Tom Haines: Reflections From an Interactive Journey Through New England

Last week, we promised to check in with Boston Globe writer Tom Haines after he finished up his experiment with interactive travel writing. Upon his return home, I asked him a few questions via e-mail:

How did you like the interactive travel experience?

I enjoyed it—more of a conversation with readers than a monologue. This is perhaps obvious, but even something as simple as people suggesting where to go changed my perception of what I was doing. I was there at their suggestion, as though I were invited in, shepherded in, rather than making my own way. Beyond that, little else changed, in that once on the road, or in a place, I still made my focus that which I try to bring to all my travel writing: finding incidents and moments that speak to bigger situations, that give a new perspective on a place. Trying to show things in a way people may not otherwise see them.

Of course, too, there were additional story-telling techniques. The technology we used was pretty basic but even the addition of audio greatly changed the textures of the story-telling. For example, the entry on the new 9/11 painting in New Britain, CT took on a lot more weight with the audio clips of visitor reactions, I think.

I could also have more fun at times.

Finally, I felt like I could communicate more directly, as with this final recap on the road home.

You were traveling in a region you presumably knew well. What did you think of the places people directed you to?

This was interesting—despite our call from the very beginning for something “new,” the vast majority of places recommended were New England greatest hits. Coastal Maine. Shipping museums. Fried clams, clams, clams. This is understandable, in that many people were basically passing along a cherished spot, or pastime. But even with poking and prodding, only 10 percent or so of hundreds and hundreds of suggestions actually pointed to something specifically “new.”

Fortunately, all I needed on any given day was one, and off I went. I always tried to choose a suggestion that would offer deeper layers. So the wind tunnel became about sprawl and modern distractions. The museum became about 9/11 and its impact. The Newport lark became about the presence of so much money. White River became about natural resources and Belgian Beer, well, that was just good old fun.

Not that I tried to do anything conclusive or scientific in such a short time frame, but my deal with the readers was, “you point the way, I’ll show you something you may not otherwise see.” I tried to deliver on that literally and thematically.

Traveling at the whim of a collective audience seems like it could be exhausting. What’s it like to travel so fast?

Tiring. It wasn’t so much the geographic change, or flying in a wind tunnel one day, then looking at a realist painting the next. The biggest hurdle was just covering ground while being able to stop and find wi-fi, in a Panera, or public library, or wherever, several times a day. While on the road, I was carrying drafts of a two-part project from China, to run in September, and it is good to be back at the laptop today, writing more measured sentences and breathing a bit more deeply, while pondering Confucius and the course of modern China. A world away from lobster rolls…

Thanks, Tom.

Related on World Hum
* Haines, Gross and the Possibilities of “Interactive Travel”
* Joel Henry: Dean of “Experimental Travel”

©2026 World Hum, All Rights Reserved