Why walk when you can ride? Seriously though, if you find it to be a chore then try the Siltstride* errr, carriages! But for the places you haven't been to yet, you still need to run there, look at the bright side, it's something to look forward too!

BTW, I fast travel only when I feel like it!

Nope, at least not other than things like carriages. I don't use map fast travel. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used it.

Although I don't understand why no 1st person for riding horses is a detriment to you using horses.

Only if its a path I've already traveled a couple of times. And Carriages.

So far no fast travel in 80 hours of gameplay.

I try to only use carriages.

Never.

I`ll use the cart because it`s realistic with a logical cost. I would use the horse too if they`d given us an `in the seat` 1st person view. I don`t know why they don`t have Mages you can pay to teleport you for a price or favour like in Morrowind though. Would`ve been easy to do.

I still think Bethesda should`ve been stronger simply made these reasonable alternatives travels that are logical rather than just have a no-fee, no reason, no logic teleport.

With enough travel alternatives and as long as not too expensive most people would`ve been happy.

But, well, they`re spoilt now. Some people would whine to high heaven if Beth changed it.

Mostly I only use fast travel in "merchant mode". For instance, I've completed a couple of quests and I'm overburdened with loot. I check where my next objective is and plot a "merchant route" to the towns in between to enhance/sell/buy/sell. I fast travel to these towns, but adventuring, I usually walk/run.

I use fast travel to create "imaginary carriage" travel in my games. I roleplay that places like Dawnstar and Riverwood have carriage travel and even smaller settlements have someone who will give my character a ride for a fee. So, if my character wants to quickly travel from, say, Septimus Signus's outpost in the Sea of Ghosts down to Riverwood we would travel on foot from Septimus Signus's cave to Winterhold, then fast travel from Winterhold to Solitude, take the carriage from Solitude to Whiterun and then fast travel from Whiterun to Riverwood. Somewhere along the way I'll pay 50 more gold to a merchant than I have to, to simulate the missing carriage fees.

For me, this is a nice, workable compromise on those days when I want to accomplish quest-related goals but don't have much time to play.

Generally I do use it - in Oblivion it felt redundant, map was pretty flat and getting from A to B was always straighforward. Skyrim has a lot of mountains though and the in game map isn't too helpful.

Am I missing out? Not really, doing plenty of quests that require me to get somewhere for the first time - bear in mind you can only fast travel to a place once you've found it and with all the locations in the game that the quests can send you to that's still a lot of exploring.

I also sometimes get distracted and check things out that I see on the compass just for the sake of exploring.

Game needs a gold sink, I use cart.

I'm playing on the PC so I edited the speed of everything with a handy little mod. I made the NPCs and player walk slightly faster, run and sprint moderately slower and the horses walk moderately faster while gallop and sprint is much faster. Never used fast travel since. Enjoying the scenery is not a chore now, buying a horse is actually a meaningful investment and I don't faceroll dungeons by running through them with ridicolous speed.

I only fast-travel to locations I've been to before (so no carriages to discover new cities). I do a lot of quests and that is where fast-travelling comes in really handy, so I fast-travel a lot. I do, however, sometimes take the time to just walk from Falkreath to Markarth or something, and discover all dungeons and forts in the process, and just take in the scenery. It's a bit of a balance, really. I would get bored if I had to walk that same road from Falkreath to Markarth over and over, but the first time it's an amazing experience.

I play games way too much (especially this one) to not use fast travel.
I am currently at about 80 hours in and have started/finished only one questline so far. I take my time and immerse... only I fast travel.

Also, I collect way too much stuff and hoard it. I can only imagine how much crap I would have if I walked everywhere.

I fast travel back to town from dungeons. I can't carry anything else, so I'm going to fast travel. About 3/4 the time I'll FT to a location halfway between where I am and where I need to go for a quest.

It really depends too. If I only have an hour or two to play, I FT more frequently.

Edit: I don't have a hard set rule. I FT when I feel like it. I walk when I feel like it. I use the carriage the majority of the time if it's between cities though.

Kind of wish you could use the carriage to go to specific points for a highly increased fee though...

Quit calling it a teleport. Fast travel is NOT a teleport. I was in Windhelm at 9 in 9 in the morning, travelled all the way to the other side of the map and it was early morning when I got there.

All the time. I find it greatly enhances my ability to explore & sightsee & "walk around", since I'm not spending a large portion of my gameplay time just trudging back and forth to Whiterun with loot.

I used to walk everywhere, but now that I've discovered almost every location on the map I just use fast travel.

The longest I lasted not using fast travel was 12 hours. I only used a carriage to go from city to city. It seemed like it brought new life to the game, I discovered places in those 12 hours that I never even noticed in the over 200 hours before it. Once I came to a city that didn't have a carriage it kind of ticked me off though. I said fine I will just fast travel between cities, then I thought well if I am going to do that I might as well just fast travel to all places. That was the end of the experiment.

I'm with you on this. Inevitably a dragon will swoop down on me as I exit a dungeon. They are an annoyance at this point. I do like to travel by foot as often as possible though as I do enjoy some of the random encounters that pop up.

I use fast travel all the time, ironically because I explore a lot. I often go to a location I already know and then start wandering around, and in the process collect a ton of loot; I then dispose of said loot by using fast travel between various settlements, after which I fast travel back to the point where I filled up and continue on foot from there.

I do use the carriages whenever possible, although since they only go to the Hold capitals and cannot be taken from some of same, they're not very practical in most cases. If they were more practical I'd probably use them a lot more, though.

No fast-travelling for me. Once I walked from Riverwood to Riften, quite a long walk but I met a lot of interesting NPCs along the way, also once been tricked by a bandit, which was interesting.. But I occasionally use the carriage to travel far distances such as from Markarth to Riften, etc.

Amen. Those are absolutely gorgeous by the way.

loot runs, primarily.

the amount of interesting npc's and things to experience on a loot run dwindles rapidly.

So far, I haven't been using fast travel.

With Oblivion, I was primarily concerned with leveling athletics. Even with that skill gone, I still like to go everywhere on foot and admire the scenery while traveling. Eventually, I will upgrade to traveling on horseback, but I don't see fast travel getting much use.

Traveling with Shadowmere rocks. She is so awesome.