Why Do You Travel? Finding Your Reasoning and Intention for Travel

What if the single question that transforms your travel is the simplest one: why do you travel? We’re marking 100,000 downloads and three years of Solo Travel Adventures by digging into intention and how it can reshape everything from destination to day-by-day choices.

We explore eight clear reasons people hit the road—connection with family and friends, rest from work, special events like festivals or marathons, cultural immersion, ethical volunteering, media-fueled inspiration, bucket list dreams, and even work travel. For each, we break down how to plan with focus so your itinerary actually serves your purpose. You’ll hear practical examples like choosing lodging close to loved ones, avoiding tourist traps when your anchor is a festival, vetting volunteer opportunities to prevent exploitation, and using Workaway-style experiences to learn skills like permaculture while keeping costs low. We also share how to turn business trips into meaningful micro-journeys by stacking small, intentional moments around a packed schedule.

This chapter of the show leans into a more focused approach to solo travel, with clear steps to define your why and filter every decision through it. If your goal is rest, plan fewer hotel changes and longer stays. If your goal is culture, prioritize neighborhood markets, local guides, and public transit. If your goal is wonder, choose timing and pace that make space for awe instead of burnout. By aligning purpose and plan, you trade FOMO for fulfillment and return home changed—in the ways you actually hoped for.

We’re also inviting you to a free virtual travel summit on November 15 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST with 20 speakers sharing experience-driven insights you can use right away. Come for clarity, leave with a plan that fits you. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review—what’s the purpose of your next trip?

Virtual Travel Summit Sign Up:

https://thetravelcoachnetwork.mykajabi.com/travel-coach-virtual-summit-2025

Support the show

https://www.cherylbeckesch.com

[e-mail]

Instagram @solotraveladventures50

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello, sister travelers.
Welcome to Solo TravelAdventures.
I'm Cheryl Esche, your host, andI have some really exciting news
to share with you.
I just reached 100,000 downloadsfor this podcast.
And I am so grateful to all ofmy listeners.
I would not have reached thatgoal without you.

(00:22):
And I am just thank you, thankyou, thank you to all my regular
listeners and even newlisteners.
I have been doing this for threeyears.
It's also hit on my three-yearanniversary of this podcast.
Even more exciting.
And I am thrilled that we havereached this milestone, and
there is more to come, ladies.

(00:45):
I'm just curious, I wonder ifthere's anybody out there who is
maybe an original, an OGlistener from back in the day,
like three years ago or almostthree years ago.
When did you find me?
I would love to hear from you.
And if you are one of thoseoriginals, I am even more
indebted to you.
Thank you for sticking around.

(01:06):
I love it.
And you can maybe drop me anemail or a message me on my solo
travel adventures 50 onInstagram if you want to message
me.
Or my email is hello atCherylBeckesh.com.
Would love to hear if I haveanybody that's been around here
for three years.

(01:27):
And so that means we areembarking on the fourth season
of this podcast.
So I am thrilled to say there'sbeen some.
If you've noticed, we've kindI've kind of started to niche
down a little bit and kind ofeverything that is offered here

(01:48):
though is for everyone.
And you know, I'm just kind ofgetting a little more
hyper-focused in, you know, whatI'm offering you as listeners.
Um so keep listening, and I hopethat everything that I'm
providing these resources,encouragement is edifying to
you.
But you will notice, and even inthe coming year, this new

(02:09):
season, you know, there might besome more just sort of more
focus, granular, granular focuson what I'm doing and providing
here for you.
So welcome again if you're new.
Thank you if you've been here awhile.
I have an amazing question toask all of you today, and maybe

(02:30):
you've never thought about it,but why do you travel?
I know why I travel, and thereare many different reasons
throughout different seasons ofmy life that I have for
traveling, and there is no wrongor right answer to this
question, and you may even findyourself in also different

(02:51):
reasons for traveling.
Again, different seasons of yourlife uh create different
reasonings for travel and maybelearning that travel is sort of
this nice little vehicledepending on what your goal is.
So, again, why do you travel?

(03:11):
Now, I looked at the reasons Itravel, and I think one of the
main reasons we all findourselves traveling potentially
is because my family is sospread out.
I do tend to travel.
One of the reasons I travel isto see family and friends.

