Photos from another lifetime - me in a hostel in 1987

In my recent post on the subject of travel experts, several folks left excellent comments making the point that while many can claim an expertise in one specific aspect of travel it’s impossible to be an expert in every travel-related matter. If I had to list the areas of travel in which I know absolutely nothing, I have little hesitation in putting the world of hostels right at the top of my list.

It’s almost 25 years since I’ve travelled as a hard-core penny-saving backpacker where every drachma (remember those?) spent on a bed for the night was a frivolous extravagance. A hostel was a necessary interlude between nights spent on trains and was mainly indulged in to take advantage of a much-needed shower.

Once I entered the world of work and was able to afford luxuries such as bathrooms and personal privacy on my travels, I never looked back. Barring an occasional unavoidable overnight stay in some remote backwater, I shared a room with my wife and no-one else and we opted for at least a basic level of comfort.

Until now.

This week I’ll be staying in three Polish hostels. I’ll be in the country to research a few stories and as I’m responsible for organising my own arrangements, every zloty counts. It’s simple economics: I’ll make a modest sum from the commissions around the trip so need to spend an even smaller amount for the exercise to be financially profitable. Those fancy bathroom-boasting hotels are out of the question. My self-imposed budget for three nights accommodation is a mere £35.

So in a throw-back to my teenage years I’ll be once again sharing my sleeping quarters and washing facilities with strangers. I must admit I’m quite looking forward to it. On the one hand I know I’m likely to meet more people than I normally do on my travels. I may even have a beer or two with the odd stranger, although I am likely to be the same age as their parents. On the other hand I’ll probably be more conscious than ever of the nuisance of a nightly trudge or two down the corridor to the toilet (that’s me, not the kids). I hope I can get away with not having to sleep in a top bunk.

I’m utterly rubbish at this budget travel business and I have no doubt I’ll behave like a complete budget travel novice to all I encounter this week. That’s probably no bad thing, as the young guns who I bump into can teach me a thing or two about the culture and etiquette of hostel dwelling. Perhaps the experience will induce flashbacks to nights spent in youth hostels in the 1980s, trying to sleep while listening to people snoring (or worse).

I might enjoy it, but I have no doubt that however I describe the experience to my wife on my return home, she won’t be asking me to book us into dorms on our next trip together.

Travel Austerity: hostels and hanging out with the cool kids is a post from: 501 Places

I’ve been involved in a project looking at recent immigrants’ first impressions of the UK and have been very surprised at what people notice about our country. The sight of double-decker buses, rows of identical red brick houses and the experience of driving on the left side of the road all make a strong impression with many people who come to the UK for the first time.  Yet for those of us who live here these are such an unremarkable part of our daily lives that we find it strange that others find them in any way curious.

But perhaps it makes sense in the context of our travel experiences. When we arrive in another part of the world, the unfamiliarity of our surroundings provides a buzz of excitement that is an essential part of the magic of travel. We eagerly absorb everything and use our senses to see, hear, smell and taste the new world around us.

Yet as we do this it is normal for us to process whatever we experience in the context of our more familiar world. We’ll admire  a tall building in Asia and wonder how it compares to the Empire State Building or London’s Shard; we’ll taste the meat of an animal for the first time and immediately compare it to chicken or beef; even hearing a strange language for the first time, we’re inclined to observe its similarities to other languages closer to home.

I’m reminded of Watership Down, a book I enjoyed reading when I was little. Despite the book being about a group of highly-intelligent talking rabbits, the author Richard Adams makes many references to the human world.  In one paragraph he contrasts the laughter and curiosity of people in a remote African village to their first sight of a horse and cart to their complete indifference to a plane streaking high overhead across the clear sky. While one is an unusual application of familiar animals and objects, the other is so far removed from their normal life that no references can be made and the sight of it cannot be placed into any sort of context. As a result it is simply ignored.

