How travel has changed over the past 30 years

When we planned our first hiking travel, we used paper guides and paper maps, we stayed in strangers’ houses and rode in their cars (even before Uber was invented), we wrote blue airgrams to our parents and postcards to our friends and we carried travelers checks and several currencies. Thank goodness there is the euro.

Now everything is online, from our maps, to our accommodation and car rental reservations, to our boarding passes and train tickets, to our walking tours and day trips. With a smartphone in hand, we can manage the entire trip and communicate with our family and friends in real time. Postcards that arrive after you get home? That’s no longer the case: now we send a photo via our phone and instantly text or video chat about it on the other side of the world.

I remember planning our first backpacking trip. We bought Frommer’s, Europe at $50 a day. We devoured it and treated it like a sacred text. We also used Fodor’s and Lonely Planet guides, but Frommer’s was our north star because it was budget-oriented.

As a college student, I didn’t have the option to spend more than the money I had saved, so $50 a day (after paying for our plane tickets and Eurail passes) was the unalterable budget. We tried lodging for $10 a night (per person) and if that wasn’t possible, something else was sacrificed that day. We never went as far as the Australian couple we met sharing a box of fruit cocktail for dinner, but we kept a tight rein on the budget.

We started by staying in budget hotels located near the central station. As the budget grew, we stayed in youth hostels. In mixed dorms where we could. In Vienna we hit the jackpot and had a room to ourselves with a private bathroom.

Still in Vienna, I remember having a huge argument about which direction we were going and telling Andrew that I’d had enough and would see him later at the hostel. He doubted I knew how to get there (my sense of direction is notoriously terrible). I managed to find my way and the few hours apart did us good.

It’s a lesson we learned while traveling together. Sometimes living in each other’s pockets 24/7 gets tiring and you each need a little space. And that’s okay.

On this first trip, we took night trains. Six berths per cabin with passport control at any time of the day or night. After three such experiences in a row, I remember saying, “Enough,” I said. “I need a shower.” I probably needed decent sleep even more.

When I think about it, staying with strangers who greeted us on the platforms and leaving in their car was probably a bit risky. We were young and innocent and thought nothing of it, although I remember feeling like the owner of the apartment in Prague was a bit scary.

Conversely, I remember staying with a young family in Budapest and my mother being our host. The family had English news on TV, which was our host’s way of practicing his English for his tourist activity. She directed us to a place restaurant and we had a dinner that we still talk about.

Communication has also changed a lot. On our first backpacking trip, we used a payphone to call our parents once a week so they knew we were still alive. We would waive the charges (we were poor) and often just get their answering machines. Now, with WhatsApp, iMessage and Messenger, we are almost never unreachable. When our adult children travel, my “rule” is that they send me one photo a day so I can track their travels but also know they are safe. Our poor parents had to worry for a week at a time.

It’s amazing that Andrew and I are still together given how many times I’ve navigated for him (not my strength) with paper charts. I still remember the joy and wonder when we bought our first TomTom satellite navigation device with pre-loaded maps. No more tears of frustration as I tried to plot our route or find the highway exit. The TomTom has now been replaced by Apple and Google Maps and any frustration can be directed towards the Maps lady as she tells us: “Turn around (again) when possible”.

When we traveled as a younger family, we usually drove ourselves and stayed on farms outside of cities. This way we had some space and could prepare breakfast and dinner ourselves. Andrew’s pre-trip job during those years was to print a “Bible” that laid out all of our travel reservations in date order. I was always terrified of losing this “Bible” because how would we know where we would stay next? Now all of our reservations are conveniently stored on our iPhone apps.

Our kids are obsessed with online reviews. We, not so much, although we certainly look at reviews before making accommodation reservations. Reviews are generally much more honest than host photos. Checking reviews was taken to the extreme (I thought so anyway) when one of our kids was looking for the highest rated gelateria when we were in Puglia together. Apparently life is too short to eat bad ice cream.

There was something spontaneous and free about not always being connected; of not always having the answer to everything at hand. But technological progress doesn’t stop for anyone. And nothing prevents each of us from disconnecting for a moment, from strolling for the pleasure of strolling, perhaps even from strolling deliciously lost…

There is no right way to travel. No better trip to Europe either. I am grateful for every journey. The memories are forever vivid of Andrew and I at 22, with our children at different ages and stages and now just us, but at 56.

Bring on more travel and less instances of me having to navigate anywhere.

Online applications that we find practical for our travels: