Considering the ethnographic method and its application in the study of tourism, this article takes up the essentials of this small scale, grass roots study of the cultures of human groups during field work. Aiming to penetrate the social life of some group of the people, the ethnographer may use a variety of procedures, of which participant observation and the use of informants of various kinds are basic. Secondly, in order to better demonstrate how ethnographies can clarify the subject of tourism and to indicate the pluses and minuses of its use in this line of research, three ethnographically based studies of different aspects of tourism are summarized and criticized in terms of criteria derived from current understandings about the method. Finally, some of the implications of this brief review for the study of tourism are considered.