is it better to fast travel or not

[Skyrimplayer]

Another noob question.I was wondering if it's better to fast travel or not seeing that you level up through taking on enemies which seem would appear more often if the player did not fast travel.Would like to know if experienced skyrim players suggest fast traveling or not.Thanks in advance.

 

[Captain Nagisus]

Well, it depends. If you want to train, I wouldn't recommend doing it while you walk somewhere, especially if you're doing something important (like going to a main quest). If you want to train, I highly recommend going to a dungeon that you think you can handle and beating up all the enemies inside. Fast travel whenever you can, it's safer and quicker. If you're starting out, you won't be able to fast travel, but you'll still want a fast, safe journey, won't you? I recommend visiting the major cities before you do most major things, but still while you have some good armour and weapons. If you're Argonian, river-travel if you like. Your only dangers are slaughterfish, and the flow takes you along so you don't have to do ANYTHING.

 

[Kalin of High Rock]

You miss more than you may realize fast traveling, especially as a new character attempting to get money.

When you travel, you cross herbs. Hundreds and hundreds of herbs! Stacks, and piles and mounds and scads of herbs! Alchemy is the single most lucrative cash-cow at the lower end of the level spectrum, your afternoon constitutional will give you enough materials to make shelves and shelves of potions to sell!

Then there's combat skill ups and hides/ore for smithing.

There are also random encounters in the world that you'll miss out on if you fast travel absolutely everywhere. The old orc looking for an honorable death, the Redguard mercenaries shaking down every Redguard woman they come across, the distraught villager escaping the bandit camp, the poor boy set out to collect the escaped pit-wolves. And my personal favorite, the bandits impersonating an Imperial Patrol..poorly.

All kinds of fun little encounters.

 

[PelagiusIV]

Personally I prefer not to fast travel as it adds to the experience. I can't tell you how much more I have discovered since I stopped fast traveling. Makes the game more exciting. The only time I fast travel now is when I'm tired and I'm just trying to finish my current quest before I call it a night.

 

[Michaelgamet]

PelagiusIV <-- I was going to say that, it's got more to do with the outside world, if you are getting something done before going to bed, or leaving for work. Otherwise if you have time, take the time to see the countryside.

Spoiler

once you go to the Rift you can find a way to get a free horse, if you work it right.

Work on getting stamina regen gear so while you run around, you can use sprint more often.
If you have a horse, those random encounter sometimes make him run off, you can use detect life to find him again. It's not a low level spell though.. it's saved me time and time again.

 

[Mini Mongo]

Don't fast travel.
You miss funny encounters, herbs, treasure, side quests, more herbs, and it adds to the experience.
I personally prefer to act as if I am my character, I search everything as much as possible, take things slow, read books, practice magicka at the College of Winterhold, to small quests and never fast travel.
All of this makes you feel as if you are there, and for your obsessive Skyrim, that is what it is all about, playtime and the feeling of being there.
Of course, if you are, like a very high community, someone who does the main quest and then say they have completed the game at 30 hours, when they have missed out 470 hours, then don't.

 

[aussiegirlz]

I've played the game thru a few times some fast traveling sometimes with a strict no fast travel rule. The biggest downside to not fast traveling is that when you are on your way to take care of one quest, you will most likely stumble upon 3 or 4 more things to do - sometimes you forget why you were out in the middle of the swamp in the first place.

 

[Michaelgamet]

Oh .. BTW don't fast travel the day before your wedding! lol She knows, you don't need to go get her.
Failed: Attend your Wedding.


I still have trouble finding my way around Skyrim. Seems like the signs for getting from city to city are too vague. I end up cutting through the rocks and bushes.. and this always leads to encounters with wildlife and Giants.

I last tried to take road from Whiterun to Morthal, I had the hardest time.

