Why Is Everything So Pleasant Around Here?

If you’ve spent any time on Dolly Parton’s internet and wondered why travel blogs are so positive, or at least why this one is, fair question. You’ve landed on a Canadian travel and lifestyle blog called Life in Pleasantville, and not surprisingly, everything you read here is, well, pleasant. Nobody’s getting dragged. No resort is being dismantled in a ten-point takedown. No restaurant is being publicly humiliated for slow service on a Saturday night.

So what’s the deal?

I only write about things I actually enjoyed

This is the simplest version of the truth. If I had a bad experience somewhere, you won’t read about it here. Not because I’m protecting anyone, and not because I’m oblivious, but because I have no interest in spending my time writing something up, optimising it for search, and working my ass off to get it in front of you, only to tell you something was mediocre.

One article can take over eight hours by the time I’ve written it, optimised it, hunted down the right images, edited those, and then actually promoted it so someone finds it. You want me to do all of that for something I didn’t even enjoy? Decidedly not pleasant. Hard pass.

There are writers out there who do the full breakdown beautifully. The good, the bad, and the ugly, reported with fairness and rigour. That’s a legitimate approach and I have a lot of respect for it. It’s just not mine. I would never want to be responsible for damaging something somebody has poured their heart and soul into as a business, based on one experience, on one day, under one set of circumstances. Unless something was genuinely beyond the pale, I’d rather leave a Google review and move on.

Where to go when you want a kaleidoscope of opinions

TripAdvisor. Google reviews. They exist for exactly this reason and you should absolutely use them, especially when you’re checking on things like cleanliness, room size, or whether the resort pool is actually the size it looks in photos.

Just read them knowing what you’re working with. Some people have an axe to grind. Some people were going to be disappointed no matter what. And some people, bless them, will give a national park one star because there was no pickleball court, or because there were, and I wish I was making this up, too many trees. Outside Online has a whole collection of these and it is deeply illuminating about the human condition.

The pattern matters more than any single review. If ten people mention the same problem, that’s real information. If one person is furious that a wilderness area didn’t have cell service, that’s a them problem.

Part of it is just how I’m wired

My outlook defines how I see the world, and mine leans positive. I have genuinely always been someone who looks for the good in almost every experience, even the aggravating ones. A flight delay is two hours with a book I’ve been meaning to read or an excuse to properly explore an airport for the first time. That’s not a performance. That’s just how my brain works.

Distance doesn’t define joy for me either. A travel experience can be just as transformative five miles from my front door as five thousand miles away. I’ve been genuinely moved by things I almost didn’t bother to do because they seemed too close or too ordinary.

And I’m just as happy in a tent as I am in a five star hotel, as long as it delivers what I came for. Travel isn’t about what you spend. It’s about what you feel.

What you will actually find here

What I can tell you about an experience is what it felt like. What made me laugh. What surprised me. What I’d do differently. What I was sorry I missed. And rich details on whether the thing you’re considering is worth the drive, the price, the packing for you.

What I can’t tell you is whether it will feel the same way to you, because that depends entirely on what kind of traveller you are and what you actually want from a trip. Read my pieces with your own travel personality in mind.

I’m also fully aware of what’s going on in the world. I just don’t process it here. If you want my bigger thoughts on things that matter, that’s what What She Said is for. And if you want to stop reading about experiences and actually go have one, preferably with a great group of women, that’s what Girl Trips is for.

Why Is Everything So Positive on This Travel Blog?

It’s Life in Pleasantville. I genuinely don’t know what else to tell you.