This one is always trotted out whenever the writer wishes to describe an area that could do with a lick of paint/ is a bit backward. And, yes, I’ve used it myself.
On a cliché level, it’s not the most obnoxious one out there, but it’s a shoddy simile. How can you compare a place to [...]
Continue reading about Travel writer clichés: 15 – Like travelling back in time
Yes, yes, we get the picture. Abu Dhabi is the new Dubai, Tasmania is the new New Zealand, Montenegro is the new Croatia and – probably – Walsall is the new Wolverhampton.
This cliché, to be fair, is more of an editor-driven crime. Many a writer has turned in a perfectly good, cliché gun-free piece on, [...]
Continue reading about Travel Writer Clichés: 14 – “The New…”
Don’t know anything about architecture? Can’t think of a good way to describe the building in layman’s terms? Why not use ‘ornate’? It can mean absolutely anything you want it too, providing it’s slightly more complicated than a big block of concrete.
And, yes, I have to confess to using this one more than a few [...]
OK, this one is not so much a phrase that is used by travel writers. But it’s one that most travel writers will recognise.
When we get assistance from PR companies and tourist boards, it’s only polite to keep those PR chaps and chapesses informed when an article comes out.
Personally, I send an e-mail with the [...]
Continue reading about Travel writer clichés: 12 – “That’s great. Thanks!”
Why bother researching the history of a place, and the nuances of traditions and customs in a certain destination? That’s fearsomely hard work.
Far better to just skip it altogether, and just say the place has “a rich cultural heritage”. It’s OK – the reader will know exactly what you mean, and you can go back [...]
Continue reading about Travel Writer Clichés: 11 – Rich cultural heritage
Travel writers have a whole different colour palette to ordinary folk. Maybe they’re just special. Take ‘verdant’ for example. Where the average pleb would just call a hillside “green”, a travel writer knows that they’ve already used “green” a couple of times in the piece and thus needs to diversify to avoid repetition.
Thus “verdant” comes [...]
Fans of travel writer clichés (especially those who love a good hidden gem), may be interested in this map I knocked up this afternoon in lieu of doing proper work.
I could have kept going for hours and hours and hours…
This one is a particular favourite of Mike Gerrard from Pacific-Coast-Highway-Travel.com. He’s right, too; a word that was once used to describe genuine icons such as the Eiffel Tower or Sydney Opera House is now used for absolutely anything.
In any reasonable terms, an icon is something that can be used as a symbol or instantly [...]
Or, as it’s better known, horrendously overcrowded and full of people trying to sell you things you don’t want.
Vibrant and bustling are instant signs of a writer who’s a bit too old for the third world backpacker thing, but doesn’t want to admit that they’d prefer something a bit more upmarket and relaxed.
And, yes, I [...]
Continue reading about Travel Writer Clichés: 8 – Vibrant/ bustling
To pick one word that no-one ever uses in real life is a bit odd, but to combine two is just ridiculous. The rules of travel writing hackery dictate that “veritable” and “smorgasbord” can never be used independently of each other.
They also tend to be used by people that don’t appear to know what either [...]
Continue reading about Travel Writer Clichés: 7 – Veritable smorgasbord
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