Boarding Pass – Pop Quiz!

Boarding Pass is on hiatus for the week to ensure that I get my mid-term work done and don’t fail out of school. So instead, still keeping the spirit of BP, I’m turning the tables on you, and asking you, dear readers, to help me with a project I’m working on. I’m sure more about the project will unfold on my blog in the coming months, but for now I need your help. So for today’s POP QUIZ I’d like you to help provide me with a little insight in how you travel. Either copy and paste the questions below into the comments section and respond there, or email me your responses. And because this is a quiz, please respond in complete sentences and expand as you see fit. Thank you and have fun!

  1. Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
  2. When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?
  3. Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?
  4. Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?
  5. What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?
  6. Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?
  7. What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.
  8. Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
  9. What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?
  10. BONUS: Anything you want to add!


{Illustration by Gemma Correll. Check out her Boarding Pass responses HERE! And don’t miss her latest awesome project called “What I Wore Today.”}

15 comments

  • John

    February 22, 2010 at 6:15 am // Reply

    Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
    Yes, all the time. The last was I just signed up for free bowling tickets because of http://daytrippingmom.blogspot.com/2010/02/free-bowling.html
    When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?
    Internet
    Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?
    My favorite guide books are Rick Steeves guidebooks.
    Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?
    Yes, I did right before we did our last trip to Arizona.
    What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?
    Budget
    Have you ever rented
    an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?
    Nope, don’t think anyone would want to stay in our house anyhow.
    What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.
    Experience, which I think kind of goes along with trying new things.
    Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
    Heck no, I didn’t have kids 5 years ago and I wasn’t married 10 yrs ago.
    What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?
    People seem to be really focusing on the bargain/budget traveling. I am on the same track myself. The economy doesn’t really lend well to much else. People want to still travel, but can’t afford as much luxury as they used to.
    BONUS: Anything you want to add!
    It is interesting to me by way of trends how the age of those traveling seems to be really low these days. It seems that it used to be early retirees that used to do the bulk of traveling, but now it seems to be more of the recently graduated (and now unemployed) youth traveling.

  • Lise

    February 22, 2010 at 9:08 am // Reply

    # Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?

    I subscribe to many travel blogs and keep a list of things (esp at the moment on Paris as I’m going there at the end of the year) I want to see, do, experience, visit. I find blogs are almost at the top of my list for travel these days.

    # When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?

    Online. I read the travel sections in sunday papers, have subscriptions to some travel mags, follow travelers who twitter, facebook etc.

    # Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?

    Yes. I have a weakness for paper and if it contains anything to do with travel its even more of an attraction. There are more books in my house than anything!

    # Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?

    See no 1.

    # What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?

    There’s not 1 thing, its a toss up b/w how it affects my eye (beauty/comfort factor) / location & cost.

    # Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?

    Apartment many times, would love to house swap when I own my own!

    # What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation?
    Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.

    I want to be taken out of my own life, experience different language, people, food, smells, sights, to be a little scared, on edge, open to new experiences, do things I would normally not do at home or think to do, see the touristy things yet, meet people big time is prob no 1 experience oh and then there’s shopping!

    # Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?

    I have more money to travel now and in the last 10 years have focused on Asia a lot which I adore. Still like some luxury to my travel. Places I want to go have changed a little.

    # What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?

    I see people want quality in their travel experience, glamping and couchsurfing and house swapping are more prevalent. More people are travelling to me than ever before. Everything is more available even with the global crisis. The world is everyone’s oyster even from home via the internet which exposes people to many things they never knew about. Travel is cheaper than ever before.

    # BONUS: Anything you want to add!

    When I went to the UK in the late 80s my airfare was AU$1,250 return. Its not much more than that, 20 years later. It excites me seeing where the travel industry is going, its available to most people now which I love!

  • *a*

    February 22, 2010 at 2:47 pm // Reply

    1.
    Yes, but it doesn’t take much for me to be inspired to take a trip. I was very fortunate to find out about the Buffalo Wing Festival was going to be going on when I was in Detroit. So, even though we had to drive through Ontario to get there, we had to do it.

    2.
    The very first thing I look at are flight costs and hotels. Just so I know how reasonable it’ll all be. Then I like to look at the tourist board website for the particular place. Then I look at various websites that I read regularly (like National Geographic and such).

    3.

    I try to remember to get a guidebook, but I often forget. When I do get one it depends on what I need. I made the mistake early in my traveling life and bought a 2-year old guidebook and spent a lot of my vacation looking for a particular place only to find out it had been closed for a year! So, I try to get a very recent book. If I need more practical information, I’ll pick up something like Lonely Planet, if I need more fun or feel like looking at a lot of pictures, I go with DK guides. I also make my own travel guide based on the research I’ve done in advance with train schedules and hotel information specific to what I know I like to do. And as much as I do all of that, I’m actually still quite flexible.

    4.

    Yes, many times.

    5.

    Location. If the price is right, I prefer a great location over anything else.

    6.

    Not yet. Plan to rent an apartment in one of my upcoming trips.

    7.

