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The locals don't know

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Re: The locals don't know

#131

Post by Steve44 »

zarzavat wrote: post #7

The corollary of this is that if you are a local you should do some more touristy things. I don't mean to go to a tourist trap and get scammed, but just enjoy your city a little more and do some things that usually only tourists do. For example, despite living most of my life in London, I've never been to the Tower of London. Why would I? It's for tourists. Except it's probably quite fascinating, especially for a loc…

I've lived in London, various places within the M25, for about 40 years now and still walk around looking up and enjoying exploring both new and old places. We do the Hidden City treasure hunts which is a great way of finding new spots.

Tower of London is good, there is so much history in there and a number of exhibitions well worth seeing.

I've done most of the "tourist traps"[1] and really enjoyed them. The London Eye gives you great views, especially at sunset; The Shard (cocktail bar, not done the viewing platform) is a bit expensive and style over substance but still worth doing once; Buckingham Palace is a world class historical living building; The South Bank has a lot going on and also gives great views of London; The Royal Albert Hall is a stunning concert venue; most of the big museums are free.

The one place I've not done as it really doesn't appeal to me is Madame Tussauds.

[1] Compared to other cites apart from the pedal rickshaws and the find-the-lady on Westminster bridge I don't think London is inundated with rip-off tourist traps like many other cities appear to be.

Re: The locals don't know

#132

Post by notahacker »

ashley95 wrote: post #36

The title is a non sequitur from the argument. The point is not to ask for a "bring a non-local to work day" where you tag along to a rando doing their normal routine. The thing that locals do know a lot of the time, is the spots that are actually great but not hyped up by influencers/social media, the cool spots that are often good by virtue of not being well known, etc. And no one is arguing that the locals know al…

The point is that the locals tend to think that spots which are actually generic and uninteresting are great because the mediocre imported cuisine they serve is different from the local food or their friend works there, and that spots full of influencers which are actually great aren't that interesting because they'd personally never consider taking a bus to the centre to queue up with tourists to enjoy a rooftop with a view when they can have coffee with their friends in their own suburb at a chain they've got a loyalty card for. Sometimes seeing what banal stuff people think is amazing and what beautiful stuff they take for granted is educational in its own right, but it's not necessarily a better way to plan a holiday than a guidebook.

Re: The locals don't know

#133

Post by seer »

This article kind of misses the point - of course everyone’s average day is … average. But locals don’t spend all of their days like this, sometimes (once a week/month/year) they would do something fun, or they want to.

You asking them for advice or for them to show you around might push them to do something fun themselves, which they haven’t done in a while. But they have a lot more local context about what _might_ be good to explore or not.

They also know people - they themselves might have average days, but everyone knows that fun person that is the social glue that does all the fun stuff they can direct you - 7 degrees of separation and all that.

And lastly sure - treat the locals ideas with a grain of salt - I never do _exactly_ what the locals tell me, but it is another data point to make your own plans.

When I travel I like to make huge holes in my plans - uncharted time for me to fill in when I’m at location - from local sources or just doing the research then and there. It has always been more natural and interesting to do the sight seeing planing at location, so you can adjust and correct anyway. I guess have adopted the startup mentality of start small and iterate even for my travel experiences :)

Re: The locals don't know

#134

Post by cucumber3732842 »

stackghost wrote: post #93
ashley95 wrote: post #36

The title is a non sequitur from the argument. The point is not to ask for a "bring a non-local to work day" where you tag along to a rando doing their normal routine. The thing that locals do know a lot of the time, is the spots that are actually great but not hyped up by influencers/social media, the cool spots that are often good by virtue of not being well known, etc. And no one is arguing that the locals know al…

The reason people use "When in Rome..." or "do as the locals do" is because that's how you get an accurate taste of what life in is like. If you don't want to experience a glimpse of life in Paris, then sure go eat at a tourist trap. The quote below from TFA is an inadvertent own goal, I think: >But today I imagine you visiting my hometown and spending a day with the locals. You’d probably end up watching reality TV,…

>The reason people use "When in Rome..." or "do as the locals do" is because that's how you get an accurate taste of what life in is like.

>There's a reason tourists flock to New York City and not to Schenectady.

Ah, yes. The masses of tourists flocking to NYC so they can experience the grind of working your ass off, every entity you interact with trying to get one over on you hoping that you'll have a) banked enough to day cash out to Hazleton Pennsylvania b) spend so many years in one apartment you're paying far below market rate.

Re: The locals don't know

#135

Post by left-struck »

dalocals wrote: post #90
left-struck wrote: post #87

I work in tourism in Japan and so many tourists ask me what are some good places to eat. It’s such an annoying question because the honest answer is I eat what the locals eat, which is to say the most authentic Japanese cuisine is what you find in a Japanese supermarket. That’s what the people of Japan are actually eating. Of course that’s not really what the question is though, but my point is I’m not a good person…

Your answer is the answer I want. Why do you presume it's not valuable to say, "There's a good grocery store over there. I like X brand"? Maybe I want to know a decent place I can get a cheap hot meal too, but I'm not interested in fancy meals or nice restaurants. I want the workaday egg salad from the tiny deli in New York that costs 4.99 and comes with a pickle. I want the simple pho that's the only thing on the me…

I see what you mean, the thing about food in Japan though is that the minimum quality is pretty high. So I can’t really recommend a specific grocery store, all of the major ones have decent quality ready to eat food that just needs to be microwaved. (They usually have a microwave in the front of the store). Convince stores as well. I’m originally from Australia and so that’s my point of comparison, a convenience store karage bento here in Japan is similar in quality to a Japanese restaurant chain in Australia, but the price is like 1/3rd.

