Gullible's Travels: The Adventures of a Bad Taste Tourist

by Cash Peters

One of the funniest travel books ever written. British radio journalist makes his final journey around America, visitng the tackiest and kitchiest tours and theme parks, desperate to leave this part of his life behind before he becomes jaded.

Places visited include the Museum of Feet, the Precious Moments theme park, the Barbed Wire Museum, and the National Funeral Museum.

A witty, addictive behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to be a travel journalist.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction, Humor, Adventure, Audiobook

276 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Cash Peters is an author and broadcaster based in Los Angeles, California.

-from cashpeters.com

Reviews

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good change from the normal travel writer books. The author specifically targeted the lesser known (and lesser wanted) tourist attractions. Though at times I would have liked more fact, less fiction I still found enough to keep me interested.

Whilst I wouldn't want that for a job I would love to travel around to all the places he went and more. I can't wait to get out there and start having my own bad-taste adventures.

[Kristyh · Rating 2 out of 5]

If Mr Peter's is trying to achieve the balance between sardonic humour and compelling story telling achieved by Bill Bryson, I believe that he has erred far too heavily on the side of sardonicism.

[Tanya Spackman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had some laughs, but the unrelenting snark, some of it quite cruel, was too much. Would be better in doses smaller than a book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly amusing for the most part. The travails of a travel writer, encompassing blown schedules, horrid B&B's, budget plane and hotel accommodations, hot weather, cold weather, mosquitoes, etc etc etc.
Although really, he brings on a lot of his problems upon himself. He fails to look up average temperatures or other weather info about his destinations, for one thing.
And given that a large portion of the book deals with his visit to Elvis land -- Graceland, Memphis, and environs -- he could at least have done a bit of reading or other research to find out what Elvis was all about.
BUT NOOOO!!!! Not our boy!! Just plunge in headlong to all of his target cities and bumble his way along.
Ultimately, because he doesn't try to make us care about the people and odd attractions he visits, and so in the end I really did not care about Cash Peters or his many self-inflicted travails.
It's a pity because he seems to have grown as a person and as a writer/etc. in the years since this book came out.

[Julia B. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is yet another addition to my collection of pretty enjoyable travel books. The chapters are threaded together loosely by Cash Peters' personal life, philosophies, and ambitions, but mostly they describe small and weird tourist traps across America. A road trip around the U.S. with stops at every kitschy attraction is on my bucket list, so I found this very charming and interesting. Though the heavily cynical and sarcastic tone of the narrator (I listened to the audiobook, which definitely added to the experience, considering Peters' past in radio) can become wearing, in small doses it's really funny.

[Josie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Parts of the book was funny. The author is annoying and cringy. Take Bill Bryson. Turn the humor down to 3, turn the complaining up to 10, and completely turn off the likeability. Now you have Cash Peters.

I gave this book 2 stars because I also like traveling to odd places. I planned a trip once where I took a bunch of my friends to Mr. Toilet's house in Seoul for Christmas. So I related to the book on that level. But the author is not that likeable and he seems to enjoy that he is not likeable.

[Plum-crazy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book- it was hilarious! From the Museum of Dirt to the Museum of Bad Art, I sniggered & giggled my way through it all. I loved Cash Peter's style of writing & his sense of humour...the footnotes in particular were a great source of amusement to me. I would love to quote my favourite bits but there's just too many to choose from :o)

[Sarah Jackson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook and enjoyed hearing about the unique places he visited. Based on the blurb, I thought this book would be focused on more wordly travel, but was mostly based on US sites. The book had some funny British type humor, though it was over the top in some places. I did not care for the cursing and some of the stories dragged on a bit.

[Miss Syreena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your average “tales from a travel writer” type of book. Loved the funny, sarcastic, annoyed tone that he carries throughout the stories. It’s the kind of tone you would expect from someone just fed up with their job. Recommended for someone in a snarky mood.

[Sheila Ross · Rating 1 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook and not only are Peter’s’ stories pretty mundane and not at all amusing, his voice is probably the most irritating I have heard on an audiobook. If he wasn’t trying to put a funny inflection into his voice all the time I might have enjoyed this audiobook a little more!

