It's good to see that those opposed to fast travel just ignore it. I prefer to hoof it on foot, but due to time constraints, if I'm trying to a quest done (especially when the quest has you running back and forth like an errand boy), I'll just go ahead and FT. I'm sure I'll explore every square inch of the game world at some point, so I might as well stick to the task at hand. I also find myself, easily distracted by side quests, and then I never get around to finishing those I've already started while walking everywhere. Normally, I'll just cash out my finished quest rewards when I finally get back to the location of the quest giver (I've been carrying around a bunch of bear skins for the longest time for some random task), so I don't think I'm really abusing the FT. I'm only about 40 hrs in with my main character, and still level 20, so exploring is fairly important to me. My last use of FT is when I've finished up my adventures for the day and want to just kick back at my Riften house until firing up the game again, I'll use FT and just pretend the trip went by with nothing notable occurring.

My fast travel rules are simple:

I use the carriage most frequently if i'm going to fast travel. If i'm not going to, I walk it.

The only time I use Real Fast Travel, is if I am overencumbered.

I once almost fast traveled because I needed to transport a load of dragon bones, but wasn't allowed to do so while over-encumbered. My Nord had to crawl from Riverwood to Whiterun, and thankfully the trip was a short one.

I don't fast travel as I like to see the scenery, fight anyone foolish enough to attack my character (good for skill-ups), and collect alchemy ingredients along the way.

I stick to using the carrages only. However, I must admit to fast traveling up and back down the 7000 steps.

I don't use horses becasue they just get in the way in a fight and it takes too long to get on and off the horse. Although apparantly you can ride a horse over-encumbered without movement penalty, so I may have to check that out.

I do a combination of walking, running sneaking and climbing. There are quite a few unmarked above ground mountain passes that can make certain trips a lot quicker, and it is fun to explore and find them.

My Khajiit has nightvision, so he will frequently travel at night and sneak along so he can surprise any foes he comes across.

My mage has good restoration spells with the "respite" perk that restores stamina, so he sprints everywhere and casts fast healing or close wounds every few seconds so he never runs out of stamina.

I did fast travel, then I realized that I was doing iut too often, so I stopped.

I am enjoying the game so much more now that I am not fast traveling. I have also had a lot of random evens happen that would not have happened before and I have got so many alchemy ingredients as well (also as increasing my bunny slaughter count )

I occasionally do fast travel, but I think I will even stop that as well.

Only fast travel to avoid long walks.

I fast travelled like it was no thang my first play through. On my second, and far more extensive play through, I haven't. Something that people rarely mention is that it doesn't just add to the immersion and make you discover more locations/random events and generally appreciate the world more, it actually completely changes the way you play the game. I only *ever* travel by foot or by horse, and playing this way means that I base my activities around my location and the locations that are next on my path. I basically meander a long winding path around Skyrim starting and ending at Riften (my character feels the most kinship with the thieves' guild), and by the time I reach The Rift I'm bursting with relocated goods and a hearty desire to share a pint with me old mucka Delvin and share a few tales in the comfort of that [censored]-hole.

Right now, I'd gladly spend all my money levelling up destruction with that High Elven girl who I have a bit of a thing for, but it has to wait because I'm many leagues away from the college and I can't just magic my way there, you know. Somebody asked how the journey from Solitude to Riften is; satisfying. Not that I tend to make the journey in one session though, because there's so much for me to take care of along the way. Cutting out fast travel was the single best decision I made, it makes everything mean more.

I understand now that you have to tailor TES games to your wishes. It doesn't matter that fast travel is an option, the key word is *option*. And it must be a bummer for those who took the sneak perks only to find they're now TOO stealthy to the point of absurdity - I took only the first perk so that I could access the other perks and, while I'm on about 65 sneak, I'm far from invisible. The game only overpowers you and takes you right from A to B if you allow it to. Also, fans of patronising and Morrowind (in that order, I assume) need to realise that Morrowind has tooons of fast travelling. Hell, they even instruct you to fast travel rather than walking - silt striders and teleportation mages are no less 'cheap' than today's methods. I think far less has changed than some would like to imagine, but I digress.

It usually depends on my questlog, if it looks a bit empty I will walk so that I can run into some new quests to complete or locations to explore. If it is becoming a bit cluttered I fast travel so that I can finish some of them off.

