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Interview With Don George

Aired September 04, 2003 - 15:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, before we hit the road we want to talk about really hitting the road. And not your run of the mill holiday hop to the in-laws.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're not going talking about going down to the land of the roaden (ph) here. This is serious stuff. If you're a little or a lot more adventurous, and we mean it in this case, What do you to make sure that when you get away from it all, you also make it back? Here's a guy who's going to help us out.

PHILLIPS: That's right. He's got good advice. He's in a good position to tell us. Don George is the global travel editor for "Lonely Planet" -- he's far from lonely though. He joins us from San Francisco to talk about those dangerous places. Good to see you.

DON GEORGE, GLOBAL TRAVEL EDITOR, "LONELY PLANET": Hi, Kyra and Miles. Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Well let's talk about some of these spots. Jordan. Is this a place that you want to travel to right now, considering all the political conflicts going on?

GEORGE: Well, it absolutely is. But before we venture to Jordan, just two principles that I think everyone should keep in mind if they're travelers contemplating a visit to a dangerous place.

One is to pay attention to your personal comfort threshold. Don't go to a place if you feel personally threatened being there. It's not worth squandering your precious travel, time and money and energy on that. So pay attention to your personal comfort threshold.

O'BRIEN: Don't push the envelope too much. All right, well why did you select Jordan as a destination? That wouldn't be necessarily right up there on my list.

GEORGE: I selected Jordan -- this was a year ago that I went there. And I really wanted to know what was going on in Jordan on my own. I wanted to hear it with my ears and see it with my eyes. I knew Jordan was traditionally a relatively friendly country to the West. And so I thought this would be a perfect place to go to find out what's life really like on the Arab street that I kept hearing so much about in the news.

And before I went, I have to tell you, everyone was saying to me, Are you sure you want to go? Aren't you worried about it? Don't you think people will spit on you in the street or yell at you? And I had the most fantastic time there.

O'BRIEN: Really?

GEORGE: Oh, they were incredibly wonderful.

O'BRIEN: Not a lot of anti-American sentiment there that you detected?

GEORGE: None whatsoever. Absolutely none. People were so anxious to talk to a real-live American and find out what's going on in my country. What are people thinking. And I was able to find out from them what's really going on in their country and what they're thinking.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry.

GEORGE: That's all right. It was a fantastic sharing of information on a firsthand basis.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

PHILLIPS: I was interested in Turkey.

GEORGE: Well, Turkey, the farther east that you go in Turkey, the more dangerous it's going to get. And there's a lot of security measures in place in eastern Turkey. But western Turkey, the Mediterranean Coast, it's fabulous place to visit. There are amazing Roman ruins in places like Ephesus, Istanbul is a wonderfully cosmopolitan mix of the East and West.

PHILLIPS: It's a secular country, right?

GEORGE: Sorry?

PHILLIPS: It's a secular country?

GEORGE: It is indeed a secular country, yes. And it's very hospitable to all religions. So you shouldn't feel uneasy in any respect in that regard. And the people I found, when I traveled in Turkey, the people were very welcoming, very warm.

O'BRIEN: Let me can ask you this. Using your philosophy about not pushing the envelope too far, when you start thinking about accommodations, anything you should keep in mind about where to select when you start thinking about the security issues as well as whether it's five stars or four stars?

GEORGE: Well, I think the important thing is to know as much as you can about where you're going before you get there. And that means everything from reading good guide books to checking out online sources such as local newspapers that have Web sites that give you a really good sense of what the situation on the ground is.

And then rely partly on your instincts and partly on what local people are telling you about places to stay. You might want to book your first night in a relatively upscale hotel where you'll feel more comfortable. That will be kind of a transition period. Then you might go to a lower-priced place after that because you've had a chance to be on the ground and check the scene out.

O'BRIEN: So what you're implying there thought is the lower- priced places give you an opportunity to get closer to the people?

GEORGE: Generally in my experience that's been the case. I think the lower-priced places give you an opportunity to mix more with locals. But, of course, that's up to you really.

You can stay in a five-star hotel and get out and go to the local market and spend an hour talking with a carpet seller and have an unforgettable experience. So it's really how you approach a place that's important, not so much where you stay, but what you do when you get out of your hotel.

PHILLIPS: Don, do we even want to start thinking about places like Afghanistan or Iraq?

GEORGE: We definitely wanted to start thinking about places like Afghanistan and Iraq. I think the reality right now is that even travel to Afghanistan would be much more of a burden on the country than the country's able to support right now. So the tourism infrastructure isn't quite in place yet.

But the truly intrepid travelers are already thinking about it and already making their plans to go there. Some adventure travel companies are already putting together packages to those countries. So in the next few months, in the next half year, I think we'll see travelers going there more and more.

O'BRIEN: Is there any place in the world you wouldn't go?

GEORGE: No. Absolutely not.

PHILLIPS: Are you kidding? He's crazy. He'll go anywhere.

O'BRIEN: All right.

GEORGE: There's too many wonders out there to be discovered.

PHILLIPS: Isn't that true? Global travel editor Don George, "Lonely Planet." Thank you so much.

