Skip to content

Top Navigation

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Trip Inspiration
  • Plan Your Trip
  • World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises
  • Travel Tips
  • News
  • Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe
Pin FB

Explore Travel + Leisure

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Explore

    Explore

    • World's Best

      The greatest islands, cities, hotels, cruise lines, airports, and more — as voted by you. Read More Next
    • The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2020

      Whether you're traveling solo or planning a family vacation, here are the 50 best places to visit in 2020. Read More Next
    • Let's Go Together Podcast

      Start listening to T+L's brand new podcast, Let's Go Together! Hosted by Kellee Edwards. Read More Next
  • Trip Inspiration

    Trip Inspiration

    • Trip Ideas
    • Weekend Getaways
    • Spring Travel
    • Summer Travel
    • Fall Travel
    • Winter Travel
    • Solo Travel
    • Romantic Getaways
    • Luxury Travel
    • Beach Vacations
    • Adventure Travel
    • Road Trips
    • Family Travel
    • National Parks
    • Holiday Travel
    • Travel Photography
    • Photo of the Day
    • Culture and Design
  • Plan Your Trip

    Plan Your Trip

    • Travel Guides
    • Flight Deals
    • Travel Deals
    • Ways to Save
    • Hotels + Resorts
    • Attractions
    • Amusement Parks
    • Disney Vacations
    • Festivals + Events
    • Airlines + Airports
    • Buses + Trains
    • Ground Transportation
  • World's Best

    World's Best

    • Top Hotels
    • Top Cities
    • Top Islands
    • Domestic Airlines
    • International Airlines
    • Tours
    • Safaris
    • All World's Best
  • Destination of the Year
  • A-List Travel Advisors
  • Cruises

    Cruises

    • Find A Cruise
    • Caribbean Cruises
    • River Cruises
    • European Cruises
    • All-Inclusive Cruises
    • Family Cruises
    • Alaskan Cruises
    • Disney Cruises
    • See All Cruise Vacations
  • Travel Tips

    Travel Tips

    • Travel Trends
    • Packing Tips
    • Points + Miles
    • Budgeting + Currency
    • Customs + Immigration
    • Responsible Travel
    • Travel Etiquette
    • Travel Warnings
    • Weather
    • Mobile Apps
    • See All Travel Tips
  • News

    News

    • Wellness
    • Celebrity Travel
    • Animals
    • Jobs
    • Offbeat
    • See All News
  • Food + Drink

    Food + Drink

    • Restaurants
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails + Spirits
    • Bars + Clubs
    • Celebrity Chefs
    • Cooking + Entertaining
    • Food Fairs + Festivals
    • World's Best Restaurants
    • See All Food + Drink
  • Travel Accessories

    Travel Accessories

    • Travel Bags
    • Shoes
    • Travel Tech
    • Shopping
    • Style
    • Gift Guides
    • See All Travel Accessories
  • Check-In

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Your Profile

  • Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Travel Tips
  3. The Anti-Tourist Travel Rules

The Anti-Tourist Travel Rules

By Erik Torkells
June 14, 2013
Skip gallery slides
Save Pin
Credit: iStockphoto
When I went to São Paulo, Brazil, last year, I loved it—in good part because I didn’t have to do anything. (Quick: name a tourist attraction in São Paulo.) The trip made me realize that I’m increasingly uninterested in traditional sightseeing. In Rio de Janeiro, I didn’t bother to visit Sugarloaf Mountain or Christ the Redeemer. In Rome, I took one look at the throngs of people outside the Colosseum and went for gelato instead. I didn’t make it to the Louvre until my fourth trip to Paris, and I went then only because my sister was with me (for her first time in the city). Lucky for me, my sister turned out to be a sightskipper, too—we left after 45 minutes.

I’m not saying I’ll never visit another major attraction again, but more and more, I don’t feel compelled the way I used to. Too often, depending on where you are, you end up surrounded by other travelers, and who wants that? I accept that I’m a visitor, but I don’t want to be reminded of it.

Instead, I like to go where the locals are—their neighborhoods, their restaurants, their shops. I may miss some good stuff, but I just want to have a travel experience that’s mine and mine alone, something that’s near impossible if I go to the same places as everyone else. The best way to the heart of a destination is to explore the everyday side of life there. By pretending you live somewhere, you can discover the minutiae that make one place different from every other. Here are 10 new rules for traveling.
Start Slideshow

1 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Stay Local

Credit: Courtesy of Casamidy

Hotels, for all their charms, can’t help serving as buffers. In a rented apartment (or house, or villa), you’re likely to be in a residential neighborhood, surrounded by locals, and you get to explore a place from the inside out. The rhythms of life are totally different than in a hotel—in Venice, for example, you’ll be taking out the garbage every morning, hanging a plastic bag from your building’s doorknob.

