#but you can feel one vity likes tourists a lot less than the other

[steelthroat]

My friends and I were walking through Barcelona with the intention of reaching Park Guel (never again, beautiful place but getting there is HELL)

I was dressed as usual no? And this dude in his forties or fifties looks at me and says:

"Oh... you look like... Rockstar🤘"

And I died there and then lol but then I started talking w him in spanish a bit since he asked where we were from and once i told him he started speaking italian and listing all the cool places in my city.

So idk shoutout to that dude because before he told me I looked like a Rockstar I felt like shit (the walk was tiring) and I thought I looked... as I felt. So yeah cool dude

[10travelideas]

How to discover new places, including “off-the-beaten-path” spots, and making the most of your trip

Travelling off-the-beaten-path can be good for many reasons; “unspoiled” nature or charm, peace and quiet, photo opportunities without people getting in the way, more chances to talk to locals instead of staying within foreigner circles, cheaper entrance fees or restaurants, less touristy souvenirs and junk shops…

But I’ll start off by saying that **this is not an “attack” on the-beaten-path travel**. There’s a reason why there’s a beaten path, maybe because those monuments or sites have a lot of history and were important before international tourism was a thing, sometimes a place is simply very cool and everyone wants to go there, sometimes because it’s easy to access from the capital or along the way between sites, and it can be very good to visit the known places because it has signs in your language if the language barrier is something that makes you nervous, you don’t have to worry about getting lost, it’s your first time abroad or in that country and you aren’t ready to go off-the-beaten-path yet… And many of us just want to see Machu Picchu and the Eiffel Tower regardless of crowds or how “typical” it is.

**There is no one right way of travelling**. My reason for making this post is simply because many times it can feel like we’ll be spending our time surrounded by crowds, or we’re questioning whether that cultural theme park is really our best option to get to know a country’s culture, or the sites just seem really expensive and there *has* to be a cheaper option, and sometimes it can be hard to know where to look to find these alternatives.

Here are some ideas on how to find some new spots:

## **Discovering new places**

**1. Use Google Maps**

I use Google Maps for everything. When I say “use google maps”, I mean this in many different ways:

– **Create a world map** and continuously add places to it, regardless of whether you’re planning a trip there. For example, I see a photo of the [CSAV building](https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2293/2468512137_e4ce68b66b_b.jpg) in Chile and I think “I’d like to see that!”. But by the time I actually go to Chile, possibly many years from now, I’ll have forgotten the CSAV even exists. This is why, when I hear or see something I like, I put it on the map and it makes sure I remember them when the time comes to visit that area. [This is my current world map](https://i.imgur.com/keFi0ah.png).

– If you’ve already started planning a trip, **know where the places you’ll be visiting are**. “I was thinking of sleeping in Tokyo and doing day trips to Kyoto and Nara from there”, as a Japan travel consultant I hear things like this all the time, it’s because people haven’t really looked at a map. This can be helpful not only for understanding the geography and locations of the sites you’ll be going to, grouping sites together by areas so it’ll be easier and quicker to move around between them, but also to find other places along the way. Say you’re going from Beijing to Shanghai, they’re far away, there’s probably something interesting to do along the way! What other stops does the bullet train do? Do any names stand out on the map? Is there a strange colour or water formation that looks interesting? Sometimes you can simply ask someone who knows the country well: “hey, are there any worthwhile stops between Shanghai and Beijing?”

– **Look at the icons on Google Maps**. I was adding the Notre Dame in Paris to my map and I realised there are so many things to do in the area, just by [looking at the icons](https://i.imgur.com/yaHWnMT.png). I hadn’t heard of Le Palais du Luxembourg, Place Dauphine, Institut du monde Arabe, Musée Carnavalet… These may not be off-the-beaten-path, but it’s still a quick and easy way to discover things.

  **2. Let images guide you**

– The first thing I always do when starting to plan a trip to a new destination is open google images and type in “(Country) tourism”. So if I’m planning a trip to Slovenia, [this](https://www.google.es/search?dcr=0&biw=1280&bih=589&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=slovenia+tourism&oq=slovenia+tourism&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0l3j0i24k1l7.2540.3388.0.3635.7.7.0.0.0.0.83.545.7.7.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.7.541…0i67k1j0i30k1.0.Zqf4WIxmJVU) is what’ll come out. Lake Bled, Piran, Skocjan Caves, Ljubljana, Styria’s wine fields, Postojna cave and Kamnik are places that I hear about first of all. Now that I know something about the country, I can add these to my map if the photos look interesting (I don’t research anything about them yet, I’ll do that later, this is purely judging from an image search) and I’ll have enough for the next steps.