The above is simplistic and clearly written in a different time, yet if we pick through the racial stereotypes there is still a message worth taking out of it for the traveller. When we step on foreign soil we are drawn to the exotic, the unusual and the unexpected. Yet those things that make the biggest impression with us are often the one which allow us to compare and contrast them with more familiar equivalents that we’ve left behind.

What then, is our equivalent of the plane in the sky? What experiences do we encounter on our travels that are so alien to us that we have no idea how to make any sense of them, forcing us to look instead for the more familiar? Or has technology and the pioneering of others created a world where everything is now within the limits of our comprehension?

Chasing familiarity in far-flung places is a post from: 501 Places

Stay-cation, day-cation, car-cation – when will we see the end of the urge to create these awful PR buzz words, created in an attempt to make the mundane seem a little more exciting?

Given that it’s highly unlikely that we’ll see this ridiculous trend finish anytime soon, I thought I’d take a sneaky look at the possible horrors that might appear in future press release and adverts. Here are a few ‘-cations’ that you shouldn’t be surprised to encounter:

Publi-cation - where every part of the trip is posted on your Facebook wall

Syndi-cation - a girly holiday

Allo-cation - a singles holiday for people who like to make many new friends

Medi-cation – a short post-event programme at the end of a doctors’ conference

Vindi-cation – a weekend break in the Scottish Western Isles

Domesti-cation - a special holiday for couples who enjoy a good argument

Notifi-cation - the opposite of the domesti-cation. This is a break where couples refrain from having a row for the duration of the holiday

Forni-cation – a holiday for people born with an extra pair of legs

Magnifi-cation – a break that’s guaranteed to have you singing its praises

Pacifi-cation – a holiday in Hawaii

Modifi-cation – a break for old men in slightly dodgy Parkas

Bifur-cation – a culinary break for the indecisive carnivore

Certifi-cation – a holiday for the insane

Vo-cation – an orienteering trip for Germans

14 likely new PR buzz words for 2012 is a post from: 501 Places

At a recent travel bloggers’ event a speaker declared to his audience “You are the travel experts!”

I was immediately uncomfortable when I read this statement and it got me thinking about the term ‘travel expert’ and where, if ever, it is an appropriate label to use. Is there such a thing as an expert to whom we should turn for our travel advice, or is it just a meaningless phrase that sits on the profiles and biographies of a few ambitious folks in the travel business? Who can I trust for information when planning a trip?

Local Advice

A commonly accepted piece of wisdom for travellers is to seek local advice. This is very sensible in many respects, for example when searching for the trendy new restaurants, or knowing where is safe/unsafe to venture at night.  Local advice tends to slip up however when suggesting accommodation (who checks out the hotels in their own town?) or in trying to avoiding crowded sites (locals will often avoid the most popular locations that as a visitor you’ve come to see, touristy or not).

Travel Blogs

Another group where there is a wide variation in quality and trustworthiness is the travel blogging community.  While many travel blogs provide inspiration to visit a destination with great photography, reliable objective writing is harder to find. I’ve seen this from both sides and have to admit that on the handful of press trips I’ve been on, it’s been very hard to get to know a place well. Local arrangements are often made on commercial or political decisions between businesses and trip sponsors. Breaking away from a trip itinerary is essential in order to get a real flavour of a place but this is often not easy. And when everything is laid on by the hosts it’s very hard to make an objective judgement on whether a hotel, restaurant, museum or activity is actually worth the money.

I’ll always look at whether a trip is sponsored. Rightly or wrongly, I’ll instinctively pay closer attention to the advice offered by someone who has paid their own way.

There are great bloggers who manage to produce consistently high quality posts that provide both inspiration and reliable practical content, but as an independent traveller it can be difficult to find a blog that provides the type of information that I am searching for.

Guide Books

A good guide book provides a professionally researched pool of useful knowledge for the visitor. Hotels, restaurants, things to do and local practicalities help me to plan and enjoy a trip. The key word here is ‘good’. I’ve used guide books where I got to know the author’s likes and dislikes and developed a firm trust in their recommendations. I’ve read others where by the end of the first week I’m wondering whether they’re writing about the same place I’m visiting.

