People have said to me, “You sure do travel a lot!” And my response is, “I know, I wish I could do it more!”
One of my favorite things about traveling around with a travel trailer is that it’s like your own little condo on wheels. You can hitch up, travel to a new town, and have your own little home away from home while exploring a new place. It’s my favorite way to travel!
We recently returned from a long weekend trip to Louisville, Ky. We wanted to go see the Clemson Tigers take on the University of Louisville Cardinals, and used the road trip as a way to check Kentucky off of our camper map of states we’ve visited so far. (Nine down, 41 to go!).
We had such an awesome time checking out different parts of ‘The Ville,’ – but some of our most favorite experiences during our trip were the times when we didn’t know where we were going and stumbled upon (almost literally) some really unique places. These weren’t places always found in the Guide Books or trip planners – but made our trip all the more memorable. The reason? We found places off the beaten path, places only the “locals” know about.
How do you travel like a local when you’re from out of town? Read on for some tips we’ve learned that have made our travel much more rich.
Talk to people
Some people don’t like talking to strangers. We don’t mind it. We’ve found more often than not people are more than happy to share their favorite places of their town, and point you to some really cool new directions. Great people to ask for restaurant, shopping or attraction recommendations are: bartenders and restaurant servers (they talk to people all day long so they’re used to it!), hotel concierges or campground managers (they know the area!), and even the local Visitor’s Bureau.
I always follow up someone’s personal recommendation with a quick Yelp or Google review search just to compare notes, or peruse a menu and make sure it’s what we’re in the mood for. But when you’re in a new town, sometimes getting a local’s advice on a place is a great way to find something new.
Be flexible
Unless you have tickets to a game or a performance that requires you to be somewhere at a certain time, there is such a freedom in being able to just wander a town you’ve never been to before. Build in some time into your travel itinerary to just walk the streets of a neighborhood where you’re visiting – pop in the shops, grab a cup of coffee from a local bakery, walk through a park. When you’ve got the flexibility to wander, you can find the most amazing places you might miss when you’re crammed into a tight schedule.
Be willing to stumble
Ok, I don’t mean literally stumble and fall (although I’ve done that, too!). But in this case I mean, be willing to stumble into a new place you’ve never heard of before and try it out.
Case in point: we were in Louisville, and we’d narrowed down a restaurant through a rigorous search on Yelp. We arrived to find a line outside the door (a sign of good things inside!). But when we went in, we found we weren’t really digging what was being offered.
We went back outside and took a gamble walking down the block to peer into what appeared to be a very dark, very small restaurant. We checked the name online and looked at the reviews and menu – turns out, the Come Back Inn was an amazing locally-owned Italian restaurant! We never in a million years would’ve found it in our original search – we just had to stumble upon it.
Despite the look from the outside, the inside was warm and inviting, the people were friendly, the food was incredible. One group asked us, “How did you even find this place?! Only locals know about this place!” It’s because we literally stumbled upon it.
“When in Rome, do as the locals do”
Every town has a unique vibe to it, something that makes it different from the one next door. When I travel to a new city, I try to experience as much of that city’s originality as I can. In Boston, I ate all the “Boston thing”: Boston cream pie, New England clam chowder, lobster rolls and Boston baked beans. We walked along the Freedom Trail. We took a personalized tour to better understand the history of Bean Town.
I’ve found you have a better experience of a new place when you truly immerse yourself as much as you can in that city’s culture. Shop local. Eat local. There’s always parts I like, parts I might not enjoy as much, but I’m always glad I tried it all.
How do you like to travel in a new city? Do you prefer to wing it as you go? Map out a full itinerary ahead of time? Let us know in the comments below!