[A.M. Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever wanted a look into the weird museums and tours that exist in the world, and into the mind of someone who writes about them, this is a fun read. The author has a sharp sense of humor and can turn a funny phrase.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. A good premise - the idea of being a travel writer solely focused on reviewing odd-ball and hokey tourist sites is really funny. And there were some funny bits and I am often a fan of snark, but I found myself just wanting to get through the book and that's never a good sign.

[Marsha Russell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dreadful. Just don’t.

[Nathan Woll · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF. Thrift store grab that seemed like it might be funny. It was not.

[Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Both his writing style, his jaded observances, and our course the fact that the places mentioned are real.

[Danielle V · Rating 2 out of 5]

Snarky humor about American tourist traps that aren't worth your time. I was entertained for a while but it got old quickly and I couldn't finish it.

[melydia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though I'd never heard of Peters, I thoroughly enjoyed this trip through his last months as a radio travel journalist. He's a cranky Englishman who visits tacky tourist sites, such as the Barbed Wire Museum in Kansas and the General Mills cereal fantasyland within the Mall of America. At the very beginning Peters assures us he is not very interested in pesky facts, so there were several occasions when I wondered how much was embellishment and how much actually happened. But in the end, that doesn't matter much. The descriptions are brash and witty, and Peters's frequent asides very amusing, and occasionally even thought-provoking. I was not very convinced by the overarching "plot" of Peters's decision to leave radio - sure, a change is good after so many years, but I never quite grasped what was so horrible about radio, and what would be so much better about television. However, his concern about the future isn't as large a part of the book as one would expect. Really, this is a book about a guy visiting places most of us would skip even if we lived nearby. I would not recommend this book to those with a lot of regional pride (he makes several comments on the meanness of Bostonians and the obesity of Minnesotans, for instance), but otherwise this is a fun bit of snark about some of the stranger parts of America.

[Elaine Meszaros · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peters’ travelogue is by far the oddest I have ever read. Peters is best known for doing short segments on wacky roadside attractions for public radio shows like The Savvy Traveler. Within a few pages, Peters makes clear how much he loathes this lifestyle. Fourteen years of being sent to crazy places on a shoestring budget has made Cash a bitter boy. Days in rented cars with Chamber of Commerce guides named Lisa and nights in seedy motels with wretched restaurants took their toll. Instead of the peppy travelogue I had expected, Peters covers the last 6 months of his career in out-there travel reporting, documenting the hilarious, painful and speedy descent of his travel reporter career.

While he does cover some places that sound fun to visit, namely the Museum of Bad Art (reviewed last month) other trips fast dispel the notion that being a travel writer is great fun. Nasty B&B owners, horrible contraptions he feels forced to coo over at a tradeshow, scuffles with people in mascot costumes, being forced to do the Sound of Music tour 5 times (a tour viewing the backs of buildings where bits of the Sound of Music was filmed while trapped in a bus full of people singing Edelweiss) culminating in his last, horrid review of Graceland, where he was marched from the premises. Sarcastic, accurate funny and weird, a good read for anyone considering a career in the travel industry.

[Carye Bye · Rating 2 out of 5]

oh boy....

I love weird, roadside, museums, collectors.. all of that... Cash spends half of his book bashing and making fun of these people and complaining that his job never gives him first class airplanes.

I don't know Cash other than this book.. maybe if I understood his humor I'd find it funny, but I don't.

I've spent enough time being interviewed and filmed by "TV personalities" who were yawning and bored to know this type.. they are on assignment.. and while somewhere, sometime ago they may have loved what you are doing ( I have a Bathtub Art Museum )... They just want to be home to their wives, partners, kids... TV,, I don't know but they aren't present or happy to be there.

So F-U Cash and the rest of the kind -- have some respect for the collectors, keepers of the weird, and the people who make a little fun -- even if times a ripoff -- in the world. You don't even probably have to pay any entrance fees so call yourself lucky!

