The Travel Community Gives Thanks This Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here, and that means turkey, football, an all-too-rare  day spent with family and friends, the holiday gift rush, and time to reflect on and give thanks for the many wonderful people, places, opportunities, and experiences in our lives. We asked our Twitter followers and Facebook fans what they’re most thankful for in the travel world this Thanksgiving. Here’s that they had to say.

I’m thankful for ability to travel often, the experiences and new friends met along the way. – @KatrinaMauro

I’m thankful for the ability to share new adventures with friends/family and the wealth of incredibly open and welcoming strangers out there. – @AlexBerger

I’m thankful that my daughter is such a good lil traveler. Not even 2 yet & been on 4 plane trips! She’s a pleasure to travel with. I’m also grateful for opportunity to take my daughter, my husband, & my mother to Italy next year. It’s our motherland! – @FrancescaMaz

I’m most thankful for my wonderful daughter, Sabrina. She rocks.  – @pwcarey

I’m thankful for being a part of a welcoming travel community. Travel bloggers are the best! – @OrdinaryTravelr

I’m thankful for friends, family, career, love, and the ability to live life to the fullest everyday. – Shana Zheng via Facebook

I’m thankful for the dancing palm trees and the warm blue water of the Caribbean. They melt away the worries of our everyday life. – @RumShopRyan

I’m grateful for self-checking in & printing own boarding pass. I won’t check luggage, so I can plunge right into TSA fun!  – @SheilaS

I continue to be amazed at how many truly remarkable people I’ve met through online travel. In particular, I met several people in 2010 for the first time who are now some of my favorite people on the planet – I can’t imagine my world without them. I’m thankful for them, of course, and extremely thankful that I get to meet up in real life with so many of the fabulous people I have the privilege to know online. Lord knows I love me some interwebz, but there is nothing like getting face-time with people. Nothing. – @Italylogue

The chance to learn a new language – it’s the most humbling thing I’ve ever done (still doing)!  –@ExpatGermany

I’m grateful for hostels, peanut butter, and helpful homeless people! – Amy Pettinella via Facebook

For any warm shower, no matter where in the world – even a plane ride away. – @TravelingAnna

Random encounters, on time transportation, getting the local price, and experiencing that the way I know isn’t the only way. – Brian Setzer via Facebook

Being able to go home.  – Kim Kresan via Facebook

The internet has changed the way we travel. So easy now to research and book travel, thereby making for enjoyable trips. – Joel Mooneyham via Facebook

Discount European airlines (Ryanair and EasyJet, thank you). – Jessica Peter via Facebook

That I only have 19 more days of work for 2010 before flying off to Christmas in Malta and Cyprus! – Carole Soldat via Facebook

That I finally get to spend NYE at Madison Square Garden in New York City seeing my favorite band in the world. Been wanting to go for 15 years now. Words can’t describe how excited I am. – @aseper

There is so much and so many places I am grateful to have traveled to, but mostly, I am so grateful for digital cameras. What a money saving not to have to develop 500 slides and then choose which ones to print when I get home from a trip. – Vera Marie Badertscher via Facebook

The internet….helps me afford to travel in ways I couldn’t before. – Marsha Samuel via Facebook

I’m thankful that I realize that life can be short and involve the unexpected, and that one shouldn’t wait to travel until retired. And that the people of Africa have been so welcoming to me in all my travels there. – Paul Sivley via Facebook

‎I’m thankful for four weeks of holiday each year…a great job that pays for tickets…living among the best beaches in the world (Australia). – Diana Schumacher via Facebook

I’m thankful that I have the means to travel, the desire and willpower to prioritize my time and money to do so, and a wonderful travel partner (my husband) with whom to explore the world. – @WhyGoIceland

I am thankful for the gift of being able to travel to Kashmir during peaceful times in 2007 and 2009. I am grateful for my first trip to India with my Mother in 1976. – Brooks Wood via Facebook

Couchsurfing.org. – Andrew Janeski via Facebook

I’m thankful for BootsnAll.com who provided a free blog for me back in 2006. The blog inadvertently and accidentally turned out to be the first step of a new travel writing career – cheers! – Greg Rodgers via Facebook

Thanks to budget flight, GPS, google map, and internet booking system that help us save time and cost and make our traveling easier. – Erwin Yulianto via Facebook

I’m thankful for the travel sites and forums that make it so much easier to plan for travel, for great ideas such as traveling with no luggage (thanks Rolf Potts), new technologies that make it easier to leave for extended period and keep in touch. And I’m especially thankful for the freedom I live in that makes travel possible. This definitely is not your old grannie’s travel! – MaryAnne Fields via Facebook

I’m having a First World Problems week that started with breaking my home’s Internet connection. This morning as I whined my way to the Internet point to get some work done, I looked up from my self-centered pity party, saw the most achingly beautiful morning light, and gave thanks for being able to call one of the most stunning locations on Earth home. (I also gave thanks for having had the foresight to bring my camera with me.) – @WhyGoFrance

I’m thankful that I come from two parents who love to travel and instilled the joy of travel in me from a young age. – @TheMaidenVoyage

Diversity. I love that the world isn’t monochromatic, and I love that we all have different backgrounds and stories. There’s nothing I appreciate more than the fact that a dozen different people can be in the same room and they can all have something different to say about the same subject matter. The world would be a very boring place if we were all the same. – @WhyGoLasVegas

I’m thankful for my split-focus life: traveling half the year means I appreciate my friends, home, dog and garden all the more. – @WhyGoLondon