Travel works a great transformation from within.
Travel broadens the mind.
Travel makes you more tolerant.
Travel shrinks the World.
Travel brings the people of the World closer.
Why I Hate Some Travel Blog Posts?
This does seem like a Utopian dream, doesn’t it? But I do believe in this dream, at least to a large extent. But occasionally I come across a random post by a self-styled ‘travel blogger’ that punctures this Utopian dream.
These are posts by people who travel in the physical sense but are mentally confined within the four walls of their own homes, villages, cities or countries. They do not realize that there is a whole new world out there which has a different way of living and doing. For them, there exists only one yardstick and that is their own rusty one.
I get really angry when I read such ill-informed, presumptive and patronizing posts for the following reasons:
Generalization
These posts revel in generalizations, they generalize about a country, its people and its culture. What really rankles is that they put on an air of expertise which presumably they have acquired over their vast experience of having spent 24 hours in that country!
They take one experience and extrapolate it to the entire country, its people and culture. Some of them scrounge for accommodation in the dingiest of places, places that even the lowest of the locals would not touch with a barge pole and then write in their posts about the miserable living conditions.
I am fine with a candid and honest write-up, but the question is; are you qualified and experienced enough to pass judgment?
Stereotyping
This is another of the ills that infect the kind of articles that I am referring to. You are scammed or robbed by a person of a particular community or race or country and immediately you rush to stereotype the entire community, race, and country as thieves and scamsters. It is worth reminding these self-styled travel writers that all kinds of people make up all types of countries and communities. The good, bad and the ugly exist in every religion, country, and community including their own.
Patronizing
Some of the posts assume a patronizing tone, an attitude like – “I am OK, You are not OK”! Just because things are done in a different way does not mean that they are necessarily an inferior method. It could actually turn out that you were yourself wrong all these years, but your myopic vision ensured that you thought what you did was right!
Narrow Minded
I am reminded of one specific instance where one of our “travel experts” who was on a voyage of “discovery” to an exotic land asked for some “real food” as he was hungry to the puzzlement of his hosts. He did not realize that what was in front of him was “food” for them!
Negativity
Some posts take great pride in highlighting the negative aspects of a place, people, country or culture. The pity is that they have not even understood all the aspects before putting pen to paper. What is the motivation that drives them to do this? Is it mere insensitivity or a desire to attract more readers who in turn chip in with their “expert comments”.
The list of the symptoms that afflict this kind of diseased posts is endless. The only saving grace here is that these are small in number and are swamped by the more transformative, informative and inspirational pieces by real travelers with a real passion for exploring and understanding the World and its incredible treasures.
Travel opens doors and I hope some day the doors of the minds of these ‘travelers’ open and let in the sunshine of knowledge and tolerance.
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Hi Sandy,
Being open is a fun way to travel. This helps me suspend judgment. Also, I get to see there are so many fascinating ways to look at the world from different perspectives. I do love most travel blogs but rarely do the straight laced, common travel blogger type post. Add a little bit of flair, some humor and a few wacky stories too, to my blog and brand.
Ryan
Sounds about right. I have a difficult time writing about a place I’ve only visited for a few days–when that happens I preface my post with the statement that I don’t feel like I got a full experience of a place. I also prefer a balance in describing an experience–I want to know what’s good and what’s bad. It’s always better to hear about the experience than just a rundown of what there is a city.
I agree with all your points but I tend to avoid words like “hate”, etc. They just charge your day negatively which is not many people’s glass of beer.
Cheers to a wonderful Friday!
I agree with your views. One should include the culture about the place they visit but some trips are so short that you don’t get to know the place and its people much and just have to go with a quick exposure to the city.
Man, you do not want to read my blog. I revel in negativity.
I like all your points here, this speaks about how we travel bloggers should be responsible enough in all ways. When I go to a certain place I constantly make sure that I immersed in their culture to experience the whole lot.
Thank goodness for calling out that the ridiculous posts are the minority. Yes, there are some posts that make me cringe, but I really do enjoy the majority of the content that travelers create. I do chuckle though when I read a post about “Must-see” sights in a place when people clearly were only there during a long lay-over. Good times.
Couldn’t agree more! We like to take it really slow when we travel, no less than a few weeks in a given country, and usually no less than a few months!
While I agree mentioning downsides of a place but writing a post merely to criticize and attract readers and hit to blog is unacceptable to me too. I do see a few bloggers indulging in that.
very well brought out issue.
I can only agree – Stereotypes and wide generalizations are dangerous anywhere, and I hate when those 24 hours guides or a few days somewhere claim to know everything about that country / place. As a travel blogger it is outright dangerous to perpetuate this…This is not to say everything should be white-washed, but people need to really think before they type!
I do agree with some of your points. In our blog we try to point out everything. The good, the bad, but never with a generalizations. I guess that is one of the reasons why blogs are so popular because they are opinionated and honest (for the most part at least)
Totally agree with you on your post 🙂 Great write up 🙂
Really interesting post. As travel bloggers it’s important to be aware of our prejudices.
