Woman explains why travel is disappointing and makes a valid point about experiencing places

Anyone who has used Instagram recently knows that travel is one of the coolest things a person can appear to be doing on the platform. Some people might even plan and prepare posts for an entire month or more in one trip. The outfits worn, places visited and the food one eats on a trip are also things that get high engagement on the platform. Touching upon this trend, a woman explained how travel can be really disappointing and she has a very valid reason for the same. The person named Helene Sula, who goes by @heleneinbetween on Instagram, shared why she feels that.

"This might be controversial, but travel is disappointing," she began. "If you are just traveling to take a photo or video or to get an Instagram post, I think you are going to be let down." The woman added, "I think we have this idea of FOMO (fear of missing out) in our society because of Instagram where we think we need to go to these places and they're going to look and experience just like we see them on Instagram. That's not something that always happens." Sula clarified that she was not implying that Instagram is lying to us or that those places are not worth going to. "But what I think you should do is look into the history of a place. Maybe go to a museum. Read the signs when you get there," she suggested.

"Don't just go to take a photo," Sula advised. "Because I think what happens is, when you take the veil away from Instagram, you go to that place and the fear of missing out that you had, is gone. And it's not as exciting as it was." The woman continued, "I want to travel the world as much as possible and I want you to as well. But I think that adding context to the place you are going, makes your travel so much more meaningful." 

Her post caption read, "I think if we get wrapped up in how a place looks and forget the context, it might be a big letdown. Recently, I went to a music festival and it felt different. This was my fifth time attending the same music festival: what changed? Everyone had their phone out. I watched as one man stood perfectly still during a very exciting hour-and-a-half set and didn’t move so he could record the entire thing."

The caption continued, "A friend of mine went to Athens, Greece and hated it. I thought, how can you hate the birthplace of civilization!? But he didn’t go to those places, he didn’t learn about it. He just went to the Parthenon without having context and so he hated it." It concluded, "Whenever people come to visit us in Oxford, of course, we take them to the beautiful places, but we always pepper everyone with the history of every detail. How Thomas Cranmer was burned as a heretic here, or how C.S. Lewis got the idea for Chronicles of Narnia here. I’m not AT ALL saying don’t take the photos or videos. But take them and then ENJOY THE WORLD around you."

People took to the comments section to echo her sentiment. @dancingtheearth wrote, "I agree with you! That’s why I'm more of a slow travel kind of girl; I’d rather soak in a place in its entirety than just snap a million photos in all the spots." @jenaleighjones commented, "Yes! I went to the Great Wall of China and took maybe ten pictures because I was just in awe of it and wanted to soak in every second. Our guide even commented about how we didn't have our phones out compared to so many other people! I just wanted to enjoy the sights at the moment!" @maptonowhere_ remarked, "I stopped traveling just for the 'views' and instead do it for the stories of those places and the people I meet. Has changed the whole travel dynamics for me!"

You can follow Helene Sula (@heleneinbetween) on Instagram for more lifestyle content.