Wandering Off the Beaten Path — And Its Benefits
“Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded.”
—Yogi Berra
There certainly are reasons to travel off the beaten path. Perhaps you need or want to travel during the summer months but don’t like hordes of people competing for restaurants, hotels or sidewalks. Or perhaps you have already discovered your target destinations over a lifetime of travel. Or you may be the kind of person who doesn’t want to go where everyone else is going.
Participants at Big Bend National Park, Texas
Some travelers like boasting rights. My travel friends have posted photos galore of their trips from the Stans (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan), Bhutan, Patagonia or Easter Island, and feel that the farther and less accessible, the better. (I find myself retelling, perhaps too often, the story of how feral dogs surrounded me on a journey — literally off the beaten path — between the border town of Zhangmu in Tibet and into Nepal.)
But traveling off the beaten path doesn’t have to include being alone with a pack of feral dogs. To some it simply means skipping some high-density tourist places in favor of less crowded destinations, whether in places that are not the typical stops or during the off-season. And, of course, we have seen proof that if enough people converge on off the beaten paths, those paths can soon become beaten ones.
Naturally Off the Beaten Path
Going off the beaten path can sometimes mean travel in nature: hiking, climbing, biking, skiing or swinging from trees. The feeling of satisfaction many get from physically challenging themselves can be exhilarating. Some believe that visiting places without a tourism infrastructure is more authentic and may result in closer interaction with the people who live there.
Road Scholar offers journeys to places we may never have considered, where we can experience the joys of discovery without the crowds. These include programs in Texas, New Mexico and Colorado, and abroad in Greece and Spain.
Olvera, Spain
Seasonally Off the Beaten Path
Cities are also within our reach without crowds. Rather than skip the most crowded and popular places, a better way to deal with the masses may be to travel during the off season.
Off season travel can be a game changer. After all, who enjoys waiting in line for the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam or La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona or the Colosseum in Rome? Who of us wants to compete with thousands of others to see art, sit in cafes or just find a beach that isn’t lined with bodies?
Many of us are retired or working remotely or part time, and we are able to travel outside of the crowded summer months. Because hotels, restaurants, drivers and others who depend on the tourist trade value and need us, we may be more welcome when it is not peak season than at other times of the year.
Great Deals on Off Season Group Travel
I traveled with Road Scholar in 2019 to Portugal in the winter and happily found sunny and cool weather that was perfect for walking (and even for wandering on the beaches). I also visited the colorful castles in Sintra and the charming steep streets of Lisbon, all in pleasant weather.
I am excited to be traveling with my husband on a Road Scholar program to Sicily this winter. Costs are significantly lower to travel to Europe in the winter than they would be in July or August. After Sicily, my husband and I plan to set out to explore Puglia on our own — to Bari, Matera, Brindisi, Lecce and other places more and more crowded during the summer.
Road Scholar’s Winter In Southern Europe adventures are an example of programs that offer great value and fewer crowds by taking advantage of the off season.
Catania, Sicily
Traveling Responsibly, On and Off Season
“A good traveler leaves no tracks.”
—Lao Tzu
This past summer we have seen such headlines as “Ten European Cities That Don’t Want Tourists,” “The Five Least Welcoming European Cities for Tourists” and “Why Europe Has Become an Epicenter for Anti-Tourism Protests This Summer.”
Some of the reasons that protesters are marching include the difficulties of finding affordable food and shelter for people who live in crowded tourist destinations, as well as bad tourist behavior and the detritus left behind by visitors who converge mostly during the summer vacation months. Larger questions of the summer glut involve the overuse of natural resources and challenges to infrastructure and public spaces.
Summer travel to hot spots means that the number of visitors are concentrated into a few short months. Traveling during the off season saves money, which may offer more travel in the future. It also benefits the travel environment by spreading arrivals over longer periods of time.
To help diffuse the challenges of overtourism, Road Scholar became a member of Sustainable Travel International. The goal of STI is to help preserve clean beaches, protected parks and culture. It supports the engagement of travelers who want to make the world a better place through their choices of where and how they move around our planet.
Traveling on the Beaten Path
Some of us might not mind crowds, either for a first-time adventure or for a return visit to a well-loved place. A friend of mine visits Florence almost every year and never gets tired of it. She is fine with crowded streets, restaurants and museums because she simply loves what the city has to offer in terms of art, architecture, food and culture.
And, of course, places don’t have to be far away or off season to be memorable. We can travel mindfully and with respect, care and appreciation for the culture and local customs wherever we are. That’s the way that we form bonds with people and memories for life.
Barbara Winard has earned degrees in English literature, journalism and, later in life, gerontology. For the past 25 years she was a senior editor and writer of online encyclopedia articles for children. Prior to that, after returning from a long trip to Asia, Barbara was hired by the Asia Society in New York City to produce films and print materials about Asian culture. She was also a producer and writer for New York City’s public television station, WNET/13.