How Travel Connects Us

By Jennifer Loh, CEO & Co-Founder of LOAM

I grew up moving between two worlds.

Every summer, my family traveled back and forth between Taiwan and the United States. In Taiwan, surrounded by extended family, I never quite fit. I was too loud, too dark, too outgoing…  Too American, and not Chinese enough. Then growing up in rural Texas, I always felt out of place being surrounded by people that didn’t look like me. For a long time, travel wasn’t about discovery. It was a reminder that I didn’t fully belong anywhere.‍ ‍

But over time, something shifted. As I traveled to more places, experienced new cultures, met new people, built new relationships, my feelings around travel began to change. As I got older, travel became less about where I fit in, but more about how I connected. I started to notice that when you approach a place with curiosity, an openness to learn how people live, what they value, and what they care about, you begin to see the world differently. Not as a collection of differences, but as a series of shared human experiences. ‍‍ ‍

People may live differently, and cultures may look unfamiliar on the surface, but the fundamentals of the human experience are consistent – people gather around food, they laugh with friends, they care deeply about their families and communities. Travel, at its best, reveals common ground. ‍‍ ‍

The way I learned to travel reinforced this. My family never approached travel as tourists trying to check off a list of top things to do. We experienced new places through the local people, through conversations, local recommendations, and small, everyday moments.  We would visit the places that mattered to locals, experience their culture through their practices, and break bread over a shared meal. Those experiences stayed with me because they felt personal. They created a sense of connection and belonging – not just to the place, but to the people who shaped it.‍ ‍

This idea still guides how I share my own home with others. ‍‍ ‍

When friends visit me in the Bay, I don’t hand them a generic list of things to do. I think about who they are, what they care about, what they value, and what would resonate with them. Recently, my friend, Kate, came to visit, and I took her through the Mission District – not just to see the murals, but to understand the stories behind them, and experience the city through the lens of a local. It wasn’t about covering a landmark, it was about learning about the context and the history of the Mission, and to experience what it’s like to really live in San Francisco – things I knew she would appreciate. ‍‍ ‍

I do this for all my friends… whether it’s mapping out a day around someone’s love of food, or recommending wineries I think they’d appreciate. It’s less about showing them “the best” of somewhere, and more about sharing my home, through my lens, shaped by my lived experience, and personalized with care. ‍‍ ‍

When someone experiences a place through your eyes – through something personal and intentional – they don’t just see it differently. They feel differently about it. There’s more care, more appreciation, and a stronger sense of connection to people and place. The place becomes less abstract, less transactional, and more human. And when you build that connection to people and place, that care for that place stays with you long after your visit. ‍ ‍

This is why travel matters, and how we travel matters. It’s not about checking off the bucket list, but how you connect and relate to the places you’re visiting. This kind of travel requires us to slow down, to be present, to engage more thoughtfully with where we are and who we meet. It also shapes how we make decisions around where we go, what we do, how we spend, and who benefits from our presence. ‍ ‍

In return, this way of travel creates something so much more lasting. It creates connection – a relationship not just between people, but between people and place. It builds understanding that extends beyond a single trip. And it reminds us that even across cultures, languages, and geographies, there is a shared ground to stand on. There is belonging.

‍When you experience a destination through the eyes of a local, in a way that connects you to the place, it changes you. This way of traveling has shaped what I’m building at LOAM: travel rooted in care, authenticity, and connection. Because when we experience a place through the eyes of those who know it best, we don’t just visit differently – we relate differently. And that connection and sense of belonging stays with us long after the trip ends.