Don’t Be A Tourist

Posted by Mike Richard on March 20, 2007
Filed under: Odds + Ends, Rants

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Over on the Cheapest Destinations blog, Tim Leffel opines on the soulless, homogeneous ports of call of massive, middle America-filled ocean liners. His photos call to mind any one of several hundred ports of call in the Caribbean, littered with Subway sandwich shops, Hard Rock Cafes (shudder), Dunkin’ Donuts, etc. etc.

If you told most of the people coming to these places they could go elsewhere and spend half as much, they’d be skeptical. They don’t know any better. Every trip they’ve taken has been to the Caribbean, Europe, or an Americanized resort area in Mexico or Costa Rica. They don’t really have to leave home: same drinks, same kind of hotel, pretty much the same food.

Half the fun of travel is experiencing new things. And, no, experiencing a Subway in the Bahamas doesn’t count. Step out of your comfort zone for Christ’s sake. If you’re planning to drop five grand on an “exotic” getaway cruise, only to while away your time in T.J. McFunster’s and a dozen identical tzotchke shops peddling “One tequila, two tequila, three tequila … floor” t-shirts to vacationing Americans, do me a favor: give me your five large and stay home. You can find Extreme Fajitas and Super Spicy Jalapeno Poppers at the TGI Friday’s back home. I’ll even send you a postcard and a picture of the TGIF in St. Martens, k? =)

But hey, that leaves less crowded places elsewhere for the rest of us.

So true, Tim. So true.

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Vagabondish editor, Mike Richard, lives in Rhode Island - a spit of land in the northeastern U.S. He is a professional web designer and travel junkie with an unhealthy addiction to backpacking, camping, hiking and seeing the world. He enjoys knit hats, small, declarative sentences and speaking in the third person.



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