A good mate of mine is a travel snob. I don’t mean he only flies first class and only stays in five star hotels – quite the opposite. His snobbery is rooted in the fact that he would NEVER do those things.
“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.”
- Paul Theroux
- Paul Theroux
He looks down his nose (or should that be up) at people who only travel for a week at a time, and stay in all-inclusive resorts in Fiji or Mexico. To him, travel must be difficult, dirty, possibly dangerous, but most importantly – cheap.
Now don’t get me wrong, pretty much all of the travel I have ever done has been difficult, dirty, dangerous and cheap – but now that I’m getting older (and wiser), I start to wonder if there is merit in the easy, organized, pre-booked sort of travel.
How does one make the transition from traveler to tourist? As I make the shift myself, I’ve compiled a short ‘to do’ list:
1. Ditch The Backpack
Yes it’s probably just a symbolic gesture, but the crappy old backpack that’s been around the world with me a few times will have to go. I’ll miss the vaguely spicy scent of clothes that haven’t been washed for two weeks, but I’ll get used to it.
I’ll start shopping around for a smart little bag that rolls on wheels. After all, I’m not going to be climbing up waterfalls in some remote village in Morocco anymore.
2. Find A Travel Partner
My fiance will be very happy with this suggestion. While backpacking travelers often vagabond solo, few ‘tourists’ go it alone. For a start, the luxury hotels in which I’ll stay would charge me extra for a single supplement.
Plus, since I’ll be visiting notoriously dangerous cities like Singapore, Vancouver and Cabo San Lucas, there will be safety in numbers.
3. Hotels – Not Hostels
No more sleeping next to 15 other dirty scabby backpackers farting and snoring their way through a cheap-rum induced sleep in some dorm somewhere.
From now on I’ll stay in real hotels with double rooms, no sleeping bags, no bed bugs and – best of all – no Japanese girls rustling plastic shopping bags while they pack their bags at 4 am!
(What is it about plastic shopping bags inside people’s backpacks? I think they should be banned from all hostels – not that it matters to ME anymore…)
4. Find Some Extra $$$
Since I’ll no longer stay at places like the hostel in Chichicastenango that charged me .80 cents (US) for the night, I’m going to need more cash – lots of it. When you add in the private transfers from the airport to the hotel, mini-bar costs, tips to private tour guides and so on, it really starts to add up.
5. Go Easy On The Gut
No more wondering which member of the rodent family my “beef steak” came from, no more buying bottled water with broken plastic seals, and no more “authentic local delicacies” in the streets of Asia, inevitably followed by five days of agony in “authentic local bathrooms”.
From now on my meals will be served, on plates – white plates – with knives and forks and everything.
Will I miss anything from my hobo-traveler days?
No… I will be deliriously happy reclining by my massive pool, in my massive hotel complex, sipping ridiculously expensive cocktails served to me by my massively underpaid and exploited waitress. I won’t ever need to think about what’s going on outside the fortified walls.
I won’t ever need to think about what’s going on outside the fortified walls.
It will never occur to me how fortunate I really am to live in a country where I take things like civil liberties, personal security and the availability of affordable fresh food and clean drinking water for granted.
Big pool, hot sun, a new issue of Vogue…how about another Pina Colada?
So there you have it. Just five easy steps and I will easily transform myself from traveler to tourist.
My mate has it all wrong doesn’t he? He can have his impromptu dance lessons with local folk in underground clubs. Who wants to spend a whole day exploring a new city on foot, with no itinerary? Why bother learning to speak another language by haggling in markets for fresh fruit?
I’ll take the massive swimming pool and cocktails.
Wouldn’t you?
Nicholas Bowditch spent eight years away from his beloved Australia in a quest to find the world’s most deserted beach, best dive site and cheapest beer. He is still on the lookout. He is an Independent Travel Broker and the editor of independent travel resource Aussie Escape.What do you think of the tourist/traveler distinction? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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Here’s hoping your buddy wakes up next to an unknown woman on the 15th floor of a Hyatt after binging on grasshoppers and fuzzy navels. Now THAT’S keeping it real, baby…
Would he be so full of guilt he’d run out and hide in the woods for a month, or would he pause a moment to chastise himself with a shower in the marble bathroom?
