Hey Matt! I usually explain IR/IRSE to my students like this: - Esta tarde voy al cine - I'm going to the movies this evening. - Esta tarde me voy al cine - This is the same sentence really but I emphasize the fact that I'm leaving, that I will leave the house (let's use the house here) so that I go to the movies. We usually refer this 'se' as an emphatic SE, because we stress the fact that I will be leaving somewhere in order to go somewhere else. This emphatic SE is also used in sentences like 'comer'; both 'Como un bocadillo de salmón' or 'Me como un bocadillo de salmón' mean the same, we're just emphasizing the action more on the second example. Hope this helps!

My impression is that in this case 'irme' as opposed to 'ir' would be the equivalent of the English 'going off'/ 'going away', with the emphasis on the leaving. The reflexive seems to serve the same purpose as the English use of a verb+adverb combination. Would any bilingual person be able to confirm this? Gracias.

- Quiero ir al trópico. - Me quiero ir al trópico. - Quiero irme al trópico. All these expressions mean the same. Another example using "irme": Quiero irme ya. ("Ya me quiero ir" is also ok) In this example "Quiero ir" wouldn't express the same idea.

In theory, both can be used with the same meaning depending on the speaker and the situation. ir = to go irme = to leave / to tag along

Both would be correct (but don't forget the tilde on trópico). irme adds a slightly different nuance, something like "I want to leave for the tropics", only the Spanish sentence occurs more frequently than its English counterpart. For example, the following sentence doesn't sound as common to me: "quiero irme al cine". Here, quiero ir al cine is more natural. In the "irme al trópico" example, there's more emphasis on leaving where you are, whereas in the "ir al cine" one, the emphasis is only on where you go.