Ask Lemmy

I did the hot air balloon tour over Teotihuacan and it was pretty amazing. I didn’t even have it on the list, but I found a blog post (with a 2022 post date) about Museums in Roma Norte and the hot air balloon post was the next one.

Amazing! How is hunting in major urban centres? What do you hunt? Any cultural issues?

+1 if it is a food tour. That's my go-to for a new country.

(I'm talking about international travel mainly, although my process also works for longer domestic trips.)

My longer answer is "it depends on what sort of traveller you are and how long you've got." Want to catch the main sights quickly? A hop on hop off bus loop can get you past the big ones with commentary in an hour or two and help you orient yourself in a new city, which can be a good way to fill a layover. For a longer visit, I like to start with a food tour, as you tend to pick up all sorts of local knowledge. For example, visiting Hanoi a few years ago we did a food tour on the first night there and our guide got us comfortable crossing the road on foot.

When we do a walking tour we look for the slightly oddball or themed ones because we're not that much into mass market tourism and prefer to get more of a local experience that way. I find sites like Viator, GetYourGuide or WithLocals good places to start.

For longer stays in a single place I'll research the main attractions and build an itinerary around those I want to visit. I'm old enough that I prefer buying some old fashioned guide books and starting there with highlighters and post-it notes before heading online to dive deeper. Mainly I value someone collating and editing the content and I find the blogs, forums and travel sites a little too hyper focused or promotional when I'm broad brushing at first. Sometimes I find gems that I add to the list.

I plot what I want to see on a map, then work out how and when based on transport links and proximity where appropriate. When we did a lap of France it started with a big old paper map pinned on the wall, when we did Singapore and Malaysia I used a list in Google maps.

Once I have the rough outline done I dive into the details online and build myself a detailed run sheet, with the hard points, like flights and hotels and booked tours, useful stuff, like currency and time conversions, reminders for things like e visa applications due, and pick lists of possibilities for filling up in between. About once a week or so I include a do nothing day.

I am not a sit on the beach doing nothing traveller, so that process works for me. I find if I don't have at the very least a list of things to pick from then we tend to procrastinate and end up doing absolutely nothing, which to me always feels like a waste after paying for the airfare and accommodation. YMMV

Last time I went to the Canary Islands, Gran Canaria specifically, I had no reservations for anything except a rental car. As soon as I exited towards the main airport area, I asked one of the people with a brightly colored jacket, obviously a worker, where did personnel usually go for coffee or their breaks. I was directed to a small bar at the very end of the airport. There I got a beer and chatted up a middle aged lady bartender. I asked her where the locals usually went to the beach on holidays and stuff. She pointed me to a town which was at not far from the airport. I drove there, and asked at another bar about accommodations for rent. She gave me a number of a guy that had a small rental business. Being mid season, there plenty of available apartments. I got a second row, no view to the beach, apartment for 60€ a day, 2 bedroom. I had breakfast at another place, right on the shore (Coffee and toast, 3,60€, I kid you not!), chatted up another server, and she gave me a few pointers. I didn't set foot on any of the main tourist attractions, except the Roque Nublo, astounding, and well worth it.

I've done similar things in the past. Not hard and usually great results.

Why do you think that? It's as easy as striking up a short conversation with a waiter at a restaurant or someone at a coffee shop.

If someone chooses one tent pole thing to check out and otherwise just putzes around it doesn't seem all that strange.

Not at all....

One of the best nights out in my life was in Havana. My now wife and I booked a fancy holiday shortly after my dad died. Anyway we're in this ridiculously fancy hotel in the centre of the city in our mid twenties and it's not our vibe at all, so we get chatting with the barman and explain this to him and ask him where's good. He understands perfectly what we're after.

He directs us to a tiny jazz club in a basement in a slightly dingier part of town but within walking distance, tells us not to order individual drinks, to get a bottle of rum and make sure it arrives unopened then just buy mixers.

Place was fucking amazing. Only one other foreigner there, a nice french lady who was dating a local. By 10pm you could barely move. When the band ended the DJ started. Lots of the locals were keen to practice their English so we had a blast chatting all night.

Edit: I see your other comment about Chesapeake bay and that makes more sense but in a city insider knowledge is far more valuable and more likely to get you a gem that you otherwise wouldn't have.

You've never talked to your waitress/hotel worker/bartender/Airbnb host? Or gone to a bar and talked to people there? The best restaurant recommendation I got on my last trip was from a guy who owned an antique shop my girl and I were at.