Decent guide book authors can make a good claim to being travel experts in that they have spent a solid chunk of time visiting the same places that you are planning to see and have offered their recommendations on what is worth visiting. It’s up to the reader to make their own judgement of how good the guide book is and whether the author’s preferences match their own; not always an easy task.

Travel Agents

For those who make their arrangements through an agent or tour operator there should be expert advice on hand before making a booking. Staffing a good travel agency is not about training the staff to know how to read destination information from their monitors. It’s about finding people with a passion for travel and helping them if necessary to gain first hand knowledge of the places your customers will be asking about. I’ve been most impressed when I’ve called companies and quickly been connected with someone who has been to the place I want to go and can chat about the different options available to me that suit my preferences, but this is too often not the case.

Who do you consider to be travel experts and whose advice do you trust when planning a trip?

Who are the real travel experts? is a post from: 501 Places

Boutique hotels are gaining in popularity in recent years and new properties are appearing the most unlikely places. They are associated with high prices, fashionable designs and a discerning clientele, yet there is no definition that neatly captures what a boutique hotel should look like. Having stayed in several such places I thought I would offer a checklist of the essential ingredients of a boutique hotel, in case it is useful to anyone about to open their own prestigious hostelry.

1. Loud exterior signage betrays a lack of class and may provoke a last-minute change of heart from the more refined connoisseur of boutique hotels. A small brass plaque in the entrance is more than enough to let guests know where you are. Those coming by car and negotiating a tortuous one-way system will be particularly appreciative of your discretion here.

2. Do not install a reception desk at any cost. Opt instead for an inconspicuous workstation, barely big enough to hold a vase, where a member of staff can check you in while you search for a flat surface on which you can fill out your registration form.

3. The decor within the main lobby speaks volumes about the character of the establishment and great care should be taken in its design. Minimalism is the rage here and the space should appear at all times as if ready for a magazine photo shoot. If guests do insist on sitting in the lobby area despite your best efforts, they should be encouraged to wear an outfit that complements your carefully chosen colour scheme.

4. It is to their great shame that traditional hotels expect their poor guests to make their own way to their rooms without any expert assistance. The boutique hotels excel in this regard with a member of staff always on hand to guide new arrivals safely to their room (those numbers on the doors can be very confusing).

5.  If you are unsure whether your hotel is actually a boutique hotel or not, you can check simply by counting the light switches within your room. If you get much above twenty then you know you’re in a boutique establishment. All switches should have a slightly different function and a coordinated sequence of actions should be required to make any noticeable change to light levels.

If a master switch must be used to allow guests to switch of all lights when going to sleep, this should be placed at the farthest point away from the bed. Extra credit is awarded for having a random arrangement of sharp-edged chairs and knee-high tables between the bed and light switch.

6. In the case of hotel showers complexity is synonymous with classiness.  Units should have multiple functions and at least a dozen handles and switches.  A detailed instruction card should be included in the welcome folder, with a small sign on the shower unit advising guests to read the card prior to washing.

7. Staircases should not be required except in the case of emergency and the use of lifts should be non-negotiable even when descending one floor. Stairwells should remain unsigned, or be marked ‘staff only’, to discourage trespassing guests from attempting to take any short cuts.

I’m sure I’ve missed a few obvious tips here. What else would you suggest a hotel needs to do to earn the ’boutique’ label?

7 steps to creating your own boutique hotel is a post from: 501 Places

Being a part of the world of social media is becoming very much like taking a walk through a chaotic bazaar. The prospect of soaking up the lively atmosphere and the promise of striking up a great deal entices many to come from far and wide to find out for themselves what it’s all about.

Wander through the bazaar and you’ll soon identify the different characters. Most of stallholders are shouting as loud as they can, letting you know what they sell and why you should buy it from them. They are not interested in hearing what you’re looking for, but will get in your way if that’s what it takes to make sure you know of their presence.

