Overtourism's Ugly Truth: Our Wild Adventures in Panama & Europe

Join Mike Putman and James Ferrara from No Tourists Allowed as they recount their latest global adventures, from the bustling Panama Canal and historic Istanbul to vibrant Barcelona and glamorous Las Vegas. Discover thrilling travel tips and dive into a vital discussion on overtourism, but don't miss your chance to win a 7-day luxury Alaska cruise for two with Princess Cruise Lines! Visit notouristsallowed.com now to enter the giveaway and gain invaluable insights on mindful, authentic travel from our decades of experience.

Welcome Back and Summer Travels

Mike Putman: Hello everyone. I’m Mike Putman.

James Ferrara: Well hey there, stranger. I’m James Ferrara, everybody. Mike and I have been far-flung around the globe, which is what we do.

But we’ve been traveling so much we haven’t seen each other in a while and haven’t been able to land in the same place, same time, or at least online. We miss you guys. We did tell you we'd be off a little bit during the summer taking care of business.

Mike Putman: Yeah, we’re back. We’re back now live and in action and happy to be with you guys. We’ve got a lot of topics to cover today, James. Your travels, my travel, talk about over-tourism and places, as well as talk about this fantastic giveaway that we’re providing: our cruise giveaway.

The Seven-Day Luxury Alaska Cruise Giveaway

James Ferrara: That’s right. Mike, we've teased it out for a while that it is a seven-day luxury cruise to an incredible landscape, a great destination, and some of the most beautiful scenery you will see.

It is with the cruise line that almost owns this particular destination. It’s for two, in a balcony cabin, so you can step outside and enjoy this great view and the wildlife. Did we tell everyone last time where exactly we were going?

Mike Putman: I think we did. This is a cruise to Alaska. Using the correct cruise vernacular, it’s a balcony stateroom, not a cabin. A cabin is what you associate with being in the woods where you have to go outside to pee in a little house. That's a cabin.

The other thing we used to say is "outside stateroom." Then one day someone said to me, "Well, it makes it sound like you're hanging on the outside of the ship."

There is no better way to experience Alaska, certainly for the first time, than a cruise. There's no more scenic way to see Alaska other than having your own private balcony, and that's what you're going to get with this fantastic prize should you win.

You’re going to travel up the Inside Passage and places like Ketchikan and Juneau and Glacier Bay, Denali National Park. I mean, just incredible.

James Ferrara: It is. If you’re lucky enough, you might see one of the ice glaciers calving, which sounds like not a big deal, but when you’re up close to it and you understand the gravity and the size of these structures, it is astounding.

You’re out in the middle of this calm sea and then all of a sudden you hear this thunderous roar. A part of a glacier which might be the size of the Eiffel Tower falls into the sea and it’s maybe a quarter of a mile from you. It is a life-changing event. It was for me at least.

Mike Putman: And of course the season is essentially the summertime from April or May through September. You’re not going to Alaska in the cold weather, obviously.

Although it's cool and comfortable, it doesn't get very hot, but it's very beautiful. They call Alaska the "Great Land" for a reason. The scenery is incredible. It’s really a life-changing trip, a lifetime memory.

James Ferrara: And we have not until this point told you which cruise line it is. So we’re ready to do that, Mike?

Mike Putman: Let’s do it.

James Ferrara: All right. If you’re a lucky winner, you will be cruising with Princess Cruises, the premium cruise line that is really known for its Alaska itinerary.

You want to be in good hands when you go to Alaska, and these are great hands to be in. We have many ways you can enter this. You go to our website, notouristsallowed.com, you click on the cruise promotion, and you can enter your name multiple times by doing several things listed there, like entering for our newsletter.

Get your name in as many times as you can, which of course increases your chances of winning. We’re going to do a drawing a little bit later in the summer.

Mike Putman: Towards the end of the summer, one lucky winner will be able to invite a guest of their choice to go on this fantastic cruise. So get your entries in, folks. Take advantage of No Tourists Allowed and our generosity to our listeners.

Hopefully you pick up on some travel tips and some dos and don’t and some of the experience that James and I have been able to uncover over our vast years of traveling and being in the travel business.

Conferences and Sightseeing in Panama

James Ferrara: There's a lot in the news right now about travel, Mike. But before we get to that, let’s start with your rovings the last month or so.

Mike Putman: I’ve been to three conferences since the last podcast. One was in Dallas, which was a subscription event, not necessarily tied to travel per se, but the type of travel that we deal in has a subscription component.

I was there for that for a few days, came home for three nights, and then left for Panama. Not Panama, Florida, but Panama, Panama. It was my first time going to Panama, James. I imagine you’ve been there before.

James Ferrara: Oh, I’ve been through the canal.

