Should We Travel “Off the Beaten Path?”

I once came across an abandoned castle in Poland off the beaten path. It was a cloudy, gloomy day, which added to the eeriness of the structure’s decay. As I walked through the door-less doorways, I tried to imagine the empty rooms filled with the wealth and life housed there in the past.

Grass, weeds and other plants now punctured through the floors upon which nobles once walked. Vines crept up from the ground to embrace the walls that were once decorated with elegance. The sky saw all within because the roof is long gone. And the stairs leading to nowhere were crumbling in decay.

In my vast travels throughout Europe, I have seen many castles. I have seen some of the most revered and absolutely breathtaking castles in the world.

Yet this barely standing castle in Poland is one of my favorites I’ve encountered.

Beautifully renovated castles are obviously wonderful because they give the visitor a glance at its former glory. They also are equipped to prevent hoards of tourists from running the place down.

But I always found something inauthentic and fake about these places. Traces of modernity are found everywhere you look. From electricity to modern plumbing to the tourists snapping pictures on their smart phones, it’s sometimes harder to imagine what life was once like.

What I loved about this abandoned castle was there was no trace of the last century. It was creepy yet exciting to see how a piece of human history looks when forgotten by the species that built it, overtaken by nature instead.

Granted, the only reason why this castle still exists is because there are no tourists flocking there (which is why I won’t reveal the exact location of this castle). And *ahem* you weren’t exactly supposed to go inside, as the ruin is at hazard of caving in on you.

Humans harming the natural way of history?

This castle got me thinking about the negative influence of humans on our own history’s preservation. According to a local, this centuries-old castle used to be in much better shape just a few decades before. The bare and scraped walls were still canvases for beautiful paintings, intricate sculptures still decorated the now empty spaces and even the furniture still littered the now empty rooms. These were all stolen from their rightful place by looters and sold off to distant buyers.

In many locations around the world, looters have stripped once beautiful structures of everything that made them beautiful.

But even without its wealth, I loved being able to imagine what it looked it before. In castles and palaces renovated and preserved to look like they did in their heydays, all that imagination is stolen from the visitors.

I’m not saying we should let all of history fall into ruin. But it’s sometimes cool to see how human structures stands the test of time without the influence of humans.

On the other hand, if we let it fall to ruin as nature intended (and will inevitably succeed at), we’re letting stories of our past die.

Should Tourists Travel “Off the Beaten Path?”

Many travelers today are on the constant search for places that aren’t “tourists traps.” These travelers yearn to visit places not frequented by other tourists. But by going to these places, we risk turning them into tourist traps as well.

I myself am guilty of this. In the world’s most visited places, I scorn all the tourists crowding monuments and disrupting the charm of cities. I desperately tried to distance myself from the tourists crowding to climb the top of the Eiffel Tower and take a picture of the Mona Lisa in the Louvre, the tourists clogging foot traffic in Amsterdam and the tourists waiting in line for a seat outside Vienna’s famous cafes.

Yet I myself am a tourist. No matter where we go, if we’re visiting to sight-see, we’re tourists.

Often, we see other tourists and don’t see ourselves as one of them. We as travelers see ourselves as separate from the tourists ruining places by overpopulating them, driving locals away and tarnishing the atmospheres and charm of the world’s most beautiful places.

I think it’s necessary to keep this in mind when we travel off the beaten path. We need to be aware that no matter how much we try to stay culturally sensitive of the places we travel to, and no matter how much we try to stay away from the places overrun by tourists, we are part of the problem.

We risk creating tourist traps out of the very places we travel to because they’re off the beaten path.

How can we prevent the harm we cause by tourism?

While not possible to alleviate completely, there are things we can do to lessen the harm tourism causes.

Respect

Respect for the locals. Educate yourself about their culture and customs and don’t act or dress in a way that is offensive to them. Be wary of your noise levels, especially at night or at sacred places. Remember, you’re a visitor in their home.

Respect for the attraction. Don’t vandalize the property. (Obviously) don’t steal things. Don’t walk off paths and cause erosion. Don’t litter.

Travel Slowly

Usually, people jet off somewhere for just a few days. With limited time, of course you’re going to want to do all the touristy things and not have time to go “off the beaten path” and truly immerse yourself somewhere. Spread your travel across places not a lot of people go to in order to help preserve less popular pieces of history.

Spend Locally

This kind of goes off respect the locals, but make sure you spend at local businesses as much as possible. Your presence in a place you helped make touristy isn’t going to be alleviated at all if you stay at big chain hotels and eat at big chain restaurants. Give back to the people whose home you made into a tourist hotspot. Bonus points if their businesses are environmentally sustainable!

And if you are traveling off the beaten path, then by spending locally there, you may be helping a region of the world that is struggling because the locals don’t have tourism to rely on for income. In this case, travel off the beaten path is great: a win-win!

Reduce your impact on the environment

Avoid single use plastics. Travel with a reusable water bottle (fill up either in a tap or water re-filling station). Bring reusable straws.

Take a more sustainable form of transportation. Choose the bus instead of car or plane. Ride a bike instead of renting a car. This kind of also goes along with traveling more slowly.

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What do you prefer to visit? Ruins off the beaten path, or preserved buildings that many tourists (for good reason) flock to? Let us know in the comments!

As I said, I prefer anything off the beaten path. I think it makes for better writing inspiration! Are you also a writer who travels? Check out my free creative writing prompts.