Too Many Tourists - It's all a Frame of Mind

The world's worst kept secrets... tourists are not exotic... they are penny-pinching inflexible... blind... old... infirm... and ignorant... otherwise, they are very nice people. You read stories of the time of the Grand Tour... at the end of the 19th century... when people of leisure discovered new worlds... those days are well and truly behind us. Today, everyone seems to be travelling on a budget... on a timetable... with a long lists of boxes to tick. And it's so easy to get caught up in the mass-produced mind set.

Joye and I have so much to learn about the art of touring... to offer advice on good techniques is preliminary. At this stage, here are some prejudices we struggle to contain... prejudices you may find familiar.

Starting with the trivial... who likes tourists with loud voices... who likes tourists that wear caps back-to-front or sideways? Who likes tourists who take photos of meals served to them in cheap restaurants? Who likes tourists who stop to chat with friends right at the bottleneck in the pathway, gangplank or stairwell? Who likes tourists who sneak into queues halfway up? Who likes tourists that complain to the cut-price service deliverers about imperfections in the service? Fortunately, when we actually speak to a tourist exhibiting a prejudice, we have found them very likeable people.

Touring is no holiday... it's a game requiring stamina, tactics and humour. We are handling a mass-produced product and trying to fashion it into a unique personal experience... not easy. This week we booked accommodation in a remote (relatively) valley, some 3 klms out of town. Getting away from day-to-day tourist life has been a godsend... being able to cook our own meals... do our domestic chores without a tight deadline... being able to walk out the back door and feed the chooks... watch the tadpoles in the stream... sit in the sunshine without worrying about who may be watching. We venture from our safe vault for several hours each day to walk one of the Cinque Terra trails... then scurry back to our private cubbyhole.

When a fellow tourist proves to be annoying... we remember some of the great personalities we have met on the road. It's the people who make our experience so enjoyable.