It's the Nomadness Travel Tribe at the L.A. Times Travel & Adventure Show!

Do you have a wandering spirit? Are you always itching for your next trip? Well…join the club!

Over the weekend I attended yet another travel show. Although I just spent time wandering the booths of the Travel & Leisure Show in Long Beach just two weeks ago, over the weekend I did it all over again at the L.A. TImes Travel & Adventure show. Although it seemed that some of the exhibitors from the previous show were missing, especially those from Caribbean countries, I had a great time nonetheless.

If you’ve never been to a travel show it’s basically a huge commercial inviting you hit the road. Whether you’re interested in international trips or local excursions, you can find just about anything on the floor of the show.

From most countries around the world to zip lining, rock climbing, and at the previous show, scuba diving, you can find just about everything at the travel show.

As I went from booth to booth, I struck up conversations with tour operators, members of various tourism boards and fellow travelers (and wannabe travelers). Although the room was FULL of diverse people from all around the world, one thing we all had in common was a love of travel.

While I was in awe at the sheer numbers of people itching to hit the road, I wondered what their motivation was for traveling. Are they just tourists who like to hit the well-known spots, or are they seasoned travelers who long to experience the “real” culture of a local place? Either way, every person I encountered had an insatiable appetite to travel the globe.

As I mentioned before, I was inspired to travel by my parents who took me and my brother on several trips when we were young. Although we didn’t have a lot of money, we still packed up the car or hopped on a plane and saw something more than our neighborhood.

Now that I’m a mother I’m inspired by my son. I want to show him, just as my parents did, that there is more to the world than what he sees every day.

But enough about me…what inspires you to travel?