It's a popular trail for a reason. they key is to wander off it a few times. In asia, I can be found on the trail often but i always make an effort to get off it and find some place new. Find a random city or area and go off and explore.
Don't get wedded to the guidebook but, travels about meeting people, and there's a lot of people on the trail!
-Matt
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My website: http://www.nomadicmatt.com
I have never actually traveled with a Lonely Planet guide, or any guidebook, as it is just not my style to follow some author's choice of a few great restaurants. I am much more the walk around and see something that looks nice kind of guy.
That being said, most travel is done on the Lonely Planet trail, guide included or not. I must say, that at times it is frustrating that you are merely a single person of millions traveling along the same trails. The greatest enjoyments I have had traveling have come when I have met somebody that still found me interesting for little more than the fact that I was Canadian, and they had never met a Canadian before. That doesn't happen on the LP trail, where, more often than not, you find more English speakers than foreigners, and either a general resentment or greed among the locals.
At the same time, some of my best friends in the world have been met in hostels and such that are in all likelihood included in most guides. Without the LP trial I simply would have never known them!
In a day and age where the LP trail essentially covers every destination, all I can recommend is to follow it with caution and keep an eye out for the trails that lead off to the left and right!
Taking your example about the soup - I would rather eat mediocre soup, surrounded by interesting and good people, than to eat the finest soup in the world surrounded by annoying people.
I was on a public bus in costa rica headed to manual antonio. i decided to go there on a whim, never heard of it before. i wasn't actively searching for the road less travelled, i just didn't do much researching prior to going to cr. on the bus to manual antonio, another couple had a lonely planet guidebook. since i didn't have a place to stay, i asked if i could look at their book. as we went through quepos (just north (i think) of manual antonio) i noted that each hotel we passed was in the lonely planet guidebook, in order.
i always thought that was interesting. i later found out that manual antonio is actually quite a popular tourist attraction. some things are unavoidablee. i feel that a lot of travelers go so far out of their way to avoid others, that they must be purchasing guidebooks and purposefully attempt to go anywhere not mentioned in the book. so funny.
personally, i don't mind guidebooks. there's nothing more ridiculous to me than traveling somewhere and not doing that one thing that that place is known for. when in rome, i will check out the trevi fountain or the colosseum. then i'll venture to some other place that i happen to stumble on. maybe later i'll find out that this other place was voted the 2004 authentic rome experience, so what.
now, as to that delicious soup. a reason i would not enjoy it so much because of the other people there is this - i can understand what their saying. so many americans, while traveling, talk loudly. to make matters worse, many just bash this country. and the way many (not all) talk, they act as if they're speaking for the country as a whole. even if they don't act like that, many people may think that they are because they don't have much experience with americans. so, if xxx country's only experience with america are with american-bashing travelers, well - why would they like this country. i've never had a problem with people hating americans overseas, nor have i heard of anyone having problems. but, it is something that truly annoys me. it annoys me enough to not want to go to a popular place that has delicious soup. hopefully, they have take-out. :)
Joined: 08-07-07
I've always been vaguely irked when my fellow-travelers complain about their destination being swamped by people similar to themselves, when they note that following a guidebook recommendation only leads to a cafe full of backpackers for example - the experience we've all had, sometimes called the "Lonely Planet trail." I could never say exactly what bothered me, though. A passage in Chuck Thompson's "Smile When You're Lying" finally crystallized it for me:
"There's an old Chinese saying that goes, 'One of life's greatest pleasures is to meet a countryman in a strange land.' This might have been true during the Tang Dynasty, but it's unlikely that China's ancient wanderers ever suffered the disappointment of trekking miles to the quintessential Thai cafe, ordering a bowl of the country's most exemplary noodle soup, then looking up to find three tables of scraggly travelers opened to the exact same page in their dog-eared Lonely Planets. This actually happened to me in 1997."
Okay, so we've all been there. But if the soup is really the country's most exemplary, what's the problem? Are you actually going to enjoy a delicious bowl of soup less because of the people sitting around you? And if it is so good, don't you think it's inconceivably selfish to suggest that only one oh-so-special-and-deserving traveler ought to be allowed to taste it?