Lame in the Scottish Highlands: Supposedly New Travel Trends [3.25.11]

There is almost nothing the travel media loves more than a trend, but they (er, we) call attention to them so much it’s hard not to notice when something that has been earmarked as “new and trendy” or “up and coming” is actually neither of those things. Here are five recent examples, in list form since the only thing travel pubs love more than a trend is a list:

1. People in Amsterdam Love to Bike. Also, The Dutch Are Cooler than Us. - No shit. How many times are we really going to have to read this story as if it’s news?

2. This Indie Coffee Thing Is Really Taking Off! - Two things bother me on this one, first the very same magazine published an article about the burgeoning U.S. indy coffee scene back in 2005. That article was called “America’s Best Coffee.” This one is “America’s Best Coffee Cities.” Oy. Second: the intro talks about a visitor to San Francisco who insists on visiting Steps of Rome for an espresso whenever they’re in town. Um, Steps of Rome is where I used to hang out when I was 18 and thought the coked up Italian waiters were cool. Also, SF is second only to Seattle in its assortment of local coffee roasters–Ritual, Bicycle, Roast, hell even the ubiquitous Blue Bottle. Steps of Rome just fires up some Illy and serves it with an accent. Sure, it’s good, but it’s not really worth putting pen to paper about.

3. Scotland’s Highlands Make for Some Awesome Walks - I swear I read the same “walking the Scottish Highlands” story every year. And in each and every one there’s the lovely surprise of a whisky distillery along the way (has there ever been a travel story on Scotland that doesn’t mention whisky? I think definitely not in the American media) and a renewed appreciation for things like fresh air, nature and quaint B&Bs.

4. Hard Work on the Range Soothes Every City Slicker’s Soul - How long has the ranch vacation trend been going on now? I mean, the movie City Slickers was all about it, and that came out in 1991 so how are we still talking about this like it’s a new thing? Okay, this ranch is “sustainable” and that ranch really makes you work hard, yada yada. It’s all the same.

5. Craft Cocktail Lounges Are San Francisco’s New Wine Bars - The craft cocktail thing has been around long enough that there are books written about it. Here’s a little inside info on that for those of you not in publishing: books have a really long lead time, like at least a year, and that’s from the time that they get signed off on to the time they’re in print. So for a book on craft cocktails to have been published in 2002, you know this is an idea that’s been around awhile. Also, it is not in any way unique to San Francisco’.

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