It’s officially summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and our social media feeds have braced for the inevitable tide of seaside snaps. It got us (Divya and Diana, hello!) thinking about how we all travel now, how it intersects with recommendation culture (which we have spoken about in the past) and how we can balance accessibility of contemporary travel and mass tourism with the need to protect a place — whether that’s about preserving some part of its essence, or just its literal physical existence.
Reality and illusion have a particularly wide gap when it comes to travel. In May, Divya was invited to write about a hotel in Greece and was days away from getting on a plane when her reservation was cancelled because the hotel was still under literal construction. Its social media was flawless; there were online writeups about it; it had already landed on three online listicles rounding up the best hotel openings of 2024. Without it… even existing. Who knows what to believe?
Pack your bags, and let’s discuss.
What’s been on our minds this past fortnight…
Diana: It’s obvious that the way we find places to travel — and places to eat, see and visit within the place we’re traveling — has changed a lot. I guess our mode now is primarily visual: you see a picture of a place online and you think, I’ll add that to the list.
Divya: Absolutely. We make all these invisible equations in our minds between an image/short video and the wonderful time we imagine the person posting it has had. Where in reality… it’s our imaginations/associations/sense of envy doing most of the heavy lifting. I think that’s what I love/miss about good old-fashioned travel writing, as a way of taking advice on how and where to go.
Diana: Yes! Because it’s so not about the picture. It’s about the narrative. I love reading stories of the Grand Tour, or like, A Moveable Feast (about Hemingway in Paris). It’s all about what he eats and who he talks to and the vibe of the place. You can’t capture a vibe in a photo. There are so many places you go that are so beautiful and the vibes are terrible… often because they’re actually just a set, and everyone around you is the self-styled photographer.
Divya: I guess that’s what happens when travel becomes accessible to a bigger part of the population than just, like, aristocrats. I read that 80 percent of travellers visit ten percent of the world’s tourist destinations. Is the overcrowding of a place — to the point where it’s kind of lost any of its original appeal — the price we pay for more people being able to actually see it? It feels like such an intractable problem.
Diana: It’s so complicated. I feel like as travel has gotten more accessible — with budget airlines and Airbnb and even Google Maps — governments have started to be like, actually, this industry can’t grow forever. I guess that’s why places like Barcelona are banning Airbnbs and Venice has introduced an entry-tax.
Divya: I also think it’s people who have always been able to travel or assumed they will travel who turn their nose up at travel becoming more accessible — like, oh, they ruined it when they got here. It was nice when it was just us.
Diana: Definitely. And it’s still such a privilege to travel, even though it’s more accessible. I read somewhere that 85 percent of the world’s population has never been on a plane.
Divya: But we also have this idea that travel shouldn't be… easy? I feel like there was this moral panic of sorts when people started writing lists of the best places to eat in a certain city. Or even when Tripadvisor first started. Like, if other people know about this, then it’s ruined. Surely we can find a middle ground?
Diana: Yes, I remember this. I think the idea was like, travel should be edifying. Like, if you didn’t find a great meal by wandering around sweating for hours being ‘othered’ by the locals, then can it really taste that great?? Whereas now I’ll defend anyone’s right to go to a European capital and seek out the closest thing to their local cafe. Like, people are allowed to go on adventures, but they’re also allowed to have a relaxing, frictionless experience.
Divya: Do you remember the website Culture Trip? I went on there all the time right after uni when I was travelling. I remember being shocked at the sheer amount of content — like how have you got a list of the 10 best vegan restaurants in Romania’s second-biggest city? How could you possibly know? I mean, they obviously don’t. They collate things into lists without having experienced them, and I think readers are mostly aware of that.
Diana: I think at least with listicle culture, though, a place didn’t have the ability to go as viral, as quickly. So if you were very-online (e.g. me circa 2019, lol) Culture Trip might shape your holiday. Now, however, I feel like TikTok has reached such a scale, it affects everyone — even people who aren’t on it.
