The world is full of well-meaning travelers and professionals dishing out travel tips and advice to would-be vacationers. But it’s not always useful.
In fact, I often hear less-than-helpful advice being passed on to Italy-bound travelers, advice I know will put a dent in their trip if they follow through with it. I hesitated to write this post because people pass on tips that are based on their experiences and they do so, I believe, to be honest and helpful to future travelers. The problem with that is their advice doesn’t always coincide with-oooh, how do I say this?-the law or even the norm for the country they visited.
It is also doesn’t take into account differences in personalities, travel preferences, money or time allowances and it assumes all travelers are the same.
photo credit: Alex Castellá
Some of the most reckless tips I’ve heard regarding traveling to Italy include:
- “Technically you are not supposed to fillintheblank, but I’ve never gotten caught doing it.”
- “I saw most of Italy in a couple of weeks, I think you can do everything on your list.”
- “You can go swimming in Calabria in November.”
- “Don’t waste your time in XYZ … there is nothing there but a crooked tower anyway.”
Last week I quizzed my Facebook friends and Twitter followers about the worst travel advice they’d ever received and here’s what they had to say.
Spencer Spellman of Carolina Nomad said his worst advice was being told his group could easily walk to their hotel from the train station. After two miles, up hills and along bumpy sidewalks-with their luggage-he added this tip to the worst tip file.
Lisa from Wanderlust Women’s Travel Dreams said her worst advice came from a travel guide that sent her-along with a Russian couple-on a search through Rome for the Porta Portese market.
Other misdirected advice included:
- “Go to insertcityhere.”
- “Don’t go to insertcityhere.”
- “Just reading one guidebook (or travel site’s) advice, read: ads!”
What was the worst travel advice you ever received?
Don’t forget to check out Robin’s travel tips today.
Until next time … Buon Viaggio!
Traveling to southern Italy? Click here to see how I can help you plan the trip of a lifetime.
Street art is truly uplifting. this web site art in the streets
The Birmingham Post (England) June 8, 2009 Byline: helga henry Ever since 1998, the month of May has found me on the sunny streets of Birmingham, sampling the weird and wonderful delights of the annual Fierce! Festival.
And although there was no festival this year, the Friday before last was no exception.
As part of the 2009 “for one year only” programme, Fierce! and our partners at Ikon Gallery presented the iconoclastic performer, Reverend Billy.
The self-styled anti-capitalist preacher (he exorcises the tills at Tesco containing “Wall Street funny money”) gave a blistering free performance in Oozells Square with his funky backing singers, the Gospel Choir of Life After Shopping.
Opposite the headquarters of the RBS, his giant quiff quivered to the message that what we spend our money on has an effect on the climate, our jobs and homes, in fact on the whole world.
Hundreds of people gathered to hear the word of the Reverend.
Still more happened upon him by chance. From the clapping, cheering, whooping and dancing of the crowd, everyone had a good time.
Art in the streets is uplifting and democratic.
There’s the chance that people will stumble upon something to make them laugh, cry or gasp.
As an audience gathers, they share reactions, jokes and vantage points.
They connect.
The critic Lyn Gardner said of The Sultan’s Elephant that this work “turns a million strangers into a community”.
It was the same in Liverpool, capital of culture, where grandmothers, toddlers and all ages in between waited for half a day for a view of La Machine’s giant mechanical spider as it paraded the streets with its live orchestra perched atop cherry-picker cranes. website art in the streets
Grand artistic gestures funded by public money may seem unnecessarily splashy in the current climate. But everything is relative.
Given the community cohesion this work promotes (it’s been proven that crime reduces during events rather than proliferates) and the city-promoting media attention it generates, they constitute good value for money. Some previous Fierce! highlights such as the Great Swallow (Benjamin Verdonck’s giant nest on the side of the Rotunda) or the much acclaimed Street Pianos (15 pianos in community settings emblazoned with ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’) were produced for the public money equivalent of two duck houses, a moat and some manure.
Or a fraction of one per cent of what we’ve spent to bail out a bank.
Play Me I’m Yours has, from its Birmingham beginning, taken place in Sydney, Australia, Sao Paolo, Brazil and is now in London.
But the city, and Fierce!, had it first.
n Helga Henry is general manager of Fierce Earth and chair of Creative Republic
Oh, I could write a book! But the one that I hear most frequently has to do with a hotel in the town from which we operate our tours. They tell their guests before arriving that they should not get a car, and that public transportation is excellent. Unfortunately, when guest arrive, they find that they need a 35 minute train from Rome to Orte, then an hourly (no sundays) bus to Soriano, which takes an hour, even though it is only a 15 minute drive away… Then once in Soriano, they have a 1/3 mile walk UPHILL, including 124 stairs… All with their bags. Sadly, I hear this every week, and guests often trust the hotel’s adice more than mine.
Ugh, Michael, that is horrible. I guess the hotel is misleading their guests because they are afraid they’d choose another place if they knew they needed a car? Also, regarding your clients listening to the hotel over you, I think that has a lot to do with people believing “what they want to believe” rather than the whole truth. Thanks for sharing!
.-= Michael´s last blog ..The Wine Is Always Finer On The Other Side of the Fence =-.
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I always give advices to travelers in my travel blog and are all based on my personal experiences… might not be the best tips one could give but hopefully they are not the worst either.
Oh, I’m sure they aren’t, Cecil. I was actually referring to people who don’t really go into detail and just say “you should go here” instead of “I liked this place because … .”
.-= Cecil Lee´s last blog ..Top 5 Reasons why tourists are traveling to Australia and New Zealand today =-.
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