Travel Tips: Using Social Media to Research?

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.580 | - I'm curious, is there like a Lonely Planet

00:00:07.420 | or another source of like the world guidebook

00:00:10.920 | where it's like, you know, a page or so

00:00:12.300 | and about each country where you can kind of just start

00:00:14.840 | to like wet your palate on different places

00:00:17.400 | or I know Lonely Planet, I don't know if you still do,

00:00:19.560 | but they used to have this thorn tree forum online

00:00:22.160 | where you could go ask questions.

00:00:23.900 | Anything in that realm of kind of broader inspiration?

00:00:27.420 | Obviously, you know, if you knew Slovenia,

00:00:29.040 | you could go get a guidebook about Slovenia

00:00:30.860 | and get the inspiration.

00:00:31.700 | But if you didn't know Slovenia, you know,

00:00:33.860 | do you start with a continent or any ideas there?

00:00:36.900 | - Yeah, I mean, there is actually a Lonely Planet world book.

00:00:39.880 | I actually don't know the last time we put it out,

00:00:42.220 | but I've seen it before.

00:00:43.060 | It's this huge, thick doorstopper of a volume

00:00:45.740 | that's just like an overview of the world.

00:00:48.320 | I wouldn't necessarily recommend that.

00:00:50.580 | It's a big, big read to start going through.

00:00:52.980 | I mean, for better or for worse,

00:00:54.720 | I do think social media is a huge part of it.

00:00:58.180 | And it takes a little bit of your own work, I think,

00:01:00.580 | to filter through all the BS, so to speak,

00:01:03.300 | and the surface level stuff and the oversaturated photos

00:01:06.000 | and the, you know, influencer shots on the beach

00:01:08.640 | that aren't really telling you anything about the place.

00:01:11.060 | But once you get past that,

00:01:12.580 | you can find some really incredible information

00:01:14.860 | on social media, just regular people out and about

00:01:17.700 | who put a Slovenia hashtag on something, or maybe not.

00:01:20.020 | Maybe they put a bike touring hashtag.

00:01:22.020 | And you're looking at the bike touring hashtag

00:01:23.620 | 'cause you're interested in doing something with bikes.

00:01:25.720 | And you're like, where is this?

00:01:26.960 | Like, where is this person like drinking a glass of wine,

00:01:29.540 | looking at this beautiful valley

00:01:31.220 | with a bike in the background?

00:01:32.340 | Oh, it's Slovenia, huh, really?

00:01:33.920 | So I think like searching kind of subject areas

00:01:37.100 | and social media is sort of the digital equivalent

00:01:41.900 | of hanging out at a bar with the entire world

00:01:44.660 | and asking for recommendations, you know?

00:01:46.700 | And it means you got to comb through some garbage

00:01:50.000 | to get to the good stuff, but it's in there.

00:01:51.540 | And it's the most, like the really genuine,

00:01:54.340 | from the heart, personal stuff

00:01:55.700 | that when you get to those recommendations,

00:01:57.160 | I think they mean a lot.

00:01:58.100 | I do it even as a journalist.

00:01:59.620 | If I'm like interested in seeing

00:02:01.460 | where people are bike touring

00:02:03.260 | or where people are backpacking or hiking,

00:02:06.540 | like I'll search those hashtags.

00:02:07.900 | I'll follow those accounts on, you know,

00:02:10.300 | TikTok and Instagram or whatever,

00:02:11.700 | and just see where people are hanging out

00:02:13.860 | and what people are talking about.

00:02:15.560 | 'Cause for better or for worse, it is a pulse

00:02:18.960 | and you're looking for a pulse

00:02:20.180 | and you're looking for a trend and it's there.

00:02:24.620 | So I think that's one way.

00:02:26.300 | I think, you know, what I like to do is,

00:02:29.140 | yeah, starting with a continent, maybe.

00:02:30.460 | Maybe you're like, okay, Europe.

00:02:31.580 | I want to do a trip in Europe,

00:02:33.500 | but maybe I'm thinking beyond Spain, Italy, France.

00:02:37.840 | Just like look at a map and pick a country

00:02:41.180 | and be like, oh, Albania.

00:02:42.380 | Like what's going on in Albania?

00:02:43.900 | And then you can start looking there

00:02:44.940 | and maybe something's going to interest you.

00:02:46.260 | Maybe it won't.

00:02:47.140 | Maybe you'll be like, okay,

00:02:47.980 | this looks a little too rough for me.

00:02:49.220 | I need something with more infrastructure.

00:02:51.200 | And then you look West and you're like, okay,

00:02:52.740 | maybe one of these, you know, maybe Croatia,

00:02:55.300 | maybe Slovenia, maybe Czech Republic.

00:02:57.500 | And just like looking at a physical map

00:03:00.100 | and like dreaming about it a little bit.

