Should You Visit The Top Tourist Spots?

Should You Visit The Top Tourist Spots?
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Meggan: [00:00:00] Hey everyone, and welcome back to Travel Tip Tuesday with the Travel Mug Podcast. This is Meggan. I'm here with my pal Jenn, my amazing co-host and the brains behind this operation. How are you doing, Jenn?

Jenn: I am good and it is co-brains

Meggan: I would say we're gonna go 75 - 25. before we dive into today's travel tip Tuesday, as disclaimer, before we get started on the podcast, we like to laugh.

Jenn: Hmm.

Meggan: have fun around here, so if the giggles are too much for you, they won't be stopping. listening to this podcast is optional, just as an FYI,

Jenn: Yeah,

Meggan: nudge, nudge.

Jenn: yeah. We got a couple of, uh, Spotify comments recently that told us to stop giggling, and to that we say never.

Meggan: Never. Thanks for stopping by though. Thanks for listening. as I have mentioned, uh, recently we've booked, to go to Spain in early September and for us when we finally [00:01:00] booked somewhere, which we hadn't really intended to go anywhere, so here we are. I of course went into research mode. What should we see and do are always top of my list first, like what can we get into? And as usual, I found a Barcelona Travel Tips Group on the Book of Faces and that actually showed a lot of activity. So I always look for a group where there's X amount of posts per day. 'cause otherwise it's usually a group not being used that often.

And this one was great and I dove right in, so. I know we have talked about, this before on the podcast about joining these groups. They can be overwhelming with a lot of stupid questions Someone put, uh, souvenirs should I bring home from Barcelona? Sweetie, I don't know. What do you, what do you wanna bring home from Barcelona?

Like, and I understand they're probably looking for like. Popular items, but know. Anyway, I digress. I still find it a very valuable, [00:02:00] uh, thing to do and I use the search function personally on the groups because there's so many posts that it's hard to know, but if there's so many posts, you know, it's been talked about likely before.

If you have a question.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: So as I sorted through the info in the post, one thing we all know in regular everyday life is that everyone has an opinion on what is worth seeing and doing in a particular destination. Opinions are everywhere and that's fine. I like to hear what people enjoy. And in Barcelona in particular, two of the most popular things to do are Sagrada Família, which is the cathedral that Gaudi designed and also Park Güell, which is a park with some Gaudi creations.

And you're encouraged to pre-book tickets to both. We have done this.

Jenn: Okay.

Meggan: check. this also got me thinking, what does popular mean and what if it isn't what you enjoy and you're interested in? I think this is kind of like a FOMO situation, like where that comes into [00:03:00] play

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: aren't religious, but this cathedral is literally all people talk about. Is the number one thing to do.

So I did feel like if we didn't see it, like. would be a huge miss, like it would be a sin,

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: to speak. and there are a number of these considered must see things in the city. And besides what's currently pre-booked, we've sort of decided to take a little bit of a step back. We don't like to overbook ourselves if we've discussed before.

So we're just gonna wait and see what else we want to do when we're actually on the ground. And my research has now taken a bit of a turn. Looking up places that are maybe less crowded and less talked about, but maybe still just as nice. some things to consider, and I have started to consider that maybe you should, when you're deciding. Do I need to do this? So these are some things to think about. How do you wanna spend your vacation time? First and foremost, [00:04:00] should what is popular pressure you into spending your time and money contrary to what you enjoy? So that's where that FOMO piece comes in.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: How can I see what is super popular, but also ensure that I have fun? Make sure in the travel groups you join that you ask, what are some things to do that aren't as busy? There's so many experts on the location in there that they can give you that information. And then fifth, sort of think about why is this spot popular? Is it actually worth seeing? Have influencers made it this way?

How and why did it catch on now? I do wanna say with Sagrada Família, it does look incredible. There's a great reason it's the number one thing to do there, but that's not always going to be the case. So yes, at the end of the day, having said all this, we did book a few of the top things to see, but we stopped there because I really could pre-book like six more places. But [00:05:00] I've refused to do it. And if there's something we can't see at the time because of this. So be it. You got me on a couple of things, but the madness has to stop somewhere. And you might ask like, you know, if you don't go to church, why did you book the Cathedral?

And to this, I say after seeing many videos and like I said, seeing many pictures. I feel like once I got home I would be very regretful.

Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Meggan: So Jenn, how do you balance this when you travel? I know you also do a lot of research and I'm sure you read about what is popular, where you are going as well. So how do you decide what's right for you?

Jenn: Yeah, this is really interesting and like you, I always Google like what to do in whatever city or place that I'm visiting. And of course, the top things that are recommended are usually the most popular things. And I think it's important to treat travel as an experience and not a checklist. So you don't just have to check, check, check, go down, TripAdvisor, and make sure you see the top 10 things or whatever.

But you do need to decide what's right [00:06:00] for you. 'cause you can't see everything. We enjoy like museums, galleries, and churches and cathedrals. Like many other travelers obviously. So we do usually go see those things, but I like wouldn't blame someone if they skipped a popular spot because it's not their thing.

It does seem like a sin to go all the way to, to somewhere and not see, like the thing, like if you went to go to Paris and you don't see the Eiffel Tower, like. Why, but you know, we went to Paris and we didn't go up the Eiffel Tower 'cause like, we didn't care. So, yeah, it, it's a balance and I mean, you gotta do what's right for you.

Meggan: I completely agree. And I think, yeah, like I think there's just with social media, there's people listening to other people about what you should do. And I think sometimes people get caught up in, well, we have to do this. Everyone's doing it. And I think you just have to find that balance. For sure.

Jenn: Yeah.

Meggan: Well, that is it for this week's [00:07:00] travel tip Tuesday.

See the things you want to see regardless of the chatter, and try to find the balance. And as always, you can find us on social media at Travel Mug Podcast at our website, travel mug podcast.com. And if you like what we're doing here, you can leave us a review on Apple or Spotify or buy us a coffee with the link in the show notes to help support what we're doing. And until next time,

bye.

Jenn: Bye!