Are we Tourists or Travellers?

Some Roman Bridge or other in Alghero with a bit missing

Whenever we drive right into the middle of a city along a cobbled street which looks as if it should not be accessible to cars I always say, ‘oh well we’re tourists!’ Not that anyone has ever challenged us. We once famously drove right under the aqueduct in Segovia, Spain, completely unintentionally. Although there seem to be fewer pedestrianised streets in Southern European cities than in the UK, driving under the aqueduct was not meant to be an option! We think that locals are so bemused by seeing a UK registered car in such unlikely places, that generally they take no notice and do not challenge us!

Anyway, back to my original question. I decided that my best place for research would be amongst my Archers Appreciation friends on Facebook. They are such a lovely, witty, intelligent and friendly bunch of people that I often turn to them for ideas. Okay, I am a librarian by profession and know about the value of reliable research and what a wide range of sources there are. However, this article, like most of those on my blog, is meant to be fun and light-hearted. I shall not be referencing using the Harvard system.

At the end of July, the beginning of our long summer holiday, I asked them: ‘What is the difference between a tourist and a traveller?’ I agreed that I would quote their comments and mention them by first name. These are some of the responses I had. I shall then decide whether on balance their responses can prove definitively whether Paul and I are indeed tourists or travellers!

‘Travellers are nice people like us, tourists are other people.’ (Andrew)

‘A traveller is a pretentious tourist.’ (Jean)

‘Delusion.’ (Gina)

‘I travel, you are a tourist, he is a day-tripper.’ (Kate)

‘A traveller thinks they are better than tourists and thinks they are keeping it real! Travellers may wash less often – unless I am travelling! (Niki)

‘We like to think of ourselves as travellers – probably a bit pretentious I know – because we tend to travel for long periods and get close to the lives of real people as we go, rather than just going to see some attraction. I usually take the trouble to learn at least a little of the language if possible.'(Les)

‘A tourist is someone else, making the crowds bigger and the queues longer; a traveller is me, not part of the crowd or queue, just caught up in them.’ (Jamie)

‘A tourist pays for their holiday, a traveller has it paid for by their parents.’ (Dinsdale)

Reply from Helen: ‘Even in middle/old age?’

Reply from Jamie: ‘Oh god no, those yoof backpackers are decidedly tourists.’

‘A tourist takes a photo every 5 minutes, a traveller is content just to look.’ (Joan)

‘Travellers never stay at all-inclusive resorts, they are strictly for the tourists.’ (Louise)

‘I would say a tourist wants to look at places, and a traveller wants to experience places.’ (Sarah)

‘We are travellers; they are tourists. Probably working class. Or American.’ (John)

‘Tourists go where they are led. Travellers go where they will. Tourists seek comfortable situations. Travellers put up with whatever comes their way.’ (Di)

‘I spent 7 days in Petra and visited the site 5 times from different angles and loved talking to the Nabataean; they realised I wasn’t going to hire their donkey so used to just chat about life and drink mint tea.’ (Rachel)

‘Round here, travellers set up their caravans in the local park and leave mountains of rubbish and human poo behind when they depart several weeks later.’ (Deb) – As Les pointed out, this could be the wrong sort of traveller!

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions and contributions from my lovely Archers’ friends. In a way I think that Andrew, Kate, Jean, Gina and Niki have hit the nail on the head. I don’t like to think that we are better than other people. Paul and I talk about ourselves being ‘travellers’ in a jokey way. I do like to visit the attractions of the city, the places that everyone else wants to go to. For instance, when we arrived in Bilbao at the beginning of our journey, we spent several hours in the Guggenheim museum.  According to Joan, I am definitely more of a tourist than Paul, as I do take a lot of photos. For our 4 week holiday this year, I have probably taken about 1000 photos, and it is going to take a long time to sort them out! I also like to do silly things, such as standing in the same pose as a statue and getting Paul to photograph me!

