Lenta.ru decided to take a closer look at the activities of the tireless online critic of the travel industry and find out who this Brad is.
Reynolds goes on long vacations at least four times a year, plus short weekend getaways. Together with his wife, he has visited 80 countries, 394 cities, and left a review for each.
He is originally from Oklahoma, but has lived in Macau and London, and now settled in Hong Kong. Brad writes reviews under the nickname BradJill. He diligently marks the places he has visited on his travel map. It is evident that the tourist has traveled a third of the planet, covering about 965,000 kilometers. Brad wrote his first review in 2010; it was a review of a visit to Russia, specifically St. Petersburg.
The American, who works as a director at an English language learning center, writes two detailed reviews every day, spending from 20 minutes to an hour on each. Gradually, reviewing became a passionate hobby for him. But he believes he is primarily engaged in an altruistic endeavor, as his reviews help other travelers.
"On the one hand, I have selfish motives: I want to capture my memories of trips. On the other hand, I try to help people decide whether they want to visit a particular place," the tourist told The Daily Mail.
After recently taking a two-week vacation in Italy, Reynolds wrote more than 150 reviews about cities, squares, museums, churches, and cafes in that country.
Reynolds talks not only about exotic places that the average traveler can only dream of. He is not too lazy to write about a visit to his local Hong Kong Starbucks or a snack at Dubai McDonald's (extremely unsuccessful – "very poor quality even for McDonald's"). He is more meticulous and thorough than picky: his reviews are very detailed and comprehensive, but there are not many negative ones among them. However, he severely criticized some travel destinations, giving them one or two points (on the five-point scale used on TripAdvisor).
For example, Brad gave a "fail" to the Bayon Expresso cafe in Thames, New Zealand, where he was served, in his words, the worst milkshake in the world ("disgusting, watery, and strange"). Reynolds was also merciless to the Hong Kong fast-food restaurant The Butchers Club, describing the burger he ate there as "devoid of any juiciness and flavor, with terrible ingredients."
The critic also did not like the Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park ("How long will places like this exist?") and the New York Stock Exchange building ("Look at the facade, side entrance, and move on").
Among the attractions, the expert rated highest the Tower Bridge in London, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Liberty Bridge in Budapest.
Among Russian sites, Brad singled out the Hermitage, the Mariinsky Theatre, and the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in the northern capital. He also liked the St. Petersburg pub James Cook. The tourist called Nevsky Prospekt the "backbone of St. Petersburg," but gave it a modest three points ("It's just a road, not an attraction"). Reynolds considered the local Nevskiy Hotel Grand "acceptable by Russian standards," but gave it only a three for monotonous breakfasts and poor Wi-Fi. In Moscow, Brad gave Red Square four points and the Kremlin a three, without arguing his decision.
Reynolds advises everyone who leaves reviews about tourist destinations not to put too much personal stuff in posts in order to be more objective, and to remember that the main thing, as trite as it sounds, is informativeness. "I try to write without emotions. Sometimes something doesn't meet expectations, but I don't criticize these places unless they were really bad. If I liked something, I also refrain from raving."