Then there are the ones who want to be your friend. “Where are you from?” they ask first. “How do you like our city?” They invite you for a cup of tea, sit you down and then bring out their goods, knowing that they have a captive audience for a short while at least.

Others still just want to appear helpful. “Where do you want to go?” they come out and ask you as you take a furtive glance at your map. They scribble a few places down that you shouldn’t miss, tell you about a great café or restaurant and let you know which places you should avoid. Even though they are selling the same things as everyone else, when it’s time to buy you are obviously going to remember your new friend who helped you out and didn’t give you any hassle.

And so it is online.  “Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and subscribe to our blog to hear our latest news” is the common tagline for companies and even individuals. For many businesses social media has presented an opportunity to have a bigger, more powerful megaphone in the increasingly crowded bazaar.

Some companies meanwhile have decided that they don’t just want us to be customers; they want a meaningful relationship. Staff are employed to encourage us make ‘friends’ with them and become their ‘brand ambassadors’ (ugh). We can then fill the online world with the positive vibes that previously would have taken up the majority of their PR and marketing budget.

On the surface it makes sense for companies to want to be able to reach me in a dozen different ways. They see their competitors shouting louder and feel the need to amplify their voice to drown them out. Yet as ever more businesses employ quick and cheap methods to shout their message far and wide, the experience in the market becomes less of a journey of discovery and more of an unpleasant ordeal. More of us start to cover our ears or avoid the bazaar altogether.

But look around in every market and there’s usually one stall, out of sight to all but those who know about it, where the owner is constantly busy and never needs to shout to draw new customers.  They’ve been there for longer than most can remember and their quality speaks for itself. Friends tell friends, parents tell their children and the customers keep coming. In a world where the noisiest often seem to get noticed, it’s nice to think that it is quality that usually wins out in the long run.

The deafening noise of social media is a post from: 501 Places

Drive around northern Iceland in March and it’s easy to believe that you’re the only person left on the planet. An hour might go by without you seeing another car on the main road and even in the areas that are geared to accommodate summer tourists there is barely a soul in sight. We visited what is considered to be a popular national park in the area last week and encountered two other tourists in several hours of walking. Does this complete lack of fellow visitors make it a bad time to visit, or in fact is the off season the best time to go to your chosen destination?

We always seem to turn up in places when everyone else has chosen to stay away. Whether it was the highlands of Northern India in January, southern Chile in late April or Yellowstone National Park in early spring when many roads were just getting cleared of snow, we have experienced many places of outstanding natural beauty without the crowds for which they are notorious. In most cases it’s been through inadequate planning rather than careful design, but I’m pretty sure that given the choice I would forego some of the benefits of travelling in peak season for the pleasure of enjoying a place in relative solitude.

Of course off season travel has its drawbacks, especially in parts of the world where the climate turns nasty in the winter (or in the heat of summer). Hotels are often closed, dining options are severely restricted and many attractions close for the winter. Hiking trails may become inaccessible in some places and popular tours might not run.

But there are upsides and for me, these far outweigh the inconveniences listed above. City streets are less crowded and people are often less focussed on selling tat to passing tourists. They may even stop to chat with you if the tourist numbers are so low that you become a curiosity to locals rather than a nuisance or a walking cashpoint.

Hotel rates are often significantly lower off season. National parks, where they remain open, are usually free of their peak season traffic hell and can be enjoyed for their natural wonders without the large crowds congregated around car parks and food outlets. A little forward planning in packing your own lunch and snacks is hardly a major problem.

And perhaps best of all, the inclement winter weather can in itself be part of the adventure of travel. We battled a wind so strong last week in Iceland that we could barely stand. We were stranded in deep snow in an Indian hotel and had to be evacuated on horseback. A wander through Tierra del Fuego in late April meanwhile truly did deliver four seasons in one day, with a severe blizzard following on the heels of a glorious morning.