00:03:02.300 | And 'cause I know we'll probably get to this later,

00:03:05.580 | but I am of the firm belief that everywhere,

00:03:09.220 | literally everywhere has something to offer

00:03:11.980 | if you open yourself up to it.

00:03:14.180 | It has something that's going to blow your mind.

00:03:16.300 | If you spend a little time,

00:03:17.460 | if you approach it with an open mind,

00:03:19.200 | you'll find something that's going to blow your mind,

00:03:21.060 | even in your own backyard.

00:03:22.220 | I live two blocks from Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

00:03:25.020 | If I go into the Prospect Park today

00:03:27.780 | with the mindset that like I'm looking to be educated,

00:03:31.600 | I'm looking to learn, I'm looking to have my mind expanded,

00:03:34.660 | I'm going to have some interaction,

00:03:36.040 | whether it's, you know,

00:03:37.420 | staring at a Cardinal for 20 minutes

00:03:40.080 | or watching a couple hanging out on the lawn

00:03:43.660 | or, you know, playing with a random dog

00:03:45.940 | that's going to like make me feel good

00:03:47.300 | and make me feel fulfilled.

00:03:49.620 | And I really firmly believe

00:03:51.000 | that it really starts with mindset,

00:03:53.540 | which loops all back to that idea of like,

00:03:55.660 | why are you traveling?

00:03:57.260 | And if you go in with the right mindset,

00:03:58.900 | it doesn't matter.

00:03:59.740 | Honestly, it doesn't really matter where you're going.

00:04:01.380 | You're going to have your mind blown in some way.

00:04:03.620 | - So I want to dig into that process.

00:04:04.980 | But before I want to mention,

00:04:06.860 | well, I don't know if the average listener

00:04:08.660 | is thinking of Reddit as social media.

00:04:10.540 | I want to plug it because I use it a lot for travel.

00:04:13.700 | And I just did one quick search and I said, you know,

00:04:15.620 | "European wine tour site colon reddit.com."

00:04:18.700 | And it's like crowdsourcing my wine tasting trip

00:04:20.860 | to Europe, who's got suggestions.

00:04:22.920 | There aren't a lot of comments, unfortunately,

00:04:25.400 | but the person who wrote it

00:04:27.360 | came up with all these suggestions that include

00:04:29.960 | Slovenia and Croatia and Alto Adige,

00:04:33.240 | which I don't even know where that is.

00:04:34.340 | - Alto Adige, yeah, it's like northern Italy, I think, yeah.

00:04:37.360 | - So this at least had a bunch of suggestions,

00:04:40.200 | even though there weren't a lot of comments.

00:04:41.360 | So I use that a lot.

00:04:43.720 | - I do too, and actually it's a great example.

00:04:45.640 | I, during the pandemic,

00:04:48.320 | I feel like you're going to end this podcast

00:04:50.520 | being like this guy's obsessed with bikes,

00:04:51.960 | like shut up about bikes.

00:04:52.960 | But I like went down serious rabbit hole with cycling

00:04:57.200 | and bike, especially bike travel.

00:04:58.680 | Like I'm not really interested in the, you know,

00:05:01.320 | head to toe Lycra racing stuff.

00:05:03.800 | Like I'm, I love traveling by bike

00:05:05.960 | 'cause I think it like slows you down.

00:05:07.520 | You really get to notice a lot.

00:05:09.160 | It's just a great way to like feel,

00:05:12.040 | get the feel of the place.

00:05:12.880 | But I really went down a rabbit hole during the pandemic

00:05:15.920 | because I was stuck at home like everyone else.

00:05:18.580 | I don't, I live in New York City.

00:05:19.760 | I don't own a car.

00:05:20.940 | So I was like looking at ways

00:05:22.120 | to tap into this idea of adventure

00:05:24.400 | and travel while still being close to home

00:05:28.120 | and doing it with the tools that I had,

00:05:29.680 | which was a bicycle.

00:05:30.880 | And Reddit was like a goldmine for that kind of stuff.

00:05:33.600 | I just, as an example,

00:05:35.520 | I remember finding someone talking about the route vert,

00:05:40.560 | butchering that French, but it means the green route.

00:05:42.940 | And it's like a network of trails

00:05:45.040 | and routes in Quebec and Canada.

00:05:47.060 | Never would have thought of it.

00:05:49.480 | Like my knowledge and desire and understanding of Quebec

00:05:53.640 | starts and ends with Montreal, like it has for a long time.

00:05:56.800 | And then suddenly reading about this network

00:05:58.240 | of hundreds and hundreds of miles of trails

00:06:01.000 | that exist in Quebec,

00:06:02.140 | started talking to my partner and we're like,

00:06:05.880 | you know, I hear the border's about to reopen with Canada.

00:06:08.920 | What if we just went and did this trip

00:06:10.560 | that I like saw on Reddit?