I give it an extra star only for information about attractions and roadside stops and in the middle of the book Cash seemed to be enjoying himself more and wasn't just ripping on everybody at full speed. And his Buddhist--life list to live by is pretty good.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, full of interesting stories about interesting places - after reading it, I immediately had to find out everything I could about the Museum of Bad Art, which is awesome. Thank you for that, Cash Peters.
I am not generally a fan of biographies, or memoirs, or etc., but I read this on a recommendation and it turned out that I did enjoy this book more than I thought I would, mostly because of the author's personal honesty about feeling like he was caught up in doing a job that he never saw himself doing, and being something that he never wanted to be... I think this is something that a lot of people can relate to, everyone has dreams they want to follow, but it is easy to get caught up in life and look back down the road and wonder what happened. But the big lesson of this book can be summed up in one of my favorite quotes...
"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." -Douglas Adams.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am really liking this book...I think I prefer it to his other one, "Naked in Dangerous Places", possibly because it's less complain-y. Though who am I kidding, his complaining doesn't really bother me. I find Cash Peters charming and endearing and I'm not one of those people that thinks a travel book needs to be all about rainbows and adventures. I like a good fish-out-of-water tale as much as the next person, especially when the writer can laugh about it.

This book appeals to me more, I think, because of my own recent Road Trip Across America which took me to many of the places Cash mocks visits in "Gullible's Travels". I'm really fond of his style, and though he writes about people who've been offended after reading about their midwestern hometown, this book strikes me more as a love letter to those places (albeit with maybe his fingers crossed behind his back. But only a little bit!)

[Nicholas Aune · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a strange but awesome book. Peters was a travel correspondent for NPR, whose primary job was to give a 90 second travelogue of a goofy museum, tourist trap, lousy art collection, or local oddball. This little sound bite usually followed and was followed by the actual news so Peters was given a lot of leeway to visit whatever silly cheap place he wanted and write whatever review he needed to. The story chronicles the misadventures of Peters as he visits the Museum of Bad Art, clashes with locals, and travels the world on the smallest of public radio budgets and little to no additional assistance from his bosses. I will definitely read this again.

[Abbey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Within the first few chapters, the author lost me entirely by making several factual errors about something I know something about. Once a writer does this, I lose interest in the book, as, if there are that many mistakes that I recognize, how many errors are in the sections about things I know very little about. Yes, I realize that this book is "supposed" to be humorous - still the mistakes were not made for the purpose of exaggerated humor, but just because the author didn't bother to actually research his stuff. Mildly amusing at times, but not funny enough to make me ignore the lack of accuracy.

[Cinco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I recieved this book as a gift, and it looked to be right up my alley--stories about strange places, written by someone with a taste for the absurd. Sadly for me, I found the author to be a spoiled brat who mainly complained about everything he encountered. Worse still, his prose is stilted and unfunny. There were a few chapters I enjoyed--the combination miniature golf course/funeral home was entertaining--but overall I don't recommend this book or its author.

[Lyndsey Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was quite funny and I actually laughed out loud several times throughout it. The author reminds me of the series Idiot Abroad because he seems totally unimpressed with nearly every person he encounters and every experience he lives through. The humour is very dry and if you don't like British humour this probably isn't for you. He also borders on what would probably be considered slightly offensive to some people but which made me like it even more.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted so badly to enjoy this audiobook - tacky tourist spots and the quintessential roadtrip are things I love. The narrator's voice was insistent and whiny so just couldn't listen with pleasure. It didn't help that I could only listen sporadically, and the audiobook must have been defective as the chapters played randomly. Will try reading...

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

The museum of dirt, the museum of rocks, Graceland...need I say more? If you can stand the monotony of these tours, you will be delighted by Peters' wit and charm in this volume of truly bad taste tours.

[Jack · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a lot of cruel snark in this, but for some reason I found Peters mean-spirited and petulant attitude rather funny. His writing has that English dryness that's always appealed, and the places that he visits are fun and varied.

I call it a guilty pleasure, the reality TV of travelogues.

[Bone · Rating 5 out of 5]

So funny and too true.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humourous, fast paced travelogue. As much as I like roadside attractions and random pit stops, there were sure a few places I'd rather avoid in this book though. Very fun.