[3] In recent years, the word Wanderlust is less commonly used in German, having been largely supplanted in the sense of 'desire to travel' by Fernweh ('a longing for far-away places'), coined as an antonym to Heimweh, 'homesickness'.
Robert E. Park in the early twentieth century saw wanderlust as in opposition to the values of status and organisation,[4][5][6] while postmodernism would by contrast see it largely as playfully empowering.
[7] In post-Enlightenment Europe, upper-class bachelors were encouraged to embark upon a Bildungsreise (roughly, 'cultural education journey'), often sightseeing trips to Italy or France.
Among tourists, sociologists distinguish sunlust from wanderlust as motivating forces – the former primarily seeking relaxation, the latter engagement with different cultural experiences.
[8] Wanderlust may reflect an intense urge for self-development by experiencing the unknown, confronting unforeseen challenges, getting to know unfamiliar cultures, ways of life and behaviours or may be driven by the desire to escape and leave behind depressive feelings of guilt, and has been linked to bipolar disorder in the periodicity of the attacks.