The evil that is the travel blog

By James Stone


Every Christmas and new year I tend to get a few letters and cards from various long-lost friends. It seems to be the done thing, as soon as you know that you'll never see someone again, to start sending them Christmas cards as some kind of consolation or apology for the fact that you no longer intend to make the effort to visit them. And to be honest, I don't really mind that, and it's nice to think that you're still in people's thoughts enough to deserve the price of a stamp.

However, there are always those annoying people to decide to send you a massive photocopied newsletter, complete with family pictures, detailing exactly what has been happening in their lives over the last 12 months, as if anyone is in the least bit interested. Fortunately this seems to be affecting my parents more than me, but I've realised recently that my 20-something generation has their own version of this – the travel blog.

Picture the scene, you're waving goodbye to a friend who's off on a round the world adventure of a lifetime (so they say) and to be honest, you're glad they're finally going, because it means that you don't have to listen to them harping on about the impending trip is going to broaden their horizons or expand their mind. "I wish I could come with you, it sounds great," you say, with false enthusiasm, and urge them to send you a postcard from Fiji. "No need," they say. "You can read all about my travels on my travel blog."

This, I discover, is like an online diary, where you can post regular entries to keep your curious friends and family up to date with whatever it is your doing. I can understand the benefits in principle; it's quicker and easier than writing letters or postcards, and cheaper than a regular long-distance phone conversation. You can even post pictures, showing your friends back home exactly what you're up to.

The problem, though, is exactly that of the Christmas family newsletter – it assumes that people are actually as interested as you are in your daily life, which is almost certainly untrue, even if you are skydiving over the Pacific Ocean or whatever. Your travels may be the most exciting thing you have ever experienced, and you may want to share these tales and anecdotes with the world, but to be honest, it's going to lose something in translation. In recent years, my travelling friends have set up around ten of these blogs, which I feel duty-bound to read, in case they come back and test me on them. But they're boring, badly written, and massively self-indulgent.

So in conclusion; if you set off for a holiday of a lifetime, enjoy it. Just don't expect other people to enjoy reading about it.