Yes, it's true. First, delete tik tok. Next, on Instagram block the account or enter keywords you don't want to see and the content you're seeing will change. Block, block, block. Also just less social media...more grass :)
I’ll go even further, is there any good reason to use Instagram if it’s not for business purposes? What happened to just sharing photos with close friends and family?
Instagram is how I share photos with friends and family.
And, to each their own, but social media is how I've been able to keep up with hundreds of people I wouldn't otherwise be particularly close with - many of whom are couches to sleep on in countries or cities I'd like to visit.
You can still use it that way and of course that is still an element of the app, but the way they have it designed now is to just be as addictive as possible. Your friends/family aren’t posting enough reels and video content to fill your feed the way they want, so they have to shove endless content in your face from so called creators and influencers to the point that it comes to basically dominate your feed and make the app more of an ulta-effective distraction machine than a way to keep up with friends and family.
That’s been my experience at least. Had to get rid of it because while I do like keeping up with people, I find I waste far more time on it looking at random shit than I spend communicating with people I know
It really did become this way, and they have so real unethical policies. Now I feel bad sharing something I find beautiful on there because I feel I'm contributing to the scam.
That hasn't been my experience. The app displays recent posts from people you follow first, and only gets into suggested posts after you've seen everything from the past 3 days. And if I don't want any suggestions, there's a button at the top labeled "Older Posts" which turns sets my feed exclusively to posts from accounts I follow.
There's also an option to just... Disable suggested posts.
You have a better chance sending them the photos directly because they won’t even show you content from the people you follow - it’s mainly ads and suggested posts.
Fr. It's odd but it's far more normal to keep in touch with someone by simply commenting on a story on their IG than sending them a random ass text some random day of the week.
People make up excuses to justify their behavior and actions. For instance, people buy cars they can't afford and justify it with "I need a car to go to work." What did people do before social media?
I don't need social media in the same way I don't need to travel.
Just because I don't need something doesn't mean it isn't a fulfilling or useful tool.
This is exactly what I do. I post on FB only for my family and friends. I don't care about tiktok or instagram and showing my stuff to strangers.
It's ridiculous how there can be 100 people waiting to grab THE 'gram while I can take photos as great walking to another spot 5 or 10 minutes away. I have seen deserted places that were beautiful, exactly because people create checklists from social media and don't care about exploring.
I now try to discover places and areas that are less likely to be visited by foreign tourists.
This is so much the fun element of traveling, discovering places that feel untouched, like you're some kind of explorer, even if that's not really the case.
For example, I discovered beautiful places in Osaka that were only visited by locals... Even if it was 10 minutes of walking from one of the biggest touristic spot.
Sure, there are things I still want to see and enjoy, but tourists just wanting to check their list makes it such a pain. For example, I went to enjoy a maiko performance in Gion, Kyoto, but there was so much tourists just trying to snap photos on the streets... Some of them just blocking door entrances, going in forbidden areas or private properties and stuff like that for "their instagram"... Fucking annoying...
I think there is. It’s a great way to be exposed to your interests or hobbies. For example, I like IG for photography, car/motorcycle, and music content. I pretty much block or hit “not interested” on all the travel content as I find it generally cringy or am just not interested for the reasons mentioned by OP.
The key is to limit your time on it and not just aimlessly doomscroll.
Yes there is. I have met new people through instagram or met up again with people I knew before because I saw they posted on IG and are in the same area as me.
Yea drives me nuts when people say things like “I can’t post anything fun cause people will accuse me of not posting anything supporting x,y,z cause”. So either post and ignore people or don’t. It just doesn’t matter. Reddit is my only social media, curated to my hobbies, and I live in blissful ignorance of every “controversial” topic/opinion.
Came here to say this. OP, if you're annoyed by something that you can intentionally and easily remove from your life, then why do you continue watching this "annoying" content?
90% of the people who gripe about social media will never do this. Because at the end of the day they still prefer the convenience of being plugged in and informed about everything.
It's a double-edged sword. Back in the days when specific clothing was sold for travel (like those ugly "travel shirts" from the 90s lol) and perpetual travelers were a fringe group, traveling was also much more inconvenient. No Uber, so you had to rely on shady local taxis. Moving money around was much harder. etc etc.
I went to the Solar Furnace of Uzbekistan last year, independently (that is, without a tour). Uzbekistan is one of those places that is not too difficult to travel to now, but in the past it was quite an ordeal—too much for me to consider. Anyway, the Solar Furnace, I found out about through a few travel blogs. I think I watched one very amateur video in Russian on YouTube before going just to make sure I wasn't in for any unexpected or unpleasant surprises. There was still plenty of mystery before going (to be honest, there is *still* plenty of mystery after going, too). It was probably the most off-beat experience I've had in another country, other than 4 years in rural South India. These places are still out there, though of course we kinda do need the internet to find out about them.
Yes! If you're annoyed by social media on a city, don't go there. Go someplace else. Also clean your algorithm.
I kept getting IG posts on Japan. I got so annoyed by it, I just changed my plans this year and I'm not going to Japan. I'm going to Uzbekistan, lol. I can't wait. Nothing in my social media has popped up about it. I don't know anyone who's been and I'm being forced to read blogs to plan my trip. I can't wait.
Nice!
Speaking of being forced to use old-school resources to plan your trip (and I'm only mentioning this because you aren't likely to do this or need the info, and if you did decide to do it I'd suggest you not, lol)...
My trip was actually Kazakhstan->Uzbekistan. I wanted to find an alternative to flying to Uzbekistan, since for once I was in a place where traveling onward to a neighboring country by land was a feasible and actually somewhat reasonable (on paper) option.
First thought was train, but horror stories about border control when going by train turned me off the idea. Then I thought about buses. The problem is that there is hardly any up-to-date information anywhere, even in Russian, and the websites for the bus stations in Central Asia don't look particularly reliable. Eventually, I stumbled upon [this vlog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LPAcyFjLCs) with the details of a sleeper bus that goes from Almaty to Tashkent. Travel time 16 hours. Perfect!
(Yes, it's a vlog, but it's so matter-of-fact that it might as well be an old website or forum post lol)
Everything about this—and it did *not* go 100% like in the video—was an adventure. I'm very glad I did it, since the whole thing led to some memorable interactions (among other things, I literally had a reverse Borat moment in Kazakhstan, and also saved $100 versus flying, at least), but I would not recommend it, especially if you don't know Russian, and nor would I do it again, lol. If I had to do it over again I might take the advice I was given to fly to the city of Turkistan, which is closer to the border, spend a day there, then take a much shorter bus ride out to Tashkent the next day.
First off, how did you even find out about this bus if you don't know any Russian? lol. It took me some digging.
- No one at Sairan bus depot speaks English, or at least I would not expect anyone to. So buying a ticket, which you need to do in advance—and bring your passport—would be the first obstacle. The cashier setup is like at a bank with thick glass between you and the clerk, so good luck trying to manage with Google Translate.
- Before I bought my ticket, I needed to check something on my phone, so I just stood off in some random spot inside the building. Apparently I was standing in the line of sight of some tiny old grandma working at a kiosk and she didn't like that. She actually came out and pushed me and said "something something Работатйте" (get to work!). It was really weird but if I didn't know Russian I would have thought maybe it was some sort of racist thing, or who knows.
- There are seats inside the building, but apparently that's not where people wait. It's better to just go out to the rear parking lot (you'll have to show your ticket to someone in a booth toward the back) and wait by the numbered bay. You could miss your bus otherwise—I have no idea how/if they announce it inside.
- Whatever bus was in the video is not the bus that I went on. It was a different company altogether, and the physical setup of the seats was a little different. (Perhaps better since you can't see the person in front of you, but also slightly less comfortable depending on your sleeping position.) By August they might be using another different company, who knows.
- The bus driver was Uzbek and spoke no English or Russian. No real issue in an of itself, other than that it would have been nice to know beforehand that no food (and probably drinks?) are allowed on board, and neither are bags larger than a purse. (Or bags that the driver could not easily see all the contents of at a glance?) I had to re-queue twice after frantically trying to figure out (1) where to put the fresh snacks my Airbnb hosts gave me for the bus ride, and (2) where to fit my carry-on-sized backpack after most of the cargo hold was already full. I was wearing a hoodie so I managed to sneak in my reusable water bottle and a small ziplock with my power bank and stuff.
- There is one bathroom break around 10pm IIRC. As with all bathrooms in KZ, you'll need a 50-tenge coin to use it. Change is not easy to come by these days in heavily-cashless Kazakhstan. I withdrew way too much (40,000 tenge, about ~$80) at the airport when I arrived and using it up took some effort.
- The food stop is not fixed. I was kinda banking on it being the one in the video since he showed the menu and I at least had an idea of something I could order (I don't eat red meat, so navigating food in Central Asia for me is a challenge). I actually wasn't hungry when we stopped, but everyone had to get off the bus regardless. The place where we stopped had a couple other busloads of people eating there as well. The vibe was really... strange. I saw a guy who was really struggling to get someone to bring his bill, and I thought with my luck I'd be that guy as my bus is announcing the last call. I didn't really have high hopes for the food anyway, so I just stood around and waited awkwardly in the cold. There was a young Chinese couple in the same boat.
- Money changers hop on the bus around 7AM as you approach the border. They're all fair—no one will rip you off. I had enough leftover tenge on me to get a nice wad of som, which turned out to be a Really Good Thing (as you'll see later).
- The border checkpoint was heavily congested, so the bus stopped some 500–700m from the entrance. We got out, got our luggage from the hold, and proceeded onward. My first surprise was to get a quasi-KGB interrogation at Kazakhstan exit immigration, lol. Nah, the questions were all pretty normal, but since I'm used to nearly silent officers everywhere else in Asia (including upon entry into Kazakhstan), it was quite unexpected. And in Russian too. (Though the officer did also speak English, so not speaking Russian wouldn't be a cop-out!)
- Upon exiting the other end, I don't see my bus or any place where large buses would be waiting. There were buses driving by out front occasionally, but they were city buses. I noticed the Chinese couple was also walking around, confused. They hopped on one of the city buses. My first thought was "Our bus left without us!" but it's not like the Chinese couple and I took much longer to go through immigration than everyone else. Nah, the bus only went to the border and then turned back to Almaty! It never intended to go all the way to Abu-Saxiy station as advertised.
- Thankfully, the city buses, at least [Route 169](https://tashtrans.uz/2023/03/21/otkryt-novyj-avtobusnyj-marshrut-169/), which goes between the border and Shahristan metro, have room for big luggage. Only 1400 som, which is like $0.11, lol. I misheard the guy and thought it must be 14,000, but he refused. Later someone came around asking to see tickets. I paid the driver and he didn't give me a ticket or anything, so I had to explain to the guy that I already paid the driver. BTW I noticed later that for all city buses in Tashkent, as well as the metro, you can pay with contactless/Apple Pay/etc. Uzbekistan isn't nearly as cashless as Kazakhstan so this was a pleasant surprise.
Ultimately, it's a combination of two experiences: Long-distance bus travel and border crossing on foot. The border crossing on foot is an interesting experience, not totally necessary, but if you really want to experience it, you can eliminate the long-distance bus travel: fly to Turkistan, check out the mausoleum there, and then buy a bus ticket to go to the border. Traveling overland would have been better if there was a high-speed train on that route similar to the (very nice!) high-speed trains that operate along the tourist trail of Uzbekistan (Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara).