As for actual restaurants, I think the mistake tourists make is trying to find the best ramen or whatever, but the best isn’t going to be that much better than the average joint catering to locals. So in other words, spend less time thinking about where to go and just explore and pick a random place that you like the vibe of, that’s what I do and I’ve never been disappointed here.

I don’t really have time to say all that to every tourists that asks though lol.

Also I’m literally writing this from a random ramen place I walked into, and it was delicious!

Re: The locals don't know

#136

Post by thesimon »

anitil wrote: post #106

I live in Sydney, does anyone have any recommendations on things I should do? Things I'd like to try - * Visiting the tank stream (I believe there are tours) * The Greater Sydney Bike Trail * Walking from Manly to Bondi (80km along the harbour) Things I've done but recommend if you visit - * Walking the bridge (free) * Catching a ferry to Manly or Taronga * Climbing the bridge (expensive!) * Centrepoint tower (since…

I'll be visiting next month so can't comment yet if it is any good, but kayaking Sydney Harbour sounds like a lot of fun.

Lots of tour operators doing it, deals on BookMe and Groupon.

Re: The locals don't know

#137

Post by left-struck »

myrrhman wrote: post #92
left-struck wrote: post #87

I work in tourism in Japan and so many tourists ask me what are some good places to eat. It’s such an annoying question because the honest answer is I eat what the locals eat, which is to say the most authentic Japanese cuisine is what you find in a Japanese supermarket. That’s what the people of Japan are actually eating. Of course that’s not really what the question is though, but my point is I’m not a good person…

As a fellow resident of Japan, I find this sorta question very funny. People naturally romanticize food of foreign cultures, but I can't help but giggle at the crazy hype given to Japanese food in particular. Especially considering how 'bland' the food is (at least, how bland it is to the American sensibility). These days, I direct touristing friends towards foreigner-friendly restaurants that promise some sort of fo…

My own experience has been that the average quality, and especially the like floor of the quality of food here in Japan is pretty high compared to Australia. What you get compared to what you pay for is especially high in Japan’s favour. But perhaps you’re right that the hype is not deserved, if you’re coming here expecting a heavenly experience then you’re probably going to be disappointed purely because of unrealistic expectations. I would say tourists from wealthy western countries should expect decent food for a great price. Touristic places might have higher prices though.

Re: The locals don't know

#138

Post by underlines »

I am Swiss and like most 30-40yo from my generation, Hiking in the splendid nature, lakes and mountains, visiting touristy places and the overall scenery was something uncool, for old people. We were forced to do that in school. Nobody in their right mind would do it. :)

I then moved abroad to Bangkok, working an office job. Although BKK is great for consumerism and convenience, especially with cheap labor available for almost anything, you can get quite lazy. The bad traffic, non-pedestrian friendly (non existent) city planning and little nature left also makes it a bit cumbersome to find nature nearby. This made me appreciate nature, hiking and nice scenery. (Of course Thailand has lots of beautiful nature and scenery, but not so much of an active outdoor scene)

Coming back to Switzerland after 6 years, I became the biggest tourist, going hiking every weekend, spending time at our tourist destinations, but also all the second tier ("unseen") places only locals know. I tried so much stuff that in the past I thought is tourist stuff, and most of it is simply great.

I also became much more understanding, open and helpful to expats, foreigners and tourists in my country.

Re: The locals don't know

#139

Post by vintermann »

geekster777 wrote: post #99

I live in a tourist town (population 45k, with 2M visitors this past season). It's truly lovely. Our museums kick ass, the food and cocktails punch above their weight, and there are countless activities in the off season. Sure, I can get a cheaper burger or pay less rent just a few miles down the road, but instead I stay and benefit from tourists pushing the quality upwards. I often see folks focusing on the low-effo…

That could well be my town. Much of what you say is true. The main street, which was hard hit from a shopping center taking all business away from the city centre, has two nice (non chain) coffee places. There's also a (non chain) Italian place which is excellent. But there's also, I think about 5 pure tourist tat shops. One with a very prominent AI generated moose. Those are what make money. They extract the value that the actually good places create, and in return they drive up rent for the good places.

One of the reasons the shopping center did so well in the first place, was that they could charge lower rents for shops which bring more value to the center than they capture themselves (such as cafes) and higher rents to shops which make money but whose social contribution is low or negative (like betting shops or tourist tat shops).

Re: The locals don't know

#140

Post by Tade0 »

underlines wrote: post #138

I am Swiss and like most 30-40yo from my generation, Hiking in the splendid nature, lakes and mountains, visiting touristy places and the overall scenery was something uncool, for old people. We were forced to do that in school. Nobody in their right mind would do it. :) I then moved abroad to Bangkok, working an office job. Although BKK is great for consumerism and convenience, especially with cheap labor available…

> Hiking in the splendid nature, lakes and mountains, visiting touristy places and the overall scenery was something uncool, for old people.

That is an amazing revelation to me.

In my country I can't visit some of the hiking trails I crossed as a child because they've become overcrowded since.

When I went to Switzerland for a contract the first thing I did when I had a free weekend was to go to the peak of the tallest mountain I could find.

I thought it was more of a thing in Switzerland.

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