Tourist information centres: as useless as tits on a bull?
July 3rd, 2008 by Tim Uden
Many people rely on tourist information centres whenever they travel. They are often a good place to get free city maps and find details on new attractions and accommodation options that may not yet be in travel guidebooks.
As someone who writes travel guidebooks, I set off with a list of every known hostel in each destination. But I’ll always try to visit an information centre to see if there are any new hostels that I somehow wasn’t able to find out about. We include every single known hostel in our guides and this is a good way to ensure that we don’t miss a single hostel.
Tourist information centres are not always so helpful and sometimes the people who work there can be as useless as tits on a bull. Sometimes they have an ulterior motive to promote members of the local tourist association at the expense of - often better - non-members and sometimes they are just plain clueless.
Many tourist information centres are funded by membership in the local tourist association. Hotels and local tourist attractions pay a membership fee that goes towards covering the information centre’s expenses and promoting the destination. When you visit the tourist information centre they will only tell you about their members and in some cases they will lie to you and tell you that other places don’t exist and even tell you to avoid the non-member businesses.
If you are travelling in Western Australia you may see flyers advising you against a certain hostel and telling you about a, supposedly better, alternative. You’ll see these flyers in hostels (particularly YHA hostels) and tourist information centres. The hostel is not particularly good, but it is no worse than many other hostels in the region, particularly other hostels that display the flyers advising you to avoid the hostel. The recommended alternative is not a hostel at all, but some cheap rooms above a pub with a depressing and unwelcoming atmosphere. Word on the street is that the tourist information centre is bullying the hostel because they refused to join the tourism association - that’s about as childish as union members bullying workers who choose not to join their union.
Because many information centres are funded by membership fees, the information centre’s job is to promote those businesses rather than give you honest advice. An example I experienced is the information centre in Coober Pedy, South Australia. I called in and asked about the hostels; I was told where the hostels were but after asking which was best I was told, “I’m not allowed to tell you that”! That’s because they can’t be seen to recommend one place over another. It is hardly a place to come to for honest unbiased advice.
Sometimes the information centres are just plain clueless, particularly if you don’t represent the average visitor to that destination. A few years ago on a trip around the UK I called into the information centres in Birmingham and Leeds (at the time neither city had any hostels) and asked about hostels in the local area, in both cases I was given a list of homeless shelters. That’s like asking the opening hours of the city museum and being given directions to Boots the chemist.
When you’re travelling it is important to see tourist information centres for what they really are: a good place to get free maps and ask directions to local attractions but not a place for independent unbiased advice.
Two new BUG guidebooks on the way
June 27th, 2008 by Tim Uden
You may have noticed that I have been a bit quiet in this blog and on the forums for the past six weeks or so. That’s because we have been busy finalising our latest two guidebooks, which finally were sent off to the printer on Wednesday.
We have been working on these two books since November last year and when it came down to less than two months to the deadline, the books suddenly took priority over everything else. This meant that posts to this blog and my presence on the forums was reduced to a trickle. During the last six weeks we’ve been working till 2am every day and in the last week our work day was extended till 4am. Yesterday I caught up on some much needed sleep - 20-hour workdays tend to be a bit exausting.
Every new edition of our guidebooks has been better than the previous edition, and this is no exception. This time we had the backing of a major publisher, which meant that I was able to send a few talented writers on the road to visit and review over 1000 hostels in Australia and New Zealand. The new reviews are more detailed than previous books, we also have coverage of new destinations, expanded coverage of places to eat and drink and we have redrawn all the maps so that they are clearer and easier to read.
The next couple of months will see us update the website with updated information that we gathered while researching the new books.
The 4th edition of BUG Australia and the 3rd edition of BUG New Zealand will be in bookshops in October.
Stay Fit
May 8th, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
It’s hard to stay fit when travelling around. The gym is far away and the delicious-but-unhealthy food stalls are just ‘round the corner. The solution is to think different.
Tales From Nepal
May 8th, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
Yes, the great temples of Nepal are great memories. But small, crazy moments can be equally memorable.
At this rooftop, in Nepal, I had to hang on for two long hours. The stomach of the bus was packed and the roof was full of people and caged chickens, and we all went down one of the heavily unsteady and rocky roads of the Nepali north.
The bus kept bouncing up and down, for each turn we were hanging on for our lives and I could feel half a dozen of bruises developing as the driver continued to ignore the BREAK and the BIG HOLES IN THE ROAD. Then, God saw my misery and decided to punish me further, rain on that non-believer! he said, perhaps, as big and hard drops of rain started to bombard us.
The driver ignores the thunderstorms and it seems like he tries to win over the weather, no-one or nothing stops me from beating my record!, he thinks, perhaps. Then a little boy climbs up to us, we are bouncing like ever before and our bruises are multiplying, water is slapping our faces and now we have to reach for ticket-money, and then the sky is covered by lightning, we are laughing and crying and we’re all in deep, deep pain.
A bus ride in Nepal is never just a bus ride.
Fun Is BAD
May 8th, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
BA State of Mind
May 8th, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
Buenos Aires
Che, titties and jesus. But – where is Maradona?
Where to see wildlife in Australia?
April 21st, 2008 by Tim Uden
I meet a lot of backpackers travelling around Australia who tell me that they have been travelling for several months and still haven’t seen a live kangaroo in the wild. Dead ones don’t count - since they’re everywhere - and going to a wildlife park is cheating. So what’s the secret to seeing a kangaroo in the wild?
Well there are several spots where you’re virtually guaranteed to see a kangaroo in the wild. Here’s a short list of the top places to see wildlife in Australia:
- Pebbly Beach in Murramarang National Park, NSW. Not many backpackers make it to this national park on the NSW south coast between Bateman’s Bay and Ulladulla, but it is one of the best places to see kangaroos on the beach. There is no public transport so you’ll need a car (although most rental cars aren’t allowed on the unsealed roads in the park).