I wonder which choice gets you back to being adventurous faster.
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Oh no, not you guys too, BNT! I can’t get away from this tourist versus traveler thing the past few days. Matador, Vagabondish, Vagablogging, and now here…
The quickest way to prove you aren’t as much a “traveler” as you’d like to think (read: open-minded as a result of your interaction with other cultures) is to label a vast group of people as inferior and pat yourself on the back for your own supposed open-mindedness.
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Your type would say something like that.
Just kidding.
It’s amazing how travel gets hung up so quickly on how much money is involved. It completely misses the point. But that’s fine, because I think that “travel” misses the point as well.
You can go someplace and not see a thing, if your eyes are closed. Further: whatever you care to look for, you tend to find.
Lately, I’ve seen travel depicted as a counting-countries mission, a tough guy contest, a race to see how fast you can go native (or native-ish) and, my personal favorite: bedding 7 lovers in 7 countries.
Some may see all this as shallow, but that’s only if you’re expecting something more. Some people need to frame their trips with a particular mission. I think labels are for food. Just go for a walk someplace.
Ouch. I’ve been too clever lately, and my shoulder hurts from too much back-patting. Man, what I’d do to be in Thailand right now…
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It’s definitely a blurry distinction that separates the traveler from the tourist; a topic I explore myself in a previous article
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2006/12/18/we-are-all-tourists-now/I do think Nich made a few good points about how sometimes traveling in comfort comes at the expense of gritty experiences that in turn, are much more memorable after the fact. Having spent my own honeymoon in Costa Rica at various eco-resorts, it was an amazing time, but far from the intoxicating bustle of roughing it in Southeast Asia.
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Hey Ian, I really enjoyed your post, and the Fussell quote sums up part of what bothers me about a lot of this traveler vs tourist business, the self-deludedness of it.
But the other part that bothers me is the way it imposes on other people’s experiences and memories. I posted a somewhat indignant reply to Nicholas’ original Matador post, and he replied to say that he was essentially just hoping people would step outside of their comfort zones more often. That sort of comes up in your comment, too – “at the expense of gritty experiences that in turn, are much more memorable”. But that’s just it – who are we as “travelers” to say that something is *more* memorable than someone else’s probably cherished memories? And as far as comfort zones go, for some people, a bus tour of the Florida Keys IS going out of their comfort zone – way out. Comfort zones and memorable experiences are for every individual traveler (or tourist) to decide on their own, and no one should judge them for where they land.
Okay, I’ll climb down off my soapbox in a moment here, I swear. But a great post went up on Matador the other day that I thought summed things up nicely: http://matadortravel.com/travel-blog/united-states/jay-martin/the-travel-spectrum
At the bottom you’ll notice that I commented about how this discussion makes me feel like people are dissing my grandmother – and that’s really the heart of why I get so agitated about this whole thing, I think. Lumping all the people who travel in a particular style together, and then suggesting that those people don’t care about exploitation, etc, etc – well, that just hits a little too close to home. If anyone wants to tell me that my family takes civil liberties, food, and water for granted – well, they’d best come up to O-town and say it to my face…
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I don’t care how the hell anyone travels! What I want to know is: Why is Ian’s box gray?
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Yeah Ian, why is your box gray?
Eva – I totally get where you’re coming from. I remember reading Rolf’s thoughts on the whole worn-out tourist / traveler distinction – in his great story about crashing The Beach – basically, he finally decided that when it comes down to it, we’re all tourists. Or we’re all travelers. And it doesn’t really matter where you sleep, so long as you keep an open heart and an open mind.
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PS, Daniel, great comment, another pat on the sore back for ya!
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I don’t think there should be / is a distinction between traveler/ tourist. It should night-spent-at-home and night-spent-outside-home.
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Gday everyone.
Eva, I totally agree as I said before to you that it truly doesn’t matter which one of these supposed groups you belong to. What matters is that we get out and experience something a bit DIFFERENT to our lives back home.
