ABSTRACT
The analysis of the experience of an unfamiliar place is a way to do the connection between humanistic geography and qualitative travel studies. The experience of everyday life is the background against which the decision to travel and eventual travel experience must be compared. The experience of everyday life takes place in one's everyday environments and situations. In phenomenology this everyday life realm is called life-world. The natural attitude of readiness-to-hand and the need for paying attention when something becomes present-at-hand is an interesting dialectic that takes place in travelling. 'Rest' is associated with the familiar order present at home; it is the familiar life-world with its conventions that derive from the past, feeling of being at home. The 'rest' is characterised by a habitual way of experiencing the environment while 'movement' facilitates the creation of openness. Buttimer's 'home' and 'reach' express a very similar idea. 'Home' is where one lives, and 'reach' is the movement outward from that home.