Next time you consider when to visit a destination, it might be wise to look beyond the simple ‘when to go’ advice on websites and in your guidebook. If, like me, you like your surroundings uncrowded and don’t mind a bit of wild weather, you might want to focus more instead on the ‘when to avoid’ advice and make your journey off season.

The joys of off-season travel is a post from: 501 Places

Have you ever stood in a gallery and instead of staring at the artwork, been more intrigued by the reactions of the other visitors? It’s easy to appreciate when looking at something as subjective as an abstract painting that each observer experiences what he/she sees in their own way; one man’s masterpiece is another man’s garbage.

Lest we forget

But perhaps we’re less inclined to notice these differences when we visit historical sites and are presented with cold, hard facts. War memorials, battlefield sites or sites of atrocities such as concentration camps appear on the face of it to be less open to subjective interpretation. There is after all, a strong focus in most cases on the recounting of actual events, of passing on an important part of our history to the next generations.

And yet the different ways in which these sites are experienced is far more dramatic than in any museum or gallery. How we view our history changes from nation to nation and perhaps more sharply from generation to generation. An old man wandering through a London museum with his grandchildren might stop and stare at an old wartime photo. The child might perhaps recognise a famous landmark that still stands in the city today. The grandfather on the other hand is likely to experience a flashback to a time and place where he experienced the same scene through his own eyes.

While the 20th century brought unprecedented technological progress, for much of the world it also brought great trauma, with tens of millions killed in wars and many more displaced and moved against their will from their homelands. Travel the world today and you’ll rarely be far from the scene of a tragedy that is marked by a memorial or museum. Most of those who come to visit these sites were not alive at the time of the events they commemorate, yet they visit through a curiosity to learn about the past. In many cases these sites have become part of the established tourist circuit.

For the majority of us raised in the last 60 years, it’s hard to appreciate just how lucky we are. We have never known what it feels like to be thrown out of our homes at a moment’s notice, to see our communities wiped out, to scavenge for food and see people we love die from starvation. We have lived through what is the most peaceful and prosperous time the world has known.

Keeping the past alive

As the years roll on the stories that the memorials and museums depict will continue to be told, but the numbers of those who are able to recall them at first hand are inevitably dwindling. Our parents and grandparents are the custodians of many priceless anecdotes and epic adventures that form an integral part of who we are.

I am forever grateful that my parents were willing to record their wartime journeys for us to keep. These stories are more incredible, more relevant and more personal to us than anything that the best museum could put together. Whatever else is done in the wider society in remembering the past struggles, we should not miss out on the chance to learn from those who are closest to us. After all, once the older generation have left us these stories will be forever lost.

Remembering the past: why we should listen to our parents is a post from: 501 Places

Visit England launched their new promotional campaign ‘Holidays at home are great’ last week amid a flurry of PR activity. Jeremy Hunt, the government minister with the bloated title of Secretary of State for Culture Media, Sport and the Olympics, kicked off the £5m initiative and declared it the biggest ever domestic tourism campaign. The star attraction of the launch was a 90 second TV ad; more on that later.

Yet amid all this noise there appears to be a distinct lack of joined up planning and execution. The press release proudly boasts that the campaign ‘is supported by the home nation tourist boards of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’. Perhaps it is, but I certainly couldn’t find any mention of the campaign or the TV ad on any of the respective websites. In fact I would be very surprised if the Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish tourist boards were indeed enthusiastic about promoting a campaign that mainly involves English actors wandering around England, with only a cursory mention of their own nations.

Perhaps most confusing of all is the total lack of recognition given to the campaign by Visit Britain. A campaign that does mention England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland might sit more comfortably under the Visit Britain umbrella, but no; not only is it the Visit England brand that is behind the campaign, but Visit Britain have not even publicly acknowledged its existence. This from two organisations that occupy the same office and share many internal administrative functions. Is this an oversight or a case of internal politics at play? I’m sure people in the know can enlighten me but to an outsider it all looks a bit clumsy and disorganised.