GEORGE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired September 4, 2003 - 15:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, before we hit the road we want to talk about really hitting the road. And not your run of the mill holiday hop to the in-laws.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we're not going talking about going down to the land of the roaden (ph) here. This is serious stuff. If you're a little or a lot more adventurous, and we mean it in this case, What do you to make sure that when you get away from it all, you also make it back? Here's a guy who's going to help us out.

PHILLIPS: That's right. He's got good advice. He's in a good position to tell us. Don George is the global travel editor for "Lonely Planet" -- he's far from lonely though. He joins us from San Francisco to talk about those dangerous places. Good to see you.

DON GEORGE, GLOBAL TRAVEL EDITOR, "LONELY PLANET": Hi, Kyra and Miles. Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Well let's talk about some of these spots. Jordan. Is this a place that you want to travel to right now, considering all the political conflicts going on?

GEORGE: Well, it absolutely is. But before we venture to Jordan, just two principles that I think everyone should keep in mind if they're travelers contemplating a visit to a dangerous place.

One is to pay attention to your personal comfort threshold. Don't go to a place if you feel personally threatened being there. It's not worth squandering your precious travel, time and money and energy on that. So pay attention to your personal comfort threshold.

O'BRIEN: Don't push the envelope too much. All right, well why did you select Jordan as a destination? That wouldn't be necessarily right up there on my list.

GEORGE: I selected Jordan -- this was a year ago that I went there. And I really wanted to know what was going on in Jordan on my own. I wanted to hear it with my ears and see it with my eyes. I knew Jordan was traditionally a relatively friendly country to the West. And so I thought this would be a perfect place to go to find out what's life really like on the Arab street that I kept hearing so much about in the news.

And before I went, I have to tell you, everyone was saying to me, Are you sure you want to go? Aren't you worried about it? Don't you think people will spit on you in the street or yell at you? And I had the most fantastic time there.

O'BRIEN: Really?

GEORGE: Oh, they were incredibly wonderful.

O'BRIEN: Not a lot of anti-American sentiment there that you detected?

GEORGE: None whatsoever. Absolutely none. People were so anxious to talk to a real-live American and find out what's going on in my country. What are people thinking. And I was able to find out from them what's really going on in their country and what they're thinking.

(CROSSTALK)

PHILLIPS: I'm sorry.

GEORGE: That's all right. It was a fantastic sharing of information on a firsthand basis.

O'BRIEN: Wow.

PHILLIPS: I was interested in Turkey.

GEORGE: Well, Turkey, the farther east that you go in Turkey, the more dangerous it's going to get. And there's a lot of security measures in place in eastern Turkey. But western Turkey, the Mediterranean Coast, it's fabulous place to visit. There are amazing Roman ruins in places like Ephesus, Istanbul is a wonderfully cosmopolitan mix of the East and West.

PHILLIPS: It's a secular country, right?

GEORGE: Sorry?

PHILLIPS: It's a secular country?

GEORGE: It is indeed a secular country, yes. And it's very hospitable to all religions. So you shouldn't feel uneasy in any respect in that regard. And the people I found, when I traveled in Turkey, the people were very welcoming, very warm.

O'BRIEN: Let me can ask you this. Using your philosophy about not pushing the envelope too far, when you start thinking about accommodations, anything you should keep in mind about where to select when you start thinking about the security issues as well as whether it's five stars or four stars?

GEORGE: Well, I think the important thing is to know as much as you can about where you're going before you get there. And that means everything from reading good guide books to checking out online sources such as local newspapers that have Web sites that give you a really good sense of what the situation on the ground is.

And then rely partly on your instincts and partly on what local people are telling you about places to stay. You might want to book your first night in a relatively upscale hotel where you'll feel more comfortable. That will be kind of a transition period. Then you might go to a lower-priced place after that because you've had a chance to be on the ground and check the scene out.

O'BRIEN: So what you're implying there thought is the lower- priced places give you an opportunity to get closer to the people?

GEORGE: Generally in my experience that's been the case. I think the lower-priced places give you an opportunity to mix more with locals. But, of course, that's up to you really.

You can stay in a five-star hotel and get out and go to the local market and spend an hour talking with a carpet seller and have an unforgettable experience. So it's really how you approach a place that's important, not so much where you stay, but what you do when you get out of your hotel.

PHILLIPS: Don, do we even want to start thinking about places like Afghanistan or Iraq?

GEORGE: We definitely wanted to start thinking about places like Afghanistan and Iraq. I think the reality right now is that even travel to Afghanistan would be much more of a burden on the country than the country's able to support right now. So the tourism infrastructure isn't quite in place yet.

But the truly intrepid travelers are already thinking about it and already making their plans to go there. Some adventure travel companies are already putting together packages to those countries. So in the next few months, in the next half year, I think we'll see travelers going there more and more.

O'BRIEN: Is there any place in the world you wouldn't go?

GEORGE: No. Absolutely not.

PHILLIPS: Are you kidding? He's crazy. He'll go anywhere.

O'BRIEN: All right.

GEORGE: There's too many wonders out there to be discovered.

PHILLIPS: Isn't that true? Global travel editor Don George, "Lonely Planet." Thank you so much.

GEORGE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: All right.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com