Over the last few years, perhaps since the pandemic’s end, I have received dozens of emails in which somewhere the phrase “The Golden Age of Travel” is used, seemingly bandied about with reckless abandon.
I read all of these emails carefully. They have made me ponder whether it is even possible to recreate this supposed age, even if within the upscale and luxury hotel segments there remain numerous baubles of opulence, extravagance, plenteousness and lavishness.
Do we even want a return to this age, and what does it really mean anyway?
At every price point, for every passion and for every desire there no doubt is a brand for you, but they cater to today’s travel, not a half-conjured hankering for what is no more and really cannot be replicated.
The Golden Age of Travel was a time when there were no security checks, no formalities — except at the dinner table — and perhaps only 1,000 people around the world conducting travel. Those "Golden Age" travelers likely owned “cottages” in Newport, Rhode Island, and the like or were depicted in "The Great Gatsby."
For most people, travel was a dream far, far out of reach, something done by the few who had all day to romp away and spend time and money on things likely considered by most to be frivolous.
Practicably, I would say the only place it is possible to bring back this era — which, dare I say, included an influenza epidemic, the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression — is on the new breed of luxury train. Here, guests sit in a very delightful cage with top-notch food and beverage and the scenery continually gliding by their window seats.
Mostly though, travel and hotels still have the power to let us escape into more comfortable and memorable scenarios where moments become precious and uplifting, and that is more than enough, without having to look to decades before for any fulfillment.
Moments, however special, once past are very difficult to regain.
The trick is to find the next one, and why not, but to somehow promise The Golden Age of Travel is at best misleading and at worst lazy on the part of marketing specialists. It is meaningless verbiage.
A well-run hotel in which the guest is unaware of hoteliers’ hard work and are left with space, time and breadth to recharge and discover — yes, that I might call Golden Travel, but without the use of the other word, Age.
I also have a bah-humbug reproach to the use of the phrase “best-kept secret,” which really must be a fault placed at the feet of these marketers, who evidently have not done sufficient legwork to get these destinations better known.
I look forward to getting an email that suggest Destination A or Hotel Z provides The Golden Age of Travel in [choose a destination’s] Best-Kept Secret.”
I’d be the first one to book a stay there!
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CoStar News or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.