How many trains have you taken? How many flights have you caught or cruises have you sailed? If you are like the average American than the total answer is probably dozens, hundreds even. But in all those times have you seen someone leaning from the departing locomotive doffing their fedora and hurling a hasty marriage proposal? Or stared misty eyed as the thunderous industrial clanking of the ship anchor echoes against the hull as it raises? Most likely the answer is zero which brings rise to perhaps one of the most disappointing aspects of modern transport: Has travel lost its romance?

It was George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life that proclaimed the three greatest sounds in the world were “anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles.” This is clearly a moment from an era gone by, but the sirens song of life on the road used to have more distinguishable sounds that heralded a romantic journey of sorts was beginning.

Today the jets whir and roar, the anchors are muted and the trains don’t exactly whistle upon departure. From a sensory perspective (sights, sounds, smells) we travelers today are missing one third of the experience that our parents and grandparents experienced when they traveled in the era of the greatest generation. Don’t get me wrong, traveling in the year 2012 is great, convenient and expedient, but travel used to be romantic and life used to be wonderful.

— David Coker, advertising manager