5 ms·

I did a ton of traveling last year all over the world and the conclusion I reached was that the popular destinations are completely overwhelmed. I guess it’s t

I did a ton of traveling last year all over the world and the conclusion I reached was that the popular destinations are completely overwhelmed. I guess it’s the combination of cheap flights and instagram but if you want to enjoy yourself then forget about Kyoto and Venice etc and look into some less popular and less well known places instead. And do the rest of us a favor and don’t location tag if you do discover something great.

11thEarlOfMar 8y ago
Roger that. We visited Venice in October, off season. First night in the restaurant, 4 tables surrounding us... 3 were Americans and the 4th French. As noted elsewhere, the cost of Intercontinental travel is dropping and the primary tourist destinations are overwhelmed, even in off seasons.
- ohjeez 8y ago
  Some places are great enough to survive their hype. Not many.
- edaemon 8y ago
  I'm in Venice right now and while there are many tourists (this city survives entirely on tourism) it's far from overwhelmed. We haven't waited in any lines in Italy as a whole -- the only real line we encountered was at the Colosseum, and that took about 20 minutes. There are certainly places that are less busy but I wouldn't outright discourage anyone from traveling to the popular places. It's not that difficult to avoid the crowds and there are tons of things worth seeing.
  - wil421 8y ago
    You are still visiting in the off season transitioning to peak summer season with August being the worst. Go back when schools get out in North America, Europe, and Asia, then let us know how it compares. Try it again when Europe is on Holiday in August. I went in May when schools were getting out and I could tell the difference by the end of the week. Make appointments to the popular places to avoid the lines.
    - edaemon 8y ago
      There's absolutely a high season for tourists. That's what I was referring to when I said it's not that difficult to avoid the crowds; all we did was go during the off-season.
- dustinmr 8y ago
  I was in Venice in May a couple of years ago. While the city was cool, and the typical attractions were fun to see, we were a bit underwhelmed. We then hopped a RyanAir flight to Bari because that's where my wife's family emigrated from. Thought we'd rent a car, spend 4-5 hours hopping around Bari and then move on to Naples. We ended up spending 4 nights and completely loved the city and the whole of Puglia. It ended up being the best part of the trip. Maybe it was just expectations were reversed, but we truly loved Bari, and could have just skipped Venice and Naples and spent more time there. Not that Venice and Naples were disappointing, but they didn't stand out at the end of the trip. Italy as a whole was wonderful. Can't wait to go back.
  - james-mcelwain 8y ago
    I love Bari. In general, I've found the "deep cuts" in Italy to be way better than the tourist traps. I most recently spent two weeks in rural Sicily where there wasn't much to do and it was fantastic.
    - cageface 8y ago
      Do you need to speak Italian to travel in these places? I’d love to see more of Italy but not sure how hard it is to get by on English.
      - shivaas 8y ago
        English works fine. Get a roaming data plan and use google translate for situations where basic english doesn't cut it. I also print out common phrases and words and try and learn a little bit of the cultural nuances (hand signals, body language etc) which always help break the ice and make communication easier / fun.
- mnky9800n 8y ago
  Why do you care who else is in the restaurant with you?
  - Mediterraneo10 8y ago
    Restaurants whose clientele is mainly foreigners will often adapt their menus to what they think foreigners want, and their prices to what they think foreigners will pay. So, if you want to eat the local food as ordinary locals will eat it, and you don't want to be ripped off, then you might want to avoid places where the other diners are likely to be fellow foreign tourists.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
TheGRS 8y ago
I just visited Costa Rica last week, but it was more of a mission trip to build a well. We were in a fairly run-down town far out of the way of typical tourists (though surprisingly we still saw a few pass through!). Got to meet many locals and eat with them, probably wouldn't trade that experience for anything. When we inevitably did some more tourist-y things in La Fortuna it felt kind of weird and unsatisfying. So if you're interested in that sort of unique experience I recommend looking up some nonprofits in need of volunteers.
- wenc 8y ago
  Not to diminish your good intentions and the obviously profitable experiences that you've gained, but I would be hesitant to recommend voluntourism without any qualifications. There are obviously benefits to the people who go, but there is also potential of harm to the communities visited -- more so than just the usual tourism -- in the name of doing good. Skilled/educational trips like medical missions that provide relief and sustainable/appropriate skills transmission to providers in the local community tend to be the most positive/neutral, but efforts like helping to rebuild schools, etc. with volunteers who have no specific expertise tend to be problematic. (issues include depriving livelihood from local builders, badly rebuilt buildings owing to lack of skill that have to be rebuilt, creating a culture of dependency, damage caused to the dignity of providers in local communities, the constant impermanency of relationships can especially affect children in the local community, etc.). Many thoughtful missions organizations are aware of these issues and try to plan missions trips that mitigate such harm. There's a book called "When Helping Hurts" [1] that guides a lot of the new thinking in this space. Again good intentions are laudable, and we should not be dissuaded from doing good in the world, but acting with discernment and wisdom ensures that actual good, and not harm, is done in the visited communities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Helping_Hurts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Helping_Hurts
  - pjmorris 8y ago
    My wife and I 'When Helping Hurts' last year, and I'd highly recommend it as a resource for thoughtful volunteerism. Beyond the content, I thought it had the best set of questions/exercises I've seen in a book of this kind.
habosa 8y ago
Instagram is a really big part of this. There are so many places that are commonly photographed, my favorite examples being Antelope Canyon in Arizona and Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. When you see that amazing picture, what you don't see is the crowd of 100 people behind the photographer waiting for their turn to get the same picture. Not only is it a bad experience for tourists, but it makes the locals resentful of what should be a valuable revenue stream. It's not clear how to fix it. Most people who travel have limited vacation time and are making a logical decision to head for known interesting landmarks. There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday.
- aboodman 8y ago
  > There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday. That's pretty much what the Rick Steves books specialize in.
  - Scoundreller 8y ago
    Europe Through the Back Door is one of his classics.
- splonk 8y ago
  Trolltunga is a very popular travel photo. Here's some random site showing what it looks like on Instagram, and what the lineup for the Instagram photo looks like. It was pretty funny the first time I saw a crowd photo as opposed to the dozens of versions of the single traveler on the edge that I'd previously seen. https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norway/ https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norw...
- peterlk 8y ago
  I recently did lots of traveling as well, and this attitude just boggles my mind. I got lucky on my day at the Louvre because they cleared out the whole place because a fire alarm got pulled. So I started as far from the Mona Lisa as possible, and slowly worked my way toward it. Far away from it was still amazing art, but the closer I got to the Mona Lisa, the more people I saw with their phones out snapping pictures of things that hundreds of other people were snapping pictures of. I amused myself for at least an hour taking pictures of people taking pictures of pictures. To me, the point is to stand in front of things (art, nature, architecture, etc.) and allow yourself to be awe-struck. If you want to look at it on your phone, there's no reason to use your camera to do it.
shay_ker 8y ago
I've gotten into the habit of doing vacations in the US. Sometimes I feel like I barely know the country I grew up in.
Maultasche 8y ago
I did that the last time I was in the Netherlands. I spent little time in Amsterdam and a lot of time in the other parts of the country. I had a great time and most of the other people I encountered were locals . My strategy was to figure out what Dutch people visited in their own country and mimic that. That went quite well.