Flowery Dog outside the Guggenheim

Sarah with Garibaldi in Palau

We do like to plan our holidays, and always book accommodation in advance. We wash every day, and always eat in restaurants or I cook proper meals in our villa. We do not eat street food or walk around eating – something to do with my upbringing I daresay! I actually love the look of street food, but just want a table and chairs to complete the experience! The planning is partly because we like home comforts, and partly because we often travel at peak times – getting decent accommodation in August last minute is not easy! We also like self-catering, and this is really not practical or even possible to book last minute.

Louise points out that a traveller would never stay at an all-inclusive resort. Okay, at this point I had to make my confession to my friends that we did do this for our honeymoon in Cuba! (July 2004)To be honest, I think that most of the hotels in Cuba are all-inclusive, and it may have been difficult to do otherwise. We did love the holiday, but it is the only time we have ever stayed in a hotel for 2 weeks and not done any cooking at all! I am not sure we’ll ever do it again, although one of my ambitions is to go on a cruise; my dream holiday is a world cruise for several months! If Paul reads this, there is a great one advertised in the back of the Radio Times – 120 nights departing in January 2019. Passenger 1 pays from £15,999 and passenger 2 goes free!

Rachel’s comments about her experiences in Petra sound very much like our idea of making the most of a place. We often return to a favourite city, and sometimes just wander the streets, not visiting any museums or cathedrals. My favourite activity is to sit in cafes and restaurants and watch the world go by. When we went to the Alpujarras a few years back, we went to Granada several times at different times of the day; once we went early morning, and another time we went in the evening just for dinner. On another visit we did go to the Alhambra Palace, although the intense heat nearly defeated me!

However, when it comes down to it, I know that I am more of a tourist than Paul is. I adore tourist shops and buying souvenirs and gifts to take home. I send about a dozen postcards to friends and family whilst we are away. Paul is in his element when visiting archaeological sites, and has a particular passion for Visigothic sites (okay, my little joke! I believe there are not actually that many Visigothic sites world-wide!) I am convinced that an interest in the Visigoths is not common among tourists! This summer there were many interesting archaeological sites to visit in Sardinia, and I do enjoy these experiences, just not in the heat! Paul very kindly found places for me to rest and amuse myself whilst he went exploring. Luckily he was usually able to find me a beautiful beach with crystal clear sea, and my favourite activity on holiday in August (yes, it even comes above going to the shops!) is swimming. Now, would you consider swimming to be a tourist activity? Certainly on our travels, we came across very few UK visitors, and we did not see another GB registered car for many weeks (not until we reached Chamonix). However, there did seem to be a lot of local tourism.

Les makes a really good point about learning the language. I do feel less of a tourist in France because I speak French (could be fluent if I made the effort!) In fact, I was very pleased to interview our host at our final hotel in France, conducting the entire conversation in French (watch out for my future blog post about Maison Ailleurs). Paul also speaks French (not as well as I do!) and has a smattering of Italian. We both speak a few words in Spanish and can just about manage menus in Italy and Spain. We picked up a bit of Portuguese too, last year. Sometimes I get utterly confused and have spoken short sentences partly in French, Italian and Spanish!

Our mode of travel is probably unusual to some. We very rarely fly (I cannot remember the last time we went on an aeroplane – maybe 7 years ago?) This year we went on 5 ferries – Portsmouth to Bilbao, Barcelona to Sardinia, Sardinia to Corsica, Corsica to Genoa and finally Caen to Portsmouth. On ferries 2, 3 and 4 we were the only UK travellers as far as we could make out! Ours was certainly the only GB, right-hand drive car on these ferries, something which did confuse some of the ferry staff! Now, I ask you this, would a tourist travel all that way by 5 ferries and hundreds of miles of driving?! My daughter came to join us in Sardinia for a week, taking the more conventional route from Heathrow to Olbia!

So, what do you think? Are we tourists or travellers? Does it really matter?!