Is there any fundamental difference between Traveler and a tourist?
Both seem to be similar as people roam across while doing either of these. But there are many fundamental difference between the lifestyle, thinking and comfort level of these two breeds. These days I am roaming around India as a traveler, and tourist sometimes.
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I am living both kind of lives. So, will just try to put my opinion about the difference between these two:
Blending with local people: Tourists sticks with guides and hear their experiences. Traveler talks to local people and take their help to roam around. A tourist tries to adhere to local norms.
Cuisines and food: A tourist looks for food of his/her choice, so most of the time they local for popular food chain. While a traveler tries local cuisines, sometimes local home foods, it makes them taste the culture with tongue and help in saving money.
Stays: A tourist chooses a place to stay which is comfortable and in budget, like hotels, guest houses etc where they can avail various facilities. While a traveler chooses to stay with local in home-stays, does couch-surfing, camping, staying in tents and let local learn his/her culture too.
Visiting places: Tourists look for places which are famous and it makes these places crowded as well. So, they mostly do the sightseeing. A traveler reads bunch of blogs by travelers, takes help from locals and try to get to undiscovered places far from crowds.
Languages: Tourist sticks to their native language, but a traveler tries to learn the local language at-least few words so that he can converse with local around. It seems to be most difficult part to me :)
Traveling lifestyle: A tourist comes with a laid back attitude and spends most of the precious morning time sleep at hotels, while a traveler love to enjoy sunrise and sunset behind the mountains or seas.
Mostly tourist travel through a personal hired vehicle and a traveler uses a local or public transportation so that he can gel up with people from different cultures.