Travel Personalities

November 24, 2025 djarmul Leave a comment

It’s time for a personality quiz!

Question 1: Are you more extroverted or introverted?

Question 2: Are you spontaneous or do you prefer plans and schedules?

Question 3: Do you like familiar experiences or, instead, crave novelty?

If you like to travel, as we’ve been actively doing this year, your answers will strongly indicate what kind of travel you prefer.

For instance, you’ll find more extroverts in a Las Vegas club and more introverts on a nature hike. Spontaneous types are happy to see where the road leads while planners prefer itineraries. Some travelers like to return every year to the same beach or cabin while others look for someplace new.

The travel industry tailors its offerings to specific personality groups. A luxury hotel seeks people who are not only wealthy but who also want to stay in a Ritz-Carlton, just as a group tour featuring bungee jumping and sky diving won’t focus its advertising on museum lovers.

Travel decisions begin with our personalities, which are determined in turn by genetics, upbringing and other factors. Our personalities go a long way to explaining whether we seek cultural immersion, adventure, social interaction, self-discovery or just some rest and relaxation. They also help determine whether someone wants to travel at all.

I’ve been thinking about all of this as Champa and I wrap up a busy year of travel that extended from New Zealand to Bhutan to Albania. I’ve found myself wondering why the two of us enjoy this so much while others do not.

I’ve explained previously that we decided last year to avoid our country’s political chaos while maximizing our remaining years of good health. That remains true but I think there’s a deeper reason for our travel passion, which is that travel scratches our curiosity itch.

I’ve always been a curious person. It’s why I was attracted to journalism, where I could ask people questions about what they did. It’s why I spent my career at institutions devoted to research and education. At Duke University, where I oversaw news and communications for many years, I learned something new every day about politics, business, law, science, sports, the arts and other topics. Curiosity is also why I’m such an active reader. (I’ll be sharing my 2025 Top Ten list soon.)

Champa is curious, too. When we joined the Peace Corps in Moldova after I left Duke, our primary motivation was to provide service. But we also wanted to explore a different culture.

We’ve kept exploring the world since we returned home in 2018, always seeking out new places. We love to talk with people, learn local history, try exotic foods and broaden our horizons. Sitting on a beach for more than a day or two bores us.

I first focused on personality types more than three decades ago when our office at the National Academy of Sciences had a staff retreat and we all took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Everyone on our team had their own personality traits. Some tended to focus on the “big picture,” others on details. Some were guided by logic, others by their hearts. The one thing we had in common was that we all came out ahead when we blended these perspectives and worked together.

In retrospect, this should have been obvious to me. I was a slow learner, but I know now that people have diverse psychological needs and act accordingly, even when it comes to something like travel.

In other words, there’s no “right” way to travel. We are all nourished differently, whether we’re lounging at a spa, playing golf, visiting Disney World or hiking the Himalayas.

As we look ahead to the new year, Champa and I will continue pursuing the kind of travel that has brought us so much satisfaction. We recognize how privileged we are to do this, something we try to balance with volunteering and service. I hope some of you reading this will have opportunities to travel in ways that work for you or to pursue other activities that bring you joy, whether it’s playing music, working in your garden, hiking with your family or something else.

Of course, I’m curious to learn how it all works out.

Top photo: Watching the fireworks in Sydney, Australia, on New Year’s Eve, 2024/25.

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Showing My Cards

November 1, 2025 djarmul 2 Comments

I bought four greeting cards this past week to replenish the collection I’ve amassed to send people for various occasions. All four were sympathy cards.

Back in my 20s, I bought lots of cards to send friends and family for their weddings, and then for their new babies or homes. As the years passed, I needed more cards for special anniversaries and, eventually, for people’s retirements. Now I have a growing need for “get well” and “thinking of you” cards, along with sympathy cards.

I keep all of the cards in a large accordion folder. They’re organized in plastic baggies for each category. Birthday cards fill the biggest bag, by far, followed by blank cards, which I’ve collected from various places.

I still have some “thank you” cards but don’t use them much anymore. A few years ago I switched to e-mail messages or texts to thank people.

My German grandmother would not have approved of this. She was a stickler for written acknowledgements. If my sisters or I didn’t write and mail her a thank-you card within a day or two after receiving a gift from her, she would call my mother and ask why not. My mother, in turn, made sure we did, if only to keep her mother off her back.

So I developed my habit at an early age, which was undoubtedly what my grandmother intended. I never came close to being as prolific as Princess Diana or President George H. W. Bush, who were both legendary for sending lots of thank-you notes and personal notes. Nor do I write them as often now as some relatives and friends. But I’ve maintained my stash of cards and postage stamps, one of the few cases in which I still choose paper over pixels.

With some notable exceptions such as Taylor Swift, that’s not true of most younger people, who do everything electronically. I’m delighted when one of my children or nieces sends an actual card in the mail, but I’m also happy to get a text or e-mail.

I’ve learned to not expect even this. When Champa and I were serving as Peace Corps Volunteers in Moldova, we hosted a few dinners for fellow volunteers, most of whom were in their twenties. They had a good time but often didn’t bother to thank us by e-mail afterwards. I understood they were busy and had different attitudes towards etiquette, but I couldn’t help thinking: “You don’t have thirty seconds to write us one sentence?” Now that we’re back home, I feel the same way when we send someone a gift and never hear whether they received it, much less liked it.

I know I sound like a cranky Boomer about this, so maybe I should look for some “Get off of my lawn!” cards. At the very least, I need to be wary of letting it turn me into my grandmother.

If I’ve played my cards right, though, you’ll respond to this post by sending me your sympathies. When you do, please remember that only blue ink and black ink are acceptable.