Adventures Out the Window
Armchair travel, in the past, was perhaps not all it was cracked up to be. There are times throughout history when cultures become outward-looking, and times when they become insular, and the cycles are based on a complex chain of economic relationships. While some may argue that a culture’s ideas of travel are more related to its mobility and access to sea or air than anything, it would follow that access is indeed based on economic ability to do something with the access.
There are also those who will argue that today’s generations have more access than any other generation, and that people growing up today will have a much broader understanding of the world than their parents ever did. There is certainly some truth to this, but there is also evidence that whenever a culture has a possibility of traveling, it does. Some of the Mayan cultures of antiquity, and the Yoruba people during the Oyo Empire, traveled not because they had to, but because they could.
The idea of movement, of leaving a place for awhile in order to come back to it with fresh eyes, is a very strong impulse, and seems to be rooted in the DNA. 
According to some new developments in research on dopamine, that might actually be the case. This might come as enormously good news to those who aspire more toward the armchair variety of travel than for the ones who like the idea of a pith helmet in their backpacks.
It also bodes well for the pocketbook. If the choice is between new aluminum blinds and a vacation, most people will opt to take care of the hearth first. But if it’s possible that home improvements and travel can come together, by making it easier to daydream with a better view of the world outside the window, then everybody wins.
This is, in fact, what some of the new research is suggesting. Wandering and exploring certainly do have a positive effect on the individual’s chemistry, enriching the mind with new experience. But it also seems likely that the act of wondering itself, entertaining one’s sense of curiosity, can also have profound effects on the psyche. Wondering what lies just around the corner, then, is something that is at the heart of every anxiety, but it is also at the heart of every new adventure that pushes culture forward.