Even when you do make your way through the Visit England site, getting specific information can be frustratingly difficult. As an example we spent a couple of fabulous days last week walking on and around Romney Marsh in Kent. I wanted to read about the area so took a look on the Visit England site. There is a ‘Places to Go’ tab, with a Rural Areas subcategory from which I could select Kent; so far so good. It was here that the trail started to break down. There was no mention of the Romney Marsh on the Kent page at all. At least there was a link to Visit Kent; I would surely find my information here. Another three links later (after much trial and error due to navigation that was as clear as the water in the English Channel) I eventually found a link to the Cinque Ports website – a name with which I had only become familiar after my visit. I had reached my goal. Sadly, the link was broken; my mission remained unaccomplished.

Why does any of this matter? It matters to me because I firmly believe the UK is a fantastic place for people to visit. For those of us lucky enough to live in any part of the UK we have so many nearby attractions to explore on day trips or short breaks. As well as my trip to Kent in the last week I also travelled out to the wild and remote Essex coast, home to a wealth of natural attractions and brimming with fascinating history. London meanwhile has an inexhaustible supply of new places to discover. Having spent the first 38 years of my life staying as far away from the south east of England as I possibly could and raving about how good the north is, I never imagined I would sing this region’s praises so much.

Promoting British tourism should be an easy task although judging by recent activity that is perhaps not the case. I’m not enamoured by the use of has-been celebrities trotting out cliches and slagging off other countries to try and promote Britain, but perhaps it works for some people; I presume they tested the ad in front of a focus group who gave it a nod of approval.

TV ads or not, it is a real challenge to persuade UK residents to explore their own country and not travel to places that guarantee more sunshine, warmer waters and colder beers. Surely the first step to success is for the tourism bodies, already fighting for meagre resources, to work together in their high-profile campaigns.

You can see the TV ad from Visit England here.

Promoting British tourism: a simple task made complicated? is a post from: 501 Places

Wander around any city for long enough and you’ll discover surprises in the most unexpected places. This is certainly true of Warsaw, where much of the city’s history, often tragic, often bloody but always fascinating, is hidden behind the brick and concrete of the main streets.

While much of Warsaw was rebuilt after 1945 by planners who had skipped the ‘making buildings pretty’ module in their architecture course, many of the surviving and renovated buildings have maintained their original structure. In the case of many of the apartment blocks this means that inside the belly of the buildings there is a courtyard, created to give a little bit of light to those appartments without a street view.

These courtyards are well worth exploring and as I discovered on my recent trip, most are open for visitors to stop and take a look. I wandered around the streets to the west of the Palace of Culture and found many open courtyards, mostly well maintained by residents and kept as a quiet place to enjoy the cool shade in the summer heat. Many have religious shrines, either in the form of a simple picture or a more elaborate statue. On digging a little deeper I found that most of the shrines have their own history attached to them. Many were erected during the war to provide a place where residents would pray for their safety; others were built to give thanks for a miraculous escape from death.

Our guide Tomasz showed us one such shrine in the Praga district, to the east of the city. On Brzeska street, behind a very ordinary gateway, lies a well maintained shrine to the Virgin Mary at the back of a dreary courtyard. It was in this place that in 1943 the Germans rounded up a bunch of residents and were loading their rifles ready to kill them. Such random executions were a frequently used tool to maintain a level of terror in the local population and deter any form of rebellion.

As they were preparing to murder the local residents, a woman saw what was happening from a top floor appartment. She was a German married to a Pole, and called down to the soldiers in her native language. After speaking to them and persuading them to put down their guns, they left without firing a shot. The statue was erected shortly afterwards to mark this narrow escape and has been carefully preserved since.

There are many such tales in the courtyards of Warsaw. The city authorities have begun to erect plaques to tell the many stories that exist on almost every Warsaw street. The best way to discover them however is to wander in and ask. The original survivors of the war years will not be around for ever; it is vital that their stories live on.

My trip to Warsaw was hosted by the Polish National Tourist Office.

Hidden Warsaw: stories behind the courtyard shrines is a post from: 501 Places