1 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Get a Massage or a Haircut

Credit: iStockphoto

After days of walking around Tokyo, my feet were throbbing. I had read somewhere that foot massages were plentiful and cheap, so when I finally saw a sign offering them in Roppongi, I indulged. While the massage itself wasn’t so different from the kind of massage popular in North American Chinatowns, the whole experience—walking up three flights in a random building, waiting in the reception area, trying to comprehend the staff’s instructions—made me feel alert and alive. Isn’t that feeling, as awkward as it can be, among the chief reasons to seek out new destinations? You can get the same sort of immersion (and a guaranteed anecdote for friends back home) by going for a shave at an old-school barbershop in Austria, an ear candling in India, or a scrub in South Korea.

2 of 10

3 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Skip the Souvenirs

Credit: Martin Parr - Magnum Photos

So many objects sold as souvenirs were made somewhere else, and besides, who wants to buy the same thing as every other visitor? Instead, shop at the stores you would frequent if you made the leap and became an expat: supermarkets, pharmacies, hardware stores, art-supply shops…. Many foreign brand names, in particular, are catnip for word lovers. Who wouldn’t make extra room in his suitcase for Kook salt and Stiksy pretzels from São Paulo?

3 of 10

Advertisement

4 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Work Out

Credit: philipus / Alamy

You’re not exactly likely to meet locals at your hotel gym, aside from an attendant. And how other cultures stay in shape—whether at a neighborhood fitness club, swimming pool, or yoga studio—is a window on their world. (I knew I wasn’t in America anymore when I discovered female attendants inside the men’s locker room at a Stockholm health club.)

4 of 10

5 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Rent a Bike

Credit: Martin Parr - Magnum Photos

Besides being good exercise (see No. 4), cycling is an opportunity to experience areas you otherwise might not visit. Take Amsterdam: by renting a bike, you’ll instantly look more like an Amsterdammer and be able to zip right over to districts like the Eastern Docklands—where you’ll see a developing area of the city—and some noteworthy contemporary architecture, too.

5 of 10

6 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Run an Errand

Credit: carlos sanchez pereyra / Alamy

I could have waited till I got home from Paris to have someone fix the zipper on my pants, but where’s the fun in that? The tailor in the Marais district and I could barely communicate, but we laughed a lot while trying. One can only wonder what a bystander would’ve made of our gesturing when he insisted that I button my pants before I zip, even making me demonstrate that I understood. The interaction was all so much more quintessentially French than, say, a dinner cruise on the Seine.

6 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Find Your Crowd

Credit: iStockphoto

If you spend too much time following a guidebook—with its emphasis on museums and history—you’ll give short shrift to topics you might also care about. Love knitting? Collect knives? Follow jazz? Search the Web for a meet-up or get in touch with a related local enthusiasts’ group—if you can’t find one online, ask at a specialty shop—for an in-depth look at how people in another country view a mutual interest through a different lens.

7 of 10

8 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Go to a Neighborhood Church

Credit: Martin Parr - Magnum Photos

Watching people worship is one of the more intimate cultural experiences a traveler can have—which is why you should confirm in advance that you’ll be welcome at a religious service, either by dropping by, calling, or asking at your hotel (if you ignored No. 1). You’ll also do well to ask what’s appropriate in terms of dress and behavior (for example, can you participate in rituals, or should you stay on the sidelines?).

8 of 10

9 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Watch Sports

Credit: Martin Parr - Magnum Photos

Speaking of sidelines (and worship of a different sort).... Imagine what someone from India would make of a major league baseball game: sports, and how we watch them, say more about us than we think. The more culturally attuned to the place the sport is—polo in Argentina, cricket in the Caribbean, sumo in Japan, curling in Canada—the more you’ll probably gain from the price of the ticket.

9 of 10

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 10

Save Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Linger

Credit: iStockphoto

Free time is a major luxury for most of us, but if you can afford an extra day or two, spend it! The best trips I’ve ever taken were ones where I stayed for a week in a place—Uluru, Australia; Ojai, California; Panarea, Italy; Trancoso, Brazil—that many people spend only a few days in. It’s like driving: the slower you go, the more you’ll see.

10 of 10

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By Erik Torkells

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Trending Videos
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 10 Stay Local
2 of 10 Get a Massage or a Haircut
3 of 10 Skip the Souvenirs
4 of 10 Work Out
5 of 10 Rent a Bike
6 of 10 Run an Errand
7 of 10 Find Your Crowd
8 of 10 Go to a Neighborhood Church
9 of 10 Watch Sports
10 of 10 Linger

Share options

Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
  • Sitemap
  • Travel Guide Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Cooking Light this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
Travel + Leisure is part of the Travel + Leisure Group. Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. Travel + Leisure is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation Travel + Leisure Group All Rights Reserved, registered in the United States and other countries. Travel + Leisure may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.travelandleisure.com

View image

The Anti-Tourist Travel Rules
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.