Sometimes you’ve got to be the tourist

There are many different types of traveller in the world, and some independent traveller types get very caught up on avoiding tourist traps. You know the type of person; they buy the lonely planet guide so they can avoid the places it recommends. The fact is that these tourist sites are popular for a reason, and that is because they are places people want to see. Sometimes it is necessary to go with the flow and allow yourself to blend in to the cameras, daypacks and conga lines of tourist parties.

I’d like to share a personal story, of a whistle-stop visit to the beautiful city of Venice. At the time we were staying on a much needed stress relieving holiday in Croatia, in Istra to be exact. This is in the North of Croatia, and on the border with Slovenia. Trieste in Italy is just a 100km away, and a day trip there sees you going through three countries in one day, which always sounds cool. Just across the sea however is Venice, it’s a two and a half hour boat ride from the port of Porec in Croatia and day trips operate all the time to this world famous destination. If you are going to visit Venice in a day, you have to be a tourist. To get there we went on a boat carrying three hundred or so other day trippers - this was going to be busy.

Soon after arrival on the boat, at the usual crack of dawn departure time, we were told to congregate downstairs for a talk about what we were going to see in Venice, there would also be important information about where to meet and departure times. What followed was a well refined, multi-lingual, tuned speech about how to make the best of your visit to Venice. Funnily enough this had a lot of additional services that the tour operator provided to make our trip easier. These included pre-arranged ‘heavily discounted’ gondola trips, a top notch meal, and a taxi boat back to our departure point. Like lambs to the slaughter, we were brainwashed in to buying the lot. After all we only had a few hours and Marco our guide was telling us how hard it was to find a cheap restaurant, how expensive a gondola was etc.

Here’s what happened: Off the boat we were to follow Marcos orange umbrella. He said “I walk at normal speed if you lose me it is not my fault” However, consider 300 people trying to follow a man with an orange umbrella whilst battling with the thousands of other people heading to the sites. What’s normal walking speed then if you don’t know where you are going? – Venice is a maze.

Arriving in St. Mark’s square the group was split to two guides, this is where we should have broken away and spent some time by ourselves but we had our Gondola appointment to meet, then a glass factory to visit (don’t ask) and then on to what turned out to be one of the worst restaurant’s in the world. We then had about ten minutes to ourselves before we were due at the meeting point for the taxi that would take us back to our departure point. TEN MINUTES. Those were the best times; we wandered down some back streets away from the ridiculous amount of people and had time (barely) to appreciate the buildings. Passing numerous quite outlets selling fresh reasonably priced sandwiches. Finding lunch hard? - I think not. Actually, think about it is there really any city where you can’t find food? No – don’t be scared in to thinking that it will be difficult.

Venice is like a theme park as it is, but this way of viewing it really left us frustrated that we didn’t see the place for all it’s merits. Those 10 minutes with just the two of us were fantastic, and we plan to go back in the future and find our own way round. Sure we might get lost, but that’s the whole point of travel isn’t it?

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This post isn’t designed to stoke the tourist vs traveller vs cultural immersion debate - it’s more about me wanting to go back to Venice sooner rather than later!

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