I think it's less that there are fewer chances, but more that with a constrained number of travel opportunities in life, people typically take trips where adventure and discovery are limited. If you pick things based on what looks good on social media or what was sold via the brochure, you'll usually have a limited experience of course.

I do wonder though if there's an increase in things like vanlife roadtrips in the US, people doing laps of Australia, etc. Though the travellers are often hitting the same list of destinations, doing it under your own steam means that adventure and discovery are inevitable. You often don't know where you'll be sleeping on any given night.

(I've been on adventurous train trips in various countries, and also on luxury hosted rail trips. They both have their place for different types of people, though the adventurous trips, whether rail or otherwise, are my thing.)

Yes, absolutely. My first long trip was to what we called the Near East in the mid ‘90s (I am still amazed my parents allowed me to go as I was barely out of school). I had an outdated guidebook and word of mouth from the other occasional traveller and that was it. Most villages had at most one phone and often none at all, and of course there was no cell network. You just sort of headed off with only a foggy notion of what to expect.

Traveling to Thailand a few years ago was quite different. The internet allowed us to preview every leg of our journey and there’s really not much mystery. On the other hand, it’s easier to get deals and figure out efficient ways to get around. But something has been lost, for sure.