Word for travelling, when the journey is more important than reaching your destination?
Is there some specific word for travelling, when the important thing is the journey rather than reaching your destination? For example it's more important to go slowly and see the sights, than reaching your final destination - so you walk, bike or drive car; rather than taking a plane, although that get you there much faster... It could for example be because the journey itself is supposed to teach you something important (about yourself?), and that is the real purpose of the trip...
(Sorry, I got the idea for this question after watching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yqVD0swvWU ...and they're right, if just getting there and doing their stuff was what mattered, they could've trimmed the story down to 15 minutes rather that three movies... So obviously, the journey was supposed to teach them something.)
As defined by Macmillan, perambulate perhaps captures the flavor of this concept:
to walk around a place slowly or for pleasure
As far as traveling for the journey rather than the destination, Wanderjahr might also suit:
- a year or period of travel, especially following one's schooling and before practicing a profession.
- (formerly) a year in which an apprentice traveled and improved his skills before settling down to the practice of his trade.
I think tour is the general word for a journey where reaching your destination is not important as you visit several places for pleasure and you enjoy the journey. For example, there can be walking tours, cycling tours, couch tours etc.
If you don't have any destination at all, you can consider wandering or wanderings. OED definition:
travelling from place to place or from country to country without settled route or destination; roaming. Often in plural, sometimes denoting a protracted period of devious journeying.