– Look up the places individually. Often when you google a place, other suggestions will come up. For example, [here I am searching for the Viti Crater](https://i.imgur.com/bWRzxun.jpg) and, as you can see, at the top there are other recommendations: Hrossaborg Horse City, Hverarönd Namafjall […], Myvatn Nature Baths… These are sometimes things that others have searched for when looking up the Viti Crater, sometimes they can be nearby spots, sometimes it’s places that aren’t even in the same country but are similar… Open them all! [The tabs](https://i.imgur.com/nT69KnU.jpg) can be used similarly.

– Related to above is another google images feature, [“related images”](https://i.imgur.com/JiVLpgI.jpg) when you click on an image. Make sure to look at the different images featured and often the title or description will have the name of the other place. It’s a good way to find similar places often at the other side of the country or simply cheaper / lesser known. After about an hour of doing these two things, [this](https://i.imgur.com/hK43mio.png) is what my map of Iceland looked like, pink the places I thought were really cool, they’ll be my must-sees, and brown the regular-cool places to visit if I have spare time.

– **Search for abstract places**. “Vietnam waterfall”, “Algeria caves”, “Germany modern statues”… whatever! You know what you like, so search for that thing specifically. I always search for ruins and caves and history museums. Many of these sites may not appear in guide books but they are often worth a visit because you’ve searched for that thing knowing it was something you’d enjoy.

– Not just sites, but **restaurants and/or hotels too**! Just search “Tanzania restaurants” and you can find some [really](http://worldinsidepictures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/912.jpg) amazing [places](https://d1ljaggyrdca1l.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/breakfast-on-the-rim-of-the-ngorongoro-crater-at-andbeyond-lodge-on-a-luxury-safari-in-tanzania.jpg). For foodies especially, sometimes making a visit to a town or city especially so you can eat at that specific place can make the trip much more worthwhile than if you’re simply going with what you find next to the museum.

– **Use the local language**! If you’re going to France you can search for “cave”, but searching for “grotte” may give you some different options.

– **Get lost in Pinterest**. Once you’ve found a cool image on pinterest about the country you’re going to, just let yourself wander around looking at the other images and places you’ll find there. I especially like Pinterest because they are images posted by people who have no clue about the place (and I say this with all the respect in the world, it’s an advantage!). Even though Pinterest is full of this image, nobody who goes to Japan would actually go to the [Spiral Chapel](https://www.designboom.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/hiroshi-nakamura-NAP-ribbon-chapel-spiral-hiroshima-japan-designboom-01.jpg), simply because it’s in the middle of *nowhere* and many people (who don’t use pinterest) don’t know it exists. Because people of Pinterest haven’t been to the places they post, they are not suggestions “tainted” by how easy or difficult it is to visit them, how close or far away they are, how expensive it is, etc. They are purely suggestions based on how good they look. If that’s what you’re looking for, not biased opinions but simply *places*, then this is one of the best options to look.

  **3. Just ask people!**

This may seem very obvious, but I think sometimes many of us forget to do this, simply ask people who know the place well or live there what their favourite places are. I live in Barcelona and every autumn I make a trip to [Montseny](https://www.google.es/search?dcr=0&biw=1280&bih=589&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=montseny+tardor&oq=montseny+tardor&gs_l=psy-ab.3..0j0i8i30k1l3.185233.186069.0.186217.7.7.0.0.0.0.120.578.6j1.7.0….0…1.1.64.psy-ab..0.7.574…0i30k1.0.okqU7Ekdh6o), I also really like [la Fageda d’en Jordà](https://www.google.es/search?dcr=0&biw=1280&bih=589&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=la+fageda+d%27en+jord%C3%A0&oq=la+fageda+d%27en+jord%C3%A0&gs_l=psy-ab.3…0.0.0.10490.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0….0…1..64.psy-ab..0.0.0….0.CQIpA_LD9XA). I don’t know if foreign visitors go there often, but I really think they should if they like nature. People who know the country will know about places that tourists don’t.

  ## **Making the most of your trip**

**1. Determining your must-sees**

What I like: traditional architecture and history (especially prehistory), volcanoes, caves and rocks, temples (bonus points if secluded), ruins and castles, listening to people speak other languages (actual interaction not required).

Some will think that once you visit one castle then you’ve kind of seen them all; some will visit some ruins and stay there for under an hour because “there wasn’t much to see”; some will prefer to simply read the pamphlet at the entrance instead of building family trees and timelines before their trip; some will get frustrated about the lack of communication and signs they don’t understand or not having anyone to talk to when they travel alone to a foreign country where nobody speaks your language.

