Is there a Difference of going on Holiday and going Travelling?

Travelling does not have to be for months on end, I travel a lot but for little durations to fit around my health treatments. I know people that work full time and use their holidays to go travelling so it can be done even if you don’t have much time.

However, whether I am booking a holiday, or I am planning to go travelling I book and research slightly different as I do feel there is a difference between a holiday and going travelling.

Holidays for me are lazing by a pool or going to the beach. It might be different for others i.e. someone who loves hiking might go on a walking holiday. I would say a holiday is your chance to do what you love doing. I love reading so give me some sunshine and some books and I will be happy.

But I have friends who dont like sitting around doing nothing so they will wander from bar to bar meeting other travellers, I would still say this is a holiday as they are doing what they enjoy. But when I am going travelling, I want to see as much of the destination as I can and absorb the local culture by meeting people and seeing sights. To me travelling is about learning seeing and doing whereas a holiday is about eating drinking and doing nothing.

If I am going travelling I need to do more research into what I want to see, I also even pack differently as if I am travelling I might be moving around more, I don’t want to get weighed down with lots of luggage. As if I am going on holiday I pack nicer clothes as I might want to dress up at night when going out for a meal, when I travel as have a capsule wardrobe so I can mix and match and I would rather be comfortable than care what I look like. Also if I am on holiday I will pack more beach clothes as will be spendning most of my time there.

I was on a trip in South Africa when they added a side trip to Swaziland which is a different country. To me I was excited as I like to tick off countries from my travel list just like when I went to Kosovo for 1 hour just to tick it off my list of countries I had visited. But there was a woman on this South Africa tour who was on her first visit out of USA she said “why do I need to go to Swaziland when I have come to explore South Africa and I am sure if wont be any different from this country as its next to it.” Now to me this sounded strange as even though I had not yet visited Swaziland I was sure if would give a different experience as it will have different cultures and to me that was interesting.

She said “I am on holiday I want to relax I don’t want to be swanning off to a different country”. This was a travelling trip for me and I wanted to explore as much as I could and get the most out of my trip, this is where I think her having a holiday was different to me travelling. Nothing wrong with eithers wants or experiences but they were slightly different.

If you work full time and just want to recharge our batteries eat and drink, then I would call that a holiday. Now don’t get me wrong I love a good holiday just as much as I like travelling. But if I go on holiday it is about recharging my batteries, I relax, I have spa treatments and I eat and drink way too much. I recently went on an All Inclusive holiday to Egypt with a friend. We didn’t leave the resort to explore the country, we went on a few excursions, but these were more about having fun such as parasailing that exploring local cultures.

When I visited the same resort a few months later after exploring Egypt I had a totally different experience as I were with people who were travelling the country so we went out of the resort, liaise with locals and tried local foods rather than just the food that was in the all-inclusive resort.