chances are that one of the 'experiences' that you've included in your list (assuming of course that you haven't already done it)

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