Travel Writing
New Grumpy Traveller guides I’m still working on getting the redesign for the new look Grumpy Traveller done (see this post for explanation), but one major thing I plan to concentrate on is offering genuinely useful city guides. By this, I don’t mean generic blather about the main attractions that seems to pass muster on [...]
Continue reading about What information should be in a good travel guide?
Earlier this week, I wrote a post that was intended as a satire. Many people seemed to miss what the satire was about, but the conversation spread to other blogs and over Twitter. I hate having to explain jokes. It’s generally a sign of a failed joke, but it seems as though some explanation is [...]
Our guide puts his finger to his lips. We mustn’t disturb them in case they run for it. “They’re very sensitive to intrusion,” he says. “The slightest disruption can make them squawk in anguished pain. And if the herd starts stampeding, they can start lashing out wildly without any rhyme or reason.” We’re huddled behind [...]
Continue reading about On safari in Jordan: The world’s new wildlife-spotting hotspot
Changes coming I’m writing this down and publishing it, partly to inform, but mostly to force myself to actually do what I’ve promised myself for a long time. Over the next few months, I’m going to be making a few changes to Grumpy Traveller. How online publishing will change A couple of days down [...]
Continue reading about Grumpy Traveller: A (slightly) new direction
As one of the more enjoyable parts of two shop-talking days, I sauntered along to Travel BlogCamp 2011 on Tuesday night, with the heavy elephantine feet of a man who had spent a day talking to irrelevant people on big flashy stalls. I’m still working out my overall impressions, but here are a few things [...]
Continue reading about Travel Blog Camp 2011: A few random takeaway thoughts
In recent times, I’ve encountered a few press trip frustrations that, from my point of view, just didn’t need to happen. It got me thinking – what would my ideal press trip consist of? Well it obviously depends on the stories I’m going to research, but this little lot just about covers it… A [...]
“You shall visit us next time you come to Tampere. We have four saunas.” By this stage, I want to crawl through the floor into a little grubby hidey-hole. There are some times in life where we do something because we feel we ought to rather than because we want to. In my line of [...]
Tonight, I wrote a review of the Munich guidebook I’ve been using. It brought up bigger issues of experienced authors perhaps remembering a place they once knew rather than a place it currently is. For some reason, the comments aren’t working on that page, so if you’d like to discuss the issues brought up, please [...]
Continue reading about Experience versus freshness in travel guide books
One-on-one tour On the e-mail, the words I secretly dread appeared. “We can offer you a guide for three hours,” it said. My heart sank. In many ways, having a personal, one-on-one guided tour around a city should be the ideal way to discover it. They can show you the best bits, explain the history [...]
Continue reading about Why private tours don’t work (for me)
An approach… I want to share an e-mail I received last night with you all. It went as follows (with the odd bit of evidence blanked out): “Sorry for the unannounced email. The reason I am contacting you is because we are running a competition for [redacted product aimed at 16 to 25 year [...]
Continue reading about How not to promote your product on travel sites and blogs