Familiar Hotels & Restaurants Provide A Comfort Zone When Away From Home
As Americans, are creatures of comfort, so much so we like to take a lot of those comforts with us when we travel.
And by “we,” I mean not necessarily me, but Americans in general.
Part of this comfort involves doing things and being in places that are familiar to us. We like to see familiar things and even stay in familiar places and eat in familiar restaurants. That’s why when you travel in America, you seen chain hotels and restaurants all over the place. And quite frankly, it drives me a little bit crazy.
After all, what’s the point of traveling when you don’t do something different? I find it thrilling to stay in unique hotels and eat in one-off restaurants. Places with character.
I simply can’t get any character staying in a box of a hotel room that is exactly the same in Paris as it is in Peoria. Or eating in a restaurant that has the same decor, the same menu and even – seemingly anyway – the same servers.
Yes, this is how Americans travel for the most part. Especially when traveling in America. Often, it’s our only choices, too.
I blame the interstate highways for this situation. Not that I don’t enjoy having the interstates. Heck, they are a far greater way to get to your destination than the two-lane backroad highways my grandparents had to take in their day.
It’s just that the interstates are lined with chain businesses. If you have to pull over somewhere for lunch or dinner, you’ve got all the way-too-familiar fast-food options or places like Applebee’s (which has the gall to call itself a “neighborhood” bar & grill), an Olive Garden, Chili’s or places like Buffalo Wild Wings.
And the hotels, well they are not just chains like Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott, but chains of chains, like Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn and, the one that set the standard, Holiday Inn (now a part of InterContinental Hotels Group).
This cookie-cutter approach to travel in America is what makes traveling in Europe so cool. Yes, there are chains but I pretend not to see them; I look the other way when I see a McDonald’s, Subway or even a Hyatt. Rather, I focus on the more plentiful places with local character, with local architecture features such as plants out on a window seal in Switzerland or red brick buildings in Amsterdam.
When traveling in America, you’ll not catch me staying, eating or drinking in a chain. I want a local place with character. Perhaps that’s because I’m a bit of a character myself.
Cheers!
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