Tag: Mass Tourism

Ezze – Must-see or Tourist Trap

On By Author Edmond GagnonIn TravelLeave a comment

I’d been to Eze thirty-something years ago while visiting a friend in Nice, France, but couldn’t remember much about it other than it was a hilltop village with cool little artisan shops and awesome views of the Mediterranean and surrounding area.

Since we were staying in Ventimiglia, Italy, less than an hour away, Cathryn and I decided to visit the highly rated tourist attraction. Her friends raved it was their most favorite place in the world. Not having a car at our disposal, we had to rely on trains and buses to get to Nice and Eze. That had proved challenging so far, with a train strike in the area and irattic bus schedules.

Getting on the train to Nice, I noticed there are three different stations and though online information said to catch the Eze bus in Nice, they left out the part about which stop to get off. A kind traveller sitting next to me helped us out and confirmed the bus number I had and that it was a ten minute walk to another bus station where our bus ran from.

As usual, our Apple map app had us going in circles around a roundabout when I saw some other tourists hopping into a rideshare van. They only had room for one but one of the passengers said we could take the #82 bus and she pointed over her shoulder. If not for her we would have done another lap around the roundabout.

We only had to wait 10 minutes and happily boarded the bus to Eze. We chatted with a lovely couple from Minnesota and barely noticed the ride until one particular stop where about 40 more people tried to pack onto our bus. Thankfully, we’d gotten on at the right stop and didn’t have to stand for the entire ride. Arriving in Eze and trying to get off the bus while 40 more people pushed and shoved to try and get on, my heart sank.

There was a makeshift market at the entrance to Eze Village, adding to the chaos. Lack of proper signage had us follow a small group of tourists partway up the hill into someone’s backyard garage. Finding the correct path up, we merged with the thick flow of other travellers from around the world. The medieval village is perched high above the town of Eze so it’s a fairly steep walk uphill.

No problem for the Gagnon’s, we’d been hiking all over Italy and France for weeks. I stepped out of the bumper to bumper foot traffic whenever I could, trying to snap pics that weren’t blocked by Asian girls posing every 6 feet. At least 30 people were in line to get tickets for the botanical gardens – the place to go for the best views around, so we passed it by and exited to a sidestreet where traffic was sparse.

I managed to get some cobbled street and cool door shots but our chosen path only took us to a fancy hotel/restaurant that was too busy to allow us in for a cocktail. Our transport to town had us arriving at lunchtime and lineups at the restaurants clogged the quaint little streets. We wandered some more and headed uphill trying to find the magnificent views. A kind shop owner said that was impossible since the high walls that blocked our view were built to keep invaders out. Unfortunately that didn’t include tourists.

We sucked it up and fought our way to the ticket booth, paying $25 to enter the botanical gardens. Dodging the same Asian girls on the way up the stairs, and purposely walking in front of their cameras, we were finally able to take in some amazing views of the Mediterranean coast, with Monaco and Cannes in the distance. Oh, and yes, there are all kinds of cacti and succulents to check out but no one seemed to be interested in the neatly manicured gardens.

We ooed and awed at the nice views then tried to no avail to get into one of the hilltop restaurants. Parched and hungry, we walked back down to a sidewalk patio in town and paid $35 for salad. But it was the best Nicoise salad we’ve ever had, with a real tuna steak, and the beer was cold. Finishing up lunch, we eyed the 100 or so people at the bus stop waiting to leave town. That wasn’t going to happen.

Having read about a walking path that goes from the bottom of Eze Village, down to the Eze train station, I suggested we go on another adventure. It was very cool at first, literally, a shaded path on an easy grade had us strolling along admiring the forest and listening to the birds singing. Then the paved steps became crumbling concrete. Then rocks and gravel on an even steeper grade. There were several switchbacks that occasionally offered amazing sea views but it didn’t seem to get any closer.

Everyone said the walk should take about an hour. After the first hour passed our knees no longer acted as shock absorbers. We marvelled at folks older than us practically trotting down the hill and one group of teenagers with their music cranked and drinking beer. It seemed everyone was passing us. I asked Cathryn to stop at one lookout and she said, “I don’t feel like it.”

We agreed our adventure was no longer any fun. We were parched, overheated, and I was sweating like an glass of iced tea sitting in the hot sun. We caught a glimpse of the rail line but once again it wasn’t getting any closer. Eventually we arrived at sea level and saw the sign pointing up the path – someone crossed out the 1 hour and added 30 minutes. Guess we’re just old slowpokes.

Having run out of sweat and my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth, I practically ran to the train station. There wasn’t a store or vending machine anywhere in sight – even close by in town. I used the fancy porta potty, happy to drink from the sink but it only spurted soap. There wasn’t even a hose tap on any building nearby. Fearing I’d pass out from thirst and heat exhaustion, Cathryn asked a fellow traveller if I could have some of her bottled water.

