First I just want to say how astonishing it is to see so many D&D players equate "exploration" and "travel" (or worse, shopping).
Loathe as I am to otherwise link to him, this is a point at which the Angry GM hits the nail on the head.
Every player and game master sits down to the table for a different reason. Or a different combination of reasons. And understanding the reason why people play is the key to get them to keep coming…
theangrygm.com
When we apply the Eight Aesthetics of Play (a video game design theory but applies well to all forms of games) to D&D and three pillars especially, we see that the Exploration pillar fits really well with Discovery, but takes work to fit in Fantasy or Challenge, and I would guess struggles mightily to include any other Aesthetics.
Just real quick:
1. Sensory pleasure: Maps! Terrain! Handouts with art depicting the wondrous locations to explore, or mysterious features within those locations.
2. Fantasy: Exploration is the primary vessel for "sense of wonder" and immersion in the fantasy setting.
3. Narrative: I think this is super important. Places have stories ("history," even). Through exploration, characters can piece together the story of a place and come to understand where they fit into all of it. Tolkien is fantastic at this, with the Barrow-downs, Weathertop and a hundred other places, and how the Hobbits piece together from their experiences with these places how they fit into this much grander story.
4. Challenge: Overcoming obstacles and hazards is a huge part of exploration and can be great fun. For me, it's one of the main reasons low- to mid-level D&D is more fun than high-level D&D, where these mundane challenges are often obsoleted by magic.
5. Fellowship: Effective use of the exploration pillar requires teamwork, which greatly enhances the sense of fellowship.
6. Discovery: Goes without saying and really ties all the other aesthetics together.
7. Expression: The exploration pillar is a great way to give players an opportunity to impose their creative will on the world. This is the pillar where players are most "free to try anything" and "describe their character's actions any way." It's also one aesthetic where I believe the relative lack of rules is important.
8. Submission: If this is an important aesthetic for you, you want to mix in crawls (dungeon, hex, node, whatever) that are well suited to standard operating procedures: search the room, scout for adventure locations, look for clues.
While I recognize intellectually that different players like different things, this thread is really mind-blowing to me. To me, exploration is
the pillar that TTRPGs (including and perhaps especially D&D) does better than any other game form. I think it explains the enduring popularity of D&D and Call of Cthulhu (where the particular form of exploration is often
investigation). I was hooked the first time I played and my buddies started pulling out ropes and torches to go down into a hole under a pyramid to find out what was there, and it's why I still play after 40 years.
It's harder for the DM than "building a combat encounter" or creating interesting NPCs with whom the PCs can interract, but man, it's so important in my opinion. You have to create places (or mysteries/events) that feature these aesthetics, but happily, that kind of localized world-building is also one of my favorite parts of DMing.