It’s interesting to think about how much travel has changed in the last 100 years. From trains to planes, from glamour to pain, we’ve certainly come a long way.
Many people consider the 1950’s and 1960’s to be the Golden Age of Travel. This was the glory days of Pan Am, and before flying became a much cheaper way to travel.
While it’s easy to remember a lavish, colourful era, when passengers every need and comfort were catered to, I don’t agree that it was really that great to travel 50 years ago.
Sure, we may not have had to deal with the annoyances and inconveniences of modern travel, including tiny seats, bad food, and long security lines, however the reality was far different than most people expect.
Travelling in the 1940’s was far more expensive, and you would be paying 40% or more for the same flight which you purchase today. Depending on which route you took, it was four to five times more expensive to travel (especially to fly) during the so-called “Golden Age”.
There were also far more flight accidents and plane crashes during this time, and if you hit a bad patch of turbulence you could end up with a snapped neck. It also wasn’t safe to land in fog, and mid air collisions were a common occurrence. While the glass dividers between first and economy classes looked nice, they would shatter and spray those on the plane during a rough patch of turbulence or an accident.
While today we take onboard entertainment, iPads, and Kindles for granted, these distractions weren’t available during this time, so if you forgot a book you were destined to be bored.
In my opinion, travel has come such a long way that now is the Golden Age of Travel. No longer is travel solely for the richest among us, and taking a flight is something that most people can do. Minorities for example, would rarely travel, and if you were black and could afford a ticket you were unlikely to be allowed on the same plane as white passengers.
Sure, the legroom must have been amazing, and instead of arriving 3 hours early for security, you could make your flight by simply showing up 30 minutes before, and you were guaranteed to eat something nice like a steak on your flight, but I would much rather live in a world where people of most economic backgrounds can afford to travel occasionally.
Flights are also much faster, as are trains and boats if that’s the way you like to travel. And the world is a much smaller place, which means we can have access to countries and places which were previously unthinkable.
With technology constantly changing, and travellers able to get recommendations and reviews for hotels, we’re also guaranteed better service. The next ten years will be interesting as fuel prices continue to increase, but one thing is for sure, despite all of the inconveniences of travelling, it’s now accessible to more people than ever, and that can only be a good thing.