The train is really easy, although you have to stay awake when you’re going over the border so it’s probably better in the day - download Google translate - Russian and you’ll have no problems. Found a decent amount of people who spoke some English - went last week
Downsides to the Almaty>Tashkent train are
- it’s not faster than the bus (WTF)
- I heard that not only do you have to stay awake while the officers come on board to check and stamp passports, you are not allowed to use your phone or anything for the duration they are on board either. Yeah, no thanks
- you have to deal with your luggage yourself (I don’t know what the luggage situation is, but at least on a bus you know there’s a hold and someone to manage it)
I’d say it’s much more comfortable than the bus, we had a bed and private room.
We used our phone as normal and they weren’t on the train long. The only annoying thing was staying awake at the start of the journey as it was 4am.
They said the border was 20 mins away but I think the whole thing was more like an hour, maybe a bit more - but we just sat in the cabin.
Bags we just put in our cabin - there was above counter space to put it in and the floor.
So yeah maybe the key is to have a cabin?!
Yeah, if you don’t have a need to test your Russian skills (that was half my reason for going) then just save yourself the hassle and fly. Save your energy for the travel experiences that are actually worthwhile!
Oh, if you’ve already been to Japan, then I don’t think the current popularity should put you off going completely, except to Kyoto or maybe Tokyo. I was recently there for the first time in 15 years, mostly Osaka, and was surprised how little it’d changed from my memory. It wasn’t crowded in the way that I imagine when people say a place is overrun.
In fact, even in Kyoto (well, Uji) I managed to find a temple that was empty (granted, the temple architecture wasn’t the main highlight).
As long as the yen stays weak, Japan will continue to be popular. And why not! Japanese goodies will never be cheaper, haha.
You're probably thinking of Turkmenistan, which is the North Korea of the region. If you can even *get* a 5-day visa (which is more like a lottery, as the rejections are random and criteria not transparent), you probably won't be left on your own very much.
Even if you don't watch the content, the people you see in the places you visit also changed. A lot of people go to places for content, not experience.
Also, some places like Bali became too popular, overpopulated and changed the island in a negative way (in my opinion of course). I also would add crypto to that social media list.
Some people show the ugly side of traffic and trash all over the beach and I appreciate the 'real' side of the situation. Sad that Bali has gotten ruined for many.
Is nobody else seeing the blatant irony of these kinds of comments on a digital nomad sub..?
There are plenty of people who enjoyed travelling more when places weren't full of people working on their laptops everywhere and gentrifying places.
The internet is a double edged sword. Everyone here gets to work and travel, and along with that, people are working as travel influencers. We're all doing the same thing - using the internet so we can work from where we want. God forbid *other* people also want to travel.
If you don't want to consume travel content it is very easy to block hashtags and accounts, curate your algorithm, or just... not be on TikTok and instagram.
Lots of people here are not understanding that it is more about the annoyingness of the vloggers and people making this content. They give local people the impression foreigners are dumb narcissists. They also influence people you interact with since a lot of people watch this brain rot content.
Another part of it is there is no mystery anymore. Even when instagram was just photos you would see a photo and you had your imagination still. Lonely Planet would give you a paragraph and a picture.
That's gone and i think a lot don't understand it because they didn't do it before everyone and there brother was a vlogger. It's was a totally different experience.
Wanting to be another person going to the most popular places but being upset that they are popular is kind of ironic though. What makes you special?
The vast, vast majority of people posting here are not Vlogging..
Even before social media you had everyone packing into the same places publicized in guides like lonelyplanet. It’s not that different imo. Most places changed mostly due to the volume of tourists increasing overall. There are more disposable income middle class and package tourists now.
I don’t use tiktok at all but most youtube travel people have a few million subs and maybe 1-2m views if they are a big channel. That’s a drop in the bucket of worldwide engagement.
The big difference is LP travellers chatted to each other. Phones didn’t exist, and most didn’t even take pictures or video. The vibe was much different in cafes or bars in SE Asia.
It's mainly about the lack of professionalism now and brain rot that is influencing people. It's an epidemic. Lonely Planet had actual writers and research done. It wasn't some dude who worked in accounting quit his job and now walks around spewing nonsense into his phone camera using clickbait captions and thumbnails. This garbage content gets millions of views.
I live near a major tourist destination (Edinburgh) and I haven't encountered annoying vloggers. Occasional tour groups blocking the pavement posing for group shots beside the Greyfriars Bobby statue and that's about it. No different than ten years ago. TikTok and Instagram haven't given us a new reason to loathe tourists.
AirBnB had already given us all the reasons to loathe them we could possibly need.
How much travelling did you do before people were travel vlogging?
I glanced at your comment history to get a feel for your age and damn, you're toxic... almost nothing but negativity
its such a ridiculous take too. There's so many hidden gems everywhere. I've seen bioluminscent algae in very touristy places, where no one ever mentioned them.
There's a lot of problems everywhere, people rehashing the same stuff doesn't affect that there's an infinite number of things to see or experience everywhere
Totally agree.
Take Indonesia for example. There are something like 17000 islands in Indonesia. Tip to tip, it's bigger than the US. However, the overwhelming majority of foreign visitors go to *one small island*.
Yes, the logistics of getting to remote places is still somewhat challenging, but there is loads of adventure to be had.
Ha, logistics like… “buy an airplane ticket and sit on a flying bus for an hour”. I mean, I’m with you, it’s sort of crazy that people don’t go to more places in Indonesia. It’s got a *lot* to offer.
But… let’s be real, the real reason most people are afraid to go anywhere in Indonesia outside of Bali is because they’re afraid of Muslims. They hear “Indonesia”, think “wait isn’t that an Islamic country?” assume that it’s Saudi Arabia and choose somewhere else for their holiday (meanwhile, it’s way easier to buy a beer in Muslim Indonesia than Hindu India…). Bali’s been successful because it’s not ‘branded’ as ‘Indonesia’ in travel literature and the like.
> But… let’s be real, the real reason most people are afraid to go anywhere in Indonesia outside of Bali is because they’re afraid of Muslims.
Sadly, you're at least partly right. However, I don't think that's the whole story. Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Dubai are popular destinations. It's also worth noting that there are lots of Christians in Indo as well.
TBH, I think people just don't know much about Indonesia in general. Often people think Bali = Indonesia.
Regardless, people's apprehensions and phobias are exactly why there are still so many "hidden gems" waiting to be discovered.
I just saw a video in the last day or two on Instagram where someone was saying basically, I don’t get up early to see things like every influencer says I should because I go to more out of the way places and so get up whenever I want.
I sent this to a friend of mine thats currently working her way down through east Africa, who I’m able to follow because of instagram. She’s just passed 100 countries this summer.
I’ve spent so much of my life living by my own map and compass (and I’ve been on instagram since I was 19) that I’m almost caught off guard on the rare moment when I’ve happened to be somewhere at the time the crowd is there. It’s so easy to avoid by and large.
Even before travel vlogging, there was still video cameras. My grandad took his huge JVC camcorder videoing every inch of places in America that him and my nan travelled to, commenting on what he was filming. It’s so great to look back on and see how things have changed. What’s the difference between him doing that and someone going to a beach in Thailand and filming it for content in 2024.
Thank you. Yea, sure, social media is annoying but did it “ruin” travel? Not if you genuinely enjoy traveling and visiting different places and learning about different cultures and shit. The only thing that ever ruined travel for me was not having money to travel more!
No one is forcing anyone to consume that stuff. I'll give you that vloggers can't be avoided IRL, but there's a small enough amount of them that encountering them is a very rare occurrence (at least in an invasive way.)
Countless restaurants and cafés in Bali have changed their entire decor and menu to cater to Instagram because it's such a powerful marketing tool. Not to mention things like people leaning over your table if you have a nice view to get a photo of themselves there. Doing full photo shoots at the next table disrupting everyone around them by moving the table and moving chairs around to get better lighting It's not as simple as just closing the app and not consuming it. It's changed the very fabric of a lot of these places.
True, although I chose a "mysterious" place in the Balkans to have my base out of and it's currently packed with tourists post-pandemic. I think all the places that had few rules during the pandemic got attention from vloggers and made people aware of them. It's been strange to see groups of 30-40 people following someone with a flag (ie, tour groups) and hearing English on the streets all day.
There’s plenty of people on this sub that say “go to the famous destinations, they’re great, they’re famous for a reason”. And that’s fine, not my personal cup of tea, but I’m not going to lecture someone just because they want to spend their holiday in Santorini, Pisa, or Ubud.
But like… if you’re finding yourself **not enjoying** the big famous places because of social media, vloggers, or [insert XYZ], maybe just… try going literally anywhere else besides the mega famous tourist places?
I live in Bangkok and *maybe* I see a vlogger once every couple of weeks. You literally need to walk, like, 20 minutes in any direction outside of the tourist haunches and you’ll barely see any tourists.
Totally agree, the less touristy countries are awesome.
Even super touristy countries like Vietnam and Thailand can have a lot of mystery too, if you design your trip to focus on more authentic neighborhoods and cities. I’ve been living and shopping in many local only areas and no one speaks English, no tourists around, food is insanely good.
They're almost always incredibly friendly and welcoming. Some have even given me their numbers without being asked, and told me to message if I need help with something.
Often they are very curious to see tourists if they don't get many and find me entertaining. I am really into street food/local food and there are a lot of funny adventures that come with trying to order mystery foods.
*Apologies for teh BACK-IN-MY-DAY post but*
In many ways travelling before ubiquitous internet was better in general. I consider myself fortunate enough to have done my backpacking in 2008-2009.
I *had access* to internet, but it was something you had to seek out and pay for. I didn't have a smartphone, or a laptop so I couldn't log on to wifi. I literally had to go to an internet cafe, or nab the one computer terminal at the hostel.
I have backpacked (shorter trips, a few weeks max) since, and maybe its me or maybe its the tech but:
i) it feels less organic these days -you are booking everywhere in advance, you never just show up at a small town and find a hostel anymore. You also have seen or heard of most of the experiences you want to do before you get there - so they are less of a surprise to you, and can be underwhelming because of that. Before, the only real pre-cursor you had was a short paragraph in a lonely planet. No photos, and certainly no influencer videos.
ii) it is less possible to disconnect from home. You are literally connected constantly to all of the people from your life at home - your parents, friends, grandparents, employers etc. It makes it more difficult to just truly live in that moment. Some of the best times in my backpacking days were just lazing around on some outdoor deck with a view of a river or soemtihg playing backgammon with random Danes or Colombians, fellow hostel guests. Or playing cards with some locals in Cambodia. I feel like these experiences are far less likely to happen these days - purely because the natural inclination when you're bored and alone is to pull out your smartphone and facetime home or whatsapp with friends.
I was looking for this take. I think for me, the peak of hostel hopping backpacker adventure was early 2000s. You had access to a lot of constantly updated information, so you knew what was worth visiting and when and how, which made planning a lot more efficient than in e.g. the 90s where a lot of devloping places would be really hard to visit unless you spoke the language or hired a guide. You could search for cheap flights and bypass the booking agents, had access to resources like map quest, and some booking sites like travelocity existed, but overall a lot of what happened just had to be improvised and figured out in the moment. It always felt like adventure and discovery. Cinque Terre before Rick Steve's killed it really was a little paradise. I went back in 2019 and wow, what the fuck happened to that place.
