RECLAIMING WANDERLUST

‘WANDERLUST’ is a buzz-word of modern travel. It’s everywhere in the media, from advertising and press releases to blogs and newspapers. One of the U.K.’s most successful travel magazines is called Wanderlust, and a collection of stories by legendary travel-writer Don George is titled The Way of Wanderlust. I once took a travel-writing course that banned us from using such a well-worn word.

Why is ‘wanderlust’ so popular? Maybe because it sounds exciting, presenting our desire to travel as a demanding and insatiable appetite. Or maybe because it recasts modern tourism – which can often be quite formulaic – as romantic and wayward and free. Or perhaps because it suggests another life-affirming quality, ‘lust for life’.

In this era of COVID-19, wanderlust has taken on a nostalgic air. There’s been