I avoid using fast traveling as much as possible. But sometimes the trips become very repetitive, and on rare occasions I might fast travel or hire a cart. Like if I need to run back and forth between Riften and Whiterun several times within a few game days I might fast travel a little.

So it's not off limits for me, but I definitely avoid it.

Well, in all fairness, Morrowind's silt striders, teleportation mages, and buying passage on boats are like Skyrim's horses and carts. They will get you between cities on designated routes, but they will not get you to and from the dungeon. It is a little different than "fast travel" where you can go anywhere you have already been.

Fast traveling is definitely an option sometimes, but I enjoy walking more than i have in any ES game before, every journey is different, and you find secrets and dungeons along the way. I don't think that fast travel should be eliminated from Skyrim completely, and the carriage system is a great idea that I use quite a lot, I only fast travel when I'm stuck or need to get somewhere urgently.

LOL!! I do fast travel a lot. It depends on if I'm in the mood for some adventure or not. Sometimes I just wanna get some stuff done and off my mind, so I'll pop in and out of cities. Sometimes I'll fast travel to a place near my destination and walk maybe the last 1/3.

And then there were the times I walked all the way from Whiterun to Winterhold and from Riften to Whiterun... I fell to my knees and cried when I saw the city gates. Dawnstar to Solitude was quite fun though... Different landscapes are more appealing than others, that's for sure.

If I had hours and hours and hours to play, I'd walk it and hit all the attractions along the way. But I usually get 2 hours a day, 4-5 times a week so... it's all about tcob and housekeeping.

For me, it depends on how I feel. Most of the time, I will use it when a quest may require me to go to a few places. Sometimes, I walk it so I can discover along the way. I certainly don't feel like I'm missing alot because I figure once I get to 50 I will roam and discover. It's pretty much how I played Oblivion as well.

Nay, it takes from the game imo, you miss out on so many epic battles,odd things to see,shiny things. It kinda disconnects you from the game as well imo.

Thank you guys do making my 1st thread so successful! And I am happy to say that I went from solitude to falkareth to get a quest by walking!(running) and then I got the quest from there to get to solitude! Great so I obviously fast traveled

I had no time though.

Fast Travel is so tempting and can be addicting. Don't do it! Once I finally got myself to stop and learned patience, the game has become so much more enjoyable for me. I would recommend quiting fast travel for those who are looking for a better experience.

Agreed. Daggerfall mechanics would be nice - option to travel safe (for a 3 fold increase in time and 10 fold increase in money - it's ridiculously cheap, isn't it?), or swift with the risk of being interrupted.

What time constraints? Haven't seen those since Daggerfall, and even those were kinda gentle.

Not at all. In MW you were hiking along on buses and trains with fixed stops and destinations. In Skyrim it's more like a personal taxi. The ONLY thing that made the MW system a "chore" was that nothing was indicated anywhere, it was up to the players ability to take notes or remember the routes. http://www.terminally-incoherent.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/fullmap_travelroutes.png should have been part of the game, at least shown as you used them. Would it have been friendly enough to accommodate the "common player"? I actually think so.

Why would you give up fast travel? its one of the most convientient things in the game.... And no you dont really miss anything because you must walk by foot the first discover the locations. So I say yes to using it.

I use FT all the time (just like in OB & FO3), because I love exploring.

Using FT lets me spend less time just trudging back and forth with full bags (or trying to get that distracting sidequest done and out of the way); and more time just wandering around, seelng the sights, checking under every rock & overhang, picking every plant that I happen to see, finding new places, etc.

I use it regulary, but I often just walk as well.

Nay

This is actually a really good idea. It's a pain to walk those really long distances for fetch quests and such; using the carriage would help, while still being realistic and not overpowered.

I didn't fast travel much from levels 1 through 25, then from 25 to 35 started doing it more, and from 40 to 50 did it as often as possible. By that time you don't miss that much except for the random encounter. The only time I would not fast travel later in the game was if I needed to fill soul gems and there weren't enough filled ones available from vendors.

What I like about carriage travel is that it is limited -- you can only go from a city to a city -- much like the silt stirders, mage teleporters and boats from Morrowind, so you still have to do some hoofing to get to/from your destination. Also, you have to go up to the carriage driver and talk with him, pay him and climb aboard the cart, so there is some roleplaying aspect to it that is more immersive than going to an inventory menu adn clicking on a destination.

I do with that there was an animation of your character riding a carriage during the loading screen though (that would be a nice touch) and some randomn chance that the carriage would get attacked on route.