Divya: Yes, you’re right. This NYT piece about the Parisian gelato and wine bar that’s been forced to hire bouncers sums up that dynamic I think. It’s not just a very online person going to a venue and being dismayed that everyone there is also very online and they haven’t been swindled out of what they thought would be an ‘authentic’ experience. It’s also that it affects the experience of people who haven’t sought out a hyped thing — like, the locals can’t enjoy Folderol anymore.
Diana: Yeah, exactly. It’s not like, things become uncool when too many people know about them. These days, it’s like: if the whole internet finds out we’ll have to shut down. And it’s not just businesses: the same thing is happening with overrun natural sites. Like how Thailand had to close that famous Leonardo DiCaprio beach, because the wildlife was dying. Accessibility comes at this very real cost. Like it’s not just: if everyone sees the thing, the thing isn’t cool anymore. Now the stakes are: the thing won’t exist.
Divya: True. And obviously, people have been having conversations about ethical travel for decades, but the environmental guilt feels new.
Diana: How do you feel about flying? Like, in a carbon emission sense?
Divya: Honestly? I have moments of guilt. And… I don’t change my behaviour. Which is terrible.
Diana: No, same. Sometimes I’m even like, better fly heaps while I still can 🤪 Which is so selfish! But I was talking to this engineer recently, who works in climate change, and he was saying that banning long-haul travel is probably the single most significant thing we can do to reduce emissions. He basically thought it was inevitable.
Divya: Oh, God.
Diana: But, you know, he said the Concorde used to take you across the Atlantic in four hours. When it shut, people got used to the idea that a 4-hour journey had become an 8-hour one. So he was like: our children will just get used to the idea that, if you want to cross the world, it takes weeks.
Divya: All aboard the Euro Summer… barge, I guess? Italy, see you in six weeks (bring the seasickness tablets).
What we’ve loved this past fortnight…
Divya
Object: I’ve never had as many compliments on a pair of shoes as I have on these two-tone velvet Flabelus Mary Janes. Side note, I went to their latest store’s opening in Notting Hill the other week and watched a pug (invited) knock someone’s glass of champagne out of her hand and all over a rack of these very pretty, very absorbent shoes. Dogs and velvet need not mix, I think.
Experience: In the spirit of this newsletter, I would like to recommend this Visit Oslo promo video which made me lol… and want to visit Oslo. It’s called ‘Is it even a city?’. Hope that intrigues you…
Taste: Austria is an underrated country for many reasons — Vienna is one of the most fun and liveable cities I’ve ever been to, it’s relatively affordable, the art is excellent — and another big one, I think, is the food. Sacher torte, anyone? Wiener schnitzel? I am currently in the mountains in the southwest of the country and gluttony has been my guiding travel instinct.
Diana
Object: On the travel theme, one of my personal hangups is the extra luggage charges on cheap airlines. It’s a punitive, nasty, unrewarding little game, which I simply refuse to play! My personal hack for when you’ve stubbornly limited yourself to 1x over-the-shoulder bag: a large canvas book bag, which looks deceptively small so nobody ever asks you to weigh it. I’ve traveled for a whole week out of just my LRB tote. The Daunt one is also the same proportions.
Experience: I recently moved into a flat with a TV and have been indulging in good old-fashioned Telly (i.e. sitting up to a whole episode at a time, rather than catching snatches lying down on my laptop). I know I’m literally a decade late lol, BUT! The first season of True Detective is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. So intelligent, cinematic and unbelievably well acted. Definitely one to watch on the biggest screen you own.
Taste: The weather is particularly dire in London right now but this apricot upside-down cake almost makes it taste like summer. The best bit is the faux-caramel topping. If you’ve ever destroyed a pan trying to make caramel, only to have it melt all through the inside of your oven, then you’ll appreciate this alternative.
Until next time!
Divya & Diana xxx