(03:31):
And again, being in the US,we're very spread out.
Uh, my family's very spread out,my friends are very spread out,
and so sometimes I willintentionally do a trip to visit
family and friends.
So that would be a reason fortraveling, and it's a good
reason.
Maybe you're thinking right now,especially the holidays are

(03:54):
coming up, maybe that's why youare traveling during Christmas
or any other holiday where youknow being with family and
friends is important.
So that is an excellent reasonto travel, and I think we've all
probably done that.
Um, we also may find that wejust number two, we just need to

(04:15):
get away from the stress ofwork.
And in America, we call itvacation, other countries call
it holiday.
You could also look at this asyour reason for travel, like why
do you travel, is to kind ofescape the the hustle and
bustle, escape the stress maybeof work and just to sort of get

(04:37):
away and relax.
That would be an okay reason,right?
I've been there, I've done it,I'm sure many of us have, and
that's a valid reason to toutilize travel.
You know, why do you want totravel?
Well, I just need to get awayfrom work and I'm gonna use my
vacation time and do somethingrelaxing, maybe, right?

(05:00):
Um, number three reason why youmay actually uh have to travel
is that you have a special eventthat you are wanting to attend.
And this could be anything frommaybe a sporting event, such as
I know in 2026, uh my childrenand I are planning to hopefully,

(05:23):
if we can get some tickets, uh,be open to traveling for the
World Cup, which will be inNorth America.
There might be other reasons youwill travel, such as weddings
and showers.
Maybe you have a concert, youhave a band that you just love,
and so you're gonna travel to gosee that band because they're

(05:44):
not coming to your city.
I've known people to travel formarathons.
Maybe you're one of those thatwants to do a marathon in every
state or every country or everycontinent at least, maybe.
So uh I know people that dothat.
Um, and that's a remarkable wayto utilize travel.
Maybe you're traveling foranother special event, such as

(06:06):
festivals.
You have there's a greatfestival you want to go to, and
of course you'll have to travelto get there.
Conferences, you know, you wantto go to a conference whether
it's for personal reasons or forwork.
Often we have to travel forthose.
And then finally, I would sayanother special event is maybe
your birthday.
Maybe you're like me, and I dolike to get somewhere for my

(06:29):
birthday month somewhere.
It doesn't have to be on mybirthday, but within my birthday
month, I like to have a tripplanned.
So um it's a way I like tocelebrate myself.
And sometimes I'm alone, orsometimes I might be with the
people.
So that could be another reasonthat you find, you know, you
have to travel.
Um, number four, maybe you'rewanting to just get a cultural

(06:54):
experience and kind of getoutside of your bubble.
I find this is definitely trueuh for Americans.
We tend to, you know, becausewe're such a large country, um,
there's many Americans that havenot left the country because
there's still plenty to seewithin our country.

(07:14):
We're very spread out, butthey're missing out on
experiencing other cultures andhaving those other cultural
experiences, getting out oftheir little bubble, right?
Their comfort zone, right, andseeing the world.
So maybe that's the reason youhave decided to take that huge
trip because you want toexperience a different culture

(07:37):
than your own.
Number five, maybe you want togive back to the world, to the
community.
And so volunteerism is prettyhuge, or you're going somewhere
to just make a positive impact.
For example, maybe after a hugenatural disaster, you decide to

(07:59):
travel and offer yourassistance, your help.
Um, I heard that happen a lotwith um, you know, when things
happened in Haiti.
Uh I knew people that went thereto help uh Hawaii when they had
these, you know, recent fires.
You know, so people are willingto do that.
They want to give back to uh thecommunity or just help lend a

(08:23):
hand.
There's other ways you can alsovolunteer abroad and maybe you
like animals.
Just be aware if you do decideto do a volunteer um trip to
kind of help in a in an animalsanctuary, just to make sure
that that place is ethical andhow they do treat the animals

(08:46):
and just make sure it's uh notexploiting the animals because
there are places like that thatthey will try to get tourists to
come and volunteer, but they'rereally just uh a moneymaker.
And the same goes for, forexample, orphanages abroad, and
make sure they're a trueorphanage and they're not a

(09:09):
staged orphanage.
So I know that there are timeswhen a place will actually, you
know, kind of recruit kids thataren't really in orphanages and
kind of stage what it might looklike and you know, pull on the
heartstrings of uh people thatare wanting to maybe volunteer.

(09:30):
So just be aware.
I love the idea of umvolunteering and giving back.
I still have on my uh bucketlist is to actually do uh a
workaway.
There's a uh an app calledworkaway where you can volunteer
in different scenarios, and theone that I'm interested in is to

(09:54):
kind of find a community that isdoing uh permaculture so that I
could learn a little bit moreabout that and have the
opportunity to travel to adifferent country while having
my accommodations taken care ofand maybe some of my food.
But um, that's a great way andgreat reason to travel, by the

(10:14):
way.
So if that's you, just uh knowto do some research first.
Uh, number six, maybe you'reinspired by Instagram posts that
you see, maybe a movie that yousaw or a book that you read that
was set in a certain country orsetting, and maybe that has
inspired you to go to a certainlocation, and that's okay.