11thEarlOfMar 8y ago

Roger that. We visited Venice in October, off season. First night in the restaurant, 4 tables surrounding us... 3 were Americans and the 4th French. As noted elsewhere, the cost of Intercontinental travel is dropping and the primary tourist destinations are overwhelmed, even in off seasons.

ohjeez 8y ago
Some places are great enough to survive their hype. Not many.
edaemon 8y ago
I'm in Venice right now and while there are many tourists (this city survives entirely on tourism) it's far from overwhelmed. We haven't waited in any lines in Italy as a whole -- the only real line we encountered was at the Colosseum, and that took about 20 minutes. There are certainly places that are less busy but I wouldn't outright discourage anyone from traveling to the popular places. It's not that difficult to avoid the crowds and there are tons of things worth seeing.
- wil421 8y ago
  You are still visiting in the off season transitioning to peak summer season with August being the worst. Go back when schools get out in North America, Europe, and Asia, then let us know how it compares. Try it again when Europe is on Holiday in August. I went in May when schools were getting out and I could tell the difference by the end of the week. Make appointments to the popular places to avoid the lines.
  - edaemon 8y ago
    There's absolutely a high season for tourists. That's what I was referring to when I said it's not that difficult to avoid the crowds; all we did was go during the off-season.
dustinmr 8y ago
I was in Venice in May a couple of years ago. While the city was cool, and the typical attractions were fun to see, we were a bit underwhelmed. We then hopped a RyanAir flight to Bari because that's where my wife's family emigrated from. Thought we'd rent a car, spend 4-5 hours hopping around Bari and then move on to Naples. We ended up spending 4 nights and completely loved the city and the whole of Puglia. It ended up being the best part of the trip. Maybe it was just expectations were reversed, but we truly loved Bari, and could have just skipped Venice and Naples and spent more time there. Not that Venice and Naples were disappointing, but they didn't stand out at the end of the trip. Italy as a whole was wonderful. Can't wait to go back.
- james-mcelwain 8y ago
  I love Bari. In general, I've found the "deep cuts" in Italy to be way better than the tourist traps. I most recently spent two weeks in rural Sicily where there wasn't much to do and it was fantastic.
  - cageface 8y ago
    Do you need to speak Italian to travel in these places? I’d love to see more of Italy but not sure how hard it is to get by on English.
    - shivaas 8y ago
      English works fine. Get a roaming data plan and use google translate for situations where basic english doesn't cut it. I also print out common phrases and words and try and learn a little bit of the cultural nuances (hand signals, body language etc) which always help break the ice and make communication easier / fun.
mnky9800n 8y ago
Why do you care who else is in the restaurant with you?
- Mediterraneo10 8y ago
  Restaurants whose clientele is mainly foreigners will often adapt their menus to what they think foreigners want, and their prices to what they think foreigners will pay. So, if you want to eat the local food as ordinary locals will eat it, and you don't want to be ripped off, then you might want to avoid places where the other diners are likely to be fellow foreign tourists.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