The best era for cultural exchange with locals was probably the first few years of airbnb, early 2010s, when you actually stayed with real people in their spare room and had authentic and memorable interactions in amazing places. That unlocked something that you couldn't get as easy in the 2000s, when due to lack of a website to facilitate it, homestays were very rare and chance finds. Of course by 2016 airbnb had started to decline and now it is practically unusable. The sad thing is that those two eras of travel only lasted max 10 years each. They never were possible before that time and they will never happen again.
But we can always choose to emulate those experiences. Just choose not to use your phone for everything and see where the adventure takes you.
Staying with actual people is (maybe was) such a gem. We did this in Scotland and had a lot of cool experiences because of it, including a local open mic at a small pub.
But you’re right that you can emulate some of this. When we travel, we make a small list of “must do”s and “areas to avoid”. Then, when we’re there, we leave a lot of slack in our schedule and just wander. No phone, no agenda, just following our senses.
Silly take. I've been traveling for a very long time, and long before there were vloggers and Instagram models, there was *Lonely Planet* funneling all the tourists in the same spot, and people taking a thousand pictures of old ladies by the side of the road. People are just as entitled as they've always been.
The nature of tourism hasn't changed. And just like before, the key to avoiding these trend-chasers is just to go to lesser-known destinations. It's true on a country level, but it's even true of a very touristy place like Thailand. Hell, you can be in Bangkok and avoid the dumb tourists. Just go where the vloggers don't go.
Firstly, if you hate it so much then delete the Chinese spyware brain rot app. Your life will be better for it.
Secondly, yeah some vloggers are a dbags but I’ve discovered literally like 30+ towns/cities I’ve been to from vlogs/YouTube videos. Wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago
Was just in Europe for two weeks. Additionally to OP’s statement, the amount of dodging, pausing, and side-stepping you have to do to avoid assholes with selfie sticks and puckered lips in the middle of narrow walkways…and some actually looked pissed your there, just walking by, in their fake world. Hated that shit.
France, Switzerland and Italy specifically. Toured some great medieval towns. Narrow stone walkways, stairways, etc. Everybody wants a nice photo but it’s rude for influencers to jam up foot traffic and lay the guilt trip on you for passing by.
Thailand was *always* an ordinary place with ordinary people living ordinary lives. Everywhere is.
Was the illusion of mystery the only reason you traveled?
I rarely bother researching a place before I arrive, besides logistics. More out of laziness than being deliberate, and certainly I miss things as a result, but it means I experience a new place with complete novelty, being surprised by how a place is different from where I left or so forth.
Although I agree that all these western social media twats made everything worse, there's no-one forcing you to watch any content? You seem to be blaming others for your media choices. Odd
I don’t have TikTok, I don’t use reels on Instagram and I don’t follow any travel bloggers. You created your own problems, so don’t blame others. Nobody forces you to watch content you are not interested in.
I am a bit older and travelled to places like Thailand before Instagram and Tik Tok were a thing. Back then everyone just went to the top destinations of the various Lonely Planet guide books. It wasn\`t much different in this regard at all. And to be honest the ppl taking pictures excessively aren\`t westerners either.
Same here. I'd argue that now, it's actually *easier* to find so-called "hidden gems" as most developing countries have wayyyy better infrastructure than 10-30 years ago and are much safer as well; the internet has made ripping off tourists much less profitable.
I disagree it has ruined some popular places like Japan but given us access and information to new destinations. Also it allows some poorer areas to make a lot of money now. The people in this sub are off the rails and post information which is completely wrong
I agree that the internet has taken some of the mystery and pleasant chaos out of travel but people who complain about travel influencers ruining things are really overstating the case. 1) you infrequently see these people in the wild, certainly not enough to really interfere with your day, and 2) more importantly you are probably part of the problem! Stop consuming online content. Delete the apps. Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk.
In fact if you wanna take it a step further OP you should stop using Google Maps, [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) or Airbnb, Couchsurfing, Tinder, and all the other digital conveniences that make travel easy but also sap it of the randomness and unpredictability that was par for the course before the internet. Buy a Lonely Planet and get recommendations via word of mouth, not online shit tailored to juice the algorithm for profit. I'm not being sarcastic, you might actually find you prefer this way of traveling to recapture the lost magic.
Even more sad that you can’t live your life due to other people.
And yes I agree I’m not that big of a fan of bloggers etc. but let people be happy. Ignore the noise. Do your thing. And you’ll be happy.
I started traveling before digital cameras even. There was something magical about sharing stories of life in other places that were rarely even shown on TV and movies. Or when your guidebook only had a handful of photos from an entire county. And, rarely coming across another American anywhere. Sigh.
glad i never register to Tiktok
also on Youtube, i never watch location i never visit yet
so yeah most of my travels, usually i have no clue what's the place looks like
I've lived all over the world for over 20+ years and in some heavily touristed areas... Central London, Maui, Amsterdam, and Miami to name a few. There's always been an influence of some sort in beautiful destinations... whether or not it was Anthony Bourdain talking about amazing food in unique places on TV or National Geographic magazine in print. The problem is the 'new' media and people behind the 'influencing' suck. They have no respect for the local culture much less fellow travelers. It's gotten out of hand. I'm considering a move to somewhere that is off the beaten path that is amazing and my gut instinct is to want to share how cool it is... but it's undiscovered and I wised up to not be one of those people who contributes to its demise.
I say this as someone who does travel-related content. I'm a ninja, You will never see me. I will not be a douchebag that contributes to the nauseating behavior of bad travelers and shitty "influencers".
I only post helpful stuff for people considering a destination (very practical stuff) - which isn't sexy or meant to show a location in a light that is likely not accurate. But these people that are out there with cameras everywhere and destroying places with their bad behavior and need to be "influencers" need to stop. I'm not sure what the answer is. The genie is out of the bottle. And of course it's a double edge sword... the locations and businesses want the exposure -- but it's coming at the cost of their very souls.
I lived in the center of Amsterdam (still near, but not in AMS today)... and I witnessed the destruction of an amazing city that was only exacerbated by these "influencers". They're trying to fix it (the city) -- but too little too late.. and I"m afraid that's what's going to happen to some of the most amazing locations on earth now.
/end rant
100% and the difference was Anthony Bordain had professionalism and a camera crew it was a legit show with research done and people were interested.
It wasn't some dude who quit is job in Accounting and now lives in a $200 a month apartment in Asia who thinks there an expert spewing brainrot into there camera on a selfie stick using clickbait captions and thumbnails.
It used to be people would see a camera crew and be like oh cool i wonder what show there filming. Now it's the opposite people just think oh look another narcissist when they see a camera. It's given a bad impression to a lot people now days.
I agree somewhat, it’s something that’s been bugging me for a long time. I first went on my first backpacking trip back in 2006, and there was a noticeable shift from then and 2010 onwards; the social media boom.
As others have said, it’s a double-edged sword, but I do miss the mystery and a feeling of a real adventure of travel. Leaving your flip phone behind because of course you can’t use it abroad, and making sure you know the useful phrases when you land, clutching your scribbled notes of directions to your hostel.
Of course the mystery still exists, you just have to work harder to escape the hordes. But I guess the loud minority see travel as social media credit, purely for narcissistic purposes, they don’t want to travel, they want a travel experience.
The barrier for extensive and far-reaching travel has been lowered significantly, which is great for allowing those who couldn’t necessarily travel before, but it has allowed the idiots in too.
> For example Thailand i hate that place now I refuse to even go there because of how many stupid videos I see online about how everyone and their brother has moved to Thailand.
I have literally never seen a video like you've described. You're the one exposing yourself to those videos and watching them. An algorithm somewhere knows what you like and watch.
> Now it's just a million talking heads who have filmed everyone angle of every place shoving cameras in people's faces to the point where you don't even want to go anymore.
I can't say I've encountered this much on my travels. The only time I've seen a vlogger in real life was just a few days ago at a roller coaster enthusiast event, and I only had to listen to them for ~30 seconds. I've seen way more teenage girls making Tiktoks in public.
> Also before anyone says don't watch the content well to late you can't erase what you have already seen.
Instagram lets you delete your search history, which is what's used to suggest videos to you. You don't mention TikTok; I don't know about that garbage app.
> I have literally never seen a video like you've described. You're the one exposing yourself to those videos and watching them. An algorithm somewhere knows what you like and watch.
Exactly, and the more they watch them, the more they'll be recommended. If op stops watching them, and focuses on something else, the algorithm will start recommending those videos.
Never checked or followed any of those. I live and travel happily ever and after. Why do you? If safety is your concern, find and ask few locals. That’s super simple to do..
For years and years I traveled with nothing but a Lonely Planet handbook. It was unpredictable, surprising but always rewarding.
Now we research every detail about where we go.
I look back now and wonder how we did it.
These people are known to lie and conflate things - 'I have been kidnapped', 'I have been robbed' - to monetize their videos. These people are hated by locals and rightly so.
Just don’t watch the annoying videos? I sometimes watch travel videos and go Google street view a little bit at the place I’m going to and although it can ruin SOME surprise element when arriving there, the whole vibe of being there is not ruined- that can’t be fully conveyed through video.
None of those things have impacted my travels negatively. I just spent 2 months in Thailand and I'd happily go back. Videos about these places shouldn't impact your desire to explore them so much. It just sounds like you're gatekeeping, honestly.
It sucks and I remember feeling it happening as I regularly travelled for long periods. I remember having to walk down streets in Thailand to book places before airbnb existed and good booking sites. Pure adventure, no videos on YouTube and instagram didn't exist.
Yeah, of course. The social media crowd mostly all go to the same places though.
I don't know if there's any sense getting upset that the most popular places are overrun wanting to be another person going to the most popular places. There are definitely places with some mystery and adventure out there still.
True. I remember booking a ticket to Central America in the early 2000s. I went by myself and took a bus through the subcontinent. I had no access to Internet on my phone, it was completely useless once I got there. To navigate, I used maps and travel guides that I found in youth hostels and hotel lobbies. I planned route over beers with strangers and travelers I'd meet in bars and hostels, we'd exchange recommendations and stories and talk late into the night. Waking up the next morning, the group would scatter, some off north to Guatemala others heading south to Nicaragua, with new adventures, new horizons, new people and unknown treasures awaiting.
Now it's just a bunch of assholes staring into their phones, filming for an unknown audience that most likely consists of less than 100 followers who might watch their videos for 5 seconds before scrolling on to a video featuring another "hidden gem" in a country half a world away. There are no surprises. Everyone knows what's coming, everyone already knows what everything is going to look like, they've even planned exactly where they are going to stand when they take their selfie. In fact, that's the most important part of the entire experience.
I remember when you had to be Rick Steves to be a travel guide. Now all you have to do is have a pulse and plane ticket.
You cannot “see” a country through Tik Tok or Instagram. Take a hiatus from social media, it’s not real life. You’re letting social media shape your opinion on places you may have never even been.
For example, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona…idc how many photos you’ve seen of that church no one on tik tok can replicate the moment you walk in and look up. In Thailand, no influencer with an iPhone can relax on the beach for you, or capture the overstimulation you get from the sights, sounds, and smells from the streets of Bangkok. Instead of worrying about what a local thinks of a foreigner you could just actually form a positive relationship with a local person in the place your travel to.
