An opinion on trip reports
 

I quote the following without comment.

"The only aspect of our travels that is interesting to others is disaster."
- Martha Gellman

Though the disaster can be "interesting" I find how people overcome the disaster far, far more interesting.

I like to know how people take a lousy situation and turn it into a memorable one. I want to learn more about how to adapt.

HOW SAD!

Meant to include the source, an essay "Round the World Journal"
by Matt Donath you can find at:

http://www.travel-library.com/rtw/donath/intro.html

Not if the trip report is about PARIS.. :)

"Martha Gellman shouldn't presume to know what is interesting to others." -- Capo :)

I like things like observations about people or cities or specific sights. I skip over things like logistics and (what I see as) minutiae. And, not being a foodie, I couldn't less what someone has for a meal (but I also realize other people eat that stuff up.)

When planning a trip, I find that trip reports can really give you insight into issues that I would not have otherwise even thought of. Of course, some are more entertaining than others and some read better than others, but the information can be invaluable.

jsmith: I agree! A wonderful, wonderful recent poster described her budget trip to Italy with two teens. Her attempts to surmount obstacles were what made her trip report truly interesting. She proved what my husband told me ages ago--vacations are for people uninterested in challenge; travel, by contrast, is for people who understand that each day of life presents wonderful challenges to expand one's existance.

hi, indie and Randell. J. and I dont mind getting lost. Once we thought we were in traffic but ended up on a ferry, TO OUR DELIGHT!. I met a few provencal friends when I was in the Post office, lost, asking directions. I can hardly wait to see them again as we do every year now after seven.We have been so lucky have made so many friends there. We made friends wuith another couple staying on a farm and the Belguim guy's went caput. so J. drove him to a station for help, a few years later they bought a place in Haute provence and have visited them at their invitation, amnd now we also have friends in poitiers so we visit France to visit friends now. But we also see new things through their eyes.

It is true that as we look back on our travels, it is the disasters that stand out.

For example:

Wasting 2 days of vacation to see the great European eclipse of 1999 only to get rained out in a real soaker.

The various ways European cars can be put into reverse--and how you learned how to put the one you had into reverse (next time you specifically asked for minute directions). It was the ring, stupid.

Delays.

The French Car Engine Disaster.

The British home exchange house owned by pack rats.

Taking my crazy clean mother on the trip where we had the British home exchange house owned by pack rats. It did not help when her luggage was mislaid for a few hours and she went into a major kvetch-a-thon.

Getting lost anywhere.

Looking for a hotel room at 10:00pm near Mont St. Michel in August with a car full of kids.

Air conditioning in the car always breaking down every time I went on a family trip anywhere in New England (The Curse of New England).

However, all of these things make the best and funniest stories afterwards after you are home safely in your own bed. You regale others with the details and, if looked at from the right perspective, the stories are very entertaining.

And that is why Martha Gellman said what she did.

I should say that routine trip reports of someone's first time in Paris, London, etc., do not interest me because I have seen almost all (if not all) the things they are going to see. Funny stories, however, do interest me and I read those.

You can pick out the boring brag-a-thon trip reports in a nanosecond ("I stayed at The Ritz. If you can't afford The Ritz or the Georges V, YOU have not done Paris. And, I never even have breakfast at anything less than a 2 star, etc."). I skip those sorts of posts because they are dumb, dumb, and dumber and most of the people posting those sorts of "reports" have, in my opinion, very good imaginations (and a large supply of travel guides that assist them with the details of their so-called "trip" reports).

And all my disasters cited above were happily resolved. There was nothing that a large infusion of cash could not fix. :-)

For that we have credit cards.

I'm with Mimi: HOW SAD! And I don't think it's the least bit true. A good travel story doesn't have to include a disaster to get me interested in it.

I'll take adventure, romance, serendipity and spontanaiety over disaster any day. (Especially the "woe-is-me-rained-every-day" variety. Complete turnoff, that.)

I suspect that Martha Gellman has been subjected to more of the latter, than the former, to have made that jaded comment?

When travelling, there are no disasters. There are, however, adventures!

jsmith, "We" (fodorites) ain't "others."

I disagree!

To me, Humor makes a very interesting report. And human interest, more than food descriptions and directions.
There is one going on now, that is lovely, sort of a daily diary where one can pretend to be there..

Marilyn is SO right :D

Of course Gellman is right. Disaster and overcoming it is the essence of all
great storytelling.

Gee, so I guess if you have a perfect vacation, you need not post your trip report?

I don't think a daily repot of what you do every day is interesting no matter how well you write but this reminds me of the book, that has lots of funny comments, "The Travelling Curmudgeon," quotations and anecdotes on all aspects of trave, such as Paul Theroux: "You define a good flight by negatives:You didn't get hijacked, you didn't crash, you didn't throw up, you weren't late,you weren't nauseated by the food."

actually, depends on how you look at it / how the disaster is told.

one very funny book I have in my travel library (over 100 books and counting! gads) is called "Not so funny when it happened" by Tim Cahill. all about misadventures. it's a scream!

Well, of course, the memorable lines are the most outlandish:

"...and so the girl from the EuroCar office gets in and slips the gear easily into reverse..." (yeah, that ring got us, too)

"It ate my credit card!" (on the autostrada at the un-manned toll machine)

"The good news is that the cops said they'd pay for the front door." (on return from our first trip to Paris)

Oh, what can we do to get Elvira back?

Although, I've sort of liked m_k2's Barcelona report too, even with all the "up-nosing brag-a thon" (or maybe just because ot it)

OK, I'm running for cover now

For a memorable "Disaster turned to something good," one of my all-time favorite posts comes under the heading of "Kindness of Strangers" regarding people who were especially kind to tourists. Go to(I hope I have this right) http://www.fodors.com/forums/threadselect.jsp?fid=2 and check out the three-part story by Gardyloo. He has the best writing style - very droll with a dry wit.

