you won't find me in venice this year
my responsible travel manifesto for 2025 and onwards
Like almost every other person and their mom in 2025, I like to travel.
In fact, I travel quite a bit. I even run a travel newsletter now, apparently.
And yet.
I have never taken a gondola ride in Venice, and I’m fine with that.
I’ve never seen a Santorini sunset, and I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
I’ve never partied in Ibiza, and at my big age of 30, I doubt I ever will.
I did, however, visit some of the most overcrowded places in the world last year (Barcelona and Amsterdam, to be specific), and I didn’t have too much of a good time. But hell, I don’t even have to travel for longer than 20 minutes to get annoyed with tourists - I live in Prague, and here we’re also tired of watching our city slowly turn into a soulless amusement park over the years.
And I, too, am feeling disillusioned. Angry, even. Powerless, because I can’t make the problems disappear. But right now, I’d like to explore the little things I can do to stop being part of the problem.
Popular places are popular for a reason.
They are supposed to be the BEST places to travel to, at least according to some blog listicle, insta post, or marketing campaign. Who hasn’t dreamt of a fairytale romance in Paris, eating a gelato overlooking the Colosseum in Rome, or getting lost in the lush green rice paddies of Bali with a tropical fruit smoothie in hand? If you get one vacation per year, why wouldn’t you choose to spend it in the city you have been dreaming about since childhood, or the island everyone you know was raving about, or that one beach you saw in a movie, or any other place that is known to be iconic, beautiful, and a must-visit destination?
But as a result, increasingly often, too many people gather in one place at once. And as the world becomes more globalized and travel becomes more accessible, the number of people in certain places is no longer sustainable.
And it starts to kind of suck for everyone involved.
Popular destinations crumble under the weight of all the tourists flooding in. So many people who live in tourist hotspots are at their breaking point. Sure, many live off of tourism. But when all the “tourist money” does nothing for you to keep up with the ever-increasing costs of living caused by tourism itself, it becomes quite easy to hate the tourist.
Blaming the foreigner is always easier than driving change from within, after all.
But if you are the visitor, your experience also suffers. Crowds, queues, trash, noise, lack of authenticity, scams, tourist traps, and jacked-up prices are all synonymous with popular holiday destinations. The locals being fed up and increasingly hostile is just the perfect cherry on top of the shitshow.
How I’d like to make a difference
I travel for fun. To experience things I wouldn’t at home, to learn about different people and cultures around the world, and to feed my curiosity.
I do not travel to keep up with the Joneses and flex on social media by posting pictures in the latest IT destinations. And I most definitely don’t travel to wait forever in queues, drink 50€ aperols, put my crowd-induced anxiety to the test, or be sprayed with water and told to go home by locals who don’t want me in their space.
Hence, my attempt at withdrawing myself from the equation. Don’t think I will stop exploring the world just yet because some angry local told me to. But what I aspire to do is to change the way I interact with the world and refine my approach to travel.
So, here’s my travel manifesto for 2025 and onwards.
7 changes i’m making to travel more thoughtfully
I will try to refrain from going to already overtouristed destinations for leisure. The leisure caveat exists mostly because sometimes you don’t get to choose, be it a layover, an event, or work. Unless there’s a valid reason for me to be there, I’m not going.
I will instead dedicate my free time to exploring outside the tourist hotspots. The world is vast; there is no reason all of us should be crammed in one spot at the same time. I want to see the best kept secrets, but also to find beauty and wonder in the “boring” and non-instagrammable places. Despite the current popular narrative, not all tourism is bad, and there are still “undiscovered” places in the world begging for people to visit.
I will stop using Airbnb altogether (and I hope I won’t have to eat these words later on because this one is HARD). I hate that through my travels, I support the very thing that’s largely responsible for the housing crisis in my city, and I am finally ready to stop being a hypocrite about it. I’m still quite unsure of what the best alternative is, though. But small local hotels and hostels are one option, and homestays seem like a good idea as well. Couchsurfing is also great, but I will leave that to the younger and less jaded adventurers.
I will do better research in advance. I’m notoriously bad at this because in my subconscious mind, travel should be spontaneous and require 0 previous thought or planning. But making sure I’m staying in locally owned establishments, buying locally made products, and overall having more of a positive impact on the local communities in places I visit is worth the extra time spent researching my trip. There’s beauty in going offline and seeing where the day takes you, but in my case, it usually just takes me to McDonald’s if I come unprepared.
I will be more vocal and proactive about the situation here in Prague. My city is battling the same problems, and besides that one YouTube channel doing literal God’s work here, nobody even talks about it, let alone does something about it. I want to find ways to get more involved and contribute to the change I want.
I will put more effort into languages. Sure, it is unrealistic to learn the language of every place you ever visit. But learning the basics like hello, bye, please, and thank you is the least I can do to show respect, and it makes a huge difference. I’m also the biggest fan of learning the phrase “Excuse me, do you speak English?” and using it before saying anything in English at all. Because, well, not everyone can or wants to speak it.
I think I already have plenty of good and respectful travelling habits. I don’t partake in animal or human exploitation for my entertainment, I approach all situations with the golden rule in mind, and I have definitely never used random underprivileged children as a photo op. I plan to stick to doing what I’m already doing and keep learning about what else I could (or shouldn’t) do.
I’m not delusional enough to think I will solve all tourism-related issues of the world by taking seven bare minimum steps and writing about them for my 5 subscribers. My aim is also not to tell anyone how to travel “correctly” - I do realize that everybody has their own priorities, possibilities, and moral compass.
I’m not here to preach but merely to express my feelings and hopefully provide some food for thought. Take what resonates with you and leave the rest; it’s fine. But for me, travel no longer makes sense if I’m directly or indirectly contributing to making somebody else’s life harder.
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fialka
If you made it all the way here, you might like my rambling about gentrification as well ⬇️
Hiiii just came across your page and I’m obsessed!!! It’s so refreshing and inspiring to see someone with an ethical, holistic view of traveling. I love this manifesto and it resonated a lot. I spent a long time solo backpacking semi recently as well and was surprised at how much my approach to traveling evolved during it. Much like you, I am more aware and intentional with the impact I have. I especially love #4 here and is something I will also try to do better at- research and stay informed! Every place is different and all of time the circumstances won’t be obvious unless you do some digging. I still love traveling, but I now ponder what it means to be a gentle & good tourist more now.
Airbnb is a tricky one! I learned that in some islands that are dominated by all-inclusive resorts, airbnb is the only chance for locals to make some money from tourism, so I do think it depends on the local context (though obviously a very different situation in Europe). I think it’s original purpose of staying in the spare room of someone local is good but the problem is that it’s been completely commercialised ie landlords buying multiple properties for the sole purpose of Airbnb and taking them off the housing market.