LIVE IN REAL LIFE.
Idk what’s going on, but nowadays almost every travel video features a ripped young guy jumping off a cliff into the ocean, with club music in the background.
JFC, you travel half a globe to another country like Spain/Vietnam with rich history and culture, and the most important thing to you is JUMPING OFF A CLIFF?
Some of them work full time on social media so they earn based on how much they perform on these media platforms. I suppose………
(I also follow some “ travel influencers “ from time to time.)
But Facebook, MySpace and Friendster were really bad too during the time they were known by the generations that used them!
But indeed mass tourism or mass immigration is a threat to any small nation.
This is why some governments are so hard core on banning misinformation online.
Although some countries are much better at managing them.
When I first went travelling smart phones didn’t exist and we had a big old map. It was great. We just planned things more before you set off because obviously you can’t just use google stuff. I went around Europe that way and also India. India was great because I knew nothing about the place. This is around the time that there weren’t even any really decent travel guides on the internet it was pre YouTube actually. So you couldn’t get a look at a place before you went there unless Michael Palin did a TV show about it. So it was genuinely much more surprising and a bigger culture shock. Now I look at videos of specific hotels before I go, check out the local coffee shops in the surrounding area on maps etc. and you get there and in a way it’s like you’ve kind of been there before. It’s like great let’s nip down to the coffee shop on the corner that I already know is there and just already know is good. So there’s no element of surprise anymore.
Travel was just better before social media existed. People used to enjoy where they were. Now, it’s just a bunch of people clamoring around trying to get exactly the same shot.
A friend and I once created our own album, where we took photos of people taking photos of famous places, and photos of Instagram boyfriends taking photos of their girlfriends.
I agree, but would recommend to use it to your advantage.
See it this way: The more all people flood into the most popular destinations, the less people you will find in the not popular destinations, which will improve your experience significantly in all aspects including money.
And there are many unpopular destinations, that are absolutely beautiful and probably more beautiful than the crowded popular destinations. Mind, that the reputation of today‘s popular destinations in terms of beauty and possibilites comes from a time, when these destinations were unpopular and therefore much more beautiful.
As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people - including most Digital Nomads - are just not able to organize a trip on their own, as they heavily rely on standard infrastructure being readily available for them (language, booking platforms, tourist services etc., all leading inevitably to Tourist/Nomad hotspots) as well as on company by likeminded people (leading even more inevitable to Nomad hotspots).
Therefore, if you don‘t rely on things like people needing to speak English and booking from Airbnb and you are able to ask around and actually explore things by yourself and you don‘t need other Digital Nomads to go for drinks … then the worlds ACTUALLY your oyster as 95% of Digital Nomads are not like that!
Thailand is a huge place, and most of those people are going where they think their audience wants to see.
I don't think they're more difficult to avoid than the Khaosan Road backpacker crowd was before them.
I take a lot of shit from family and friends that I don’t take a ton of photos when I travel. I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be in the moment.
When I first lived abroad I felt like the locals were more global and it was initially fun traveling with them and seeing the sites. But I realized over time that they would just hit the top N spots from some article and take photos and move on. I call it checkbox tourism. They were not more global at all, just more thirsty for “getting theirs”.
For better or worse not knowing much and going in relatively blind and maybe working with a local guide can offer a much more authentic and meaningful experience.
Unfortunately, nowadays with TikTok everyone is a checkbox tourist. And businesses even cater to that! My local coffee shop just added an inedible sandwich that photographs well. It’s a bummer.
Anyway, ignore the noise and make your own plans and do your own research and it’ll be fine!
I have personally found travel vlogs very useful. I never knew how fascinating and cheap KL was until I saw a vlog and, now I can’t wait to go. Of course there are extremes. But in my opinion it’s better to be informed than go in blind.
I agree with you to an extent but in my experience these people are sheeplike and tend to stick to the obvious places. There are plenty of amazing places in the world that still have very few tourists even in a country as seemingly overrun as Thailand.
This is slightly schizo but I even feel like taking pictures sometimes lessens the experience. Somehow the fact that something happened to me just for one moment makes it even more special
I completely agree but would like to add: I don’t know where you’re traveling from but it is such a privilege to be able to travel. My legal status in the US does not allow me to travel anywhere outside the US and it is my life dream to be able to. Just remember how much of a privilege it is and it might change your perspective for just a bit. These videos are all some of us will ever be able to enjoy.
Just don’t look at the content… AND meditate so that your mind lets those things go. It will help you stay in the present more.
Also, a video takes dedicated attention to watch. You can always scroll past it after a few seconds.
So then travel places that aren't popular. For example, I never hear anyon talk about traveling to Nicaragua. Go to Guyana, go to eastern europe, go to less popular cities in western europe, etc.
Traveling is for me about meeting people, if the online content is runining your experience, stop consuming it and go live and connect with people irl.
You can make your own choices about what you consume.
I never watch them, I did in the past but it turns everything in the same coloured mush. If everyone follows the same formula that they think they should to gain traction, everyone ends up doing the same. So all the videos have the same topics, the vloggers even go to the same places at the same time and just purchase vlogging packages at local fixer agencies.
I now prefer to let randomness decide what I encounter, or just speak to people on the street.
You hate Thailand because people post videos about it?? What is wrong with you? Lol. So weird.
"I hate this entire country that has amazing food and friendly people because Sarah posted a video on an ocean swing!!"
Why does it affect you?
Sorta. Plenty of places I went 20 years ago that i now find out had 20 other things I would have liked to see or do. Generally I’m in favor of more information and research than less.
Now the jackasses running around filming their brunch reaction shots while I just want another lemonade, they can definitely disappear into the ether
Social media's only purpose is business or marketing.
I just film quick shorts for tourism to promote my channel for helping people get their ideal remote life. Some quick shots of places can be motivating.
Why do digital nomads think their observations on countries they live in entitle an opinion on them?
Can't you go, enjoy without forming an opinion of other tourists and the country you know little about?
I haven't seen a single travel video in my life. I do my own research on Google maps and Wikipedia and travel like a caveman. Every place is a surprise and an adventure, I have no expectations and am always pleased.
An this is why I don’t look at travel content before I go places, I use Google maps and street view, read reviews and basic information and then I go there. I try to not spoil the experience for myself.
> There is no mystery left, before you would see a photo and be like wow i want to see that.
I take this a step further and want to go to places that have never even been photographed, but the planet is crawling with cameras.
Would have been awesome to be born 200 years ago.........would have also really, really sucked lol.
I mean there’s an easy solution to this. Don’t be terminally online and spoil the mystery for yourself. It’s not like videos are often a good representation of reality anyway.
Well, you're donig the same thing right now as you are complaining about.
You are putting all the "travel vloggers/bloggers" in one bucket and saying they are all unprofessional assholes and only want to produce junk-level content for the views. It creates stereotypes.
Plenty of content creators make excellent travel documentaries and care about the craft. How do you think people get better in filmmaking if people like you create an environment where it becomes a stigma to film anything? You are part of the problem.
Second, don't use social media. It doesn't matter what you do, whether it's travel or anything else; your life will always be miserable because you're putting dopamine injections into your brain. Any other experiences in life will become dull and boring, including travel. Try to just sit for 30 minutes doing nothing every day for several months instead of social media and you'll be 10x happier than using social media and you won't care about vloggers and will love travel again.
>You can't even open your phone half the time anyways without at least one video showing up.
This is just...not smart thing to say.
Don't watch them. You indicate that you can't erase what you've already seen - yet, I've never seen anything that you're talking about... even a little. The social media content related to travel that I've seen has done nothing but intrigue me - because I'm not living on a steady diet of it.
If you think you can't go anywhere in Thailand that you haven't seen on a video blog of some sort .... You're sadly mistaken and you are being defeated by your own lack of imagination.
Furthermore, most videos don't do the locations justice.
Have you really wasted so much of your life on social media that you think you have seen videos of every destination in Thailand to the point where the magic would be ruined in person?
I doubt this. Sounds like you're just desperate to complain about something.
You didn’t even include the fact that this all resulted in inflated prices in traveling. Before corona and this surge in short form videos, people didn’t travel this much. Now everyone wants to go places, not actually for the sake of only traveling but to create the same content that they saw on these platforms. This brought in the surge in travel costs.
More like inflated prices in certain specific locations which were extra promoted by all these vloggers as "it's dirt cheap and amazing, come here". Otherwise travelling huge distances has always been quite expensive. It is absolutely true that everyone is obsessed with travelling now cause of fomo, if you don't do this, if you haven't been there, have these things you are a poor loser.
Yes, it's true. First, delete tik tok. Next, on Instagram block the account or enter keywords you don't want to see and the content you're seeing will change. Block, block, block. Also just less social media...more grass :)
I’ll go even further, is there any good reason to use Instagram if it’s not for business purposes? What happened to just sharing photos with close friends and family?
It died a long time ago.
Excellent dog content
Agreed, though sadly and to my annoyance waaaay too many nature and animal channels get taken over by bizarre thirst traps or animal abusers.
Again, no idea what you’re talking about. My algorithms are set for 💯wholesome.
I watch all of the dog clips on Instagram.
Yasssss. As someone who is allergic to dogs, Instagram allows me to indulge and dream and coo over the adorability that are doggggs ❤️
It's just algorithmic adverts now, I barely use it. They will die eventually because of this.
Instagram is how I share photos with friends and family. And, to each their own, but social media is how I've been able to keep up with hundreds of people I wouldn't otherwise be particularly close with - many of whom are couches to sleep on in countries or cities I'd like to visit.
You can still use it that way and of course that is still an element of the app, but the way they have it designed now is to just be as addictive as possible. Your friends/family aren’t posting enough reels and video content to fill your feed the way they want, so they have to shove endless content in your face from so called creators and influencers to the point that it comes to basically dominate your feed and make the app more of an ulta-effective distraction machine than a way to keep up with friends and family. That’s been my experience at least. Had to get rid of it because while I do like keeping up with people, I find I waste far more time on it looking at random shit than I spend communicating with people I know
It really did become this way, and they have so real unethical policies. Now I feel bad sharing something I find beautiful on there because I feel I'm contributing to the scam.
And now Meta uses your posts for free to train their AI algorithms.
That hasn't been my experience. The app displays recent posts from people you follow first, and only gets into suggested posts after you've seen everything from the past 3 days. And if I don't want any suggestions, there's a button at the top labeled "Older Posts" which turns sets my feed exclusively to posts from accounts I follow. There's also an option to just... Disable suggested posts.
You have a better chance sending them the photos directly because they won’t even show you content from the people you follow - it’s mainly ads and suggested posts.
Yes but this way I see what they’re up to and can comment on their stuff, and get ideas of things to see or do from what they’re doing.
Fr. It's odd but it's far more normal to keep in touch with someone by simply commenting on a story on their IG than sending them a random ass text some random day of the week.
People make up excuses to justify their behavior and actions. For instance, people buy cars they can't afford and justify it with "I need a car to go to work." What did people do before social media?
I don't need social media in the same way I don't need to travel. Just because I don't need something doesn't mean it isn't a fulfilling or useful tool.
