Forums

Same here...

My dad. He's mad keen on travelling, as Lyn knows, she's also met him a couple of times.

When we were kids, we'd go on all kinds of trips... started out in Europe when very young (and budget smaller) but soon off to Alaska or Peru...

Of course, we did many trips to India (and also Florida) to visit relatives.

We also went regularly to Sweden, as my dad worked there (as an anaesthetist) during his holidays from NHS job here, as Sweden was short of them at the time. We made friends there over the years, though I've lost touch now.

So travelling has always been part of my life, I have grown up loving exploring, taking pictures, tasting new food, learning...

And of course, that's still the case these days.

My parents got into wildlife holidays during my late teens, and that's something they've passed on to me too, I've followed in their footsteps to Antarctica/ South Georgia, to Botswana and Namibia, the Galapagos.

Other people I've met inspire me, of course, including our own Lyn Hughes, but it's my parents, Pop in particular, who've made me into the travel addict I am.

Wow, your dad sounds inspirational!

My parents took me on cruises when I was young, which encouraged my love of travel. We had an excursion to a souk in Morocco when I was ten, and I loved it. Just the right age to experience all the sights and smells! Since, I've been back to Morocco many times.

I find Bruce Parry inspirational. I really enjoyed watching the tribe, and his ability to connect with people.

Cliched as it might be, reading "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac opened my eys to a different way of thinking about things and inspired me to go and do some exploring. I love the old school travel writers who travelled for the sake of exploration and increasing knowledge, I found them pretty inspirational, people like H.V Morton, Robert Byron and W.H Davies.....

Like you Liz I think it was my Dad.  When I was very small, not that long after the end of the war, we travelled all over Europe with my Belgian godparents, not something that was commonly done in those days.  When I was older we went to different countries in Europe and also to Canada.  He love to go to the mountains and watch winter sports and after he retired would always go for a winter holiday to Austria or Switzerland.  In later years after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's he used to go on cruises and being a keen birder he went on RSPB themed cruises led by the naturalist Tony Soper.  One memorable occasion they cruised up the coast of Alaska and then came back down to Vancouver overland with Tony Soper and saw all sorts of stuff. 

He encouraged my love of egyptology and always wanted to go to Egypt but my mother hated history and always refused to go.  Unfortunately, by the time I had persuaded my other half to go Dad was too sick to be able to come with us, something that I will always regret, he would have revelled in it.

Interesting question. Funnily enough for me, although I have my parents
to thank for dragging me abroad as a kid, which must've got the travel
bug in my system, I think that I am the only travel inspiration I've
ever had - the more I do it the more I love it - that may sound strange,
but it's true. I asked a friend this question and she said "you!" I
really hope that my legacy will be just that - to inspire people I know
(or don't know) to travel. Recently someone I became "friends" with
through Flickr went to my favourite place in Chile (Huerquehue National
Park, near Pucon) on my recommendation - if I can inspire total
strangers to go to places I've loved from my pictures and descriptions
(and passion thereon), then I feel as if I've achieved something. I
guess that's the raison d'etre of Wanderlust magazine...

I have been inspired to go to some specific places after reading some
articles in the magazine - eg. husky sledging in Northern Finland in Jan
2004 and I hope for more!

My grandfather immigrated from Yorkshire to India after the First World War and worked there as a smithy. My mother was born there, and although my grandparents were dead before I was born and my mother wasn't able to tell me very much about living there (she left when still quite young) I grew up with this romantic idea of seeing where she came from. Hence my big trip to India in the 70s.

So I guess he was an inspiration to me to see the world, and not just the Costas :)