What’s the difference between a tourist, traveler and a pilgrim?

If you look at the dictionary definition of these words there isn’t much difference:

Tourist: a person who is traveling or visiting a place for pleasure.

Traveler: a person who is traveling or who often travels

Pilgrim: a person who journeys to a sacred place for religious reasons.

It seems the main difference is what the reasons are for the journeys.

However, I suggest that these are vastly different. And who you are and how you journey tells a lot about what you appreciate or enjoy most about journeys.

A question I like to ask my friends who do backpacking is what their favorite part of backpacking is. I’ve heard everything from the view at the top, the sitting around the fire doing nothing, the oneness they feel with nature, the pain paired with reward.

The Tourist…

…is the person who goes to a place so that they can take a picture. They want to prove that they have been to a place. Whether for themselves or for validation from other people. It doesn’t have to be an evil thing at all. Sometimes people want to prove to themselves that they can travel and enjoy themselves.

But the tourist is the one who has the most specific goals on their trip. They have something that they want to get out of the trip. They want to prove something. They would care less about the experience and more about the proof that they had the experience.

The Traveler…

…is different in that they are fully invested in the experience. They care less about getting a picture in the location because they care more about experiencing it. Maybe they’ve wanted to go to the location for a long time. Or maybe they love the intimacy with a location when no one else knows that it’s there.

They love the destinations that they go to. They may sometimes still have as specific goals as the tourist in where they want to go but are usually more okay if plans fall through as long as they get to have that view at the end. They get the reward of investing in the journey.

The Pilgrim…

…is where many things differ because the focus is completely different. Whereas with the other two both were focused on the destination, the pilgrim cares much more about the journey and the growth and experiences in that than the mountain top experience at the end

Every destination that you planned to go to might end up falling through and while you may be bummed, as a pilgrim, you understand that the height of your experience is in the moments when these things fall through. The way that you and the people around you handle the situation. The pilgrim can often look at situations from a future perspective. When everyone is focused on the stress of the here and now, the pilgrim sees it as a part of a greater whole.

We are often combinations of all three of these people, but when we boil it down, everyone fits somewhere inside these categories. Though you might add one who doesn’t think or care about it at all. The spontaneous person that does it on a whim with no feelings…though even that person I think you could fit into one or a combination of these.

Who do you relate to the most when you travel? Who do you think you are and who are you really? Is the person you relate most to who you want it to be?

If not, maybe it’s time to change your mindset going into your next journey.