Mike Putman: Oh okay. It was a great experience. Lovely, warm people. I stayed in Panama City, and it’s surprising how many high-rises are in Panama City, to be honest.

It has a metropolitan feel, at least in the architecture and the buildings. I was hosted by one of our suppliers, Hotelbeds, for a three-day conference, which was really nice.

I learned a lot, got to present to the audience, and it was a very good event. I had some nice Argentinian steak, even though it was in Panama. I was close enough to Argentina and had a couple of really nice steaks and just enjoyed the experience.

The last day I was there I had a free day. The other days I was in meetings or at social events, and the last day I had some free time, so I did take a city tour and went out to the Panama Canal.

If you ever get a chance to go, it's definitely worth going. The Panama Canal connects the Pacific to the Atlantic. It’s a big trade route that cuts off approximately three weeks of travel time for ships going from Asia to Europe or to the East Coast.

Having to go around the horn creates quite a bit more travel time. The canal was built, and there are actually two canals there now. There is a traditional canal and one for the larger vessels and the newer cruise ships, primarily for these heavy, big cargo containers.

It was just a fascinating experience to see the technology back from the early 1900s, the work that was required to do this, and the loss of life that was required to make this happen.

At the end they have an IMAX movie narrated by Morgan Freeman. It’s a 40-minute thing and it is just done so tastefully with beautiful scenery. It was a great experience.

After that, I went to Old Town Panama City and had a wonderful tour there. I saw some very old cathedrals and some other bits of history.

I got to see where Noriega lived, which is now a Sofitel, by the way, out on the water. I got to do a little bit of shopping for the family and had a wonderful lunch at a beautiful French restaurant right across from the Sofitel. I just had a wonderful time.

James Ferrara: That’s excellent. Morgan Freeman narrates everything. In my head, Morgan Freeman narrates parts of my life. He’s everywhere. So would you say that your experience of Panama was very metropolitan? Did you feel the tropical side of it at all?

Mike Putman: I felt the tropical heat and humidity, for sure. But I got to see the Pacific side, and I didn't get out to the resort regions.

I do understand, as we had a presentation from the tourism board while I was at the conference, that a lot of that scenery is beautiful through video and presentation. Panama is very popular with Americans.

There’s certainly a very interesting history between the United States and Panama and the building of the canal and everything that came after that. There are a lot of expatriate Americans and British living there as well.

James Ferrara: It's an interesting destination that we don’t talk about very much. Then after Panama, you were over in Europe, right?

A Layover Adventure in Istanbul

Mike Putman: From Panama I had a couple of days in between conferences, so I took a Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. I’d never been to Turkey or Istanbul, so I went over there for about 36 hours.

It was a twelve-hour flight from Panama to Istanbul, but it was a very comfortable flight. I can’t say enough about the service on Turkish Airlines. It’s the first time I’ve flown Turkish, and it was a great experience.

I arrived into Turkey and was fairly refreshed after being on a twelve-hour flight. I hired a prearranged guide and driver and did a private tour of Istanbul.

I’m certainly glad I went. It’s part of the cradle of civilization and there’s so much history there. My guide kept rattling off dates every second sentence, and after about four or five hours, I went date-numb.

There’s a lot to see in Istanbul. Beautiful mosques that were cathedrals before. I went to a religious museum that supposedly had the staff of Moses.

When my tour guide was there with me, that’s the way he introduced it. He said, "All right, Moses was here six thousand years ago, so here’s this piece of wood that they say is the staff of Moses." Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t.

They had a John the Baptist arm that was covered in gold and a piece of the skull. In that same museum there were pieces of hair of Muhammad and some case that held his sweater and other things like that. It was very interesting and cross-cultural.

James Ferrara: It's an incredibly important place. Istanbul is the gateway to Asia and was the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

There used to be two Caesars, one in Istanbul and one in Rome. It is where the Roman Empire adopted Christianity, so it is a very important place religiously. There are famous mosques, some of which used to be famous Christian sites. It is just a very fascinating place with great food and lovely people.

Mike Putman: The food was great. The Hagia Sophia is the big mosque that used to be a Christian cathedral. This place is massive—bigger than any cathedral I think I’ve been in.

They had parts that still had an image of the Virgin Mary, maybe eighty feet tall, into the stonework. They had somewhat tastefully covered it up because it was now a mosque.

They had some other things like angels that were uncovered. For some reason they chose to cover up the Virgin Mary, I guess because you could see it from everywhere. It’s a fascinating place and I look forward to going back and spending some more time.

James Ferrara: You did that because it was an air strategy of yours, right? To fly Turkish Airlines and then lay over there.

Mike Putman: It started out as a strategy because I painstakingly spend an enormous amount of time looking for the best price. It’s almost a game to me.

