Be a Traveler and Not a Tourist

The tourist is someone more concerned with making all the right moves, visiting all the popular destinations and having the photos to prove it. The traveler, on the other hand, is someone who wants to experience another culture and to avoid the popular spots as much as possible. Being a traveler and not a tourist is a great way to truly experience the world.

Steps

Forgetting the Plans and the "Must-Sees"

  1. Act spontaneously. Plans are for tourists, change of plans are for travelers. While the basics like flight times and hotel bookings can be planned in advance for some parts of the journey, don't box yourself in. Make sure you have wriggle room to cancel those bookings and go where fancy takes you.
  2. Avoid stereotyping your travel experiences. Don't try to squeeze in all the highlights in a short space of time. Does it really matter if you don't see all the sights and miss the tourist gift gimmicks? Even a small country has much more to offer than the tourist stalls and gimmicky local tours.
  3. Think about the destinations often forgotten, the ones outside the main tourist track. Suppose, for example, you want to visit the more than 1000 big or small museums in the rest of the Netherlands outside the capital Amsterdam. Indeed, you'd see a great deal more and soak in much more of the real culture than simply seeing the great museums in the main city.

Hunting Down What the Locals Care About

  1. Talk with the locals as much as possible. Instead of listening a tour guide, interact with locals and have a chat in a park, in a pub or even on a bus. Especially the elders are fantastic sources for helping you to better understand the culture of the city/country you visited. If you are lucky, you can make a good friendship in a very short time.
  2. If it's free, it's probably good and something the locals would be doing. Cycling and walking around, visiting forests, watching people on the streets, and resting in parks. These cost nothing but are great ways to immerse yourself in everyday life, to get a real taste of the culture.
  3. Get on a bus, a train, a local bicycle hire. Do not be afraid to use public transport. You will meet people, see amazing sights, go to places that you might not otherwise and you'll save money.
  4. Try to learn the language basics. One hour is usually enough to learn how to say "Hello", "Thanks", etc. Greeting and asking someone "Do you speak English?" in his or her own language, before switching to English, will make the person appreciate you more than trying to speak directly in English.

Visiting the Less Traveled Pathways

  1. Visit other parts of the country that are not really detailed in the guidebooks. Discover something worthwhile somewhere else for a change.
  2. Stop the 5 star hotel trawl. You don't need expensive hotels with air-con, fridge and room service all the time. You can be happy with the personal touch from 'bed and breakfast' places and small hotels in the countryside. Staying in people's homes is another great option.
  3. Be prepared to feel the historical, social and cultural life instead of emphasizing you've been somewhere by showing the pictures of all the famous places to your friends. Your friends can see all that online; go and find the unique, the truly unusual, and connect with real people. In the end, you're going on holiday for yourself, not to impress other people.

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