Chris Guillebeau: “It’s cool, life’s an adventure.”

We are big believers in TripAdvisor’s hotel rankings and reviews, typically always checking them before booking travel.  That said, we know to take every review with a grain of salt since everyone has different expectations and tolerance for dirt, bad service, etc.  We also know that no trip will go perfectly as planned so going with the flow and not freaking out is essential. 

Here’s our friend Chris Guillebeau talking about his recent experience with what TripAdvisor dubs the “worst hotel in Guyana.”  Chris has traveled to over 100 countries and frequently meets up with aid workers and local folks in his travels.

We like Chris’s take on the situation and while we’ll take his advice not to stay there on vacation, we appreciate his laidback attitude about staying there: “It’s cool, life’s an adventure.”  Right on, Chris – have a great rest of your trip!

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Best of BT April

Since April’s Budget Travel includes an article titled “How it Pays to Be Green,” you might have thought it would be included in this edition of the Best of BT. You’d be wrong and we’ll explain the reasons behind its exclusion in another post coming soon.

An article we really enjoyed was “Over the River and Through the Woods” by Stephen Heuser.  While we haven’t set foot on the Appalachian Trail since those halcyon days of youthful carefree and pyromania at Catoctin Quaker Camp, we aren’t complete novices to the appealing contradictions of the AT: natural beauty, mud, monotony, wild animals, bugs, unmarked paths, edible mushrooms, poisonous mushrooms, switchbacks, blisters, and cool stream water providing refreshment as you’ve never known.

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Don’t Follow Us On Twitter

Using the interwebs is complicated!  We have just started getting the hang of this whole blogging thing and now Twitter’s all the rage.  See, even Joel McHale agrees:

Well, don’t expect us to start a Twitter account anytime soon but we do appreciate those of you who are tweeting (?) our blog posts around to the Twitterati.  Keep it up!

And while you’re at it, feel free to add us to your “reader” by clicking at the top of this page where it says “feeds: posts” to get each Mindful Tourist update sent to you directly.

In order to achieve our goal of World Domination Within the Confines of Socially Conscious Snarkilicious Blogs, we need your help, twigga!

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Shocker: Sarah Palin Tour Has No Takers

The Wall Street Journal reports that Alaskan tourism is experiencing a downturn that was a bit of a surprise to some who had counted on the “Palin effect” to bring more lower 48ers to the state.

Some are reporting that cruises and other Alaskan trips are down by as much as 50%.  Well, Palin did LOSE – maybe this IS the Palin effect, folks.

But in true socially conscious tourism fashion, Authentic Alaska Tours has created a Sarah Palin-themed tour:

Its one-hour “Wasilla Cultural History” tour explores the governor’s former high school, Wasilla City Hall and snowmobiles used in the Iron Dog race her husband competes in.

Geri McCann, the tour-company owner, worked at a city museum in Wasilla while Gov. Palin was mayor and says she knows the Palins personally. “She put Wasilla on the map,” Ms. McCann says. “If there’s a market, I’m here to meet the need and give a positive impression of who she is.”

The WSJ reports that no one has signed up for the tour so far.  Sounds about right.

(For more Mindful Tourist Sarah Palin fun, check here.)

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Say Hello to My Little Friend

Thanks to Benjamin Oportot, the Mindful Tourist now has a cute mascot.  Don’t get excited, boys, we don’t really look like this!

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Sustainable Tourism at its Finest: Protect the Cinque Terre

With all the reading and research that goes into this blog (don’t laugh, we’re being serious!), it is rare that we come across something that immediately prompts us to start planning a trip complete with dates, travel arrangements, etc.  We read magazines, books, websites, and blogs all touting truly amazing places around the globe so why is it that a certain website has lit a fire under us to travel to Italy in September 2010? 

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Behemoth Looking to Start-Up Blogger for Article Ideas

Radical idea, a resuable bottle for liquids

Fodor’s has just published an online article titled “Eco-tourism on a Budget: 6 Simple Eco-conscious Tips for Saving Money.”  Thinking that sounded right down my aisle, I started reading. 

“Wow,” my inner monologue snarked, “these tips sure sound like recent blog posts of mine, don’t they?”

Not to toot my own horn or anything (toot, toot) but here’s a comparison:

Fodor Tip 1: Stray from the beaten path
Me: Duh, my whole site.

Fodor Tip 2: Quench your thirst responsibly
Me: Lame tip, therefore no comparison.

Fodor Tip 3: Eat like a local
Me:  Eating Local in DC  and Eating Locally While Traveling (a Mindful Tourist guest blog on Lost Girls) 

Fodor Tip 4: Stay green in alternative lodging
Me:  Mindful Tourist’s Favorite B&Bs, Mindful Tourist’s B&B Wishlist, 3 Ways to Get the Most out of TripAdvisor, and Your Answer to Finding Sustainable Tourism Around the Globe

Fodor Tip 5: Move forward with earth-friendly transportation
Me: Eco-Friendly Transportation in Santiago, Chile

Fodor Tip 6: Think through your souvenir purchases
Me: Moving Past Trinkets: Socially Conscious Souvenirs and A Tourist’s Role in Archaeological Ethics

Fodor’s – the check’s in the mail, right?  Thanks.

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Crete is Much More Than Just Beaches

We recently read this descriptive and informative article by Jane Foster of the Observer, about Crete and some out-of-the-way destinations there. 

Some villagers in the small town of Vamos decided to form a co-op, fixing up stone cottages to be used as guest houses, and offering cooking lessons in a renovated oil press, communal meals on a long wooden table outside, and hiking tours through the nearby hills past frescoed Byzantine chapels.

Spring is the perfect season for hiking in Crete as the days are mild and the meadows speckled with wild flowers. From the village, I set off along a marked trail leading through woodland and olive groves and past two 12th-century frescoed Byzantine chapels. It’s possible to join a four-hour guided trek along the length of the green rocky Diktamos Gorge.

If you come to Vamos in summer, the sea lies less than four miles away, with sandy beaches complete with water-sports facilities at Kalives and Georgioupoli. Autumn brings farm activities such as the grape harvest and wine-making from August through September, production of raki in October, and the olive harvest from November to late December, all of which guests are welcome to help with.

Thanks, Jane – our already long List of Places We Must Visit just got longer!

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Karaoke Leading to Social Evils in Vietnam

Multiple Choice: What did the Chief of the Legal Department of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam say?

A. “Ecstasy always goes with wine and music. If the government doesn’t ban dancing at karaoke establishments, karaoke rooms will be misused by ecstasy users”
B. “In my opinion, karaoke is a cultural activity which is always latent with social evils.”
C. “Inspectors will decide who violates the rules and at what level. If someone dances to soft music and doesn’t drink wine, doesn’t scream, the punishment will be gentle.”
D. All of the above.

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Calling Poverty Tourism by its True Name

With the popularity of Slumdog Millionaire, we began to see more and more articles about poverty or slum tourism.  Since it left a bad taste in our mouth, we did a little research (also known as sitting on our arse and websurfing) here and there but couldn’t bring ourselves to write a post about it… until now.

Hannah Rubenstein’s blog on poverty tourism (or “poorism,” yuck) raises many interesting and important questions.  Hannah lived in Nicaragua recently and at one point was asked to take a group of American tourists to a nearby village, show them one of the typical houses, while introducing the large family that shared the one-room house to the tourist group.  It sounds like it was an awkward few minutes for several reasons, including no “pre-education” for the tourists, very little in the way of integration of the local family into the “tour,” and no preparation for Hannah herself.  It sounded almost like a zoo experience, the last thing anyone involved needs to associate this type of experience with.

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