Sorry - the link didn't work. It should work if you search for Kindess of Strangers.

My heart does rather sink when I click on a trip report and am confronted with a single long paragraph through which you have to scroll down, scroll down, scroll down.

A paragraph break here and there gives the reader (and the reader's eyes) a nice rest.

I know this isn't really what the originator of this thread had in mind, but it does make a difference to whether I stick with a report or think "Oh dear, no, I'll come back and read this another time..."

twin, that is such a great thread. I remember it well. The stories were astounding, but you're right about gardyloo's being the prize winner.

Flygirl, I am a huge Tim Cahill fan. I've read all his books and heartily recommend them. Along the same lines are several collections of travel disaster stories. One is called "I Should Have Stayed Home," published by Book Passage Press. I'll bet fodorites could fill several books with stories just as entertaining. Hmmm...fodors, are you listening?

up -nosing brag- a- thon ? LOL

On any given day, when I have the I'm not traveling blues, I love that I can come here and live vicariously through someone. It's fantastic.

And I like them all...especially since most people who post a report here often do so in the spirit of thankfulness for advice given to them in the past, and in the hopes of helping someone in the future. That's a very nice sentiment, IMO.

Mina, I think the newbies give the most heartfelt reports because the first trip is a thrill after their culling the information, is a high.

Fans, Check out Degas's amusing report to S.F

well, that's definitely true in my case Cigale...I was so excited to write my first report on fodors because I wanted to report back on the advice I got. It was a pretty cut and dry report, and done with the best intentions.

I haven't written one since registration...and it seems flaming has gone down since then. Anyway, I'm too busy reading some of these to write! :)

well that's too bad, mina, since Elvira left us, I thought your reports would fill the gap as they were funny and creative also.

Thanks Cigale, that is nice of you to say. But there really is plenty here that fills that gap! Plus 150 pages of trip report is too much to post. ;)

Well, I think Martha Gellman's quote is true if you are telling your travel stories to someone who is jealous or bitter.

I would hope my friends and people friendly to me would rejoice in my good times and laugh WITH me at my disasters.

I don't like the idea of critiquing, comparing and judging other people's trip reports in the same way here on Fodors either. I think if you can't say something positive about someone's report, just leave it. After all they are taking the time to share their experiences and criticism might stop someone from posting and acknowledging their appreciation after their trip and isn't that what this board is all about?

What this board "is all about" seems to vary considerably from one individual to another as do both the contents and, apparently, the overall reason why trip reports are posted....and read or not read.

There's one currently going on right now that is basically, IMO, a daily diary of one person's activities, most of which no traveler will ever indulge in, much less report out to a bunch of strangers. But many people are enjoying it so what is the harm?

When one posts on a "public" forum and offers "advice" so-called "information" and opinions then the poster has to accept the fact that there will be disagreements and that people are not afraid to express their own opinions, etc......comes with the territory.

I must weigh in - I LOVE trip reports from everybody. Show me your movies, slides, photos, cheap souvenirs, matchbooks, maps, whatever! I just want to hear about it and then start the questions. UsuallyI want to know, What did you think? What did you like best? What went wrong (whoops!). What did you imagine before you left? Were your expectations met? What made you want to go there? What a rush to discover someone who has made an emotional or spiritual connection on their travels. Sadly, some people go because it's the thing to do. Happily, most of them aren't posting on Fodors!

Having read the trip report that Topman mentions, I have to say that some reports are amusing (Degas for example) and some are dreamy diaries of ordinary days spent in places a little less ordinary than "at home", some are exciting and some are like a good book, you want them to continue indefinitely.
But then there are the posters who are not quite as talented but they have asked for information and we have contributed and they are returning the favor by sending us all a report on how the trip turned out.
While some are real 'page turners' there are some that are not. But I appreciate them all.
And none of us should feel intimidated by the fact that there are critics who will grade our performance :)
I hope everyone on here writes a trip report at least once!
Actually, it was through some posters reports that I got to know them a little better and started friendships with them, not a bad thing at all :)
Scarlett

Trip reports need to be evaluated. One item that is always missing - a statement about the posters age! Years ago we advertised that our trips (whitewater) were safe. After the Vermont accident we quit telling people that our trips were safe. We advised that one person drowned every two years. We never lost any business. Winnow out the chaff..

..agree, though I prefer the term negative adventure..I learn more from the "mistakes" that people reporton the board than i learn from their advenbtures..i have entertained (or at least i think i have), countless friends with stories of misadventures.(a car accident in Arles when I was a kid ended up in the hospital and only years later did i recognize the courtyard as THE courtyard )..multiple missed planes, odd hotel rooms, even odder meals and the people ive shared them with..to me this is what makes travel..but i am known for my warped sense of humor.

Travel, for me anyway, is a pastime, as much I'd love for it to be a way of life. I admit, I try to listen when someone is telling me in detail about their love of model railroading or stamp collecting, but I know I still glaze over a little bit.

Sharing your interests with others who share that interest is completely different than foisting it upon those who listen out of politeness. That, to me, is why there are interest forums like this one. So that I can impose upon the semi-willing. ;)

I actually haven't written a trip report yet, despite reading many that I enjoyed over the last few years. Still haven't decided whether I will or not after this year's trip. No planned visit to cities in the "Top 5" and all that.

At very least, trip reports are vital scouting data for planning purposes. That alone makes them worthwhile, as a whole.

At best, they are compelling narrative non-fiction. We can't all be Mark Twain, but we can try.

I enjoy trip reports! If I find one that is uninteresting or maybe way too long, I simply read the parts I choose. That, to me is the essence of this board---we can read what we choose.