TheGRS 8y ago

I just visited Costa Rica last week, but it was more of a mission trip to build a well. We were in a fairly run-down town far out of the way of typical tourists (though surprisingly we still saw a few pass through!). Got to meet many locals and eat with them, probably wouldn't trade that experience for anything. When we inevitably did some more tourist-y things in La Fortuna it felt kind of weird and unsatisfying. So if you're interested in that sort of unique experience I recommend looking up some nonprofits in need of volunteers.

wenc 8y ago
Not to diminish your good intentions and the obviously profitable experiences that you've gained, but I would be hesitant to recommend voluntourism without any qualifications. There are obviously benefits to the people who go, but there is also potential of harm to the communities visited -- more so than just the usual tourism -- in the name of doing good. Skilled/educational trips like medical missions that provide relief and sustainable/appropriate skills transmission to providers in the local community tend to be the most positive/neutral, but efforts like helping to rebuild schools, etc. with volunteers who have no specific expertise tend to be problematic. (issues include depriving livelihood from local builders, badly rebuilt buildings owing to lack of skill that have to be rebuilt, creating a culture of dependency, damage caused to the dignity of providers in local communities, the constant impermanency of relationships can especially affect children in the local community, etc.). Many thoughtful missions organizations are aware of these issues and try to plan missions trips that mitigate such harm. There's a book called "When Helping Hurts" [1] that guides a lot of the new thinking in this space. Again good intentions are laudable, and we should not be dissuaded from doing good in the world, but acting with discernment and wisdom ensures that actual good, and not harm, is done in the visited communities. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Helping_Hurts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Helping_Hurts
- pjmorris 8y ago
  My wife and I 'When Helping Hurts' last year, and I'd highly recommend it as a resource for thoughtful volunteerism. Beyond the content, I thought it had the best set of questions/exercises I've seen in a book of this kind.

habosa 8y ago

Instagram is a really big part of this. There are so many places that are commonly photographed, my favorite examples being Antelope Canyon in Arizona and Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto. When you see that amazing picture, what you don't see is the crowd of 100 people behind the photographer waiting for their turn to get the same picture. Not only is it a bad experience for tourists, but it makes the locals resentful of what should be a valuable revenue stream. It's not clear how to fix it. Most people who travel have limited vacation time and are making a logical decision to head for known interesting landmarks. There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday.

aboodman 8y ago
> There's no travel guide for how to find that one great off-the-beaten-path spot that you'll remember for the rest of your life while still making it back to your job on Monday. That's pretty much what the Rick Steves books specialize in.
- Scoundreller 8y ago
  Europe Through the Back Door is one of his classics.
splonk 8y ago
Trolltunga is a very popular travel photo. Here's some random site showing what it looks like on Instagram, and what the lineup for the Instagram photo looks like. It was pretty funny the first time I saw a crowd photo as opposed to the dozens of versions of the single traveler on the edge that I'd previously seen. https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norway/ https://besthike.com/2018/08/23/hiking-the-troll-tongue-norw...
peterlk 8y ago
I recently did lots of traveling as well, and this attitude just boggles my mind. I got lucky on my day at the Louvre because they cleared out the whole place because a fire alarm got pulled. So I started as far from the Mona Lisa as possible, and slowly worked my way toward it. Far away from it was still amazing art, but the closer I got to the Mona Lisa, the more people I saw with their phones out snapping pictures of things that hundreds of other people were snapping pictures of. I amused myself for at least an hour taking pictures of people taking pictures of pictures. To me, the point is to stand in front of things (art, nature, architecture, etc.) and allow yourself to be awe-struck. If you want to look at it on your phone, there's no reason to use your camera to do it.

shay_ker 8y ago

I've gotten into the habit of doing vacations in the US. Sometimes I feel like I barely know the country I grew up in.

Maultasche 8y ago

I did that the last time I was in the Netherlands. I spent little time in Amsterdam and a lot of time in the other parts of the country. I had a great time and most of the other people I encountered were locals . My strategy was to figure out what Dutch people visited in their own country and mimic that. That went quite well.