About poorbuthappy > Travelguides

About the travelguides.

Poorbuthappy contains travelguides written by other travelers.

The problem with the old travelguides we all know and used to love, is that, I don't know, for some reason they don't seem to get you anywhere interesting anymore. All the same places, the same hostels, the same old beaten gringo path. We figured: what if a travelguide for backpackers could be written by us, the backpackers themselves? And it could be available for free, on the internet?

First, we solve the problem of incentives: existing travelguides put more and more expensive hotels in there, have you noticed? It's because that's where most people want to go, and they need to sell as many travelguides as possible. But I don't want to carry around a guide that's filled with places I'd never want to set foot in. The only solution is to take away the motivation to add those places, the motivation to go for the average, the big audience - make it free.

The second problem we're hoping to solve is that of coverage. One of the reasons that the travelguides take you to all the same old places, is that they're only, physically, that big. You can only add so many places to a 300 page book. On the internet, we don't have that problem. We can add crazy, out-of-the-way places, and as many as we like. And the idea is that, with larger coverage, traveling can be more adventurous, more fun. You can go somewhere that almost nobody else would want to go, and write about it, and someone else might go there too, but most people won't, because there are so many other places to go. The world is bigger than what's in that travelguide.

Third, travelwriting should be fun. Working for one of the travelguide publishers has become a McJob. All you do is run around from hostel to restaurant, verifying prices and telephone numbers. There's very little original research or time to do anything interesting. We think travelguide writing actually *can* be a lot of fun, and this approach lets you do that, because you know what, you can write about whatever you want. It's not like you're getting paid.

Fourth, being up to date. Printed travelguides are always about 1 and a half or two years out of date. An online guide can be up to date as of today.

So that's the hope. That's the plan. I really hope that we can make guides that can make travel fun and real again.