It hit me when I was in Italy.
We were in Cinque Terre on our honeymoon, enjoying some time on the docks of Manarola with our trusted Rick Steves guidebook, when I suddenly realized the conundrum of the moment and the contradiction of international travel.
The people.
We go to visit their olive oil shops and to stay in their guesthouses, hoping to have an authentic experience over a glass of local wine or a bowl of pesto. We admire them, their work ethic, and we travel far across the globe to do so. But here's the thing. Many of these people we travel so far to see have never left their own regions, let alone countries or continents.
And the things we admire are in conflict with why we travel: To search for knowledge in the world and not just in our villages, to experience other cultures different from our own, to taste foods with other ingredients and flavors, and to meet people who are completely fulfilled, ironically, without the need for any of these things.
Cinque Terre has since become one of the most popular destinations in all of Europe, despite the fact it's not really suited for all the people who visit. No doubt, the Rick Steves Italy guidebook helped put Cinque Terre on the map, so to speak, and therein lies the other contradiction.
When you put the "best kept secret" in a guidebook, it's no longer the best kept secret. That's the bad news. The good news is there's always another one out there somewhere to add to the "best kept secret" list. The world is a big place, and there's a lot to see.
As Rick would say, for now, keep on travelin'.
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