If all nationalities broadened their universal experience en masse the way that New Zealanders or the Dutch do for instance, then perhaps, just perhaps, all of us global citizens would get along a bit better.
If you go to another country, sit in your hotel the whole time, maybe only leave it to go and eat at a restaurant or pub that is ‘themed’ for you to seem like you have never left your own country, and if you never even interact with any locals in your destination, then I just don’t believe that is TRAVEL!
I am certainly not saying I am right about that (and clearly posts on here and other places this article has appeared have backed that up) but to be quite honest I am stoked that I have been able to extract thoughtful comment on this topic at all!
Yes it was tongue-in-cheek. Yes it had just a bit more than a sprinkling of sarcasm. But if it changes people’s minds about travelling (or ‘touristing’) to the point where their own culture is enriched just a little bit by somebody else’s then I will be really happy.
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I thought he was speaking in irony towards the end.
Truth be told, for those of us who are true vagabonds and have no place to hang our hat in our respective native lands, a touristy experience is the closest thing we have to just… do nothing. Like he said – sip some alcohol, lounge in the pool, watch TV, and ignore your surroundings.
I don’t really see anything wrong with staying in fancy hotels or doing guided tours once in a while. You’re not seeing the country in a worse way, you’re seeing it differently, that’s all. It’s still traveling.
Not happy? Come back later and sleep outside with your backpack and $5 to survive.
Either way, it’s a new experience. You’re not going to taint the image of one particular place by acting like a millionaire the first time you visit. Besides, if you do go that route, you might have a better chance of fulfilling the 7-7 wearing a fancy suit and smelling of massage oils than sporting a t-shirt and jeans with matted hair. Eh, plenty of people go for that too. Best of luck.
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Whew! I thought Nicholas was being ironicable. It was the “find the extra money” part that clinched it. There’s no such animal.
There’s a real bite in this post: who doesn’t have that twinge when someone tells you, “don’t you think you can do it better with money?” You get this defensive “yerk!” in your gut because it’s so hard to explain to someone who doesn’t know where you’re coming from. That’s the energy behind this article.
It was Paul Fussell who made the time-honored distinction between tourist and traveler in his book Abroad. (He also wrote another called Class, about how there upper, middle and lower classes are really divided into 3 tiers each. That’s a fascinating idea…) If you want a good idea of what this thing Travel is all about, it’s wise to start there.
And another thing I like about this site: you’re all so polite to one another! I like this place so much I may move in. Friendly natives and all. Back atcha, Tim P.
Urr, my pitching arm…
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I have to wonder about the traveller vs. tourist distinction. I keep thinking that really, truly we are all just tourists in the end. Having travelled quite a bit I often think of what the people in various countries I’ve visited think about the folks who stay for a moment and then carry on. I certainly don’t think they would necessarily think of us as anything other than tourists, backpack, suitcase, what have you. I have found just as many people who call themselves travellers who are completely unaware of their surroundings as tourists, don’t kid yourself!
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It is really tiresome to read these same articles over and over again. There has to be something better to write about.
I’ve traveled with a backpack and stayed in cheap hostel/hotels not because I was a traveler vs a tourist but because I was a poor student with wanderlust. I now have choices whether it be the favorite cheapie ibis hotel in Paris, camping in the swiss alps or Morocco or a more upscale brand hotel in london or New York. We sometimes use wheeled luggage and sometimes pull out the old knapsacks but I am not defined by any of these methods and neither should anyone else.
As the saying goes “If you don’t live there you are a tourist” discussion over.
I enjoy this site but I hope in the future the writers will avoid the easy button and find more creative, informative or just plain interesting subjects.
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i love this article!
its so true, all year im a back packer and then one week in a year i do the normal week away in greece or some were like that for the family holiday and im amazed at how nice it is to break away from it all and be a tourist for a week!!
nice point you got there ;D
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From the multitude of comments, it is clear that this is a popular topic. And the reason that it is an ongoing debate is that we are constantly on the move and meeting new travelers.
