One of the reasons we started this blog was to help pay it forward. The travel tips, inspiration and cool places to go for other travelers. I remember the first travel blog I read, The World is Not Flat by Lee and Sachi LeFever.. After reading their travels for the first time it really made it seem possible to do in my mind.
I read many other peoples travel blogs while we were traveling. When I read Gillian and Jason’s report of Soppong and the Cave Lodge I decided we had to go check it out!
I really loved Chiang Pai and Soppong in Thailand, they were some of the most beautiful, relaxed and adventurous places in Thailand. The vendors really didn’t push hard and Pai is more of an artists hangout than anything with hilltribes surrounding it. Because it’s a crazy 5 hour 500 turn journey from Chiang Mai, it doesn’t get as many travelers and maintains a smaller town feel. It’s all designed for tourists, but you can get out of the town center and see beautiful countryside and get a feeling of being “off the beaten path” – as much as that’s really possible in a tourist area.
I just heard that Ryan and Liz from Pause The Moment are in Chiang Pai and liked my recommendation! I’m glad to be able to pay it forward after receiving great advice from Gillian about the area.
What about you? How do you figure out where you go while traveling? Do you value the advice of blogs over guidebooks? Is there one site that’s inspired you?
Blogs and friends over guidebooks. I often find that the places listed in guidebooks become busier, see a different sort of clientele, the price jumps, and the service takes a hit once they hit the holy grail that is a guidebook.
I was actually really excited to visit this spot in Pai based on your post, but didn’t quite have enough time… next time.
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed The Cave Lodge as much as we did! It holds a special place for me for sure.
We valued other blogs and travelers above all else. There is nothing like getting advice from people who travel like we travel, appreciate what we appreciate and have been there!
It was pretty damn peaceful up there with just the river below. It was our first time taking a long trip like that on scooters up crazy windy roads to get to Soppong from Pai. But it was hella fun!
I absolutely agree with you guys! Both Ant and I love to read other bloggers and what they have to tell about the world. They are often honest and open about their experiences, rather than the stock standard prints in guidebooks.
Elsie, maybe that hit it on the head why I hold blogs with so much more value. There’s usually a ton more information about specific sites/hotels/todo on a blog than in standard guidebooks
Blogs are my number one source and I often consult twitter.
Six months before my trip I started scouring blogs and bookmarking tips for future use on delicious so that when I arrived in each country all the tips were readily available.
Self-promoting link found below
http://www.baconismagic.ca/pre-trip-planning/bacon-is-delicious-how-to-plan-an-rtw-without-guidebooks/
Ayneglina, delicious is a great bookmarking tool. We also used it to organize all our links while planning. It’s a great tool to get your links organized across different computers.
If anyone’s interested in seeing what sites we were researching you can checkout our delicious account at http://www.delcious.com/pesdee Though just looking in it made me a bit sad we never rented/bought a campervan and traveled through the Golden Coast in Australia! Was on our plan but ended up getting cut at the end.
Thanks for the mention guys and thanks again for introducing us to Pai! I always prefer blogs to guide books. For accommodations, I solely use WikiTravel. I tend to use WikiTravel for a lot more things these days as well. Lonely Planet is good for a lot of things (visa info, border crossings, transportation, etc), but one thing LP is NOT good for is recommending accommodations!
So true. We really rely on folks that have been there and done that. In order to see the hard to find things relying on others is critical. Learn from others success and failure.
Another great post by you guys. Thanks for sharing.
Mike
Thanks for your great comment Mike! Social Media and the blogging community is taking over the world!