An excerpt from "Back Door Travel Philosophy" by Rick Steves:

"Travel is intensified living – maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure.  Travel is freedom.  It's recess, and we need it. ...  Extroverts have more fun.  If your trip is low on magic moments, kick yourself and make things happen.  If you don't enjoy a place, maybe you don't know enough about it.  Seek the truth.  Recognize tourist traps.  Give a culture the benefit of your open mind.  See things as different but not better or worse.  Any culture has much to share. ... Of course, travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys.  Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic.  If something's not to your liking, change your liking.  Travel is addictive.  It can make you a happier American as well as a citizen of the world. ... Travel changes people.  It broadens perspectives and teaches new ways to measure the quality of life.  Rather than fear the diversity on this planet, travelers celebrate it.  Many travelers toss aside their hometown blinders.  Their prized souvenirs are the strands of different cultures they decide to knit into their own character."