I will sum this up with one of my favourite statements i often tell people in regards to why we travel “Its to easy to think where we live is how the world is”. Don’t be confined to that thought
I agree that travel should open our eyes, our hearts, and our minds to new experiences. It frustrates me as well when I see other travellers complaining about the quality of the food or accommodations. If they want everything to be like at home, they should stay home!
I do think that travel blogs like ours are great in that they open people’s eyes to different experiences and give them insight into what to expect in foreign lands.
I agree on all your points. That’s why I stay away from bloggers like that. More often than not they just want the page views and do not really aim to inspire.
I agree with you – it’s sad that travel doesn’t open everybody’s mind – such potential for a transformation but sometimes it just doesn’t happen. I also find it very disheartening when those who travel take to platforms online and push generalizations and stereotypes. We’re the people who should be breaking them down.
Interesting post, I definitely agree with most of your points. I like your blog a lot & always look forward to your new posts, keep up the great work
I do agree, generalization is not healthy, but in some way I can understand why some people are not as tolerant especially when they experienced something bad (say they got scammed). It doesn’t mean that the bad things don’t happen in other places but because the bad thing happened in a specific place, it will be forever associated with it.
So I think there should always be a balance when writing about the place we travel to.
A very interesting post indeed! I’m glad that these writers (and also travelers I’ver personally met) are far and few between! Sometimes I wonder why people bother to leave their home country at all, if all they are going to do is find the negative. Even when I’ve lived in a place for a couple years, I know better than to view a whole country based on the few souls I’ve encountered. Thanks for sharing!
Interesting post that gives you some food for thought and great that you decided to share your opinion on the matter. I definitely agree that we as bloggers should avoid this. Or simply put we as humans should avoid all these but especially as bloggers inspiring people and motivating them to travel. Honestly, I have barely seen any of these though in blog posts and do read quite a lot of blogs. Sometimes it is even the opposite I get sick of “everything is so great” attitude.
I definitely agree with you on some points. It try not to judge people or think negatively but of course I’m only human! Love your honesty, thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for sharing and I think in the end – everyone would like to be an expert, but there is just to much to be explored before becoming an expert. Maybe it could apply to my hometown even I grew up there! @ knycx.journeying
I agree with a lot of this. I definitely think it’s fair to show a balance, nuanced image of travel, so people get a realistic idea of what some places and what being on the road in general is like, but I think every place has something intriguing and beautiful to be discovered, and that’s what I like to find.
And generalizations kill me too, especially when they’re negative. “I met a rude person in X, so all X people are rude”.
Keep on!
I fully agree with what you write on your post, it is just that I would have added 20 points more! lol
The posts that I hate most are those describing places that are on their bucket list! Why people write about Madrid (for example) before going to Madrid, just because they want to go to Madrid? Crazy (blogging) world!
This was an interesting read. I do agree with most of what you said though. As travel bloggers, we should all be more careful about what we say 😀
Hahaha, what a great post . There’s a lot about travel blogs that can be pretty annoying! Luckily there’s so many blogs that you can find ones that don’t annoy you! 🙂
Nice post, though I wonder if its a bit too judgemental! I mean does having a 24 hour adventure in a city make it any less than an expat living there for 3 months? Perhaps but I would rather have one day than hear about it for 1,000 days! right?
Being part of this community is all about being supportive, so when a blogger makes a post that is “narrow minded” or “patronizing” other bloggers tend to go along with it. Which is unhelpful. This is why I’m glad you made this post and called that out which in turn, expands discussions on written articles.
Having said that I would like to agree with you on spreading the sunshine of knowledge but instead of ‘tolerating’ maybe we could go a step further and be ‘understanding’, to learn more about what we may at first feel strongly disagreeable with in other cultures so we do not just tolerate but see how things happen for reasons then have more constructive discussions like this one! Great to see a fellow blogger voicing out!
Blogs should educate. If the post is an honest and open account of the bloggers experience I don’t have issue with it. I do have issue with bloggers who don’t travel or write posts about places they have not been to.
I totally agree with all your points. This is increasing these days as bloggers are creating content just to get hits and not to be informative.
I agree with you. There are times when I have read posts which i find to be really resting on the stereotypical understanding of a culture . I think one should be liberal enough to understand that every place is different and difference is where the real beauty lies. Else, there would be no fun of travelling if everywhere on earth was the same.
😊 I agree that some blogs can be rather annoying. The next time you come across a piece that you find poorly respresents a place, do share your travel story/experiences via comments. It may not completely assuage the situation, but it will provide an alternate viewpoint. That said, those that travel without tolerance will see countries, but not understand them.
Interesting write-up. Presentation is equally important as content.