00:06:12.000 | And we're like, okay, well, we don't have a car,

00:06:14.200 | but what if we took the train with our bikes

00:06:16.660 | as far North as it goes,

00:06:18.260 | and then got on our bikes from there

00:06:19.580 | and rode across the border into Canada

00:06:21.180 | and did the trip that way,

00:06:22.700 | which is exactly what we ended up doing.

00:06:23.980 | We took the train to St. Albans, Vermont,

00:06:26.740 | literally spent the night in Vermont,

00:06:28.580 | left that morning, rode to Canada,

00:06:30.180 | and then spent a week riding around Quebec

00:06:32.220 | and then rode back to Vermont and took the train home,

00:06:34.340 | all without ever getting in the car.

00:06:35.560 | I wrote about it on Lonely Planet's website actually,

00:06:38.420 | but it's a great example of something

00:06:39.660 | that just like started with like a tiny little spark

00:06:41.860 | of being like, huh, the green route Quebec,

00:06:43.980 | like sounds kind of magical.

00:06:45.260 | Like, I wonder if we could do it.

00:06:47.580 | Next thing I know, a few weeks later,

00:06:49.380 | we're on a train with our bikes on our way up to Canada.

00:06:52.280 | So that just goes to show, I think,

00:06:55.540 | like how the germ of something,

00:06:57.980 | if you have the right curiosity and the right mindset

00:06:59.980 | could turn into like a really great adventure.

00:07:03.140 | - I think there's two things to take away there

00:07:04.800 | that you didn't mention.

00:07:05.640 | One, I imagine that was a pretty inexpensive trip

00:07:10.220 | for something you described.

00:07:11.580 | You describe it in a way that people talk about

00:07:13.560 | these once-in-a-lifetime adventures

00:07:15.180 | that they plan for years and years

00:07:16.840 | and they spend thousands of dollars.

00:07:18.740 | That doesn't sound like something

00:07:19.900 | that took a lot of advance notice

00:07:21.660 | or a lot of money to make happen.

00:07:23.780 | - We didn't know where we were staying every night.

00:07:25.260 | Like it was one of those kinds of trips.

00:07:26.580 | And it was amazing 'cause you could do that

00:07:29.100 | in a place like Quebec.

00:07:29.980 | We'd be like, oh, we're starting to get a little tired.

00:07:33.240 | We've been riding for 60 miles.

00:07:34.460 | It looks like a storm's coming in.

00:07:36.220 | Pull out my phone and be like,

00:07:37.200 | what's the nearest bed and breakfast?

00:07:38.520 | Give them a call.

00:07:39.360 | They're like, yeah, of course, come on through.

00:07:40.660 | Next thing you know, we're staying there.

00:07:41.700 | So, and I think that's a great point that you make

00:07:45.320 | that like, one, that these kind of big,

00:07:49.940 | this is actually the point that I make in my story too,

00:07:51.840 | where like you think of like the capital B, capital T,

00:07:55.640 | big trip as something that you spend years

00:07:58.560 | thinking about, planning every moment.

00:08:00.280 | You know, you're gonna go on a safari.

00:08:02.280 | You're gonna go climb to Everest Base Camp.

00:08:05.760 | You're gonna do these huge things, which is great.

00:08:07.920 | And those have a place.

00:08:09.160 | And those kind of big goals are important.

00:08:12.840 | But what this taught me at least was that a big trip

00:08:15.960 | can come from like a small idea.

00:08:17.720 | A big trip can be something that is largely improvised.

00:08:21.440 | It can be serendipitous, it can be spontaneous.

00:08:24.560 | Again, I really do think it comes down to mindset.

00:08:27.740 | I think we could have gone into that panicking

00:08:29.760 | about not having a place to stay, tired.

00:08:32.080 | You know, we got rained on.

00:08:33.080 | We had flat tires, all this stuff.

00:08:35.440 | But because we had the attitude where we're like,

00:08:37.000 | this is an adventure.

00:08:37.840 | Like, what, this is like, we've been cooped up at home

00:08:39.880 | for a year and a half because of the pandemic.

00:08:41.480 | And now we're out here doing this amazing thing.

00:08:43.200 | Like, how lucky are we?

00:08:45.040 | And because we came in with that attitude,

00:08:46.600 | it just turned into like a really fulfilling,

00:08:49.360 | if exhausting, adventure.

00:08:50.800 | - You know, it was kind of in your backyard per se, right?

00:08:53.560 | It wasn't directly there, but you took a train.

00:08:55.620 | You didn't have to cross an ocean.

00:08:56.920 | You didn't have to spend thousands on plane tickets.

00:08:58.840 | So, you know, I think a lot of times everyone

00:09:02.120 | plans vacations like, gosh, where can I go?

00:09:04.120 | That's, you know, halfway around the world.

00:09:05.680 | And it's cool to hear that, you know,

00:09:07.240 | If you just think about it, you might find something not too far away.

Travel Tips: Using Social Media to Research?

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