    All of it. I like to see major and minor sites. I love the experience of being out of my comfort zone and all that comes along with that. I like to try new foods and learn the rhythm of a new place. I love staying in hotels. I guess that main thing I love about traveling is how I feel in the moment. So alive, so confused, so inspired, so tired. I feel like I’m actually part of what’s happening instead of just on the sidelines.
    8.

    I am such a better packer now. Ten years ago I was a travel agent who could easily get great deals and had access to everything. Now, it takes a little more work, but I have more freedom because I’m not limiting myself to the best deal. I also know more of what I like and don’t like when I travel and no longer feel like I have see and do as much as possible. I just see and do what I want on any given day and if I don’t feel like seeing or doing it, I save it for next time.
    9.

    Travel trends… slow travel? That’s not new, but it seems more people are doing it. Also travel to more places that people didn’t travel to years ago. I feel like I follow the trends because I’m so price-sensitive and it seems to me that a place becomes more trendy when the price is right. Once more people can afford going somewhere, they do. I don’t know, though.

    People seem to be more aware of the environment. I’m not sure if it’s a travel trend, but I love how hotels in Europe (and random other places) make you put a keycard in the slot by the door to keep the electricity off when you are out of the room. Why don’t more hotels in America do this?!?

    10.

    One thing I love about the web is seeing how other people travel. I love seeing how many families are doing round-the-world trips. I’ve seen large families walk, bike, caravan and fly around continents. Seeing how much those children learn, how much those families bond – it’s truly inspirational. There are so many people who raise their eyebrows to doing those type of things, but because of the web we can see all of the benefits of travel regardless of one’s life situation.

  • Wan

    February 23, 2010 at 4:06 am // Reply

    1. Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?

    Not really. It’s more of like, I want to go here so I get on the internet to see the pictures and be more inspired to go!

    2. When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?

    Definitely the nternet!

    3. Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?

    No not really. I don’t really like to following guide books. I love to be adventurous and just walk where my instinct leads me.

    4. Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?

    No.

    5. What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?

    The price! For me, traveling is not so much about the hotel, it’s more about the day you spend in town.

    6. Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?

    Yes, kind of. It was in Germany. I went there for a study+vacation. The university arranged the house for me.

    7. What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.

    Experience! and eating also. I love to eat and try new things. I always say that if you travel and just shop, the place you go to is no different than your own country with a different language. (Especially for large cities.) Anyways, I love to go see museums and walk on streets to see life and people.

    8. Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?

    No, definitely not. I began my architecture school 3 years ago, and that has changed my point of view on architectures, arts, and even people and their cultures.

    9. What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?

    I guess it’s the fact that I don’t really make plans. Maybe just some vague ideas of places I want to visit when I get there but nothing to stick with. This make trips much more fun and relaxing.

    10. BONUS: Anything you want to add!

    I have read one of your BP that asks which kind of transportation you like most. And since I’m from Bangkok, Thailand, I’m proud to say I love to get rides on taxi-motorcycles. The wind rushing on my face and I can really hear and feel lives on the sides of the streets. To me, it’s such freedom.

  • Angela

    February 23, 2010 at 5:46 am // Reply

    # Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
    hmm, probably, but not necessarily directly, but it’s probably more along the lines of political things than anything else (eg if monks in Burma are protesting I want to go be a part of it!)

    # When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?
    CouchSurfing.org and Google

    # Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?
    I did once. Not anymore. Ideally I would buy a plan ticket, do research on history and start reading local online newspapers, and plan nothing. I consider the people I meet along the way my guidebook, and it works beautifully! From where to stay, what to eat, where to go, and how to get there, guidebooks are no match for locals and other travelers.

    # Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?
    not specifically, but they do often come up in my online searches

    # What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?
    whether I can find a couch on couchsurfing, and if not, where I get recommendations for (price range is important, but generally it’s understood that I’m looking for a fancy hotel)

    # Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?
    nope. Unless you consider long-term stays (over a month) traveling…

    # What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.
    I want it all! I love trying new food, and (considering my response above) my whole experience is dependent on meeting people. I’m interested in learning about politics, history and culture, getting to know a place through the eyes of those who call it home.

    # Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
    not really. 10 years ago I wasn’t wandering off to far corners of the earth all by myself. And in the past 3 years or so my travels have been highly guided by professional interests (which are intimately linked to my personal interests I guess). eg when I went to Uganda it was primarily to scope out whether I would want to live/work there longterm and to do some networking. I guess my motivations are probably still the same.

    # What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?
    I’m pretty sure that I tend to be outside the trendy curve. I don’t really know what the trends are, I just know that people tend to be confused by my travel itineraries. I would agree with the person who said the majority of travelers are youths, at least that’s who I run into.
    (perhaps I should note that 95% of my travel is in Asia and Africa?)

    # BONUS: Anything you want to add!
    I love the persons comment about transportation! This makes SUCH a big difference in how you experience a place. I’m all about public transport, and I also dig the moto-taxis! And for long-distances, trains would be my first choice (though that’s not always an option). Or ferries.

  • Anonymous

    February 25, 2010 at 2:59 am // Reply

    1. yes, most definetly.

