Let a Podcast Be Your Idiosyncratic Guide
Matthew Holden, the 42-year-old host of www.Podasia.net, started his podcast as a way to share information with fast-paced business travelers. “For example, getting through the airport as fast as possible is a common need,” he said.
Practical Traveler Section, New York Times
By HILARY HOWARD
April 30, 2006
WHEN I visited Las Vegas five years ago, I wanted to find its kitschy and gritty underbelly. Instead, I ended up seeking refuge in the hot tub of the Extended Stay Deluxe Hotel, traumatized by the constant jangling of slot machines in the casinos along the Strip. The fake Venetian canals were pretty kitschy, I admit, but not exactly gritty.
Where were the funky old Strip characters? Where did people hang out when they didn’t want to gamble?
If only I’d visited during the age of the podcast. I would have discovered the Freakin’ Frog, which serves around 500 different beers, or Big B’s CD’s and Records, an independent record store. I also might have found some local flavor along Fremont Street (the old Strip) like the impromptu scenario described by Janet on the Lonely Planet Las Vegas podcast, in which two middle-aged twin sisters with beehive hairdos fought so hard that one sister’s false eyelashes came unglued. Now this is the Vegas I was looking for.
Podcasts are audio recordings posted online that you can download to iPods and other MP3 players for free. All you need is a computer with Internet access and podcatcher software that keeps track of new posts. Apple’s free iTunes software has a built-in podcatcher, and Juice (juicereceiver.sourceforge.net) provides free downloadable software. Podcasts are found through clearinghouses like iTunes and podcastalley.com, or directly through Web sites like lonelyplanet.com. “We felt like we’d really tapped into a market,” said Adam Noonan, online marketing manager for Lonely Planet, who said that the company had 75,000 downloads during its initial podcast launch last fall.
Since Apple made podcasts available through iTunes last summer, approximately 35,000 have become available for download. Among the travel-themed are offerings by Fodors.com, PodAsia.net, RickSteves.com, and BudgetTravelOnline.com. Even Virgin Atlantic Airlines (www.virginatlantic.loudish.com) produces podcasts, including one on New York with Tony Soprano-like narration. And today, Frommers.com is scheduled to launch its first podcast, “Editor’s Choice: The Best Travel Advice,” in which its editors offer tips on how to plan a trip. Other Frommer’s podcasts will cover Croatia and family trips to national parks.
“The great thing about travel books is that they are written with a voice, but sometimes it’s hard to deliver that voice with real personality,” said Larry Olson, vice president of marketing for the professional and trade division of Wiley, which publishes the Frommer’s guidebooks. “With travel advice, you want to feel like you’re getting it from a good friend. You know, the inside scoop.”
The inside scoop is certainly what you get listening to the independent Living in Las Vegas Podcast (www.livinginlv.com). It chronicles the adventures of Scott and Melissa Whitney, a married couple living in Las Vegas, and features posts about auditioning for Blue Man Group and about restaurants, reviews of which are posted on the accompanying blog.
Podcasts are typically attached to Web sites or blogs that provide information ranging from “show notes” (subject matter from each post), to a comments section, to photographs and news updates.
Independent podcasts like Living in Las Vegas are the most numerous of the genre. Like independent blogs, they tend to be more personal and colorful than their big-media counterparts. Lonely Planet’s Turkey podcast, for example, gives vivid sound tours of calls to prayer and of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and has helpful information. But the narration and interviews have a polished, professional feel.
Independent podcasts, on the other hand, tend to keep it real, warts and all. The best ones can provide slice-of-life-type insights; the worst ones can be tedious and self-conscious. “I can tell in the first minute if a podcast is going to be any good,” said David Ogando, 46, a graphic designer in New York. “There’s a lot of them that are like, ‘wow, I’m doing my podcast kind of thing.’ ”
TECHNIQUES for finding good independent travel podcasts include scouring the most-downloaded lists on iTunes and podcastalley.com, and simply asking around.
Through Susanne Geigenberger, a 24-year-old office clerk in Germany, I found Edinburghcast.com, which features tales of Scottish life and music. Through Robin Hanson, a 44-year-old consultant in Belle Meade, N.J., I found TangoCityTour.com.ar, a podcast in Spanish that plays tango music.
And through podcastalley.com, I stumbled upon 808Talk.com, a popular show about Hawaii that receives up to 2,000 downloads a week. “People think it’s all tropical island; they don’t know about the actual people who live here,” said Vernon Brown, a 29-year-old Navy technician in Honolulu who produces the show. Recently, he discussed top Hawaiian beaches and Elvis Presley’s work in and love for the state.
Mr. Brown is also, like many independent podcasters, a talented D.J. “Every musician I feature is from Hawaii or lives in Hawaii,” he said. “I use a lot of Jawaiian, a mixture of Jamaican and Hawaiian music.”
The musical interludes on many podcasts are often their saving graces. “I know that if I listen to something that is all talking, even if I find it very interesting, that after 10 minutes or so my mind starts to drift off somewhere else,” said Richard Matthews, 54, who is the host of Edinburghcast.com.
Sebastien Babolat’s French Podclass (www.frenchieproductions.com) features music by Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel and Rita Mitsouko between French lessons. Podasia.net, which covers the Far East, recently showcased a struggling musician and office worker from Japan named Jesushairdo.
Matthew Holden, the 42-year-old host of www.Podasia.net, started his podcast as a way to share information with fast-paced business travelers.
“For example, getting through the airport as fast as possible is a common need,” he said. In a recent post, Mr. Holden gave a sound tour of the Narita International Airport in Tokyo. He also produces sound tours to cultural sites, like the Yasukuni Shrine, a controversial war memorial in Tokyo.
“I’ve sat in a bus stop during a monsoon with rain falling in buckets all around me,” said Mr. Holden, who uses what he calls a “podPouch,” consisting of a microphone, a recorder, headphones and a camera to produce the tours.
NotesFromSpain.com, about the life of Ben Curtis, an Englishman who lives in Spain, also offers impressive sound tours.
“What’s great about Notes From Spain is that you feel like you’re actually there,” said Mr. Hanson, the consultant from New Jersey. “It’s really like being back in Madrid. Madrid has very particular sounds, like when a shopkeeper opens the metal covering of his shop front, there’s a sort of grating sound you get throughout the morning. I mean, New York has it too, but it’s not the same.”
At this point, podcasts seem to be more of a supplement and not a threat to the guidebook industry.
“Podcasts certainly can’t replace the reassurance and detail of a guidebook,” said Mr. Noonan of Lonely Planet.
But are they adding flavor and personalization to the travel experience?
Let me put it this way. Next time I hit Vegas, I will take my iPod.