When there are antlers and big mouth bass mounted on the walls, there's a Field and Stream on the coffee table. If you're sipping sweet tea in a sun room with the aroma of lilac and roses sweeping around you, check for the Better Homes and Garden on the wicker side table. Have a friend with five kids and a day care? Look for Parenting to be laying around somewhere...maybe under the teething ring and Cheerios.
Those are all certainly pretty broad generalizations, but there's a publication for every hobbyist. Including, of course, travelers. In reading over a well-known publication that I subscribe to, one thing kept entering my mind. Another pesky generalization that I was beginning to make about the writers and travelers of not only this publication, but others like it. I just kept thinking, 'These people sure seem pretentious." And I realized that is the reason that I don't often read travel magazines.
Magazines seem to be speaking to a certain type of traveler - and there are many different types to be sure. I feel as though to rate as a 'magazine traveler' you must be an architectural design major, a foodie, or an expert in the great arts of the world. That doesn't bode well for me. I know the difference between a door and a window, I don't even own salt, and my knowledge of art doesn't extend much beyond 'that guy who cut his ear off.'
So I'm already cut out of understanding or relating to a third of a travel magazine. Seriously. I skip large paragraphs because they contain words like 'compote' or 'fenestration.' Personally, I'd rather read about travel destinations and the different historical sites, fun excursions, or cultural experiences that a traveler should be looking for. But time and time again I get the travel magazine article blueprint (there's some architecture jargon for you) - flashy food place, hip art joint, and where the locals go.
It seems in order to be a magazine traveler, you should never, ever be a tourist. Forget about the well-known, ignore the quintessential. I say...no. If you're in New York City and you want to eat at Hard Rock in Times Square, then do it. If you're in Paris and you want to stand in line for hours with two hundred other people to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, then do it. Tourist traps are not always bad things. I said it. Burn me at the stake. It isn't that I don't advocate digging for something deeper, and finding things off the beaten path - but is there really something so wrong with keeping on the worn path for a block or two and then veering off? Maybe more of an attitude of 'go where the tourists go and go where the locals go.'
There is no one right or wrong way to travel. There are those who like sit on the beach all day and never move, or sleep the day away so that they can experience the nightlife. Adventurers might look for the most outrageous, or dangerous outing possible and some just want to get cultural. Every one of those is a perfectly acceptable way to travel or vacation. But most travel publications speak to a small niche, which I do not feel I fall into.
Read most any of my blogs and they don't sound like a major publication article. There are many, many reasons for that and I don't need to delve into critiquing my writing, but I think it's mostly because I'm a laid back, accessible traveler. I don't have a lot of money to spend, I'm not trying to be hip, I just want to see the world and share my experiences. So honestly, I'm sort of hoping I never do write like a travel writer.
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