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Writing Trip Reports: How Old Is Too Old?

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Last week I wrote a review on River Plate’s stadium in Buenos Aires (see Too Dangerous? River Plate Stadium Review Buenos Aires) in light of the Boca Juniors v. River Plate championship game drama. I went to the stadium way back in 2013 prompting a reader to voice concern that I was resurrecting ancient trip reports. While I tend to agree that writing about trips from long ago is not the best practice for bloggers, I face the problem of either not finishing reports or omitting significant portions of trips just to catch up. To compound the problem, each time I start to make progress on a past trip, a new trip presents itself, further compounding the issue.

It doesn’t help that I document each aspect of my trip from hotels and flights to food & drink including a separate category for pho reviews. For example, my completed South America & Africa Points Heist Trip Report has 116 posts! For efficiency, I could scale back what I write about, but I find the effort of not doing so rewarding when I go through the scrapbook of the adventure long after the trip has ended. However, a line must be drawn when old becomes too old, especially because programs devalue and tricks are no longer available.

Just yesterday, I wrote a post about the Marriott Skopje called A Lot of Luxury for So Little. In it I mentioned that the hotel was a great points deal because it was a category 2. A reader promptly pointed out that it is now a category 3. Mind you, I visited the hotel in August of 2018 as part of the #NoCollusion No Albania for TPOL trip. That’s a forgivable delay. On the other extreme, I have yet to complete my Quest Around the Globe trip report where I visited Russia, Cyprus, Jordan and flew Etihad Apartments home (insert link of completed flight review if you ever do it). I also haven’t completed my Tahiti Triumph trip report which was one of TPOL’s best redemptions. Both trips took place in 2016. For the sake of completeness and because those trips were so great, I am going to finish those trip reports while concurrently working on my most recent #NoCollusion Mueller report. Besides those two reports, just about everything before that will have to be sacrificed for the sake of freshness and for the sake of my sanity. Fortunately, I’m basically caught up for just about everywhere else that I have been which is pretty impressive given the number of trips in the directory shown below.

What do you think? When is too old too old? I’m going with 2016, though it would be a shame not to write about my Wow Suite at the W Doha in 2013, one of the craziest hotel rooms I’ve ever stayed in!

2018

#NoCollusion No Albania for TPOL (August)

Despacito! TPOL Moves to Puerto Rico (June 26)

2017

TPOL in the Desert (December 9th)

South America & Africa Points Heist (September)

Jerry World (August)

Round the Atlantic Tour (April)

Final Four San Antonio (April)

Detour in Mexico (March)

2016

The Year of the Monkey (December)

Michigan v. Ohio State (November)

Quest Around The Globe (August)

Whose Land? Iceland (June)

Tahiti Triumph (May)

2015

The Citrus Bowl (December)

TPOL in NYC (December 9th)

The Athens Marathon: The Original Course (November)

The Greatest Hyatt Diamond Challenge of All Time (August)

New York, New York, New York (March)

2014

So Long Mongolia, Hello SE Asia (December)

The Visa Run Through Asia (October)

Miserable Mongolia (August 1st)

Into the Cold (July)

A Trip to the Far East in Style (June)

30 Minutes to Costa Rica (May)

2013

The $77,000 Trip Heard Round the World (December)

The Southwest Companion Pass (August-October)

Steak And Malbec: Argentina in Style (August)

Final Four 4 Free (April)

RTW Dividends From the Geographically Challenged (March)

Beer & BBQ (February)

  • Nashville, Tennessee

2012

Losing My Points Virginity (December)

Alaska Marathon (August)

  • Anchorage, Alaska

Never Too Old for Spring Break (March) 

2011

The Sugar Bowl: Celebrating Brady Hoke (December)

“You’re Fired!” Guess I’ll Go To Eastern Europe (June)

  • Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Vienna, Austria
  • Bratislava, Slovakia
  • Bucharest, Romania
  • Sunny Beach, Bulgaria
  • Belgrade, Serbia
  • Budva, Montenegro
  • Kotor, Montenegro
  • Mostar, Bosnia
  • Split, Croatia
  • Hvar, Croatia
  • Ibiza, Spain
  • Barcelona, Spain

2010

Don’t Leave Cartagena for Panama (December)

Broke Expat in Shanghai (May-September)

Touring the Culinary Scene in Asia (January)

2009

MBA in Travel & Tourism Part II (August 2009-January 2010)

The MBA in Travel & Tourism Part I (Dec 2008-May 2009)

2008

Rio Carnaval (February)

1998-2007

The New Year’s Roll Call

 

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7 COMMENTS

  2. Your blog, your choice, but I think that if the review holds a lot of relevance when posted, then go for it. If a hotel jumps a category in the interim because somebody got Marriotted over, well, it happens. I know I’d rather have an old review than none. Speaking of which, any suggestions for Sihanoukville or Bratislava?

    • Sihanoukville has nice islands that I didn’t visit which are much better than the backpacker area. Bratislava is good for a day trip then back to Vienna.

  4. Theres no such thing as too old for a trip report as long as you clearly state that it is an old one and may not fully relevant as on date of printing

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