...the idea of...

I was teaching last week and one of my students said something like...

"I have never been climbing, but I like climbing"

Because he has never been it is impossible for him to know whether he likes it or not.
What he wanted to say was...

"I have never been climbing, but I like the idea of climbing"

'to like the idea of...' is the phrasal verb we use to talk about things we would probably like if we tried them eg.

"I like the idea of working for Mazda"
"I like the idea of moving to Tokyo"
"I don't like the idea of having children"

Ta