I prefer Facebook for close friends and family, Instagram for dating.
This is exactly what I do. I post on FB only for my family and friends. I don't care about tiktok or instagram and showing my stuff to strangers. It's ridiculous how there can be 100 people waiting to grab THE 'gram while I can take photos as great walking to another spot 5 or 10 minutes away. I have seen deserted places that were beautiful, exactly because people create checklists from social media and don't care about exploring. I now try to discover places and areas that are less likely to be visited by foreign tourists.
Just make your IG private, it serves the same purpose.
Does this keep algorithm-pushed reels from non-friends from showing up in your feed?
No you need to clean your algorithm or go thru and tell IG you're not interested.
This is so much the fun element of traveling, discovering places that feel untouched, like you're some kind of explorer, even if that's not really the case.
For example, I discovered beautiful places in Osaka that were only visited by locals... Even if it was 10 minutes of walking from one of the biggest touristic spot. Sure, there are things I still want to see and enjoy, but tourists just wanting to check their list makes it such a pain. For example, I went to enjoy a maiko performance in Gion, Kyoto, but there was so much tourists just trying to snap photos on the streets... Some of them just blocking door entrances, going in forbidden areas or private properties and stuff like that for "their instagram"... Fucking annoying...
It's such a weird way to travel. Doesn't really seem like fun to me; like it's more about the ego than actual enjoyment of the moment.
Spot on. All about boosting their ego and getting likes...
That is an age thing. I also use Facebook with friends but I’m in my 30s. People in their 20s don’t use it
Yeah IG is a dating site
I switched to this year's ago, and I'm much happier.
I think there is. It’s a great way to be exposed to your interests or hobbies. For example, I like IG for photography, car/motorcycle, and music content. I pretty much block or hit “not interested” on all the travel content as I find it generally cringy or am just not interested for the reasons mentioned by OP. The key is to limit your time on it and not just aimlessly doomscroll.
Instagram is the #1 dating app In the world… so there are reasons if you’re single
Yes there is. I have met new people through instagram or met up again with people I knew before because I saw they posted on IG and are in the same area as me.
Yea drives me nuts when people say things like “I can’t post anything fun cause people will accuse me of not posting anything supporting x,y,z cause”. So either post and ignore people or don’t. It just doesn’t matter. Reddit is my only social media, curated to my hobbies, and I live in blissful ignorance of every “controversial” topic/opinion.
Came here to say this. OP, if you're annoyed by something that you can intentionally and easily remove from your life, then why do you continue watching this "annoying" content?
90% of the people who gripe about social media will never do this. Because at the end of the day they still prefer the convenience of being plugged in and informed about everything.
Blocking annoying people on YouTube and insta is the best!
Just delete Instagram already. Unless you need it for something, it's not really useful or entertaining. The only thing I use is Reddit and YT.
What kinda grass we talkin about here
It's a double-edged sword. Back in the days when specific clothing was sold for travel (like those ugly "travel shirts" from the 90s lol) and perpetual travelers were a fringe group, traveling was also much more inconvenient. No Uber, so you had to rely on shady local taxis. Moving money around was much harder. etc etc. I went to the Solar Furnace of Uzbekistan last year, independently (that is, without a tour). Uzbekistan is one of those places that is not too difficult to travel to now, but in the past it was quite an ordeal—too much for me to consider. Anyway, the Solar Furnace, I found out about through a few travel blogs. I think I watched one very amateur video in Russian on YouTube before going just to make sure I wasn't in for any unexpected or unpleasant surprises. There was still plenty of mystery before going (to be honest, there is *still* plenty of mystery after going, too). It was probably the most off-beat experience I've had in another country, other than 4 years in rural South India. These places are still out there, though of course we kinda do need the internet to find out about them.
Yes! If you're annoyed by social media on a city, don't go there. Go someplace else. Also clean your algorithm. I kept getting IG posts on Japan. I got so annoyed by it, I just changed my plans this year and I'm not going to Japan. I'm going to Uzbekistan, lol. I can't wait. Nothing in my social media has popped up about it. I don't know anyone who's been and I'm being forced to read blogs to plan my trip. I can't wait.
Nice! Speaking of being forced to use old-school resources to plan your trip (and I'm only mentioning this because you aren't likely to do this or need the info, and if you did decide to do it I'd suggest you not, lol)... My trip was actually Kazakhstan->Uzbekistan. I wanted to find an alternative to flying to Uzbekistan, since for once I was in a place where traveling onward to a neighboring country by land was a feasible and actually somewhat reasonable (on paper) option. First thought was train, but horror stories about border control when going by train turned me off the idea. Then I thought about buses. The problem is that there is hardly any up-to-date information anywhere, even in Russian, and the websites for the bus stations in Central Asia don't look particularly reliable. Eventually, I stumbled upon [this vlog](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LPAcyFjLCs) with the details of a sleeper bus that goes from Almaty to Tashkent. Travel time 16 hours. Perfect! (Yes, it's a vlog, but it's so matter-of-fact that it might as well be an old website or forum post lol) Everything about this—and it did *not* go 100% like in the video—was an adventure. I'm very glad I did it, since the whole thing led to some memorable interactions (among other things, I literally had a reverse Borat moment in Kazakhstan, and also saved $100 versus flying, at least), but I would not recommend it, especially if you don't know Russian, and nor would I do it again, lol. If I had to do it over again I might take the advice I was given to fly to the city of Turkistan, which is closer to the border, spend a day there, then take a much shorter bus ride out to Tashkent the next day.
I was actually plaaning on doing this bus in August. Speak zero russian, to much of a pain to do the trip?
First off, how did you even find out about this bus if you don't know any Russian? lol. It took me some digging. - No one at Sairan bus depot speaks English, or at least I would not expect anyone to. So buying a ticket, which you need to do in advance—and bring your passport—would be the first obstacle. The cashier setup is like at a bank with thick glass between you and the clerk, so good luck trying to manage with Google Translate. - Before I bought my ticket, I needed to check something on my phone, so I just stood off in some random spot inside the building. Apparently I was standing in the line of sight of some tiny old grandma working at a kiosk and she didn't like that. She actually came out and pushed me and said "something something Работатйте" (get to work!). It was really weird but if I didn't know Russian I would have thought maybe it was some sort of racist thing, or who knows. - There are seats inside the building, but apparently that's not where people wait. It's better to just go out to the rear parking lot (you'll have to show your ticket to someone in a booth toward the back) and wait by the numbered bay. You could miss your bus otherwise—I have no idea how/if they announce it inside. - Whatever bus was in the video is not the bus that I went on. It was a different company altogether, and the physical setup of the seats was a little different. (Perhaps better since you can't see the person in front of you, but also slightly less comfortable depending on your sleeping position.) By August they might be using another different company, who knows. - The bus driver was Uzbek and spoke no English or Russian. No real issue in an of itself, other than that it would have been nice to know beforehand that no food (and probably drinks?) are allowed on board, and neither are bags larger than a purse. (Or bags that the driver could not easily see all the contents of at a glance?) I had to re-queue twice after frantically trying to figure out (1) where to put the fresh snacks my Airbnb hosts gave me for the bus ride, and (2) where to fit my carry-on-sized backpack after most of the cargo hold was already full. I was wearing a hoodie so I managed to sneak in my reusable water bottle and a small ziplock with my power bank and stuff. - There is one bathroom break around 10pm IIRC. As with all bathrooms in KZ, you'll need a 50-tenge coin to use it. Change is not easy to come by these days in heavily-cashless Kazakhstan. I withdrew way too much (40,000 tenge, about ~$80) at the airport when I arrived and using it up took some effort. - The food stop is not fixed. I was kinda banking on it being the one in the video since he showed the menu and I at least had an idea of something I could order (I don't eat red meat, so navigating food in Central Asia for me is a challenge). I actually wasn't hungry when we stopped, but everyone had to get off the bus regardless. The place where we stopped had a couple other busloads of people eating there as well. The vibe was really... strange. I saw a guy who was really struggling to get someone to bring his bill, and I thought with my luck I'd be that guy as my bus is announcing the last call. I didn't really have high hopes for the food anyway, so I just stood around and waited awkwardly in the cold. There was a young Chinese couple in the same boat. - Money changers hop on the bus around 7AM as you approach the border. They're all fair—no one will rip you off. I had enough leftover tenge on me to get a nice wad of som, which turned out to be a Really Good Thing (as you'll see later). - The border checkpoint was heavily congested, so the bus stopped some 500–700m from the entrance. We got out, got our luggage from the hold, and proceeded onward. My first surprise was to get a quasi-KGB interrogation at Kazakhstan exit immigration, lol. Nah, the questions were all pretty normal, but since I'm used to nearly silent officers everywhere else in Asia (including upon entry into Kazakhstan), it was quite unexpected. And in Russian too. (Though the officer did also speak English, so not speaking Russian wouldn't be a cop-out!) - Upon exiting the other end, I don't see my bus or any place where large buses would be waiting. There were buses driving by out front occasionally, but they were city buses. I noticed the Chinese couple was also walking around, confused. They hopped on one of the city buses. My first thought was "Our bus left without us!" but it's not like the Chinese couple and I took much longer to go through immigration than everyone else. Nah, the bus only went to the border and then turned back to Almaty! It never intended to go all the way to Abu-Saxiy station as advertised. - Thankfully, the city buses, at least [Route 169](https://tashtrans.uz/2023/03/21/otkryt-novyj-avtobusnyj-marshrut-169/), which goes between the border and Shahristan metro, have room for big luggage. Only 1400 som, which is like $0.11, lol. I misheard the guy and thought it must be 14,000, but he refused. Later someone came around asking to see tickets. I paid the driver and he didn't give me a ticket or anything, so I had to explain to the guy that I already paid the driver. BTW I noticed later that for all city buses in Tashkent, as well as the metro, you can pay with contactless/Apple Pay/etc. Uzbekistan isn't nearly as cashless as Kazakhstan so this was a pleasant surprise. Ultimately, it's a combination of two experiences: Long-distance bus travel and border crossing on foot. The border crossing on foot is an interesting experience, not totally necessary, but if you really want to experience it, you can eliminate the long-distance bus travel: fly to Turkistan, check out the mausoleum there, and then buy a bus ticket to go to the border. Traveling overland would have been better if there was a high-speed train on that route similar to the (very nice!) high-speed trains that operate along the tourist trail of Uzbekistan (Tashkent - Samarkand - Bukhara).
This was super helpful. Sounds like a pain in the ass. I may fly to Uzbekistan instead lol.
The train is really easy, although you have to stay awake when you’re going over the border so it’s probably better in the day - download Google translate - Russian and you’ll have no problems. Found a decent amount of people who spoke some English - went last week
Downsides to the Almaty>Tashkent train are - it’s not faster than the bus (WTF) - I heard that not only do you have to stay awake while the officers come on board to check and stamp passports, you are not allowed to use your phone or anything for the duration they are on board either. Yeah, no thanks - you have to deal with your luggage yourself (I don’t know what the luggage situation is, but at least on a bus you know there’s a hold and someone to manage it)
I’d say it’s much more comfortable than the bus, we had a bed and private room. We used our phone as normal and they weren’t on the train long. The only annoying thing was staying awake at the start of the journey as it was 4am. They said the border was 20 mins away but I think the whole thing was more like an hour, maybe a bit more - but we just sat in the cabin. Bags we just put in our cabin - there was above counter space to put it in and the floor. So yeah maybe the key is to have a cabin?!
