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.
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.
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?
Fruit and Loathing in Western Australia
March 5th, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
Forbidden fruit
In one of his well known stories, the great doctor of gonzo and bad craziness Hunter S. Thompson is on the road with the trunk stuffed by illegal cargo. The car which is blasting through the Nevada-desert is getting dangerously close to the state border and he has to get rid of the goods. However, it’s decided that the wide range of hard drugs he’s carrying is altogether worth too much money to be just thrown out of the window. The problem is solved by sniffing, eating and smoking all of it.
Closing up on the South-Australian border I find myself in a similar situation.
Dead kangaroos are laying bloody and destroyed alongside the dusty highway, the sun is going down, Joni Mitchell pours out of the car stereo and I’m eating fruit like a madman. The road from the West to Adelaide is long and my Ford Laser’s stuffed by food for 72 hours. Three days with cookies and donuts isn’t too tempting, so walking the healthy way I pack up big bags of apples, bananas, pears and carrots. In the next three days I can make up for all the greasy & easy meals. Then I pass a roadside-sign which tells me that a $2500 dollar fine is the price I’ll have to pay for my fruity truckload. It is illegal to carry fruit across the Australian state borders, and all of a sudden I have 12 apples, 10 bananas, 5 pears and maybe 15 carrots to get rid of in half a day, before the end of WA is reached.
Thanks to the Australian fruit police my road trip in this country mutates into an experiment. This is my hypothesis: Will I physically turn green? As in, what will happen when the body is force-fed with this veggie-overload? Will I turn green, or will I grow 10 inches closer to the roof, will my vision reach telescope level, will muscles build me up overnight in the same way Peter Parker turned Spidey?
Time will tell.
Royal Tourism
March 3rd, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
The beautiful Hutt River Province
The second biggest country at the Australian continent is a monarchy ruled by Prince Leonard – an old, nice man in his eighties. The young kingdom was founded in 1970 and today it has a population of twenty.
The Hong Kong-sized nation has a bushy, West Australian landscape full of caravans and industrial-type machine wrecks, a setting that not even a sunset are capable of making pretty. But it has lots of charm though; you’ll find sculptures, a tea-house and a nice chapel that the Jesus-man himself would be proud of. A governmental office is also set up, and visitors can apply for citizenships and passports.
His Royal Highness is a very nice and friendly man and a visit to his land is a great postcard-story. Despite its tiny population, Hutt River Province is a country not to be messed with – an eternal battle with the Australian government now seems to head for the courts at the King’s initiative. The province’s official independence is the case and Prince Leonard ensures that their case is strong, and with legal help from their French, British and American friends David might beat Goliat.
Prince Leonard and his Princess
Fishy Superstars
March 3rd, 2008 by Isak Ladegård
Monkey Mia is completely dominated by a big tourist resort, but amazingly the white and beautiful beach still feels exotic – pelicans wander around casually and dolphins swim inches away from exited and camera-snapping representatives of the human species.
Isn’t it weird how these fin-carrying fishes instantly are considered friendly and harmless, in despite of their sharkish appearance? Did everyone watch Flipper when they grew up, or are we born with this dolphin good/shark bad-instinct?
You see kids and parents swim after them, wanting to touch, hug and play. And you see that the arrogant dolphins don’t care too much of their fans. They aren’t scared of them either, it’s just like they’re all thinking bloody tourists. Or maybe they’re just used to the spotlight, the fame. (They act a bit like attractive girls that are very well aware of their attractiveness)
Apparently Dolphins listens with their jaw, and their teeth are arranged in a way that works as an array or antenna to receive the incoming sound and make it easier for them to pinpoint the exact location of an object. (Thank you Wiki) Maybe this is why they didn’t seem to response to my let’s-swim-together initiative, or maybe their just popular enough to be picky about their friends. No fish-feed, no swim.
Melbourne airport top five in the world…
February 29th, 2008 by Tiffany Miller
Melbourne Airport has recently been named as one of the world’s top five for passenger service. It came in behind Kuala Lumpur, San Diego, Zurich and Vancouver.
Funny, then, that I had two of my worst ever travel experiences there. When I flew in a couple of weeks ago from Brisbane, I was walking to the baggage claim when all of a sudden the entire airport (or at least the terminal I was in) lost power. It was a mere ten seconds before they came back on, but apparently it was enough to cause an hour-long delay for our baggage to come in. That was not fun, especially in light of the fact that I had two friends who I hadn’t seen in years waiting outside the terminal for me.
