How to Filter Your Friend’s Travel Recommendations

We’ve all been there; you announce you are traveling to Paris and suddenly everyone you know is a master guide of the arrondissements. You get recommendations for restaurants, hotels, cafés … everything. The problem is, not all of these are good recommendations. Or they’re not necessarily good recommendations for you. So how do you filter out what to accept and what to ignore? Here’s how.

Consider the source.

If your uncle Cletus is telling you how Pepe’s is the best pizzeria he’s ever been to in his life and his idea of a good pizzeria is Domino’s, you might not want to take his recommendation. But if your uncle Cletus is a restaurant reviewer for The New York Times, he’s probably got a pretty good idea what he is talking about. (Pepe’s is, by the way, one of the best pizzerias in America).

Crowd source.

If every person you talk to who has been to Budapest recommends the Szimpla Kert ruin bar, odds are that bar is probably pretty great. But if opinion is split, it’s probably a bar you can skip. (But Szimpla Kert is pretty awesome.)

Think about what’s right for you.

Even if your volcanologist uncle and all your friends agree that hiking Mexico’s Parícutin Volcano is epic, it still may not be right for you. Just because everyone says you have to do it, doesn’t actually mean you do. Maybe you’d prefer to eat tacos and have a michelada; that’s perfectly fine. It’s your trip (and your life); do what is right for you and makes you happy.

With a little experience, it will be second nature (if you don’t already) to filter your friend’s and family’s travel recommendations without even thinking. Just remember to consider your source, poll the audience and always listen to your own gut.