Yeah, if you don’t have a need to test your Russian skills (that was half my reason for going) then just save yourself the hassle and fly. Save your energy for the travel experiences that are actually worthwhile!
you should make a separate post about your trip!
The part about you getting annoyed and changing your plans due to an algorithm honing in on your is sad.
Why?
I've been to Japan like 5x already. I'll go again when it's less popular and I'm not being inundated.
Oh, if you’ve already been to Japan, then I don’t think the current popularity should put you off going completely, except to Kyoto or maybe Tokyo. I was recently there for the first time in 15 years, mostly Osaka, and was surprised how little it’d changed from my memory. It wasn’t crowded in the way that I imagine when people say a place is overrun. In fact, even in Kyoto (well, Uji) I managed to find a temple that was empty (granted, the temple architecture wasn’t the main highlight). As long as the yen stays weak, Japan will continue to be popular. And why not! Japanese goodies will never be cheaper, haha.
I thought you had to use a tour in Uzbekistan. Or is that...Turkeminestan?
You're probably thinking of Turkmenistan, which is the North Korea of the region. If you can even *get* a 5-day visa (which is more like a lottery, as the rejections are random and criteria not transparent), you probably won't be left on your own very much.
Right.
This is how I think too, while it's made some things more annoying, it has made getting information a LOT more convenient.
Even if you don't watch the content, the people you see in the places you visit also changed. A lot of people go to places for content, not experience. Also, some places like Bali became too popular, overpopulated and changed the island in a negative way (in my opinion of course). I also would add crypto to that social media list.
The explosion of tourism in Bali is literally destroying the Island
Some people show the ugly side of traffic and trash all over the beach and I appreciate the 'real' side of the situation. Sad that Bali has gotten ruined for many.
I saw a cliff that was destroyed in Uluwatu from a hotel that is being built
Is nobody else seeing the blatant irony of these kinds of comments on a digital nomad sub..? There are plenty of people who enjoyed travelling more when places weren't full of people working on their laptops everywhere and gentrifying places. The internet is a double edged sword. Everyone here gets to work and travel, and along with that, people are working as travel influencers. We're all doing the same thing - using the internet so we can work from where we want. God forbid *other* people also want to travel. If you don't want to consume travel content it is very easy to block hashtags and accounts, curate your algorithm, or just... not be on TikTok and instagram.
Lots of people here are not understanding that it is more about the annoyingness of the vloggers and people making this content. They give local people the impression foreigners are dumb narcissists. They also influence people you interact with since a lot of people watch this brain rot content. Another part of it is there is no mystery anymore. Even when instagram was just photos you would see a photo and you had your imagination still. Lonely Planet would give you a paragraph and a picture. That's gone and i think a lot don't understand it because they didn't do it before everyone and there brother was a vlogger. It's was a totally different experience.
Wanting to be another person going to the most popular places but being upset that they are popular is kind of ironic though. What makes you special? The vast, vast majority of people posting here are not Vlogging..
First time I was in Bali was in 2006. It was already way too touristy back then. I can\`t imagine what it\`s like today.
Haha, you would never want to know.
Even before social media you had everyone packing into the same places publicized in guides like lonelyplanet. It’s not that different imo. Most places changed mostly due to the volume of tourists increasing overall. There are more disposable income middle class and package tourists now. I don’t use tiktok at all but most youtube travel people have a few million subs and maybe 1-2m views if they are a big channel. That’s a drop in the bucket of worldwide engagement.
The big difference is LP travellers chatted to each other. Phones didn’t exist, and most didn’t even take pictures or video. The vibe was much different in cafes or bars in SE Asia.
It's mainly about the lack of professionalism now and brain rot that is influencing people. It's an epidemic. Lonely Planet had actual writers and research done. It wasn't some dude who worked in accounting quit his job and now walks around spewing nonsense into his phone camera using clickbait captions and thumbnails. This garbage content gets millions of views.
When was the last time you purchased a paperback Lonely Planet?
Lonely planet was the same echo chamber circle jerk bullshit...
I live near a major tourist destination (Edinburgh) and I haven't encountered annoying vloggers. Occasional tour groups blocking the pavement posing for group shots beside the Greyfriars Bobby statue and that's about it. No different than ten years ago. TikTok and Instagram haven't given us a new reason to loathe tourists. AirBnB had already given us all the reasons to loathe them we could possibly need.
How much travelling did you do before people were travel vlogging? I glanced at your comment history to get a feel for your age and damn, you're toxic... almost nothing but negativity
its such a ridiculous take too. There's so many hidden gems everywhere. I've seen bioluminscent algae in very touristy places, where no one ever mentioned them. There's a lot of problems everywhere, people rehashing the same stuff doesn't affect that there's an infinite number of things to see or experience everywhere
Totally agree. Take Indonesia for example. There are something like 17000 islands in Indonesia. Tip to tip, it's bigger than the US. However, the overwhelming majority of foreign visitors go to *one small island*. Yes, the logistics of getting to remote places is still somewhat challenging, but there is loads of adventure to be had.
Ha, logistics like… “buy an airplane ticket and sit on a flying bus for an hour”. I mean, I’m with you, it’s sort of crazy that people don’t go to more places in Indonesia. It’s got a *lot* to offer. But… let’s be real, the real reason most people are afraid to go anywhere in Indonesia outside of Bali is because they’re afraid of Muslims. They hear “Indonesia”, think “wait isn’t that an Islamic country?” assume that it’s Saudi Arabia and choose somewhere else for their holiday (meanwhile, it’s way easier to buy a beer in Muslim Indonesia than Hindu India…). Bali’s been successful because it’s not ‘branded’ as ‘Indonesia’ in travel literature and the like.
> But… let’s be real, the real reason most people are afraid to go anywhere in Indonesia outside of Bali is because they’re afraid of Muslims. Sadly, you're at least partly right. However, I don't think that's the whole story. Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, and Dubai are popular destinations. It's also worth noting that there are lots of Christians in Indo as well. TBH, I think people just don't know much about Indonesia in general. Often people think Bali = Indonesia. Regardless, people's apprehensions and phobias are exactly why there are still so many "hidden gems" waiting to be discovered.
100%. Leave Bali and there’s nobody. Hell, leave Canggu/Ubud and there’s almost nobody
I just saw a video in the last day or two on Instagram where someone was saying basically, I don’t get up early to see things like every influencer says I should because I go to more out of the way places and so get up whenever I want. I sent this to a friend of mine thats currently working her way down through east Africa, who I’m able to follow because of instagram. She’s just passed 100 countries this summer. I’ve spent so much of my life living by my own map and compass (and I’ve been on instagram since I was 19) that I’m almost caught off guard on the rare moment when I’ve happened to be somewhere at the time the crowd is there. It’s so easy to avoid by and large.
Even before travel vlogging, there was still video cameras. My grandad took his huge JVC camcorder videoing every inch of places in America that him and my nan travelled to, commenting on what he was filming. It’s so great to look back on and see how things have changed. What’s the difference between him doing that and someone going to a beach in Thailand and filming it for content in 2024.
Many millions more views...
Yes I did too. Perhaps it’s good that people like him stay at home and not go to epic places like Thailand.
Thank you. Yea, sure, social media is annoying but did it “ruin” travel? Not if you genuinely enjoy traveling and visiting different places and learning about different cultures and shit. The only thing that ever ruined travel for me was not having money to travel more!
I mean, you can just.... not use this shit. I have none of these apps and everything is literally awesome
Life was better before vloggers, reels, and tiktoks existed.
No one is forcing anyone to consume that stuff. I'll give you that vloggers can't be avoided IRL, but there's a small enough amount of them that encountering them is a very rare occurrence (at least in an invasive way.)
Countless restaurants and cafés in Bali have changed their entire decor and menu to cater to Instagram because it's such a powerful marketing tool. Not to mention things like people leaning over your table if you have a nice view to get a photo of themselves there. Doing full photo shoots at the next table disrupting everyone around them by moving the table and moving chairs around to get better lighting It's not as simple as just closing the app and not consuming it. It's changed the very fabric of a lot of these places.
>You can't even open your phone half the time anyways without at least one video showing up. please, speak for yourself.
Why do you bother about the experiences of others, create your own. I think the problem is you using Social Media.
There is plenty of mystery left, just not in the top 20 destinations.
True, although I chose a "mysterious" place in the Balkans to have my base out of and it's currently packed with tourists post-pandemic. I think all the places that had few rules during the pandemic got attention from vloggers and made people aware of them. It's been strange to see groups of 30-40 people following someone with a flag (ie, tour groups) and hearing English on the streets all day.
There’s plenty of people on this sub that say “go to the famous destinations, they’re great, they’re famous for a reason”. And that’s fine, not my personal cup of tea, but I’m not going to lecture someone just because they want to spend their holiday in Santorini, Pisa, or Ubud. But like… if you’re finding yourself **not enjoying** the big famous places because of social media, vloggers, or [insert XYZ], maybe just… try going literally anywhere else besides the mega famous tourist places? I live in Bangkok and *maybe* I see a vlogger once every couple of weeks. You literally need to walk, like, 20 minutes in any direction outside of the tourist haunches and you’ll barely see any tourists.
Totally agree, the less touristy countries are awesome. Even super touristy countries like Vietnam and Thailand can have a lot of mystery too, if you design your trip to focus on more authentic neighborhoods and cities. I’ve been living and shopping in many local only areas and no one speaks English, no tourists around, food is insanely good.
Do the locals like you trolling their neighborhoods?
They're almost always incredibly friendly and welcoming. Some have even given me their numbers without being asked, and told me to message if I need help with something. Often they are very curious to see tourists if they don't get many and find me entertaining. I am really into street food/local food and there are a lot of funny adventures that come with trying to order mystery foods.
*Apologies for teh BACK-IN-MY-DAY post but* In many ways travelling before ubiquitous internet was better in general. I consider myself fortunate enough to have done my backpacking in 2008-2009. I *had access* to internet, but it was something you had to seek out and pay for. I didn't have a smartphone, or a laptop so I couldn't log on to wifi. I literally had to go to an internet cafe, or nab the one computer terminal at the hostel. I have backpacked (shorter trips, a few weeks max) since, and maybe its me or maybe its the tech but: i) it feels less organic these days -you are booking everywhere in advance, you never just show up at a small town and find a hostel anymore. You also have seen or heard of most of the experiences you want to do before you get there - so they are less of a surprise to you, and can be underwhelming because of that. Before, the only real pre-cursor you had was a short paragraph in a lonely planet. No photos, and certainly no influencer videos. ii) it is less possible to disconnect from home. You are literally connected constantly to all of the people from your life at home - your parents, friends, grandparents, employers etc. It makes it more difficult to just truly live in that moment. Some of the best times in my backpacking days were just lazing around on some outdoor deck with a view of a river or soemtihg playing backgammon with random Danes or Colombians, fellow hostel guests. Or playing cards with some locals in Cambodia. I feel like these experiences are far less likely to happen these days - purely because the natural inclination when you're bored and alone is to pull out your smartphone and facetime home or whatsapp with friends.
Your way better at trying to say exactly what i was trying to get across. 100% agree with this.
