Lara DunstonSo why should we care so much if publications like the New York Times get their ‘hot new destinations’ lists so wrong? Because our leisure time is important to us. For those of you who don’t travel for a living, those one or two trips a year should be special. They should be memorable. They … Read more about Why travel wish lists matter, or, why a lack of imagination is a dangerous thing
So what’s wrong with the New York Times list?* LAOS, over Cambodia and Vietnam, because they are “so 2007”, and yet Vietnam is included further down the list (?). Does the NYT not realise most travellers visit all three together, and all three are only going to get hotter;* LISBON: NYT tells us it’s “emerging” … Read more about What’s wrong with the New York Times ’53 places to go in 2008′ list
It’s that time of year when we all go crazy creating lists: gifts we plan to give, goodies we’re going to buy to eat, the Christmas Day menu, New Year’s Eve resolutions we’re going to make, and places we’re going to go in 2008. It seems just like yesterday that we shared some of our … Read more about The season of listmaking: the New York Times ’53 places to go in 2008′
There are people out there who enjoy the banalities of travel other than myself. Anne at Prêt à Voyager writes about the joy she gets out of the mundane wherever she goes. She recently discovered a wonderful book called Mundane Journeys which exalts the little things that people pass everyday in their neighbourhoods that they … Read more about The travelling mind-set: mundane journeys and the banality of travel, part 2
Do you take pleasure in the prosaic aspects of everyday life? Do you get just as much of a kick out of the commonplace and the ordinariness of your surroundings as you do the exotic and atmospheric? Alain de Botton writes in The Art of Travel about the travelling mind-set and its main characteristic: receptivity. … Read more about The travelling mind-set: mundane journeys and the banality of travel, part 1