One or the other

So, I've met people that have flown all over the world, and been to lots of different places and I have only been to Italy, and that was with my parents! So I was thinking, with people in my age bracket, it must be one of two things:

1) You make lots of money and can afford to fly around the globe.

2) More likely, it is a case of allocation of funds and priorities.

So, I got to thinking - Sarina and I make decent money, why is it we never seem to have enough cash to go to Fance or Spain or something. After some musing, I settled on two reasons.

1) Our priority (relative to others) is on our daily living situtation. We eat fantastic food at home, go out to great restaurants a lot, and we spend money on clothing, kitchen gadgets, and Gillette razor blades. We love our apartment, and also pay for that place. So, rather than saving up and going on a trip, we spread that money across our daily lives in smaller amounts.

2) As a symptom of our lifestyle and spending habits, we would want the same in our travel destination. If we were to go to France or Spain, we would search for Michelin starred restaurants and I'd try to find some obscure cheesemaker, boutique, penmaker or something to buy when overseas. Since we are crazed consumers, traveling abroad is simply a multipier of this consumerism for us. So when looking at what it will cost us, my need for the best (or at least the good) takes over and I price myself out of a vacation to France because we don't want to stay in an "ok" Hotel, or go to "ok" restaurants.

All in all, I think this is my problem, I should just get over it - go to see the sights, go to local restaurants, get a regular hotel, and eat the exchange rate. But something about that just bothers me, especially if I did that and end up having a bad experience! Argh, what to do!