Skip to content

Top Navigation

Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure Travel + Leisure
  • Trip Inspiration
  • Travel Guides
  • 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

Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Join T+L Club this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Join T+L Club this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe
Book Now
Pin FB

Explore Travel + Leisure

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

    Explore

    • World's Best

      World's Best

      The greatest islands, cities, hotels, cruise lines, airports, and more — as voted by you. Read More
    • The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2022

      The 50 Best Places to Travel in 2022

      Whether you're traveling solo or planning a family vacation, here are the 50 best places to visit in 2022. Read More
    • Let's Go Together Podcast

      Let's Go Together Podcast

      Start listening to T+L's brand new podcast, Let's Go Together! Hosted by Kellee Edwards. Read More
  • 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 + Design
    • Like a Local
    • Travel To
    • 50 Years of Travel + Leisure
  • Travel Guides

    Travel Guides

    See All Travel Guides
    • Mexico City
    • Maui
    • Charleston
    • Tulum
    • New York City
    • London
    • Paris
    • Iceland
    • Los Cabos
    • See More Travel Guides
  • Plan Your Trip

    Plan Your Trip

    Norwegian Cruise Line Will Require Vaccinations for All Passengers and Crew

    Norwegian Cruise Line Will Require Vaccinations for All Passengers and Crew

    Norwegian Cruise Line hopes to resume sailing out of the U.S. on or around July 4.
    • Travel Deals
    • Attractions
    • Travel + Leisure GO
    • Amusement Parks
    • Festivals + Events
    • Bus and Train Travel
    • Flight Deals
    • Budget Travel
    • Hotels + Resorts
    • Disney Vacations
    • Airlines + Airports
    • Ground Transportation
    • Get Outside
    • Wanderlust
  • World's Best

    World's Best

    • Top Hotels
    • Top Cities
    • Top Islands
    • Domestic Airlines
    • International Airlines
    • Tours
    • Safaris
    • See 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
    • A Spirited Occasion
    • 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
Join Now

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Join T+L Club this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
My Account

Account

  • Join Now
  • My Profile
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletters
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Join T+L Club this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription
  • Help
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes
Book Now

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
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Stay Local

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: rent an apartment, villa, or house
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Get a Massage or a Haircut

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: get a massage or 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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Skip the Souvenirs

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: shop at a local store
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Work Out

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: work out at a local fitness club
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Rent a Bike

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: cycling
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Run an Errand

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: 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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Find Your Crowd

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: join a meetup
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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Go to a Neighborhood Church

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: visit a local 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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Watch Sports

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: 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

Pin
Facebook Tweet Email Send Text Message

Linger

Anti-Tourist Travel Rules: 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 & More

    Facebook Tweet Email 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
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab
    • Travel + Leisure Wine this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Follow Us
    Subscribe to Our Newsletters
    Sign Up
    MeredithTravel + Leisure is published by Meredith Corporation under license from Travel + Leisure Co. Copyright 2022 Travel + Leisure Co. All Rights Reserved. TRAVEL + LEISURE is a registered trademark of Travel + Leisure Co., registered in the United States and other countries. Travel + Leisure magazine 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 Travel + Leisure. 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.