(10:40):
I'm not not judging you on thatone, and I have probably a few
of those of my own uh that Ihave put on my you know my list,
and uh so it's okay, it's goodto find that inspiration and be
drawn to maybe a certain place.
Number seven, you might havejust general bucket list places

(11:01):
that you want to go.
I talked in the last episode,episode 160, uh specifically on
how to maybe create an a bucketlist and how to approach that as
you look into setting up orplanning your future travels.
So another episode in which Italk a little bit about that as
well is episode 155.

(11:23):
So if either one of those youmight want to refer back to on
kind of the how to you knowapproach a bucket list, and
that's okay too.
If you have a bucket list, andmaybe that's why you're
traveling, is you have thisreally burning desire of a
certain place on your list, andso you just decide, I'm gonna

(11:43):
go, I'm gonna do it.
Time is now.
Um time is you know, we neverknow what time we have left.
So um never put off tomorrowwhat you might be able to do
today.
So I encourage that, and thoseare could be all those are all
valid reasons.
Um, and my final one is youknow, maybe you just have to
travel for work, which is kindof where I'm gonna be in the

(12:07):
next year.
I'm gonna be doing quite a bittravel for my work.
So I'm looking forward to it,and I know there's gonna be
additional opportunities for mein that in that realm.
So these are all wonderfulreasons to travel, but I would
encourage you before you planyour next trip, do ask yourself

(12:29):
why do you travel?
And what is the purpose orintention of this trip that
you're trying to plan?
It's important that we have anunderstanding of our why so that
it makes the actual uhexperience um just more
meaningful, in my opinion, whenwe have sort of that focal point
and we're not just uh goingabout our day or our trip

(12:54):
without an idea of what yourintentions are for that trip.
And so it's important tounderstand the why first and
then look at the planning basedon that why.
Let me give you an example.
Say that you are going, yourreason for travel, why you're
traveling or why you've picked acertain place is for a festival.

(13:20):
And so that's a special eventthat you are going to, possibly
another country, to experiencethis festival.
Well, if that is your why andthat is your intention, uh you
can dig deeper into like, well,what do you want to experience
while you're there?
And when you do that, it doesmake your planning a little

(13:43):
easier.
So you're not being tempted orpulled in a direction that
doesn't kind of fit in thatscenario.
Um, for example, maybe yourfestival is held in a a pretty
big city, a prominent city, um,and you get kind of pulled in
with the whole tourist trapidea.

(14:06):
Whereas your experience with thefestival and your inspiration
for that trip was based off thefestival, not the tourist traps.
Yeah, if you can see them,great.
But things around based aroundmaybe that festival is what you
want to focus on.
Thinking about, well, at thefestival, I want to, you know,

(14:27):
connect with other people.
I want to, you know, explorewhatever the festival might be
about and you know, kind of gofrom there as far as how you
plan your trip versus beingpulled and enticed by maybe
something else that's aroundthere that is not within that

(14:48):
realm.
I hope you I hope you understandthat.
So I just I want you to get thebest out of your travels,
meaning getting the most uhexperience and just that
inspiration, maybe, or whateverit is that you are intentionally
focusing on for that travel.
Is it just to release and relax?

(15:09):
Like I said, maybe you're justgoing on a vacation and you want
to escape work.
So, did you accomplish that?
You know, how will youaccomplish that?
So having that in mind, havingyour why, knowing why you're
traveling, maybe evenspecifically to that place, will
help you create an itinerarywrapped around that whole idea

(15:31):
and feeling that you want toexperience.
Well, sister travelers, I'mhoping this has inspired you to
kind of ask yourself thosequestions, dig a little deeper
into your why every time you goon a trip.
All right, so it's not justbecause that you have a reason
and you understand that beforeyou go.

(15:52):
And if you wanted to hear moreabout from some travel experts
and other travel coaches besidesmyself, I will be part of a
virtual travel summit that ishappening on November 15th, and
it begins at 11 a.m.
Eastern Standard Time, and Ibelieve it goes till about 3
p.m.

(16:14):
And it's free, and you can signup.
There's gonna be 20 speakersduring that time frame, and I
will be one of them, but therewill be plenty of others
offering their advice, their uhtheir depth of experience to you
as listeners and people that areinterested in travel, and it is

(16:34):
free.
So I'm gonna give you a link inthe show notes for you to sign
up, and it's still time, there'sstill plenty of time for you to
sign up for this travel summit.
So I hope you get signed up, Ihope you hear my session or
anybody else's that you getinspired to understand your why
for travel, but just tounderstand travel in general and

(16:58):
what it can do to benefit andexpand your life.
All right, get out there andhave that adventure.