Paris: City of Romance or Raunch?

As part of a 'Paris' special series of articles, including a photo tour, tips on getting there, how to get around when you are there and cheap trip options, I chose the 'Paris for Beginners' article.
Having travelled to Paris a few times in my backpacking career, I could have used a bit of real world advice that may have saved me some pain and suffering. I headed to Paris after high school, full of romantic dreams ready to use my French and eat baguettes. When I arrived I realized the French were stereotyped rude because they actually were rude. Horribly rude. No one would listen to my 'French' or help me at all when I was completely lost and could not find my hostel, walking over 10kms with a 25kg backpack...that it just a small snapshot.



In this article, the author gives a rather brief overview of how to get around and some pros and a few cons. It's a pretty fluffy article if you ask me and I'm not convinced it really gives any concrete tips for first time visitors to Paris. I think the fact that the audience is American the author really should have highlighted the 'right' when to act when you arrive- say you are Canadian! The French HATE Americans among others.

Paris is a beautiful city, I would not discount that. There are so many great things to do, but I think it's important for travellers to be realistic on their first visit. If you have stacks of money to spend and can afford luxury then Paris will be a breeze for you. But for the rest of us we need to know where to go where people might be helpful, what French to know, and how to pretend to have a French accent!

One thing I definitely agreed with the author on was the fact that one might be able to overlook hitting up the Louvre. Unless you are an art fanatic it's best to avoid a huge headache. I personally didn't go in- it was overpriced (i was a starving backpacker) and the lines were insane. Everyone I spoke to said they could have not gone in-you couldn't even see the Mona Lisa because in real life it was tiny, had a massive protective cover over it, and the crowd around it was about 10 deep in every direction.

So this article in my opinion could have offered much better 'first time' insight.

http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-paris-20100822,0,3185666.story

Another Top 10- Travel Trends

Found on the Time's website in their travel section, this article caught my eye. It's another top 10 type article but slightly different. It lists the Top 10 trends in travel, each as separate 'mini' articles, which you can choose to only read one, or click through the whole lot. Some of them are interesting and new, such as the opener which is the trend towards cruising solo, and the increase in Cruiser lines to cater to the single traveller. But others such as Electronic boarding passes, and hotels that are nonrefundable or changeable. Typically it's standard to have a no refund/no change policy on very low price deals. The airlines have been doing it for years, and so have hotels, I suppose it's just not as publicized.

Also, each 'mini' article page, has it's own image. But I have to say the images are pretty weak, and do no add much to the article. I also found this technique or forcing the reader to click through each time they wanted to read the next tip was really tedious. As most know the online audience is an extremely fickle and impatient one. If someone has to click too many times to get to the information they are looking for, they will simple move on. This article is an example of that. Had the Top Ten been something I could scroll down through, I would be more apt to read it in its entirety. But as it's not user friendly in the slightest, were I not commenting on behalf of an assignment I would have simply moved on to read something else.

I think sometimes online journalists get caught up trying to follow the 'formula' and lose sight of what the online reader is looking for and his/hers reading behaviours.

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1986719_1986718,00.html

Top Ten's- are they affective?

This article, found in the UK's Guardian website, is a classic example of a Top Ten. Nicola Iseard has written a series of articles similar to this, and regularly contributes to the Travel section of the newspapers website.

Although not particularly captivating, she has taking the season of year and put together a list of good places to visit from London that still have warm temperatures. Being situated on the airline hub to dozens of beautiful, tropical, and generally warm places in Europe it does not seem much of a feat to find 10 great places to go. The real challenge here is to find 10 NEW places that most people would never think of going. The hidden gems. Because that's why most people travel, well I know at least from my own experience. We want to go somewhere new, we want to discover something really special for ourselves that maybe no one else we know has.

Nicola has compiled a pretty straightforward list, providing temperatures, a brief blurb about the location, a suggestion of where to stay, and a plug for an airline who flies there. Both the accommodation and airlines have easy to access links, so should you want to book this trip the online media allows you to do so instantly. I think this is one of the great things about online journalism and travel.

I felt the article lacked any depth or new personal insight into any of the locations. Although there were a few new locations  people wouldn't think of, it seemed just a reiteration of the usual suspects plucked straight from an already published travel book. As far as travel writing goes, the more affective ones have some new advice, new finds, or some personal revelations. This article, although structured well was just a bit too dry for my liking to be in the travel section.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/aug/17/autumn-sun-short-haul-breaks

Travel article with commercial twist

I found this article in the travel and destination section of the SMH. Masked as news slanted article about a new trend of young Aussies making return holidays to London, but in a more mature fashion. The article is interesting enough, detailing the method in which young Aussies who once made the shoe string trip to London to experience life on the smallest amount of money are returning on holiday leave with more money and therefore enjoying more luxuries.

Yet from the second paragraph of the article I began noticing a "Student Flights" cropping up every other paragraph. Student Flights is introduced as somewhat of an expert who is providing new insight into a current travel trend in Australia, however as the article goes on it seems they are the only resource contacted. Not only are they the source of this 'new' information, they are also the expert on what to do, and just so happen to offer special flights deals at the conclusion of the article. 

It seems it's more of an excuse of an article to plug Student Flights- and I'm probably right when I suppose that Student Flights bought an advertising package where they got an ad as well as a small editorial coverage disguised as news. Overall not impressed with this practice as it gives journalism a bad name. We shouldn't have to read articles with a sifter in order to decifer whether it is real news, or just a commercial plug.

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/get-back-postbackpacking-aussies-return-to-london-20100805-11k4j.html

Frugal Existence

Found on New York Times online, this travel blog follows a journalist who is living the 'frugal' life on a trip around the world. I'm particularly interested in travel articles like this because I've been there and done that when it comes to traveling on pennies. I think there is definitely a huge gap in the market for educating young and old about the ability for anyone to travel the world no matter your budget.

This blog, currently filled with Seth Kugel's day to day exploits on a mission to make his way back from South America on less than $500. I found it interesting not only because I am personally interested in it, but also because it does a great job of bringing in colourful experiences from his journey. He paints a picture with his words of the characters he encounters, and the epic locations he is able to discover. His entries are a healthy mixture of interesting stories as well as providing new and interesting money savings options. 

In this particular entry, he uncovers new accommodation options like homestays. I think this is also a great discovery because as far as newsworthiness, most people already know about hostel's. But since the premier of 'The Hostel' movie, some people may be turned off from staying at the low cost hotel. Yet, homestays, according to Kugel can be a really telling experience that is not only inexpensive, but a great cultural experience. So far I think Kugel's blog offers an example of good travel journalism that using online media can reach a large number of people looking for just this information.

http://frugaltraveler.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/10/a-homestay-among-the-tzutujil/

And it Begins

As part of my quest to become some sort of Journalist I've created this blog to critique one Travel article a week for 12 weeks. With the aim of not only discovering new and interesting travel tid bits, I hope to discover what works and what doesn't when it comes to captivating a reader. I shall shame those whose prose is trivial, and celebrate those who invite readers with their tantilizaing travel stories. Here goes nothing.