Great insight as we are travel bloggers ourselves. One of my own pet peeves are the blogs that gear everything to the readers as if you can live my life too and many are not truly living on the road but have home bases or even jobs. We actually work but travel frequently and are careful not to market ourselves as anything different than that of a frequent flyer. Good post the negativity and generalization gets to me as well 🙂
A very deep nice message hidden in the post and its time for such bloggers to click their mind and write for public benefits and for just playing with their feelings. So write so nice for the sponsored post though it might not deserve…
Very well written. I recently met a German girl who was judging India based upon her experience in just one state for only a week. I kept silent (I didn’t want to ruin my breakfast) on her stupidity and thanked God that she was not a travel blogger.
Interesting food for thought here. I have come across some posts like this and agree that generalizing can be very dangerous, but it’s also important to be able to share your personal thoughts and insight in your writing. It’s also important to recognize that you can’t be an “expert” on a country after spending 72 hours there. Will keep pondering on this issue!
This is a fantastic post and I completely agree with you. There are some places that I have traveled to numerous times and STILL find it difficult to write about it because I find that there’s still so much to experience it. I do get super annoyed too when I read posts or see IG/FB accounts where people claim to have visited SO MANY countries, but really they’ve barely scratched the surface. I prefer travel blogs that have a more focused niche, where they tend to really explore and experience a country beyond the touristic route.
Wow. You’ve illustrated great points. I guess, it’s not just for some travel blog posts also but it could be applicable to other blog posts belonging to another niche as well. I admire those who really take time and connect with the place and not just mere stepping on a stone and running off again.
Whenever I travel, I see to it that I experience the place beyond the tourist attractions. I do it through mingling with the locals. I am also in love with slow travelling. It provides you with the chance to know the place in a deeper sense.
airinaapril.blogspot.com
Perhaps I am not looking hard enough – as if I really want to – but I haven’t come across too many negative blogs over the years. My biggest pet peeve are bloggers who are clearly writing sponsored posts about about a city or country that they barely spent any time in – or haven’t been to at all – simply because they are being paid by a hotel or airline that they partnered with. Granted there are some well written sponsored posts. However, for every well written sponsored post, there is an equal amount of cringe worthy write ups if not more. You just feel for the author as they struggle to string along a coherent, worthwhile 250 word blog post for us to read. If you are going to write a sponsored post, then please make sure it is of a place that you spent some quality time in, like more than 48 hours!
I HEAR YOU! Though I haven’t read these narrow-minded behaviours on blogs but seen them in the news. It’s really sad and disappointing especially when there is that assumption that the world should be the way they see THEIR world.
Agreeing personality here. Some people would just like fame, money, likes, and shares, some don’t even know what was really on the place because they only made it our pure research. Travel blogs should be informative, sensible, and cool.
I agree with you in part but I also dislike blogs that only see the positive side of travel and act like every place they visit is some kind of utopia. It’s fine to dislike somewhere, it’s fine to have bad experiences and it’s fine to blog about them.
I do agree that these experiences shouldn’t lead you to dismiss a whole country or culture though.
Really valid reasons..I guess I would as well hate a blog post if it were generalizing people or showing narrow mind or not respecting the culture and tradition of the place that it writes about…
I believe all your reasons are valid, especially about generalization. You can’t pretend like you’re the Tourism Ambassador of Whatever Country if you’ve only spent a few days there. Travel should be more about storytelling, not generalizing.
travel makes us more positive. love your writing.
Such a true observation. Especially when travelling through India I made the experience, that I was at many different people’s homes and the habits where very different everywhere (even in the same city) and locals denied things as being like this in their culture, that other locals had claimed before. So there is a great variety of people EVERYWHERE. It may seem impossible to find an objective description of countries at times, but we have to understand that those who we are meeting are individuals (with their own believes and customs).
Travel can really only bring benefit to the traveller, once he/she lets go of how things are back home.
A very well thought and written post. I agree some of the travel bloggers just highlight the negative thoughts, views, about the place and culture without having the in-depth knowledge for the same. I personally fell its good to mention both pros and cons in the post but only after validating and understanding the perspectives. Travel opens the mind and doors for so many actually.
Absolutely agree with your point of views. I also have to add, travellers don’t necessarily have to make judgements, they can see the world and narrate their experiences without actually deriving any inferences based on their limited interaction with the locals.
🙂
I agree on to some of your points here, while generalising elements when traveling, it’s still not nice to say good or bad about a certain place or situation just because we/ they’d had experience it. Traveling is supposed to be fun and however we do it, enjoyment is the best medicine.
ha ha I love this. I get very frustrated with some people who are very dismissive about countries without even giving them a chance. Also those who complain about how terrible somewhere is when they paid next to nothing. You get what you pay for!
Very interesting post! For me, travel is about experiencing another way of life and meeting new people (and that has happened even in my own state). It has broadened my perspective. I’m okay with some negativity in a post if it is warranted. I’d rather hear the good and the bad because otherwise the blogger can seem like they are selling a fantasy rather than relating a real experience. But needless negativity because the place is not like home is ridiculous. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have a travel partner like the person you described in the “real food” situation. That would make me crazy!