Interesting.....
I can see some truth in that.
But like you said, everyone's different. Some are more adventures than
others.
Some people have to have a plan. For me....I can pretty much do the same as
you. Get a plane ticket to X...stay a few days....get up to Z (some way?),
stay a few days...etc.
Mike
"Miguel Cruz" wrote in message
news:PC_db.26517$FH3.25231@nwrddc02.gnilink.net...
> Richard Ferguson wrote:
> > Surely you travel with a guidebook.
>
> Nope, I definitely don't.
>
> > I agree that one needs a plan and some priorities, and then be willing
to
> > adjust the plan if problems arise or if an opportunity develops, so
> > perhaps the plan is more important than the guidebook. But how do you
> > develop a plan without a reading a guidebook or other reference
material.
>
> I'm not a big believer in extensive planning, but the way I come up with a
> broad plan is by looking through guidebooks and other reference materials
> before the trip to get a sense of what's on offer. My plans aren't any
more
> specific than "buy a ticket to city X, spend a few days there, head up to
> city Y somehow, spend a week there, find a way over to area Z, hang out
> there until it's time to get back to the airport, then get back to city X
> and fly home."
>
> > I see guidebooks as an essential tool for a traveler, I never travel
> > without one, sometimes two, so I am puzzled to see you talk about
> > over-reliance on guidebooks. Maybe you could provide some examples of
> > what you mean.
>
> It's a matter of personal style, I suppose. For me, if I eat in a
restaurant
> I read about in a guidebook instead of having discovered myself, then it's
> less enjoyable - I feel like I'm living someone else's trip instead of my
> own. The essential joy of traveling is discovery, and I want to maximize
> that and minimize paint-by-number checklist travel.
>
> A specific recent example was in Male, capital of the Maldives. We'd heard
> it was a difficult destination (not much conventional budget tourist
> infrastructure) so we flipped through Lonely Planet beforehand and made a
> photocopy of the city map page. They listed a handful of places to eat,
> mostly characterless dusty teahouses, serving nothing but reheated
samosas,
> and all in the southern half of the island (it's a 30-minute walk from one
> end to the other). That's all there was, they said, take it or leave it.
The
> north side of the island? Boring, not worth the trouble.
>
> Well, on the second day, disappointed by what we'd found so far, we
decided
> to check out the north side anyway. Turns out there was a vibrant square
> that alone had more restaurants than the entire remainder of the island
put
> together, every one of them cheaper, better, more atmospheric, and serving
a
> greater diversity of food than anything Lonely Planet recommended. Not
only
> that but there was live music on weekends, a good way to mix with the
> locals. And unlike the southern half, these places stayed open until late.
> It was quite clear that their researcher simply got bored after walking
for
> 20 minutes and didn't bother to go the rest of the way. Anyone following
> the book's advice would have had a much lousier time than someone who just
> followed their nose and explored.
>
> I've seen the exact same thing happen over and over again. Guidebook
writers
> don't have magic powers. They can't find anything that you can't find
> either. And they're probably even more rushed.
>
> Additionally, the restaurants in guidebooks are often middling quality and
> packed with tourists, and consequently have dumbed down their cuisine and
> increased the prices. Same with hotels, bus lines, and so on.
>
> If you want to know where to go and what to do, there are three basic ways
> that always work:
>
> 1. Ask the locals.
>
> 2. Ask other tourists, because they've just been there.
>
> 3. Explore for yourself.
>
> Guidebooks are a distance 4th. They're useful for two things:
>
> 1. Maps.
>
> 2. Finding out where in a city the budget accommodations are clustered.
> Individual hotel listings? Worthless. But knowing the neighborhood or
> intersection, so you can wander around and examine for yourself, is handy
> when you're first touching down at the beginning of a trip so haven't been
> able to ask fellow travelers yet.
>
> All this information can fit on one or two pieces of paper.
>
> P.S. Please no email copies of newsgroup postings. Thanks.
>
> miguel
> --
> Hit The Road! Photos and tales from around the world: http://travel.u.nu
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