Later this year I understand that Lonely Planet will release its latest guidebook on the Caucusus area (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia et al) - thus completing their world domination. Yep every country in the world is now covered in a LP guidebook. So shortly there will be no escaping the now very familiar sight (in Europe at least) of travellers/holiday makers/backpackers/tourists consulting a LP guide everywhere you go.
You know the scene anywhere on the globe there is someone following a LP walking tour, reciting info about a site verbatim from a book, or visiting the same hostel/restaurant and buying the same museum or train ticket as you.
DonÆt get me wrong IÆm an avid LP reader and have used numerous LP books on my travels. IÆve found them variously a god-send, useful, and inaccurate and alternatively only handy when thereÆs no toilet paper left.
Lets face it - if you or your parents had the idea, foresight or just good fortune to pip the WheelerÆs to the post and release your own series of guide books before them then IÆm sure youÆd be pretty happy with the publishing empire youÆd built, guru status bestowed upon you, and very chuffed at the lifestyle of travel youÆd created for yourself.
My question is with the planet no longer lonely, and a punter on every corner with their nose in a LP guide - is independent travel really possible anymore?
[There are 10 posts - the latest was added on Wed 26 May, 4:21]
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In some countries (India) especially, but West China too,
look at LP, and avoid the hotels and restaurants they
are talking about. They are full of US, GB, Ausiies and
all that people you find next door.
SO, LP is usefull !
There are millions of lovely untouristed towns in the world
that aren't in the guide books, so just get off the main
paths and go to some new places
without reading a guide book - I suppose you can just stumble accross them but its a hap-hazard approach surely
there's no hope for us. with more people with more cash
with cheaper flights and more access to information about
travel (thanks to these guides and the internet), the
ability for true independent travel is being steadily
eroded. the trend is scary. see paris or the cote d'azur in
august? no thanks. is that the way it's going to be in
other less well known places in the near future? lonely
planet is now the mcdonalds or coca-cola of travel and we
should boycott it and other such guides on principle. those
of you who write in hoping for a free guide to timbuktu,
stop it! your information is helping the empire to expand
at low cost. my solution is to encourage folks to use word
of mouth on the road.
If you want to avoid all the LP-toting hordes, just don't go
to the destinations in the book. Take China for example,
there are massive, huge, expansive tracts of space uncovered
by LP. I've been to gorgeous places in the middle of
nowhere where folks had never seen a foreigner...and
certainly never heard of LP. Same goes for damn near every
other country covered by LP with exception, perhaps, of
Luxembourg. If you don't want to see LP'ers, then just grab
a map and go someplace not covered in the book.
what is interesting is that the value judgement of those of
you who want to be "independant." i guess independance is
only a function of what you can exploit that has never been
exploited before and that this option seems like it is no
longer available because your fellow country persons are
also able to flock all over the world, just like you.
this phenonema - global travel - is something that the world
has not experienced before, therfore it can neither be bad
nor good. it is unfortunate that third world countries may
have to look to the west for economic survial and that
tourism helps to make this "survival" possible; what we
ought to consider is responsibility in our actions as we go
lie on their beaches, pay them pennies a day to make the
nikes that we are wearing etc.
i don't want to take the fun out of travelling, for those of
us privileged enough to do it. i guess my grievance with
the fact that by virtue of our westernness, we have to
escape all the time, think that we have to go somewhere new
to feel or see something new. independant travel starts in
your mind, it is a disposition. maybe i am a total flake,
but i can often walk down streets in my city that i have
walked down 100's of times before and have the feeling that
i am doing something totally new and feel like i have never
seen it before. not saying i have any of the right answers,
but it seems like the discoveries of abroad can not possible
have any validity unless one can discover at home.
correct me if i'm wrong.
Who uses a LP guidebook word for word anyway. Surely one
does not take an LP guidebook and use it as a basis for
their travel entirely. Go off the "beaten track" and explore
hey....it is called a "guide"book for a reason....ie- it is
only a bloody guide and not a god-send. Obviously those who
believe there is no such thing as independent travel left
don't really know what independent travel is anyway! It is a
guide and nothing more.....fair enough it makes suggestions
on where to stay etc but these are only suggestions.
Antero
I agree with #7 entirely, and might I add that LP *HARDLY*
has acheived domination in the US... I work in a bookstore
and I cringe when most people walk away from the travel
section toting a Frommer's and a Fodor's. LP has so much
history and culture packed into its books too. And the
Best part is that although prices and specifics might get
outdated; the books are still fun and informatice when they
are ten years old.
I would say go back and read fastpoodle (#6) again - maybe
a little condescending, but right that "independent" is
probably a state of mind, and maybe not just with travel.
Also, I have found amazing places - even in Italy! - that
were not in LP, not even on their map, which makes me think
that the LP writer may leave some places out on purpose.
And good for them; as you all have said, people who rely on
the book exclusively don't need to be told about all the
jewels.
One great way to avoid hordes of other travellers is to travel off season. We travelled Turkey in winter of 1998 (though the LP guide says winter in Turkey is pretty awful) and practically had the place to ourselves. When you travel off-season you may have to deal with some bad weather (but it's rarely all bad), but the locals are more mellow and friendlier, scams/touts aren't as geared up, hotels/pensions are empty, sites of historical interest are deserted. We were the only guests in a pension in Antalya and as a result became part of the family that owned the place, eating with them everynight and hanging out more as friends than as customers. I guess we didn't really "blaze new trails" and most everything we saw and did on that trip has probably been seen and done by others -- but much of it we couldn't have done during the high season. It was an excellent experience and an entirely different scene travel-wise than when we revisited Turkey this year, in-season.
I second fastpoodle's point that "travel" or "escape" is mostly in one's head anyway. I have no desire to travel Europe in August with half of the rest of the world and generally try to avoid crowds, but I can still get off on my own boat ride up the Mekong or happily stroll among the ruins of Ephesus in spite of the fact that other travellers have been there before me. (I don't really understand alot of travellers' obsession with only doing the new and different anyway, and I especially hate it when you encounter another lone traveller in a foreign land and they refuse to meet your eyes or acknowledge your existence bec. it might ruin their fantasy of going where no man/woman has gone before).