🛫 Last week, New York Magazine published a lengthy list of etiquette tips for today's post-COVID social landscape. (Not everyone was a fan.)
Sadly, only a handful of the 140 suggestions applied directly to travelers. It’s apparently “condescending” to call a foreigner’s accent “cute.” (Crikey!) Don’t ask someone why they are wearing a mask. (Ever.) And it’s probably “not nice” to sequester your friends' kids in the “super-tiny room” of your shared vacation rental. (Poor things.)
So we here at PRIOR thought it would be wise to whip up our own refresher course on the evolving customs, etiquette and manners required for all manner of travel, from temple best practices in Kyoto to what not to do while sightseeing Mayan ruins in Mexico. 🛬️
1. Give a Hoot. Don’t ‘Tourism Pollute’ 📵
Locals in Kyoto, one of Japan’s most-visited cities, have started using the term “tourism pollution” to describe the luggage clogging up space on city buses, overzealous foreigners pestering geishas for selfies and lost tourists wandering Zen gardens while watching noisy TikTok videos (with no headphones) on their smart phones.
Like many of contemporary life’s ills, likes and comments are to blame. Throughout the parks and walking paths of the former imperial capital of Japan, visiting TikTok traveloguers and Instagram exhibitionists stalk the city’s thousands of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and postcard-worthy pagodas like paparazzi on the hunt for content.
The New York Times reports that the more tourists flooded “the two or three best photo spots” — the bamboo groves of Arashiyama, the orange gates behind the Fushimi Inari shrine, Kinkakuji temple — the more they “created traffic jams and massive crowding in the surrounding areas.”
So instead of following the herd, follow the paths paved by temple abbots, who are now adjusting to the hordes by opening sacred buildings to small groups at night, which allows for intimacy without “the disorienting press of the usual crowds.”
2. Take the Road Less Double Tapped 🌐️
The best route to discovery (and dignity) is to plan trips off the Instagram grid. In lieu of the tourist-flooded, expat-laden squares of Lisbon, we recommend Portugal's most-hidden hidden gem, Arrábida’s Natural Park, some 40 miles of untouched greenery and gold-sand beaches tucked between the Sado River and the Atlantic Ocean. Even last minute decisions like ditching room service and meals at the hotel’s buzzy restaurant for neighborhood dining spots can give you a memorable taste of a place. (Our guides to where to eat and drink across the map is here.)
