Weekly travel reads: Explore Sweden’s longest canal by bike

[The Travel Wire #88] Japan’s tourism troubles, the advantages and disadvantages of guidebooks, Hội An’s basket boats, and more travel reads.

Travel reads

• Why you should explore Sweden’s longest canal by bike [National Geographic]
“A waterside cycle route through Sweden offers the chance to slow down and appreciate the small things, from local crafts to perfect pastries.”

• Japan’s tourism troubles are being fuelled by social media assholes [Aftermath]
“TikTok & Instagram are turning tourists into assholes.”

• The advantages and disadvantages of guidebooks [The Perennial Nomad]

• From survival to entertainment: on Hội An’s basket boats [Intrepid Times]

• ‘The horror – 14 alarms in the morning’: backpacker hostels evolve as young people seek privacy over packed dorms [The Guardian]
“Out with wild parties, in with soft lighting and wellness centres. Welcome to the new age of backpacking.”

• #199 Hiroshima is changing. [Japan A to Z]
“The city I remembered as a place of memory now feels like a city quietly in motion.”

• Booked travel = happier [Diana Edelman]
“97% of people can’t be wrong. Right?”

• Another way of life [Between the Dots]
“Cricket on the Roof of the World – Leg 2.”

• Love letter to Argentina [The Making of a Journey with Ilona Vinogradova]
“If you haven’t been yet, this is me whispering in your ear: gooooo. Edition 19.”

• Travelling the troubled but beautiful Thailand/Myanmar (Burma) border over the last 40 years [Thailand Construction]

• The dark fascist secret hidden beneath one of Europe’s largest railway stations [CNN Travel]
“The underground ‘Binario 21’ area at Milano Centrale station is the only place of Nazi deportation that still exists intact.”