"Riding in a commercial jetliner simply isn't traveling , as far as I'm concerned. It's teleporting from point A to point B. You spend the entire time in the air just waiting to land, and afterward you speak of the flight only if it's to complain about the turbulence or the snoring of the dude...

"There's no point in traveling to another country if all you do when you get there is sit in your hotel room and stare at the television. At the same time, I'm a fierce proponent of sampling a smidgen of TV wherever you go. I assure you the locals are watching the tube, and it's...

"We've forgotten the benefit of surface travel: It forces you to understand, deep in your bones, the distance you've covered; and it gradually eases you into a new context that exists not only outside your body, but inside your head." --Seth Stevenson, Grounded (2010)