Tuesday, August 17, 2010

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

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