walking tour Archives • Wanderlust Advocate

Tips for Planning Cultural Trips

Posted in the cultural traveler

I bet you are actively looking for some tips on planning your next cultural trip.

Here are some tips:

Festivals/Holidays – An easy tip, plan your trip around a Festival or National holiday in the destination. Festivals are a blast and a great way to celebrate with the community. Go to India/Nepal during Holi or visit Paris during Bastille day. You can explore, while enjoying one of the best parts of the year for the country.

Accommodation – stay in people’s homes with AirBnb instead of in a hotel or hostel. Find a family that wants to show you around the town instead of reading a map.

HelpX, Wwoof, Volunteer – find cool places to stay amongst the communities. Spend a month picking rice in Vietnam, or in the vineyards of Australia, or at a farm in the south of France. You can stay with your family

Visit the countryside – go to the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua and just “be” amongst the indigenous tribes. Get out of the city and go explore new areas.

Take public transit – instead of taking a plane from Kathmandu to Pokhara, Nepal, take the public bus so that you can meet some of the locals and experience normal everyday life for them.

Get lost – walk down random streets and find off the beaten path bars and restaurants. Get far away from the tourist streets and find hole-in-the-wall places. Spend time in the Ruin bars of Budapest instead of downtown bars.

Eat like the locals – find food markets, picnic in parks, go to farmer markets, ask locals where to eat. Stay away from HardRock Café. Instead of going to the main restaurants in the city center of Krakow, Poland, go to milk bars around the city for a locals experience.

Watch street performers – for a real local experience, watch some street performers for a fun time.

Themed walking tours – In Edinburgh, I took a Dark History walking tour and learned about Edinburgh’s witchcraft, grave diggers, well known murder stories, and much more. These are not too expensive either and are really great for exploration.

Go on a Pub Crawl – especially for places that are notorious for bar crawls. Such a fun way to hang out with the locals.

Do research – Learn about the history, culture, dance, food, music, and more about the country before you go. Then you know what to look for when you are there and how to find it all to have a true cultural experience.

This is just a starting list, let’s chat more about other things you can do!

Peak tourist season sans stress.

Posted in the worry free traveler

Peak travel season, oh boy, so fun. Of course top peak season is during the best seasons of the year, which makes traveling much more expensive and challenging.

I also know, that this is the easiest time of year to travel, and I am obviously a huge advocate for travel any time of year.

So, now that you are going somewhere cool during a peak tourist season, what can you do to make the touristy things less touristy? Here is a list of ways you can prepare for your trip during peak season.

Take a walking tour – First things first, and this might be slightly more touristy, but is a super helpful way for you to get to know the city through the eyes of a local – take a walking tour. You can find some wonderful free walking tours, guides working for a tip. When you take a walking tour, you can get to know the areas of the city, learn a little history, fun facts, great stories, and see places you would like to go back to and dig deeper later. These guides are the BEST way to learn of some awesome local cuisines, great museums, local pubs/bars, and are happy to answer any of your questions.
Take the city, and break it into areas – one area for each day you are there. Even though you are probably eager to see it all, if you break down the city and spend an entire day in one area, you will find that you will get more out of the city with less crows and less time in transit between destinations.
Research – look at opening hours for all of the things you want to see. The first half hour of opening for most museums and monuments will have the least amount of crowds. You may find another lull a couple of hours after lunch. Don’t wait to the last minute, it will likely be packed!
Don’t research too much – too much research will be stressful, which in a crowded city during peak tourist season, the less stress the better. One of the beautiful things about having a little money in a city is being able to stop when you see a restaurant with a long wait. Clearly, that restaurant is probably worth it. Or you may hear a band playing in a local pub, stop in and have a pint, listen to some live music.
Accommodation – Look through AirBnB if you will be staying at the location for more than 3 days. If not, hotel it is! This is primarily because key exchange can be slightly challenging, and sometimes is not stress free. Longer stays always make AirBnB very worth it! Look for accommodation at least 0.7 miles away from city center. It is close enough to get to all the good stuff, but far enough away so you will not suffocate. It is always better to stay a little outside anyway, mainly because you can explore a couple more areas in route to city center!
Don’t rush – When stressed, slip into a local cafe and take a short break. No need to rush through the city!

When in doubt, remember where you are and enjoy every moment! Also, please make sure to watch your pockets and purses. No need to stress about it, but just be aware during peak tourist season!