Why Revisiting Travel Destinations Can Be Even Better

There is a lot of world to see. Some people are focused on seeing as much of it as possible, and prefer to seek out a new place on every trip. But what about revisiting travel destinations you’ve enjoyed?

There are a few destinations I have visited more than once. There are even some I feel I could return to again and again because there is just so much to see and do that one trip cannot do it justice. Some, like New York City, I could return to many times for the art, the theatre, the food. Some, like London, I could return to for the same reasons, and easily, because it can often be added on as a stopover on my way to a new destination.

Until recently, though, I had not revisited a travel destination decades after my first trip. I feel I can now recommend this as well.

My first solo trip (other than the day trips I would make to escape my rural home for the big city as a teenager) was to Montreal. I took the train from Toronto and rented a residence room at Concordia University as it was summer, and the students were mostly gone.

I was on a mission. And I was terrified.

I was returning to school after several years of working. My acceptance letter had gone astray, and I had received it with only one day left before I would have lost my place. I had to get to Montreal, complete some paperwork at the school, then secure an apartment.

I had given myself 48 hours to accomplish this. In a city I’d never been. Where I didn’t speak the language. In the days before computers. In the days before cellphones. In the days before I had any substantial solo travel experience at all.

Concordia University had two campuses: one downtown and one in the west end of the city. I knew nothing about the layout of the city except that Sherbrooke Street ran between these two campuses. So, I walked up and down every intersecting street between them looking for signs that said, “à louer”.

It was scorchingly hot. It was unbearably humid. I was sweaty. I was sunburned. I was exhausted. I was fuelled by fear and anxiety. And somehow, with moments to spare, I found an apartment, signed a lease I couldn’t read, exchanged a cheque for a set of keys, raced back downtown to the train station, (but not without getting lost, which I wrote about in Strangers Helping Strangers: Locals Show Kindness to Solo Travelers) and boarded just before the doors closed.

I’m not sharing this story with you because I need you to know how I bumbled and stumbled my way through my first solo trip, but because I had forgotten most of this; it was revisiting this travel destination that brought it all back. As I walked the streets of Montreal in 2025, I became reacquainted with the fearful but determined person I had been on that trip in 1992. I remembered what the city was like at that time, with many storefronts on Sainte-Catherine Street boarded up and abandoned because we were in the midst of a recession. I delighted in seeing that the little Korean grocery store below the apartment I had secured that day 33 years ago was still in business and that my favorite café was still as quirky and welcoming as ever.

But I also learned new things. I took a bus tour of Montreal to get a look at the city in 2025. The commentary from the guide revealed all sorts of interesting information about the city today. I realized that even after I had moved there as a student, I had seen very little outside of the university grounds or the pubs and cafes I had frequented. I had worked, studied, and volunteered on campus. On this tour, I got to see the iconic Habitat 67 and the Olympic Stadium, shopped for Quebec cheeses, viewed the city from atop Mont-Royal, and toured Mary, Queen of the World Cathedral.

By revisiting Montreal, I became reacquainted with and learned new things about both myself and the city.

What Can Revisiting Travel Destinations Deliver?

What can you expect to gain from a repeat visit? Why would you want to do it? Here are some thoughts.

• Approach from a different perspective. Maybe you hit all the major attractions on the first trip. This time, you can focus on the culture and the people. With no pressure to see all the sites, sink into the destination. Live like a local. Soak it all in.
• See things you missed the first time around. Maybe there are things you missed or didn’t have time for last time. You can enjoy them now. Did you take in the big museums on your first trip? Seek out small galleries or student exhibitions and discover a new artist.
• Observe progression in the destination. See what has changed about the destination and, just as interestingly, what has not. How have tourism, technology, or immigration impacted this area?
• Observe progression in yourself. Likewise, discover what has or has not changed in yourself as you recall who you were when you first traveled there. As I wandered around Montreal, stumbling across certain things, like a public sculpture or a cafe, brought back long-forgotten memories of who I was and what I had been thinking when I had encountered them for the first time.
• Experience the destination as you are today. Your first trip may have been limited in certain ways which would not be the same today. In my case, I had no travel experience and no money the first time I visited Montreal, so what I was exposed to was different on the second trip. Perhaps you missed out on a hot air balloon ride or a gorilla trek or some other special activity; maybe you can do it now.
• Enter with ease. You will return the second time with a better understanding of the destination—the transportation system, cultural norms, unique features—which will allow you to approach it with more ease and confidence.
• Look through a different lens. Each time you visit you will see the destination with slightly different eyes. As you travel and accumulate experiences, it all contributes to how you see the world and what you bring to it.
• Discover the destination in a different season. A destination can be very different and offer diverse activities in various seasons. Did you visit Paris in the spring? You might enjoy different aspects of it in the fall or winter.
• Return for a second helping. Are you still thinking about the conch fritters you ate on the beach in Grenada? The poffertjes in that café in Amsterdam? Anything at all made by Yotam Ottolenghi, anywhere in the world? (That’s not just me, right?) Have them again! Learn how to make them. Take some home with you. Enjoy!
• The comfort of the (somewhat) familiar. Especially in uncertain times, revisiting travel destinations you have enjoyed in the past can bring a sense of comfort and safety. When the excitement of visiting a new place is shaken by instability in the world, returning to a destination you have a good sense of and know how to get around, can make things a little easier.

Revisiting travel destinations can bring a different level of understanding of both the places we have been and the people we have been.

Last updated: 25th April, 2025