I don’t like bars and pubs because I don’t drink, amusement parks are terrible because they’re expensive and I’m scared of heights. I don’t want to waste my time at beaches abroad considering I’m from Spain and spend almost half the year at the beach anyway.

That’s okay! Other people’s tastes will be different, that’s the whole point, *people’s tastes are different*. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to say “nah, I’ll pass and do something cooler for me”. **You have limited time on your trip** and you should spend that time doing something you really enjoy. Don’t add places that people say are “must-sees” to your list simply because they’re *supposed* to be really good, go to that place that you thought was interesting, even if others will shrug at it.

I think this is the most important thing about travelling: **do what you love above anything else**. I made this mistake many times on my first solo trip, and sometimes I still think “well, it’s really famous, so I should go there”, but I can confidently say that my favourite places are the ones that I went out of my way to see simply because *I* was excited about them. This doesn’t mean going off the beaten track is best, sometimes what you’ll want to do is visit a very common place, and that’s a good option too, just make sure you’re visiting that place because *you* want to, and not because other people say it’s really good. **There are no universal must-sees, only personal ones**, you can’t do everything so choose what you love.

Somewhat related to this is another point: **people have different budgets when travelling**. I’m a backpacker. I’m not going to pay 29,000 yen for a JR Pass to ride the bullet train up and down in Japan, that’s about the amount of money I spend for 11-12 nights in a hostel. I’ll use the night bus and arrive to Kyoto at 5am with a crick in my neck but *for me* it will be worth it, what a bargain! Others wouldn’t dream of travelling like this.

It all boils down to **people having different priorities**. Think about what your priorities are.

  **2. Avoiding crowds**

People-watching can be entertaining, but sometimes we just really want a place to ourselves. There are many ways to go about this, even for the most famous sites.

– The easiest way is simply to **wake up early**. If it’s a museum, residence, castle or any other place with an opening time, you’ll want to be there as soon as it opens. If it doesn’t have an opening time because it’s outside, it’s a building, observation decks and scenic views, etc., go even earlier. Many people don’t like waking up early when they’re on holiday and tour buses tend to arrive around 10-11am. Sometimes this will work and sometimes it won’t, but I’ve found that it is generally the most successful way.

– **Go when nobody else wants to go**. Is it raining? Fantastic! Few tourists go outside in the rain, make the most of it and go to all the outdoor sites then.

– **Backstreets exist too, go for a walk!** I often walk to a site if it’s around or under 30min instead of taking the bus, sometimes that’s more interesting than the actual site itself.

– **The closer to the capital, the more popular it will be**. I say capital, but really any popular destination city works. For example, everyone goes to the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, but there are similar alternatives for hot spring bathing around the country. If that’s an option for you, perhaps simply go out a bit further.

  **3. Travel isn’t only about which places you want to see, but also about experiences**

Do you have a bucket list? Perhaps you should. Many people don’t like them, but I personally do, this is just a suggestion. A bucket list isn’t supposed to be a checklist, it’s a reminder. It doesn’t even have to be in the form of a list, it can be a folder on your computer full of images or ideas, it can be a folder of newspaper cutouts, a blog where you repost interesting things you want to do, etc. I mean things such as “use a pottery wheel; learn how to snowboard; meet a nun”.

Something I’ve always wanted to do is throw a message in a bottle into the sea. I took the ferry from Italy back home and I realised later on that it would’ve been a perfect opportunity to try it out, but I didn’t remember at the time! Doing these things in a different country can be more exciting than doing them at home, because it’s a moment in which you have the time to try new things.

When you travel, think of things you want to try and do, not just see.

  **4. Travel ethically**

I won’t get into this too much because everyone draws the line in different places when it comes to morality, this isn’t supposed to be a controversial post. But I want to at least mention it because I think it’s quite important.

Nothing is going to ruin your trip more than coming to Spain to see bullfighting and ending up upset because you didn’t know exactly what bullfighting in Spain is like, or riding an elephant in Thailand and later learning about what happens behind-the-scenes.

Are you buying your souvenirs from someone who is harming the local community or economy by importing products or underpaying their workers? Are you visiting an aquarium that gets its dolphins from the same people who kill and eat dolphins? Are you going to Shifen in Taiwan to release paper lanterns without having in mind the serious environmental problems that these lanterns suppose?

It’s impossible to know about everything, many times you have to look this up yourself because nobody is going to tell you, but especially when it comes to animals; try to know before you go.

  Well then, this is where I end my monologue. I hope this has helped any of you who may have been having trouble planning a trip, or at the very least start an interesting discussion in the comments. If you feel I missed anything important, feel free to add below!

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