E-MAILS and holiday blogs from overseas internet cafés are ruining the mystique of travel, according to some of Britain's leading travel writers.

By spending so much time in front of computers, travellers are failing to interact with locals, say writers contacted by Times Travel. People are so often in touch with home that they never really feel abroad, they claim, adding that it is better to send the occasional postcard and have good stories to tell when returning home.

“I can't think of anything more boring than sitting in front of a screen on holiday,” said Nicholas Crane, author of Great British Journeys and presenter of the BBC series Coast.

Hunter Davies, Rory Maclean, Dea Birkett and Lyn Hughes joined Crane in condemning overuse of the internet. Sites such as www.travelpod.com and www.globaltravelblog.com may provide the opportunity to write holiday blogs, but they are also spoiling travel's “sense of adventure”, they say.

Crane believes that most blogs are written “off the cuff without much thought”, a view shared by Rory Maclean, who said “you need time to reflect on your experiences to write properly about travel”.

Maclean added: “Blogs enhance the socialness of travel and help you to meet new friends, but it limits you because you're not communicating with people in the places you visit.”

Dea Birkett said that she now searched out places that did not have the internet: “The internet has changed our geography of the world: Irish islands without it are ‘remote', spots in Antarctica with it are not.”

Hunter Davies, who never uses the internet, commented: “I think people like to hear real stories and see pictures in the flesh when you return from trips.”

Websites struck back by saying that they helped people to meet and provided reassurance for families and friends. The internet also makes communication quicker and less costly. “You're not having to write 20 postcards in a row. One blog can do that,” said Hugo Burge, an investor in the travel networking site www.wayn.com (Where Are You Now).

Steve Kaufer, president of www.tripadvisor.com, which has a TravelPod section for sharing holiday tales, added: “Staying connected while travelling is fun. I think of it as sharing the adventure in real time.”

Facebook's commercial director, Blake Chandlee, believes that people are increasingly using mobile phones to take pictures of places they visit and sending these immediately to their websites - rather than spending lots of time in front of screens.

But Lyn Hughes of Wanderlust magazine was not impressed: “I like to remember when ‘poste restante' was the only way of getting in touch. It was so much more exciting then.”

On the line all the time

Sites for setting up holiday blogs include www.blogspot.com, www.globaltravelblog.com, www.travellerspoint.com and www.travelpod.com

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's website, www.fco.gov.uk, has a new section called “Locate” for informing embassies of your whereabouts.

Networking websites have proliferated, with www.facebook.com having 72 million worldwide users including 10 million in the UK.

Hot sites to watch include www.mytripbook.com, www.hereorthere.com and www.socruise.com

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