Travel Secrets September - October 2015 | Page 38

“GETTING DRUNK IN A BAR IS A BETTER WAY TO EXPERIENCE A CITY THAN SIGHTSEEING” Founder-Editor of the Urban Travel Blog, Duncan Rhodes is a repository of knowledge on Eastern and Central Europe. He is also the Editor and City Manager of Barcelona Life travel guide and pens regular features for Conde Nast, CNN and The Guardian Duncan Rhodes "I fear travelling could become a lot more boring in the next 20 or 30 years." We quote from your blog: “It was a trip that started in Prague in 2002 and ended in Sydney a year later that ignited his passion for foreign climes and their promise of adventure.” A year-long trip? What took you on it? The trip in question was a typical gap year with two friends from University. We all worked in London for three years after graduating and then set off together. The trip was unique because we didn’t end up buying the usual round-the-world plane ticket. Instead, we travelled over land and sea from Prague to Bangkok, saw the FIFA World Cup, 2002 in South Korea before finally taking a plane to Australia. There wasn’t one particular “aha” moment during the journey but it did give me the perspective that anything is possible and I needn’t follow a typical career path. That was important to me because my parents are quite conservative and I am quite risk-averse, so I needed something big to happen to me if I was going to break out of a London working lifestyle that didn’t suit me at all. What makes UTB one of the most followed travel blogs? Yes, you have a strong team of writers, but which promotion tools worked best for you? Every blogger uses a different formula to promote their blogs, but I’m a bit old school in my approach. I mostly rely on Search Engine Optimisation techniques to increase traffic on my website. It gives 38  Travel Secrets September-October 2015 our posts the best chance possible of turning up in Google search results and once people find the site, I try to turn them into loyal readers by inviting them to subscribe. How should a visitor “experience” a city rather than just see it? I don’t like to be too snobby here, but a typical tourist seems to pass over a city in a very superficial way. They ride the tourist bus, see the major sites, dine at the top rated restaurants on Tripadvisor (which is full of tourists, of course) but barely interact with the locals. They see the city, but don’t actually experience it. They don’t know what it’s like to ride the Metro, or order a coffee in some neighbourhood bar where the staff don’t speak English, and don’t attend any local art exhibitions, concerts, parties. Even getting drunk in a bar is a better way to experience a city than sightseeing, because this way you talk to people, interact with them, ask them for local tips and advice and know more about what it’s like to live there. I guess at UTB, and particularly through our In The Zone district guide, we want to highlight some cool places, experiences and districts which are maybe not mind-blowing like La Sagrada Familia or The Vatican, but are a part of the genuine daily life of the city. UTB recommends: If you’re tired of Paris’s famous but overcrowded avenues, head for Le Marais.Considered the hippest district in Paris, Le Marais is