She handed me the warm bottle she’d carried from the top and went into a tirade of their walk down the hill – how she was terrified, had vertigo, and stopped to cry. They actually considered turning around at one point. Wimps. It nearly killed the Gagnon’s but we did it.

Mass Tourism – Us vs Them

On By Author Edmond GagnonIn Book Reviews, TravelLeave a comment

Mass tourism has become a taxing and ugly thing for many countries, cities, and famous sites around the world. With the advent of the Internet, they say the world has become a smaller place. Add the ease of air travel and other modes of transportation along with human curiosity, and one can see why the masses have ventured out from their own backyards to seek out unique and fantastic places to visit.

Cathryn and I were ‘travellers’ long before we met each other. She was lucky enough to do several trips with her family. Mine was larger without the money for that kind of thing but my brother and I managed a trip to Florida with my mother and her boyfriend once we had a job and were able to pay our own way. After securing my career as a police officer, I used my pay cheque for a motorcycle trip back down to the sunshine state.

My wanderlust and thirst for travel continued with trips throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. I did one cruise because of the unique ports of call but didn’t like scheduled meals and events on board, as well as the process of trying to get hundreds of people on and off the ship every time it docked. We relied on travel agents and ‘packaged’ tours back then, with our absence from work limited by allotted vacation time.

Retirement rewarded me with unlimited time to travel. One or two-week vacations became a month or more, allowing me to venture further abroad for longer. Changing with age and the times, I went from backpacking around Europe to flashpacking (backpack on wheels) in Southeast Asia and South America. Solo motorcycle trips up, down, and across North America evolved into trips for two, with Cathryn joining me on the Harley.

I’d found my life partner, with similar tastes in music, food, travel and life itself. Once Cathryn retired, the world was ours to discover. And at that we’re doing our best. For us, seeing new places and experiencing different cuisine and culture is what life in is all about. Being financially secure, our only travel limitation seem to be there as so many places to visit and not enough time to see them all.

I have a travelling friend who emigrated from Canada to Cambodia, where he settled and started a family. As a fellow traveller, he often sought out places off the beaten path that hadn’t been discovered by the masses or had fallen victim to overtourism. Up until about twenty years ago, I hadn’t found crowds to be a problem in my travels to other countries around the world. For the most part, tourists seemed to be happy sticking with the tried and true destinations where everyone else had been or was going.

But the world truly has gotten smaller, with more people venturing further away from home, seeking out exotic places they’ve seen on television or on the Internet. Places that were once considered off the beaten path or undiscovered by the masses. Hoards of vacationers and travellers alike have taken to road, rail and air, in search of cool places they had only previously dreamed of.

Now that the masses have converged on those very places, destinations have become overcrowded and almost unbearable to travellers and locals alike. For us it means higher prices or limited availability for transportation and lodging. For them it means hoards of travellers invading their home towns and neighborhoods. Where tourism was once good for local economies, it is now taxing public services and infrastructure.

Cathryn and I witnessed such a mass invasion firsthand in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a once small fishing village made famous by the Game of Thrones tv series. We were enjoying a quiet stroll along the top of the city walls when we saw a cruise ship pull into the harbour. By the time we came down from the wall, the small medieval town had been invaded by five thousand tourists, all trying to find famous sites they’s seen on the tube.

People from the cruise ships pay good money for those types of excursions. I had to laugh when I saw hungry tourists scouring the old town trying to discover the magical places they saw on their favorite show. The group was disappointed when their tour guide explained how almost every backdrop they’d seen on tv was computer generated.

We are currently in Italy where crowds have varied from town to town. We chose the shoulder season – September and October, purposely to avoid the masses. But that wasn’t the case in Verona, where we’d considered seeing the famous ‘Juliette’ balcony. Although the character and story are fictional, it doesn’t stop thousands of tourists from reserving a spot online in advance to visit the site and have a chance at rubbing a breast on her statue for good luck.

We did not see the balcony or broze-breasted statue, but did manage a peak at the alley leading to it from our city tour bus, surrounded by thousands of tourists. What’s really funny, besides the love story being fictional, is that Shakespeare basically plagiarized the tale from other poets. It’s also never been proven he actually set foot in Verona, let alone Italy.

So, if you plan to travel, beware of mass tourism. Venice doesn’t allow cruise ships in the harbour anymore and charges by the day to enter the city. Locals have complained their neighborhoods are now full of foreigners staying in rentals. Santorini, Greece becomes gridlocked when several thousand cruise ship tourists try to cram into the tiny fishing village to get that perfect selfie.

Barcelona and Malaga, Spain, are now passing bylaws to limit the number of vacation rentals in heavily travelled tourist destinations. Perhaps this comes as a result of post Covid travellers trying to make up for lost time, but I think not. It seems to me more and more people in the world now have itchy feet and have discovered their dreams and wanderlust can become reality.