🤔What does it mean to "do" a destination?

It sounds funny in English, almost to the point of an allusion to some kind of bizarre eroticism:

"I did [destination] last year!"

or

"We will do [destination] next year!" (😲 )

A non-native speaker might actually ask:

"What did you do to [destination]??"

Addressing the vulgarity

People will say this almost with a straight face but it sounds kind of vulgar to people familiar with casual non-business English. It almost sounds like code for:

"I had a one-night stand with [destination] last year!"

...or, in a more industrious tone:

"I got [destination] done and over with last year!"

In a casual setting, people would usually say this with the sense of having visited a place. It has become so commonplace to use this verbiage, that only its awkward phrasing is implied.

However, when someone says it like that, two things also come to mind:

• They have little to no curiosity about the destination

  • no passion about the culture there

  • little to no taste about what attractions to visit

• They have little desire to spend more time at the destination

  • like a shorthand for "I've already 'done' [destination] and won't 'do' it again!"

A better phraseology

Granted, most of the time we spend in any given country (other than one or two "home countries" for most of us "average folk") will barely span a few days or even hours. Still, to avoid treating a place like a cheap passing fancy, we could use a less poignant phraseology:

"I visited [destination] last year!"

or

"I set foot in [destination] last year!"

Those kinds of phrasings:

• don't promise that I saw the place thoroughly

• don't treat the destination like a "checkbox to tick off"

• leave open a willingness or some kind of interest to go back there again