I found an airfare for twenty-three hundred dollars business class from Panama to Barcelona and then Barcelona to New York. After I booked it, I thought, "I’m changing planes in Istanbul. I’ve always wanted to go there. Why don’t I spend the extra two days there rather than Barcelona?"

I went back and changed the ticket and they allow for a free stopover. I didn’t know until I got on the flight that if you do an in-transit stopover like that, they’ll actually pay for your hotel room.

Even if you’re in coach, they’ll pay for a hotel room and give you a free transfer into Istanbul. In business class, they give you a five-star hotel. Twenty-three hundred dollars round trip in business class, to go all the way to Istanbul and then Barcelona, was a tremendous deal.

James Ferrara: It’s a great deal. People don’t realize how big Turkish Airlines is. It has the largest international flight service of any airline, even though it’s not the largest airline in the world. It has the largest international service, believe it or not.

Mike Putman: Very good pricing. And I have to say the service in business class was as good as I’ve had.

They actually have a chef, or a guy dressed up as a chef, on the plane. He takes your order and he brings your food to you on carts that have appetizers. They serve you a piece of this and a piece of that. They also had a lot of high-quality Turkish wine.

Networking and Culture in Barcelona

James Ferrara: So then you got to Barcelona.

Mike Putman: I had four or five days in Barcelona. There was Phocuswright Europe, which is the top C-level event for people who are involved in travel and e-commerce.

I was able to get a lot of information, meet a lot of people, and do some great networking. I also went to a really nice restaurant there and had a thirteen-course meal. There were very small portions, but it was really well done.

In Panama and in Barcelona I spent the majority of my time in conference rooms, so there wasn't a lot of looking around.

James Ferrara: That is a shame in Barcelona where there is so much to see. But you’ve been there before, I'm sure. When I go to Barcelona, there's a beach area where you can go out to these seafood restaurants.

The architecture of Antoni Gaudi is incredible, including the Sagrada Familia. Barcelona is just a great walking city, shopping city, and eating city.

It is the home of tapas. You can do these tapas tours where a guide will take you to each tapas bar. Each one is famous for one dip, like mussels or an egg omelet on a toast. It is a really fun way to see the city.

Mike Putman: Well, they’ll get you with sangria because it goes down so easy and tastes good.

Fine Dining and Hotel Tips in Las Vegas

James Ferrara: I was in Las Vegas, which has a fake version of all these places that Mike went to. The one thing about Vegas now is that the food is much better than it used to be years ago.

I had dinner at Giada’s. Giada De Laurentiis, the television chef, has a restaurant there that’s quite good. She’s definitely my crush.

Then we went to Peter Luger’s one night, which is funny because it’s a famous old restaurant from Brooklyn and I’m from New York. I went to Peter Luger’s in Las Vegas, which is a very Las Vegas thing to do.

Mike Putman: How does it compare?

James Ferrara: It is very good, but not as good as the New York one because the New York one is old and dirty and the waiters are crabby, and it just makes it taste better.

But we did get an enormous tomahawk-type steak which was at least forty ounces. I shared it with our mutual friend Tara, but I had to fight her for my share.

We were staying at Caesars Palace, but I did go down to Resorts World for dinner in Viva by Ray Garcia. It’s in the Conrad Hotel.

The casino in the Conrad is white and airy and bright, which is not typically how casinos are. It’s very modern and spacious. It has a bunch of restaurants including this Viva by Ray Garcia, which is a high-end Mexican restaurant.

A little tip for everyone: when you arrive at these Las Vegas hotels, they’re enormous and check-in is not fun. I did my damnedest to try to get into the VIP check-in lounge, but it’s really reserved for their rated gambling players.

The week that we were there was not a big Las Vegas week. It might have had something to do with the fact that it was 110 degrees every day. It was an easy check-in.

When I got up to the counter, I found that all of these hotels now offer you upgrades at the counter. If I had done the upgrade by reserving a more expensive room or done the upgrade online ahead of time, it would have cost me a lot more.

At the registration desk, they’re wheeling and dealing with you. An interesting tip for when you go to Vegas is to book a standard room, get a good rate, and then negotiate with them at the front counter. They’ll whip out photos of rooms and information that they don’t have on the website.

Don't take their first offer. If they say it’s another two hundred dollars a night, you say that’s more than you were willing to spend. I wound up with a two-thousand-square-foot suite.

I did it because we had all these business meetings and it’s hard to find a private place to sit and talk with people. I got this big suite with a huge dining room table that seats ten people and we were able to hold all of our meetings in the suite.

Mike Putman: I just don’t understand why in Vegas there's always check-in lines. It seems like an easy problem to solve.

James Ferrara: It took them a little while to go digital. Now you can pre-check in at kiosks, but it’s still not widely used. It takes them time to deliver the key and make sure your room is ready.

On a big move-out day, they’ve got thousands of people moving out and thousands moving in.

