If something is 'offbeat', it's strange, quirky, eccentric, so travel to offbeat destinations means visiting weird places and seeing unusual things that the average tourist might not think (or want) to see. Right? Travel writer Kim Wildman wrote 'Offbeat South Africa: the travel guide to the whacky and wonderful' which the blurb describes as "a guide and tribute to the strange and surreal people, places and things that make this country great... an off-the-radar directory of idiosyncratic attractions for all those who have dreamt of... following the road less travelled..." which serves as a helpful definition here. I'm sure the book brilliantly directs travellers to the quirkiest and kitschiest attractions. Now these reflections aren't motivated by Kim's book (more on where I'm going with this in the next post), but what I'm wondering is... how 'offbeat' is anything in an age when travellers are so 'switched on', when they're not only researching trips through guidebooks, but also using websites, discussion forums, travel blogs and Twitter, as The Guardian's Benji Lanyado did in Paris last week. If everyone is so in touch, so up on the latest and strangest, so aware of the (once) hidden local gems, those secret and unusual places simply aren't secret or unusual anymore. The (no longer) off-the-beaten-track destinations, from the smoke-filled bo-ho cafes only those 'in the know' supposedly knew to that odd little secondhand clothes shop on a deserted backlane in some out of the way suburb that nobody ever visited but the people who live there, are no longer less-travelled or 'alternative'. They become mainstream, and therefore no longer 'offbeat'. Don't you think?Pictured? One of the many Ettamogah Pubs (this one in Western Australia), inspired by cartoonist Ken Maynard's Ettamogah Pub that appeared in Australia's long-running (now-defunct) Australasian Post magazine. Is it kitsch? Is it offbeat? Or is it one of those examples of crass Australiana that we're no longer sure whether we should cringe over or embrace with pride? Or is it just a dumb tourist attraction? A fascinating case study I'll save for another time.