When we meet a new traveler, an exchanging of credentials takes place. You trade your story for one of theirs. It is sort of like a club, which I talk about in the post mentioned by Eva.
I agree with what Tim said. Some places are poor, but many of them want you to come. And I would hazard to guess that they would rather you stick to the tourist-friendly areas than walk around for days sleeping on the street. If there are social problems, then we can include them in our stories or try our best to help out any way we can.
The point I am trying to make is: as long as we have those that seem to try to put down the travel style of others, or worse, accuse the traveler of making their destination worse by visiting, we will continue to have this debate.
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I find it amusing that most of the debate (at least for this aritcle)comes from travellers/tourists themselves rather than from people who work in the tourism/hospitality industry.
Having grown up in a tourist town, and consequently worked in the tourism industry, I think the labels are artificial at best. Does it matter to me if you are a “traveller” or a “tourist”? It matters to me that you treat us fairly, you contribute to our economy and that you respect our city and our people.
No one will ever be able to settle the tourist/traveller debate, but I think we can all agree it raises important issues about how we view ourselves in the world and how we treat others.
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In a child’s imaginary world, inanimate objects come to life of an evening and have the capacity for infinite adventures and mischief. With the passage of a few years of wisdom and time spent backpacking, one realises that this is in fact true.
However, the “other world†is solely inhabited by plastic bags, which become animate and migrate to the opening of backpacks, eager to escape at the first possible opportunity. This is usually in the early hours of the morning, in a hostel dormitory room inhabited by drunken late-comers, snorers, coughers and key rattlers.
Due to the lack of youth hostels in Russia, I got used to either renting a private room, sleeping the accommodation rooms at train stations, or even staying in shared doubles in hotel rooms.
I’ve just been reading this amusing post about “Going from Traveller to Tourist in 5 easy stepsâ€Â, and am a little alarmed at the ominous signs emerging “…”
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Aww man I think I will always be a traveller. Tourist vacations sound boring
-Scottt
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ladies and gents
much (and most) has been said, but its only my attitude that truly and deeply affects my travel experiences. Like missy said, eventually you are not defined by your budget or your luggage. I am defined by how I look at every place I visit.I do the same sanitised things everywhere (including drinking in every backpacker pub everyday everywhere I go), I am not discovering anything new in the place I go to or, or in myself. If I open my eyes, then it doesnt matter if my clothes are stained or have been washed in the hotel laundry.
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It’s your attitude to the people and place that defines whether you’re a traveller. You can travel with a backpack and still be a tourist. I’ve met many a tourist in backpacker hostels and I’ve met a few knowledgeable, respectful travellers on the road, not all that many because obviously we travel on different levels and in different circles.
A traveller takes the time to make friends and learn the language and customs. He eats in the local cafes as that contributes to the local economy rather than heading for the nearest Macdonald’s because “that’s safe and familiar.”
A traveller has respect for the local customs and doesn’t get annoyed because “they don’t speak English” or they “don’t make fries the proper way.”
A traveller is not someone who does 10 countries in 10 days just to show photos of him back at the office.
A traveller doesn’t think he is the most important being in the landscape who, because he’s spending a “fortune” should get his money’s worth.
A traveller counts friends made rather than museums seen.
A traveller has no fixed itinerary and often, no destination.
Travellers are not thrill seekers. They’re often content just meeting ordinary people and doing ordinary things.
And travellers say “You” more than “I”.↵ -
Haha, it's $6 a gallon for milk on O'ahu… all the tourist think nothing of spending thousands of dollars in a week… I also find it hilarious to see the diffrence between Wikiki and the rest of the island.
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1: Backpacks. I once travelled with a sort of carrybag instead of a backpack. What a pain it was! Backpacks are just so practical.
2:Travel Partner. No. We’d annoy each other to death. Travelling with another traveller when your paths cross is great but when your paths diverge, off you go.
3:Hotels. Maybe. Avoid the rough hostels and at times use the cheap hotels.
4:Money. Yes more please! But more $s equals a longer trip.
5:Gut. Well, yes eat a bit better but who wants to give up on Asian street food or your own cooked feast in a hostel kitchen?↵