Mike Putman: With chains like Hilton and Marriott, you don’t even have to go to the front desk. They deliver a mobile key if you have a credit card on file. It seems like a very easy problem to solve.

James Ferrara: They haven’t done the mobile key thing for the most part yet in Vegas. Now, we usually talk to you guys about traveling authentically and looking for more off-the-beaten-path experiences.

I can’t really do that with Vegas. Basically all of Vegas is phony, but it’s in-your-face phony. They don’t hide it. It’s part of the experience. It doesn’t really fit into our No Tourists Allowed ethos.

Addressing the Challenges of Overtourism

Mike, you were in Barcelona, and I’ve gotta ask you. I’m seeing a lot on the news. Did you encounter any demonstrators? Did anyone shoot a water gun at you?

Mike Putman: It was so hot, I wish they would have shot a water gun at me. But no, I didn’t see any of this.

I saw reports of these demonstrations after I got back home, but I didn't see any of them while I was there. I just saw people happy and walking around.

It’s very popular for the press to latch onto because it’s more counterintuitive. A large part of Spain’s GDP is generated from tourism. It’s probably their number one industry. Then you have this counterculture that says, "tourists go home." I think the press exaggerates the sentiment of the Barcelonians.

James Ferrara: Absolutely, it’s good headlines. But it’s not just happening in Barcelona. Last year we had it in Greece. It’s happened in Venice and it was also happening this week in Paris.

Overtourism is a real thing. Many of these places have encouraged tourism to their own economic benefit, and now they feel like they’ve overdone it. They shouldn’t take it out on the tourists because they invited the tourists there.

It’s pressure on the planet. People want to preserve their quality of life. They want to preserve the architecture and parks in Barcelona and elsewhere. Having throngs of tourists improperly managed in these places can harm them.

Mike Putman: There’s another element to this too, James. This idea of buying or renting a flat with the intent of leasing it out to short-term renters is a fairly recent phenomenon.

I think this is the primary beef of the protesting—that the cost of real estate to rent an apartment has gone up because investors are coming in, buying these flats, and doing short-term rentals.

James Ferrara: It’s taking inventory out of the local housing stock. People don’t want to rent to year-round renters because they think they can piece out their rental on the short term and make more money.

Local people find themselves without places to live or with the cost of living much too high. It is called the Airbnb effect. It’s environmental concerns and wear and tear on destinations.

We have for several years now tried to offer the antidote to that, which is simply to be more mindful about your choices when you travel. We don’t all have to go to the same thirty destinations. Spain is an incredible country with hundreds of wonderful destinations.

You don’t have to go to Barcelona. There are many other places in Spain to go to where you’ll have the same incredible experience, but people don’t try hard enough or the travel advisor isn't getting creative enough to get you to someplace where there won't be crowds.

Mike Putman: One example, James, is Malaga. I’d much prefer to go to Malaga than I would to Barcelona. Significantly fewer people go to Malaga.

James Ferrara: People were complaining this week in Paris, too. They shut down the Louvre as a protest. Have you ever gone to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa and you're standing in a crowd, packed shoulder to shoulder? That’s not a great experience.

Instead, visit some beautiful chateau in the Loire Valley or go to another destination in France and have a real experience which is not just standing in the middle of an oppressive crowd of tourists.

It’s about making the right choices to have a better experience for yourself and to be kinder to the planet. I don’t think squirting water guns at tourists is the answer. Without those tourists, your taxes would be outrageous or you wouldn't have public works.

It seems childish and petulant to squirt water guns at people. Instead, we should be having this conversation. The governments of these places, who were complicit in all of this for years, ought to be having meaningful conversations with travel professionals for how to spread ourselves around the planet.

Mike Putman: The country of Spain and the region of Catalonia has a huge budget to promote. If they don’t want more people coming, they can certainly trim that back or change the number of flights or cruise ships that can stop there.

I can see their point, but I think I would raise my voice in another forum that makes more sense. It's off-putting for tourists to be shouted at or shot with water guns. Hopefully they'll get through that. Maybe they'll listen to No Tourists Allowed and hear our point of view.

James Ferrara: I’ve had calls and messages from people who have asked me, "should I fear going to Europe?" Absolutely not. Should I feel guilty about going to these places? Absolutely not.

But I do suggest you go back and look at some of our earlier podcasts at notouristsallowed.com and look for our ideas for how you can travel in a way that doesn’t contribute to this overtourism issue.

Podcast Conclusion and Entry Details

Mike Putman: Yes, absolutely. I think that wraps up this podcast. Thank you guys for listening in. Please share the podcast with your friends and family and make sure you go to notouristsallowed.com and register for that wonderful giveaway and come back and listen to more podcasts.

James Ferrara: Absolutely. Thank you, everyone.