    2. my own files, magazine collections, books, dvd’s. The I head to the book store, library, netflix, travel channel

    3. If Rick Steves has published a book on my destination then that is my first choice. After that I am not loyal to any partical one. Maybe timeout guides. I spend time at the book store or library looking through books and decide which one fits my needs fo this particular trip

    4. yes, I try to find as many blogs as possible to get perspective and tips from other travellers

    5. It is always a combination of location, cost and the look of the place.

    6. yes, we rented an apartment in venice. a great experience.

    7. we never travel for relaxation. We travel for the sites and experiences.

    8. in some ways yes, in other ways no. we try to look back on each trip and think about what we can do to improve on the next trip. We still look for the best deals.

    9. I would say no we don’t follow the trends

  • Evelyn

    February 25, 2010 at 6:19 am // Reply

    # Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
    No, despite all the blog hunting I do, I usually take trips at random.
    # When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place? Online, I google a few sites, and then head to the library to take out a few travel and history books.
    # Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one? I have, although it is not something I do on a regular basis. Lonely Planet is the one I have used, and I chose it because of it’s esteemed popularity.
    # Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips? No
    # What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel? #1…price, but that I’d say is on par with safety.
    # Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped? Yes, in Paris for two weeks. I rented.
    # What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc. It really depends. I have studied a broad, and conveniently traveled simultaneously allowing me to meet a variety of people. But overall, when I leave the comforts of my home I am in search of a new experience.
    # Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago? No, I pack less (thankfully) and worry less.
    # What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them? One suitcase, and I’m doing good so far. And, never, ever bring a dufflebag.

  • Jamie

    February 25, 2010 at 6:49 am // Reply

    1. Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
    I can’t say that I’ve taken a trip because of something online, but I know that it seeps into my brain and influences my decisions. For example, I never knew much about Morocco before I found a few blogs there, and now I definitely want to go.

    2. When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?
    I browse through the blogs I already read to see if anyone has been there, and that normally leads me somewhere exciting.

    3. Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?
    Yes, especially if I can’t read/speak the language. To choose, I browse through the travel section at the bookstore to find the one that covers what I’m looking for.

    4. Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?
    Always. First hand accounts of places within the past year are the best.

    5. What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?
    Location, cleanliness and price are all #1 factors. I will only stay in a place that meets my “standards” for all three.

    6. Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?
    Yes, I rented an apartment in New York and loved it. But it was not an apartment that someone lived in, more like a hotel room with a kitchen. I did couchsurf once, and have never house-swapped.

    7. What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.
    I travel to experience places that are unique. It could be a major tourist attraction or a hole-in-the-wall pie shop. I just love seeing things I’ve never seen before.

    8. Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
    10 years ago, I was in college and mostly traveled with my architecture professors and classmates. All we did was look at and sketch buildings.
    5 years ago, I would have been traveling alone in the Northwest United States by car. I rarely had a plan, but would just set out on a Friday with a full tank of gas and a map.
    Now, I am a bit more seasoned and have a wonderful travel companion. We always do a little bit of research beforehand. Our goal is to know where we’ll sleep and eat for the first 24 hours, beyond that, we’re just wandering aimlessly!

    9. What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?
    As a blogger, I am noticing that everyone is blogging about their travels. I also never knew that people actually took around-the-world trips…but apparently those are pretty popular! It also seems like my age group (25-35) is more interested in wandering through the not-so-pretty parts of the world. I don’t know!

    10. BONUS: Anything you want to add
    Good luck, Anne!!!!

  • Tee

    February 26, 2010 at 3:24 am // Reply

    Has a blog or something you’ve seen online ever inspired you to take a trip?
    Blogs have exposed me to places that weren’t on my list before. For example, I didn’t think much of South America because it’s too far away and I don’t know much about it but after seeing some pictures and reading the travel details, I really want to go there one day.

    When you’re planning a trip, where’s the first place you go for information about a place?
    Internet and family/friends who have been there.

    Do you get a guidebook for the place? If yes, how do you choose which one?
    I usually get all my information online. The guidebooks I’ve had were given to me by family members who have been there or complimentary gifts from the embassy/consulate.

    Have you ever consulted a blog for travel tips?
    I checked a few to see if some places are worth going to and what to look out for.

    What’s the #1 factor that influences where you stay when you travel?
    Budget or convenience.

    Have you ever rented an apartment while you’re traveling? House-swapped?
    No.

    What are you looking for most when you travel? Relaxation? Experience? Seeing major sites? Meeting people? Trying new things? Eating? Etc.
    Experiencing a different culture/vibe is the best part. Seeing major sites and appreciating it’s history/beauty. Trying new things, especially food and things that are unique to that place.

    Do you travel the same now as you did 5 years ago? 10 years ago?
    5 years ago I was a college student with no income so I didn’t travel much. 10 years ago I was still a kid and my parents took me places with them.

    What travel trends have you been noticing? Are you following them?
    Maybe it’s just me, but I notice more people are doing voluntourism. I’d like to do that someday but not through a program.

    BONUS: Anything you want to add!
    Look forward to reading more about this project!

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