As someone who loves to travel, I know there is a huge difference between being a tourist and being a traveler. To me, a tourist is someone who is content spending short times at sites everyone else tells them are "must sees," while hanging around a group of other tourists who stick together.

The problem here is that for the tourist, going to Mexico means seeing the pyramids or the cathedrals-it doesn't have anything to do with experiencing the culture, talking to the people, and really seeing and experiencing a place for what it is. Traveling means that when you go to visit a place, you don't go just to see the sites, you go to see AND experience the actual culture.

A single building or a single tourist trap doesn't make an entire nation or culture. Some of my best experiences in traveling were with talking with locals, finding an out of the way restaurant, and getting away from the normal tourist spots. The best meal I had while traveling in Mexico was sneaking off to a nice little restaurant off the beaten path that a local recommended.

My best conversation was with a cute girl my age whose brother ran a t-shirt shop. She also told me where to go for the best fish.

Some of my best travel stories from Alaska involve a youth hostel, finding locals who were always looking for another buddy to go shooting with, or hippies who had camped out all summer and knew the spots that were worth hiking to. I didn't meet any of these people following a closely guided tour.

I think travelers want a taste of adventure, and more than anything they want to experience something different. The point of visiting a foreign culture should be to appreciate that culture and to experience something different. That's part of the adventure. That's the best part of learning that you are actually part of a world community.

That's not to say that an occasional day as a tourist isn't nice and relaxing, but for my money I'll take traveling over tourism any day of the week. Give me the back roads, the interesting people, and the unforeseen adventures. To me, that type of travel is what it's all about.

Learn more about this author, Shane Dayton.
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