I was looking for this take. I think for me, the peak of hostel hopping backpacker adventure was early 2000s. You had access to a lot of constantly updated information, so you knew what was worth visiting and when and how, which made planning a lot more efficient than in e.g. the 90s where a lot of devloping places would be really hard to visit unless you spoke the language or hired a guide. You could search for cheap flights and bypass the booking agents, had access to resources like map quest, and some booking sites like travelocity existed, but overall a lot of what happened just had to be improvised and figured out in the moment. It always felt like adventure and discovery. Cinque Terre before Rick Steve's killed it really was a little paradise. I went back in 2019 and wow, what the fuck happened to that place. The best era for cultural exchange with locals was probably the first few years of airbnb, early 2010s, when you actually stayed with real people in their spare room and had authentic and memorable interactions in amazing places. That unlocked something that you couldn't get as easy in the 2000s, when due to lack of a website to facilitate it, homestays were very rare and chance finds. Of course by 2016 airbnb had started to decline and now it is practically unusable. The sad thing is that those two eras of travel only lasted max 10 years each. They never were possible before that time and they will never happen again. But we can always choose to emulate those experiences. Just choose not to use your phone for everything and see where the adventure takes you.
Staying with actual people is (maybe was) such a gem. We did this in Scotland and had a lot of cool experiences because of it, including a local open mic at a small pub. But you’re right that you can emulate some of this. When we travel, we make a small list of “must do”s and “areas to avoid”. Then, when we’re there, we leave a lot of slack in our schedule and just wander. No phone, no agenda, just following our senses.
Okay but just don't watch the content. It's not as hard as you think it is.
Silly take. I've been traveling for a very long time, and long before there were vloggers and Instagram models, there was *Lonely Planet* funneling all the tourists in the same spot, and people taking a thousand pictures of old ladies by the side of the road. People are just as entitled as they've always been. The nature of tourism hasn't changed. And just like before, the key to avoiding these trend-chasers is just to go to lesser-known destinations. It's true on a country level, but it's even true of a very touristy place like Thailand. Hell, you can be in Bangkok and avoid the dumb tourists. Just go where the vloggers don't go.
Weird. Sounds like you should just stop using social media?
Firstly, if you hate it so much then delete the Chinese spyware brain rot app. Your life will be better for it. Secondly, yeah some vloggers are a dbags but I’ve discovered literally like 30+ towns/cities I’ve been to from vlogs/YouTube videos. Wouldn’t have been possible 20 years ago
Was just in Europe for two weeks. Additionally to OP’s statement, the amount of dodging, pausing, and side-stepping you have to do to avoid assholes with selfie sticks and puckered lips in the middle of narrow walkways…and some actually looked pissed your there, just walking by, in their fake world. Hated that shit.
Where were you? Europe is not a city block, but a continent.
France, Switzerland and Italy specifically. Toured some great medieval towns. Narrow stone walkways, stairways, etc. Everybody wants a nice photo but it’s rude for influencers to jam up foot traffic and lay the guilt trip on you for passing by.
Sounds like a skill issue.
Thailand was *always* an ordinary place with ordinary people living ordinary lives. Everywhere is. Was the illusion of mystery the only reason you traveled?
I rarely bother researching a place before I arrive, besides logistics. More out of laziness than being deliberate, and certainly I miss things as a result, but it means I experience a new place with complete novelty, being surprised by how a place is different from where I left or so forth.
Although I agree that all these western social media twats made everything worse, there's no-one forcing you to watch any content? You seem to be blaming others for your media choices. Odd
I don’t have TikTok, I don’t use reels on Instagram and I don’t follow any travel bloggers. You created your own problems, so don’t blame others. Nobody forces you to watch content you are not interested in.
I am a bit older and travelled to places like Thailand before Instagram and Tik Tok were a thing. Back then everyone just went to the top destinations of the various Lonely Planet guide books. It wasn\`t much different in this regard at all. And to be honest the ppl taking pictures excessively aren\`t westerners either.
Same here. I'd argue that now, it's actually *easier* to find so-called "hidden gems" as most developing countries have wayyyy better infrastructure than 10-30 years ago and are much safer as well; the internet has made ripping off tourists much less profitable.
I disagree it has ruined some popular places like Japan but given us access and information to new destinations. Also it allows some poorer areas to make a lot of money now. The people in this sub are off the rails and post information which is completely wrong
I agree that the internet has taken some of the mystery and pleasant chaos out of travel but people who complain about travel influencers ruining things are really overstating the case. 1) you infrequently see these people in the wild, certainly not enough to really interfere with your day, and 2) more importantly you are probably part of the problem! Stop consuming online content. Delete the apps. Walk the walk, don't just talk the talk. In fact if you wanna take it a step further OP you should stop using Google Maps, [Booking.com](http://Booking.com) or Airbnb, Couchsurfing, Tinder, and all the other digital conveniences that make travel easy but also sap it of the randomness and unpredictability that was par for the course before the internet. Buy a Lonely Planet and get recommendations via word of mouth, not online shit tailored to juice the algorithm for profit. I'm not being sarcastic, you might actually find you prefer this way of traveling to recapture the lost magic.
bruh issue isn't those places it's because you give your attention to vloggers, reels and tiktok lol you are the problem here
Even more sad that you can’t live your life due to other people. And yes I agree I’m not that big of a fan of bloggers etc. but let people be happy. Ignore the noise. Do your thing. And you’ll be happy.
I started traveling before digital cameras even. There was something magical about sharing stories of life in other places that were rarely even shown on TV and movies. Or when your guidebook only had a handful of photos from an entire county. And, rarely coming across another American anywhere. Sigh.
There is plenty of mystery left, just not in the top 20 destinations.
glad i never register to Tiktok also on Youtube, i never watch location i never visit yet so yeah most of my travels, usually i have no clue what's the place looks like
I've lived all over the world for over 20+ years and in some heavily touristed areas... Central London, Maui, Amsterdam, and Miami to name a few. There's always been an influence of some sort in beautiful destinations... whether or not it was Anthony Bourdain talking about amazing food in unique places on TV or National Geographic magazine in print. The problem is the 'new' media and people behind the 'influencing' suck. They have no respect for the local culture much less fellow travelers. It's gotten out of hand. I'm considering a move to somewhere that is off the beaten path that is amazing and my gut instinct is to want to share how cool it is... but it's undiscovered and I wised up to not be one of those people who contributes to its demise. I say this as someone who does travel-related content. I'm a ninja, You will never see me. I will not be a douchebag that contributes to the nauseating behavior of bad travelers and shitty "influencers". I only post helpful stuff for people considering a destination (very practical stuff) - which isn't sexy or meant to show a location in a light that is likely not accurate. But these people that are out there with cameras everywhere and destroying places with their bad behavior and need to be "influencers" need to stop. I'm not sure what the answer is. The genie is out of the bottle. And of course it's a double edge sword... the locations and businesses want the exposure -- but it's coming at the cost of their very souls. I lived in the center of Amsterdam (still near, but not in AMS today)... and I witnessed the destruction of an amazing city that was only exacerbated by these "influencers". They're trying to fix it (the city) -- but too little too late.. and I"m afraid that's what's going to happen to some of the most amazing locations on earth now. /end rant
100% and the difference was Anthony Bordain had professionalism and a camera crew it was a legit show with research done and people were interested. It wasn't some dude who quit is job in Accounting and now lives in a $200 a month apartment in Asia who thinks there an expert spewing brainrot into there camera on a selfie stick using clickbait captions and thumbnails. It used to be people would see a camera crew and be like oh cool i wonder what show there filming. Now it's the opposite people just think oh look another narcissist when they see a camera. It's given a bad impression to a lot people now days.
I agree somewhat, it’s something that’s been bugging me for a long time. I first went on my first backpacking trip back in 2006, and there was a noticeable shift from then and 2010 onwards; the social media boom. As others have said, it’s a double-edged sword, but I do miss the mystery and a feeling of a real adventure of travel. Leaving your flip phone behind because of course you can’t use it abroad, and making sure you know the useful phrases when you land, clutching your scribbled notes of directions to your hostel. Of course the mystery still exists, you just have to work harder to escape the hordes. But I guess the loud minority see travel as social media credit, purely for narcissistic purposes, they don’t want to travel, they want a travel experience. The barrier for extensive and far-reaching travel has been lowered significantly, which is great for allowing those who couldn’t necessarily travel before, but it has allowed the idiots in too.
To SE Asia with Love (book) was my inspiration
Never seen any of these videos. Maybe get off garbage social media
Eating used to be better before food blogs. Now you just don't enjoy the food as much, since you saw a picture beforehand
> For example Thailand i hate that place now I refuse to even go there because of how many stupid videos I see online about how everyone and their brother has moved to Thailand. I have literally never seen a video like you've described. You're the one exposing yourself to those videos and watching them. An algorithm somewhere knows what you like and watch. > Now it's just a million talking heads who have filmed everyone angle of every place shoving cameras in people's faces to the point where you don't even want to go anymore. I can't say I've encountered this much on my travels. The only time I've seen a vlogger in real life was just a few days ago at a roller coaster enthusiast event, and I only had to listen to them for ~30 seconds. I've seen way more teenage girls making Tiktoks in public. > Also before anyone says don't watch the content well to late you can't erase what you have already seen. Instagram lets you delete your search history, which is what's used to suggest videos to you. You don't mention TikTok; I don't know about that garbage app.
> I have literally never seen a video like you've described. You're the one exposing yourself to those videos and watching them. An algorithm somewhere knows what you like and watch. Exactly, and the more they watch them, the more they'll be recommended. If op stops watching them, and focuses on something else, the algorithm will start recommending those videos.
Try not watching said videos.
Let's not even talk about the price of accommodation, airbnb and hotel due to what these influencers are doing
Never checked or followed any of those. I live and travel happily ever and after. Why do you? If safety is your concern, find and ask few locals. That’s super simple to do..
For years and years I traveled with nothing but a Lonely Planet handbook. It was unpredictable, surprising but always rewarding. Now we research every detail about where we go. I look back now and wonder how we did it.
You wouldn’t love to visit Gyeongbokgung Palace.
These people are known to lie and conflate things - 'I have been kidnapped', 'I have been robbed' - to monetize their videos. These people are hated by locals and rightly so.
Just don’t watch the annoying videos? I sometimes watch travel videos and go Google street view a little bit at the place I’m going to and although it can ruin SOME surprise element when arriving there, the whole vibe of being there is not ruined- that can’t be fully conveyed through video.
None of those things have impacted my travels negatively. I just spent 2 months in Thailand and I'd happily go back. Videos about these places shouldn't impact your desire to explore them so much. It just sounds like you're gatekeeping, honestly.
It sucks and I remember feeling it happening as I regularly travelled for long periods. I remember having to walk down streets in Thailand to book places before airbnb existed and good booking sites. Pure adventure, no videos on YouTube and instagram didn't exist.
Yeah, of course. The social media crowd mostly all go to the same places though. I don't know if there's any sense getting upset that the most popular places are overrun wanting to be another person going to the most popular places. There are definitely places with some mystery and adventure out there still.