I went back a few days later to catch a flight to New Zealand. When I arrived at the counter without my onward ticket printed out (oops…) the woman told me to go over to the Hilton Hotel to print it. Not being able to leave my bag behind their little counter, I hauled about 30 kilos of stuff over to the hotel only to find that their computers were down. Back to the counter, directed to the (closed) Emirates offices, back to the counter, directed to (closed) internet cafe, finally found internet which I needed coins for and three different businesses in the vicinity would not give me change, emailed document to JetStar manager, ran to JetStar counter at other end of airport to pick it up, back to counter just in time to check in before closing. Phew…
So I get to the gate and hear the loudspeaker switch on. “Attention ladies and gentlemen, due to some technical difficulties there will be a departure delay for flight numbe……”
Top five, eh? In all fairness, it may have just been that few hours I was there. I have had the tendency toward bad travel luck in the past two weeks… But at the time, I probably would have rated it somewhere in the 3,000th-4,000th bracket, especially thinking back to the wonderful world of Vancouver and Zurich Airports, which offer quite a bit more than good duty-free shops and Starbucks.
Mungalli Creek Dairy
February 28th, 2008 by Tiffany Miller
While in Australia, I drove through the Atherton Tablelands, which was one of the most scenic parts of my trip. I was on my way through Millaa Millaa when I saw a sign for the Mungalli Dairy Farm. As I am, admittedly and strangely, obsessed with eating yoghurt, I recognized the name from the supermarkets in Queensland. I had no idea what it would be like, but just had to jerk the wheel and check it out.
About five minutes of driving down a narrow lane, I came to what looked more like someone’s home, perched quietly on a hillside under the shade of a few tall trees. It had just a small sign wedged outside the door and a few cars in the stone car park. Turns out it was a book not to be judged by its cover.
On arrival through the door, I was greeted by a jovial woman with a platter of 6 different cheeses to sample. I tasted them all, while watching through a glass partition at the workers and machines making the products. They seemed extraordinarily content with their work, like some episode of I Love Lucy before things go haywire. I half expected them to start skipping and whistling. In any case, it was interesting. And when I finished the cheese, the woman brought me a few small cups of yoghurt to try. And when I finished that, I ordered (yes I was hungry) a slice of (the world’s best) orange-chocolate cheesecake. I sat outside on the verandah with heaven on a plate and a panoramic view of green pastures and distant verdant hills. Afterward, the woman came and sat with me and told me all about the dairy farm and the process of making bio-dynamic yoghurt. I walked out to my car feeling like I might start skipping and whistling.
There were only a few people there when I was, but I think this place deserves to be better known. Though they affectionately call it the “Out of the Whey” Farmhouse, it is not actually all that far. It is the perfect place to break up a drive for some tea, lunch or a delicious treat, and everything is fresh and locally produced. To put it plainly, it is a pleasurable, inexpensive, educational and healthy (if you dont have too much of that cheesecake) addition to the itinerary. What else could you ask for?
Hyundai Accent (rental car review)
February 28th, 2008 by Tim Uden
I had booked a Hyundai Getz for a week driving around Tasmania to update the Tasmanian hostel information on BUG. As usual I asked for a small manual hatchback as they are economical fun cars that I love to drive.
The problem is that rental car companies think they are doing you a favour when they upgrade you to something bigger and I ended up getting upgraded to a Hyundai Accent, which really pissed me off as I hate driving big cars. I know there are many cars that are a lot bigger than the Accent, but it feels like driving an ocean liner when compared with the small zippy hatchback that I had requested. Maybe AVIS should try harder and actually give people the cars they ask for. I guess it could have been a lot worse; they could have upgraded me to an automatic.
After getting settled into the bridge of my ocean liner I negotiated around Hobart’s waterfront and set sail for the Huon Valley. As usual for big cars, it was clumsy to drive and awkward in the city; but I found it surprisingly agile on the open road and it even handled quite well on Tasmania’s many narrow winding roads that make up a large portion of Tasmania’s road network.
Like other larger cars that I had driven. It had an uncomfortable driving position that feels like you are reclining near the back of the car. It is probably just something to get used to and I suppose that people used to big cars would find the opposite uncomfortable when they get behind the wheel of a small car.
It also had the annoying habit of setting off the alarm whenever I turned the key the wrong way when opening the car door. Maybe I have a problem with opening car doors but I’ve been driving for the past 20 years so I figured I should have worked it out by now. I was relieved to discover that it wasn’t a problem with my door opening abilities when, on my travels around Tasmania, I saw other people set off the alarm in their Hyundai rental cars too.
The car could have had a bit more oomph, but it wasn’t as gutless as I expected and it had enough power to zoom up some steep hills. It was one of the better big cars that I had driven but I still would have preferred the car that I had asked for.