- Grampians National Park, VIC. Most kangaroos in the Grampians can be found around the Zumstein picnic area, but you’ll see them elsewhere in the park as well. The small village of Halls Gap is one of the few places where the locals aren’t telling porkies when they tell you that kangaroos are hopping down the main street of town.
- Barrier Highway, NSW. The drive from Dubbo to Broken Hill would be one of the world’s most boring stretches of road if it were not for the kangaroos hopping in front of your car. If you leave Dubbo around midday it will get dark shortly before you arrive in Broken Hill increasing your chances of seeing kangaroos. Take it easy and if you’re driving a rental car make sure your travel insurance reduces your excess since there is a high chance that you may hit a kangaroo.
As for other native animals, you’ve got a good chance of seeing emus in the Flinders Ranges, SA; you’re sure to see a few quokkas if you go to Rottnest Island, WA and if you’re lucky you could spot a rare cassowary around Mission Beach, QLD.
Going Green
April 5th, 2008 by Thomas Maresca
Having driven more than 4500 kilometers around New Zealand in the last month, and having flown several thousand more to get here in the first place, it’s hard not to think about the environmental impact that traveling has. New Zealand already gets 2.4 million tourists a year; now imagine the growth of economies like China’s (New Zealands’s fastest-growing tourism market–new direct flights from Beijing have just begun on Air Zealand). Something has to give.
Obviously, the greening of travel has already begun in a number of ways. Carbon offsets are increasingly common options for travelers, and sustainable ecotourism has been around for quite some time (although generally this is geared towards more upmarket travelers.) Still, these feel like nothing more than baby steps. Is sustainable long-distance travel even possible?
On my wanderings around the North Island, I came across a number of hostels that are addressing this issue on an individual-scale basis. A few of the more interesting places you might want to check out:
Tree House Backpackers Lodge, Kohukohu: They don’t make a big show of it, but the owners of this place have been restoring the forestland around their property for nearly 30 years, long before it was fashionable. You’d think you were staying among natural gardens surrounded by wild native bush, but almost all of it was planted and nurtured by these enterprising and friendly people.
Solscape, Raglan: This hostel/lodge is more upfront about its eco-message. Set high on a hill with lodging ranging from old train carriages to tipis, the owners are striving to make the whole operation as self-sustaining as possible. The tipi area is completely off the grid, generating its own power and water, composting waste, etc.
Mel’s Place, Hicks Bay: This small place along the East Cape is also trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible. The owners, a Maori couple who run fishing charters, practice sustainable fishing and are very articulate about describing the Maori relationship to the land and its resources.
Just a few examples of local-level eco-conscious travel—you have to assume we’re going to be seeing a good deal more of this in the coming years.
On Being a Kiwi
April 5th, 2008 by Thomas Maresca
Seen on a Wellington bathroom wall:
I don’t know about you, but I am not a flightless, defenseless, half-blind bird with a really big nose.
I did manage to see a kiwi, in Otorohanga (“The Kiwiana Capital of New Zealand”) and they really are kind of ridiculous. Bigger than I’d expected, and round and silly-looking, a furry ball with a long beak. Not what you would call an impressive creature (although cute.)
It makes you wonder why a bird like this even exists.
The Maori have a good origin story. Tane Mahuta, the lord of the forest (and the name of the biggest kauri tree in NZ, in the Waipoua Forest), noticed that the bugs on the ground were eating roots and making the trees sick. So he asked for a bird to come down and live on the forest floor to eat the bugs. He asked the tui, the pukeko, and other native birds but all refused—too dark, too damp, too busy building their nests.
Finally, Tane Mahuta asked the kiwi, and the kiwi agreed. The lord of the forest warned that this would mean that the bird would lose his wings and beautiful feathers, but the kiwi still consented. For his noble sacrifice, Tane Mahuta promised that the kiwi would become the best-known and most-beloved bird in the land—which it certainly is, no matter what it says on the walls of Wellington.
V Australia to start trans-Pacific flights
April 1st, 2008 by Tim Uden
V Australia, the latest offshot of Australian low cost carrier Virgin Blue, started selling tickets for its first route (Sydney-Los Angeles) yesterday. The first flights on the new airline will be in December 2008.
V Australia was set up by Virgin Blue to serve the Australia to USA market, which has long suffered from high prices due to very little competition. It was hoped that the introduction of a budget focused airline to this route would shake things up a bit and introduce a much needed price war. With just a handful of airlines flying between Australia and the United States, the relatively short 14 hour flight from Sydney to Los Angeles often costs more than the much longer 24 hour Sydney-London flight. Unfortunately the introduction of V Australia does little to lower the price.
The first 1000 return tickets are selling for AUD $999. I did a test booking to work out what the regular fare on their Sydney-LA route will cost and came up with a return fare of AUD $1898.
I understand that there is little competition on the Sydney-LA route, even with the launch of V Australia, and that the new airline wants to be profitable as quickly as possible. But I expected much cheaper fares.
To put things into comparision, Sydney-LA is only a 14 hour flight in each direction and you can fly Sydney-London (not on an a LCC, but on a full service airline) for around the same price, which is a much longer 24 hour flight. In other words a return Sydney-LA flight on V Australia costs around the same as a return Sydney-London flight but you get around 20 hours less in the air.
Twenty fewer hours in your airline seat should account for much lower fares. The standard return fare between Australia and the California should be around AUD $1000, but instead V Australia want to charge you almost double.
We need a real low cost carrier on this route. Air Asia, Tiger, Jetstar, Ryanair, anyone?