True. I remember booking a ticket to Central America in the early 2000s. I went by myself and took a bus through the subcontinent. I had no access to Internet on my phone, it was completely useless once I got there. To navigate, I used maps and travel guides that I found in youth hostels and hotel lobbies. I planned route over beers with strangers and travelers I'd meet in bars and hostels, we'd exchange recommendations and stories and talk late into the night. Waking up the next morning, the group would scatter, some off north to Guatemala others heading south to Nicaragua, with new adventures, new horizons, new people and unknown treasures awaiting. Now it's just a bunch of assholes staring into their phones, filming for an unknown audience that most likely consists of less than 100 followers who might watch their videos for 5 seconds before scrolling on to a video featuring another "hidden gem" in a country half a world away. There are no surprises. Everyone knows what's coming, everyone already knows what everything is going to look like, they've even planned exactly where they are going to stand when they take their selfie. In fact, that's the most important part of the entire experience. I remember when you had to be Rick Steves to be a travel guide. Now all you have to do is have a pulse and plane ticket.
Soooo vloggers are the problem, but not a passport bro like yourself? 😬
You cannot “see” a country through Tik Tok or Instagram. Take a hiatus from social media, it’s not real life. You’re letting social media shape your opinion on places you may have never even been. For example, La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona…idc how many photos you’ve seen of that church no one on tik tok can replicate the moment you walk in and look up. In Thailand, no influencer with an iPhone can relax on the beach for you, or capture the overstimulation you get from the sights, sounds, and smells from the streets of Bangkok. Instead of worrying about what a local thinks of a foreigner you could just actually form a positive relationship with a local person in the place your travel to. LIVE IN REAL LIFE.
Delete your social media
100%
Amen to this
Idk what’s going on, but nowadays almost every travel video features a ripped young guy jumping off a cliff into the ocean, with club music in the background. JFC, you travel half a globe to another country like Spain/Vietnam with rich history and culture, and the most important thing to you is JUMPING OFF A CLIFF?
Some of them work full time on social media so they earn based on how much they perform on these media platforms. I suppose……… (I also follow some “ travel influencers “ from time to time.) But Facebook, MySpace and Friendster were really bad too during the time they were known by the generations that used them! But indeed mass tourism or mass immigration is a threat to any small nation. This is why some governments are so hard core on banning misinformation online. Although some countries are much better at managing them.
When I first went travelling smart phones didn’t exist and we had a big old map. It was great. We just planned things more before you set off because obviously you can’t just use google stuff. I went around Europe that way and also India. India was great because I knew nothing about the place. This is around the time that there weren’t even any really decent travel guides on the internet it was pre YouTube actually. So you couldn’t get a look at a place before you went there unless Michael Palin did a TV show about it. So it was genuinely much more surprising and a bigger culture shock. Now I look at videos of specific hotels before I go, check out the local coffee shops in the surrounding area on maps etc. and you get there and in a way it’s like you’ve kind of been there before. It’s like great let’s nip down to the coffee shop on the corner that I already know is there and just already know is good. So there’s no element of surprise anymore.
Travel was just better before social media existed. People used to enjoy where they were. Now, it’s just a bunch of people clamoring around trying to get exactly the same shot. A friend and I once created our own album, where we took photos of people taking photos of famous places, and photos of Instagram boyfriends taking photos of their girlfriends.
Santorini was the worst of this type of "Move! I'm trying to get a perfect shot". Kinda ruined it for me.
That's just not true. People have been swarming to get photos of famous artworks and landmarks for decades.
I’ve been traveling for decades. Social media has made it significantly worse IMO.
Early 20s white boy that has a year or two of traveling wants to gatekeep his experiences that millions already lived
Just go places where people don't really travel to
Instagram, they're probably the biggest culprit of them all. :(
Haha I love Thailand the most but I also don’t watch travel bloggers. Pro tip
Just go places that aren't super cheap. Those types aren't in places with a bit more money (at least not for long)
I agree, but would recommend to use it to your advantage. See it this way: The more all people flood into the most popular destinations, the less people you will find in the not popular destinations, which will improve your experience significantly in all aspects including money. And there are many unpopular destinations, that are absolutely beautiful and probably more beautiful than the crowded popular destinations. Mind, that the reputation of today‘s popular destinations in terms of beauty and possibilites comes from a time, when these destinations were unpopular and therefore much more beautiful. As a matter of fact, the vast majority of people - including most Digital Nomads - are just not able to organize a trip on their own, as they heavily rely on standard infrastructure being readily available for them (language, booking platforms, tourist services etc., all leading inevitably to Tourist/Nomad hotspots) as well as on company by likeminded people (leading even more inevitable to Nomad hotspots). Therefore, if you don‘t rely on things like people needing to speak English and booking from Airbnb and you are able to ask around and actually explore things by yourself and you don‘t need other Digital Nomads to go for drinks … then the worlds ACTUALLY your oyster as 95% of Digital Nomads are not like that!
Give me a compass and a map! All you need. :-)
Most of those people go to the same cringe places like Bali, so I just avoid such places (and them).
Thailand is a huge place, and most of those people are going where they think their audience wants to see. I don't think they're more difficult to avoid than the Khaosan Road backpacker crowd was before them.
I take a lot of shit from family and friends that I don’t take a ton of photos when I travel. I decided a long time ago that I wanted to be in the moment. 
When I first lived abroad I felt like the locals were more global and it was initially fun traveling with them and seeing the sites. But I realized over time that they would just hit the top N spots from some article and take photos and move on. I call it checkbox tourism. They were not more global at all, just more thirsty for “getting theirs”. For better or worse not knowing much and going in relatively blind and maybe working with a local guide can offer a much more authentic and meaningful experience. Unfortunately, nowadays with TikTok everyone is a checkbox tourist. And businesses even cater to that! My local coffee shop just added an inedible sandwich that photographs well. It’s a bummer. Anyway, ignore the noise and make your own plans and do your own research and it’ll be fine!
I don't watch any of that stuff
I have personally found travel vlogs very useful. I never knew how fascinating and cheap KL was until I saw a vlog and, now I can’t wait to go. Of course there are extremes. But in my opinion it’s better to be informed than go in blind.
I agree with you to an extent but in my experience these people are sheeplike and tend to stick to the obvious places. There are plenty of amazing places in the world that still have very few tourists even in a country as seemingly overrun as Thailand.
This is slightly schizo but I even feel like taking pictures sometimes lessens the experience. Somehow the fact that something happened to me just for one moment makes it even more special
I completely agree but would like to add: I don’t know where you’re traveling from but it is such a privilege to be able to travel. My legal status in the US does not allow me to travel anywhere outside the US and it is my life dream to be able to. Just remember how much of a privilege it is and it might change your perspective for just a bit. These videos are all some of us will ever be able to enjoy.
My ex used pages of our lonely planet as tp while crossing the Colombia border into Ecuador. Can't wipe your butt with your phone.
Yeah, and marriages were better before Eva ai sexting bot became a thing. Come on...
Just don’t look at the content… AND meditate so that your mind lets those things go. It will help you stay in the present more. Also, a video takes dedicated attention to watch. You can always scroll past it after a few seconds.
So then travel places that aren't popular. For example, I never hear anyon talk about traveling to Nicaragua. Go to Guyana, go to eastern europe, go to less popular cities in western europe, etc.
Traveling is for me about meeting people, if the online content is runining your experience, stop consuming it and go live and connect with people irl. You can make your own choices about what you consume.
William Bartram was peak travel influencer and no one can top him
It is very easy to just not see them.
I don't have anything but WhatsApp. My life is sooo much better for it.
I never watch them, I did in the past but it turns everything in the same coloured mush. If everyone follows the same formula that they think they should to gain traction, everyone ends up doing the same. So all the videos have the same topics, the vloggers even go to the same places at the same time and just purchase vlogging packages at local fixer agencies. I now prefer to let randomness decide what I encounter, or just speak to people on the street.
You hate Thailand because people post videos about it?? What is wrong with you? Lol. So weird. "I hate this entire country that has amazing food and friendly people because Sarah posted a video on an ocean swing!!" Why does it affect you?
Sorta. Plenty of places I went 20 years ago that i now find out had 20 other things I would have liked to see or do. Generally I’m in favor of more information and research than less. Now the jackasses running around filming their brunch reaction shots while I just want another lemonade, they can definitely disappear into the ether
Social media's only purpose is business or marketing. I just film quick shorts for tourism to promote my channel for helping people get their ideal remote life. Some quick shots of places can be motivating.
Why do digital nomads think their observations on countries they live in entitle an opinion on them? Can't you go, enjoy without forming an opinion of other tourists and the country you know little about?
I haven't seen a single travel video in my life. I do my own research on Google maps and Wikipedia and travel like a caveman. Every place is a surprise and an adventure, I have no expectations and am always pleased.
An this is why I don’t look at travel content before I go places, I use Google maps and street view, read reviews and basic information and then I go there. I try to not spoil the experience for myself.
I wish it was a global policy for cameras to be banned from gyms
> There is no mystery left, before you would see a photo and be like wow i want to see that. I take this a step further and want to go to places that have never even been photographed, but the planet is crawling with cameras. Would have been awesome to be born 200 years ago.........would have also really, really sucked lol.
Bro stop watching them. No views = no money = no more bloggers.
I mean there’s an easy solution to this. Don’t be terminally online and spoil the mystery for yourself. It’s not like videos are often a good representation of reality anyway.
Well, you're donig the same thing right now as you are complaining about. You are putting all the "travel vloggers/bloggers" in one bucket and saying they are all unprofessional assholes and only want to produce junk-level content for the views. It creates stereotypes. Plenty of content creators make excellent travel documentaries and care about the craft. How do you think people get better in filmmaking if people like you create an environment where it becomes a stigma to film anything? You are part of the problem. Second, don't use social media. It doesn't matter what you do, whether it's travel or anything else; your life will always be miserable because you're putting dopamine injections into your brain. Any other experiences in life will become dull and boring, including travel. Try to just sit for 30 minutes doing nothing every day for several months instead of social media and you'll be 10x happier than using social media and you won't care about vloggers and will love travel again. >You can't even open your phone half the time anyways without at least one video showing up. This is just...not smart thing to say.
Uhh I’ve been like 20 countries and I’ve never experienced this. Stop going to Bali and Lisbon
Don't watch them. You indicate that you can't erase what you've already seen - yet, I've never seen anything that you're talking about... even a little. The social media content related to travel that I've seen has done nothing but intrigue me - because I'm not living on a steady diet of it.
If you think you can't go anywhere in Thailand that you haven't seen on a video blog of some sort .... You're sadly mistaken and you are being defeated by your own lack of imagination. Furthermore, most videos don't do the locations justice. Have you really wasted so much of your life on social media that you think you have seen videos of every destination in Thailand to the point where the magic would be ruined in person? I doubt this. Sounds like you're just desperate to complain about something.
You didn’t even include the fact that this all resulted in inflated prices in traveling. Before corona and this surge in short form videos, people didn’t travel this much. Now everyone wants to go places, not actually for the sake of only traveling but to create the same content that they saw on these platforms. This brought in the surge in travel costs.
More like inflated prices in certain specific locations which were extra promoted by all these vloggers as "it's dirt cheap and amazing, come here". Otherwise travelling huge distances has always been quite expensive. It is absolutely true that everyone is obsessed with travelling now cause of fomo, if you don't do this, if you haven't been there, have these things you are a poor loser.
Negative Nancy over here
Everything was better before TikTok