For a few years now the New York Times has not printed a Travel section to go with the other sections in its Sunday paper. To read this section, subscribers have to go online, a simple effort that I have never made.
But once a year the paper deigns to print a special section listing 52 places to go in the new year. This is the most meaningless form of travel writing (claims someone who, under pressure from supervisors, did his fair share of annual where-to-go lists), based – when no special event or natural occurrence is involved – on nothing more than the whims and prejudices of a group of editors. Why are the Albanian Alps (to cite one of the Times’ picks) the place to go this year as opposed to last year – or next year?
Still, I peruse the special section every year, and this year I was disappointed to see that no place in Poland made the list. Is the country already too mainstream, with none of the edgy caché of Albania? Hard to know. I’ve been visiting Poland regularly for the last few decades and each time I go I’m struck by how attractive it has become, not just for tourists but also for residents. Planning a return this spring, I realize that I should be grateful that the New York Times found it wanting, as there will be fewer Americans – at least fewer Times readers – on the streets.
