All this online book ins with airports is fun because it gives you the impression you are in charge of your own destiny. Where will you sit, what will you eat, choose the time to suit your itinerary. And when you have done all that look – you can rent a car, a hotel and see the interesting places there are to visit.
I had a dream when I was a teenager to be like the men and women before the second world war, who went down to the docks on the coast and jumped on a ship to work their passage. Who found themselves spending years travelling, working, meeting people in places where there were no hotels, walking miles because there were no cars, getting involved with people by living with them, fighting next to them in revolutions, learning languages and in a few cases producing interesting works of literature and art.
There are no shortage of places you could still do all that but now you cannot just offer to work your passage as the Unions had to step in to protect men who did not want to expand their horizons but just wanted to work.
They made travelling very boring even if they are essential.