 

[JClarke1953]

I found that entering, exiting a city (via their gate's), or out of a Jarl's place to stop and listen to the guard's. They always have a bit of something that will update your map, and give you another place to loot and level up. I also try to carry as little as I can (Mjoll the Lioness from Riften is a "mule" for packing loot), and bring a pick along when I walk or quest as there are many kind's of ore to get, turn into ingot's and make into armor.

When I can, I also DE some thing's I loot just to move up my enchantment skill, depending on the price of the item (which generally shows more than what you'll get until you get your Speechcraft up). Also, when you go to the village to begin your trek up High Hrothgar, there's an NPC who will pay well for bear pelt's.

There's a lot of advantages to fast travel, and some disadvantages. Sometimes it takes just as long to fast travel than as it does to run. Wolves, Saber Cat's and Bear's are good to make Hide Armor to sell.

You also miss a lot of eye candy if you fast travel, not to mention very possible ambushes by Dragon's when you appear at your destination via fast travel.

 

[Tilse]

I try to only fast travel when doing quests that require locks of back and forth or backtracking. Otherwise I'm focusing more on discovering areas, meaning I'll be fighting enemies along the way as well. It also helps since now I'm hunting more animals, thus getting more hides/materials I need for smithing, which beats having to buy the stuff.

 

[Twiffle]

in the past i have always fast traveled and yes i have missed some gems, my current build i have just started does do some but only strictly to stables and by carriage only, so if i want to get to Morthal i have to walk from Solitude and Falkreath from whiterun or markarth etc. only problem i find when i walk is wieght, i end up with so much but only third of the way there,
i never have a follower, but thats another thread -

 

[Gowsh]

If you have the time available IRL, a stroll in Skyrim is almost always pleasant or interesting or pleasantly annoying. Just admiring the scenery works for me most of the time.

Even on paths you've traversed before, new stuff occasionally pops up,

 

[Skyrimplayer]

Cool I will hold off on the fast travel until I get to the missions where you have to leave and return to finish them.I'm still a noob and I'm currently only at level 19 ( Which would probably be higher if I didn't fast travel lol ).Thanks for the feedback and I love that avatar aussiegirlz

 

[DdraigGwyn]

I have decided that fast travel really should be a skill in the Magic set. As it is, the process doesn't really fit with the rest of the game: being able to travel to any site you have been, without interacting with anything along the way, seems odd unless it really is a magical power. I would like to see it as a skill that you can improve like any other. At the start of the game you can only fast travel to the closest Hold that you have already visited . The Perk tree could add increased distance, a wider variety of targets that you can reach and maybe at the 100 level, the ability to Fast travel from inside buildings or caves.

I would also make cart travel much more expensive and the price be proportional to the distance traveled.

 

[Saozig]

I still have trouble finding my way around Skyrim. Seems like the signs for getting from city to city are too vague. I end up cutting through the rocks and bushes.. and this always leads to encounters with wildlife and Giants.

I last tried to take road from Whiterun to Morthal, I had the hardest time.

They need to have an expansion quest: Improve the Roads of Skyrim, where you have to civil engineer a more coherent road system. The road system in Skyrim sucks. I used to have a paper map of the roads, before I spilled one too many Red Bulls on it, and it confused me--and I'm really good at reading maps! But I kind of think they intended it that way, so to make it more challenging to get around. Getting to Morthal, Solitude and Winderhold are the worst. Morthal the worst of those three. (And let's not discuss the very first time I hoofed it to Iverstead--I think I earned my Explorer Achievement on that trip!)

There's not really a good way to get from Whiterun to Morthal. You can take the road around the mountains to the east, going north and then west, or you can cut across the plains around the mountains to the west, or take the road out to Roriksted, then down and around (a very scenic route, at least), or you can cut through the mountains via the Labyrinthian, fighting frost trolls and risk attracting the attention of the roosting dragon on the other side. Granted I like the passage through Labyrinthian on horseback, but most of time I either take a cart to Morthal or fast travel.