[bigbento]

I didn't take the end as "just a collection of destinations", but rather a selection of vignettes illustrating the various reasons one might travel to a particular destination. There are a multitude of reasons one might travel, and the author's pointing out some good ones, along with a personal reflection on that. The sections on the beach and the pumping station particularly spoke to me; the former because I'd previously seen a beach vacation as an indulgent waste of time (but have since come around), and the latter because, though it seems almost like a platitude, not enough people encourage others to make a trip planned around what they find particularly interesting.

To your latter point, I'd say that a lot of the time people embark on travel for the "wrong" reasons (some of which you mention, like boredom, social pressure, etc.) but end up discovering better reasons along the way (those illustrated in the destinations section). I think there is a stroke of admonishment in the article--asking the reader "why" _they_ travel. Personally, the more I demand myself to travel with purpose (as I have), the less I end up traveling. And my trips have been a lot more fulfilling as a result. But it's a little ironic in that, it's taken a lot of traveling to get to that point.