Gary’s Q&A

Listener question & Gary’s response · Transcript passage

Megan Sandmann asks, I assume tasting the local cuisine and photographing major attractions are of top priority when you are traveling. Is there anything else you prioritize doing at all the locations you visit?

One of the big things I did when traveling was visit UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There current 1223 World Heritage sites and I’ve visited a 412. Some are very easy to visit and some are incredibly hard.

Most UNESCO Sites have some sort of cultural or natural significance, and that is what usually draws me to visit somewhere.

Food isn’t nearly as big of an attraction as most people think it is. You can eat many types of cuisine and many different places, and much of it is quite good. For example, Chinese and Indian restaurants can be found everywhere around the world, as can sushi.

That is not to say you can’t have good culinary experiences in certain places, but food is something that can be transported easily. Cultural, historic, and natural sites cannot.

Susan K Emerson writes, Hi Gary Arndt long time listeners here, Eliza (11) Nellie (8) and mom. We are wondering if you could go back in time to when you were a kid what would be the place you would most want to travel and why.

If you were ask me when I was 8 or 11, I probably would have wanted to go to Disney World.

If you asked me when I was 13 or 14, I would have definitely said Cape Canaveral to see a space shuttle launch.

I should add that my family didn’t travel very much so both of those things were never really options.

Now, however, as an adult, if I could retroactively fund some sort of travel for my younger self, I would have tried to go to someplace that doesn’t exist anymore. Perhaps go visit West Berlin before the wall fell down.