Traveling in the Age of Instagram and Over-Tourism (Musings from Inside the Alhambra)
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I’m a travel heathen.
I hate museums, big tourist sites are of almost no interest to me. Stick me in a Spanish bar filled with crappy beer, old men, and strip lighting and I’m as happy as a clam. Stick me in the Notre Dame, I’m miserable.
But I was in Granada in Southern Spain for a few days in December with a friend whose opinion I trust. When I text him saying I wasn’t going to visit the Alhambra, he persuaded me otherwise:
The Alhambra will make your heart soar, Charles.
I broke my no-big-tourist-sight rule and it was fascinating. Not so much from a structural point of view (yes it’s very pretty and impressive, but more on that later) but more from watching how people act when they are in a famous, highly Instagrammable tourist spot.
The whole thing got me thinking about travel in the age of over-tourism and Instagram. Because the two go together like PB and J right now. Many people don’t just visit these places to soak in the atmosphere, they do it to get the perfect shot.
How can we travel better? How can we marry living a simple, sustainable life with seeing the world? How can we not add to the problems that Instagramming everything creates?
These were my musings as I — rather grumpily — made my way around the Alhambra.
Why do we only visit venues that belong(ed) to the rich?
The Alhambra is incredibly impressive because it’s a) huge and b) very intricately designed.
The Vatican — somewhere else a friend asked me to visit with them last year — is impressive because again it’s a) huge and b) very intricately designed.
Call me a cantankerous so-and-so but every time I visit these richly decorated, huge buildings, I can’t stop thinking about how most big tourist sites were originally built as playgrounds for the wealthy. And I can’t stop thinking about the poor sods who had to build them:
The Pyramids were built by 20,000 slaves to house just a couple of bodies.
The Alhambra was built by Christian slaves forced to live in subterranean cells.
22,000 laborers built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for the wife of an Emperor.
Every time I visit a big tourist spot, it reminds me that I’m far more interested in the ordinary, everyday people that built it or lived below it than I am in the one wealthy dude who commissioned it.
As I made my way around the Alhambra I couldn’t stop thinking about the cave dwellings across the valley that have housed gypsies for centuries - and continue to do so. I couldn’t stop thinking about the residents of Granada in the town slowly wandering around the bars that form Granada’s famous tapas crawl culture.
These small, more humanizing aspects of travel can be just as impressive - and certainly longer lasting in memory - than the big sights. I never remember much about a tour around a museum but I’ll always remember the bar owner who gave me a glass of wine on the house while we chatted.
Which is great because finding experiences like those are cheaper and more sustainable (you don’t have to go somewhere Insta-famous in the height of the season to find them).
Win-win.
Instagram shoots are real
In the middle of the Alhambra is a beautiful balcony that overlooks the town. Not that I could see much myself because the balcony was taken up with people taking part in Instagram shoots.
I see these everywhere. I’ve seen people completely miss what has been dubbed the most beautiful sunset in the world because they have their back to it in order to get the shot. My friend sent me a photo of her and her kid on a gorgeous beach in Bali the other day with this dude in the background:
I asked her what the heck he was doing and she told me it was a professional shoot and they are EVERYWHERE in Bali. I don’t know about you but I’d far rather be frolicking in that water than standing in a suit in 100-degree weather.
I’m all for documenting a vacation. The 3000-odd photos on my phone are a testament to that. And I’m all for posting some of those photos on social media.
But when getting the perfect Instagram shot comes above actually experiencing a place — and feeling it in your bones — that’s when I have a problem. It’s crappy for you, and it’s crappy for those around you (try soaking in the atmosphere when someone next to you keeps shouting Instagram loves boobs - stick them out!).
The alternative? Don’t. At the very least, don’t do it to excess. I hate to be a cliché but it’s true - if you post something on Instagram, it’ll soon be forgotten. Experience something amazing instead and that memory will last pretty much forever.
Traveling during the off-season is where it’s at
I moaned to my in-laws a few weeks later that I found the Alhambra annoyingly overcrowded. They saw the pictures I took as proof and laughed.
If you think that’s busy, never visit it during the summer.
I’ve always been a fan of off-season travel. Back when I owned my wine store, my husband and I always took our big vacation in January because that was our quietest time of the year. Even now, as a full-time traveler, I always return home to the UK in July and August to escape the heat and more importantly, the crowds and overinflated prices.
If we want to be more intentional with our travel, when we choose to do it is a big part of that. Yep, the weather can be worse (it’s not stopped raining here in Albania for the last week and isn’t due to stop for another 10 days). The bars and restaurants can be quiet to the point of lacking atmosphere. Or indeed, shut entirely.
But there are amazing perks that come with traveling off-season. It’s cheaper. Those restaurants and bars are more likely to be filled with locals than tourists. It’s less frustrating, less annoying, and more real.
It’s more fun.
The best thing about this big old planet we call home is that big tourist sights are only the very, very tiny tip of the travel iceberg.
Their overcrowding is actually an opportunity. An opportunity for us to find new, different ways to explore a city, town or country. To look smaller - do you need to visit the Louvre in order to experience Paris? Or would you get more out of visiting the nearby (and excellent) bar Le Garde Robe? Do you need to stand in line for the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or would you do better exploring the gorgeous streets around it?
By all means, visit the big sights if that’s your bag. But don’t forget - Instagram and the Alhambra / Vatican / Eiffel Tower don’t a visit make. People, experiences and atmosphere is what you’ll really remember.
Reading recommendations
2 more articles about Instagram and travel
Instagram has sucked the spontaneity out of travel
Instagram's impact on travel (Lonely Planet)
My newest Medium articles (paywall free)
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I couldn't agree more with so much of what you say here.
My saddest/most hilarious Instagram photo shoot happened on the Charles Bridge in Prague. We were living there for a month and since I also loathe crowds, I was getting up before sunrise to have a wander around town and taking pictures, something I absolutely love doing. (And I've got 37,000 photos in Adobe Lightroom to prove it! LOL)
It turns out that in winter there is often a mist that rises off the river right at sunrise if the temp is right around freezing, which it was in late Oct/early November. One morning I'm down at the bridge just as the sun is rising and there is a young woman in a sheer red dress perched in the middle of the bridge trying to get the perfect Instagrammable photo. Her boyfriend (?) was taking the photos as she spun back and forth over and over. I could barely feel my hands, so I cannot imagine how cold she was!