First Thing You Should Do in a New City
Cities and towns have personalities, don’t they? When arriving in a new place, I want to get to know it: learn about its culture, and history, and work towards discovering what makes its heartbeat. I always do this on the first day or two of my trip because having even a little bit of backstory is helpful and enhances your trip!
- If it’s a different culture, it will likely help you be conscious of what is respectful.
- It will help you understand the location you’re visiting better
- It will help you notice things that you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed. For example, on a walking tour one time the docent shared that many of the historic buildings were brick and had iron window coverings that were still there. That was the town’s way of managing fires, they would just close up the windows to keep the fire from consuming more than one building! Then as I wandered on my own, I noticed so many of these types of buildings!
There are a handful of ways to achieve this:
1. Take a Walking Tour
I used to think tours were lame, but I had no idea how much I was missing by not taking the tour. I love a good walking tour. Not only do you usually get to check a bunch of sites off your list, but the tour guides normally know a fair amount of local history too.
I also love a great Food Tour, architecture tour, or Street Art / Mural Tour. Find a tour that you find interesting.
Not into a guide, see if there’s a walking tour app with an audio component for your city!
Check if the place you’re visiting has an app for a scavenger hunt walking tour. These are super fun with a group, often are great for photo-ops, and still allow you to see a lot of things with little planning on your end.
2. Take a Non-Walking Tour
Walking tours aren’t for everybody. Other great options are:
- Bus Tour (although I have never done one of these but would like to)
- Boat Tour (i.e. you’re in a location with a lot of water and can see the main attractions by boat! I did one of these in Washington DC and will be doing another in New York)
- Trolly Tour
3. Visit a Museum
I like to hit the local history or natural history museum, but pick whatever kind of museum interests you! Art, music, culture. And if there’s an audio tour, even better. If you want to visit more than one and cut down on costs, be sure to check if that city has a “City Pass” or something comparable. (If you’re not familiar with City Pass, this is a way to bundle and package your tickets to local pre-determined attractions and it usually saves you 30-50%.)
4. Visit a National Historic Site or Park
If the National Park Service thinks it’s worth noting, it probably is. The National Park Service app has self-guided tours and audio tours that are based on your location. This highlights National Parks and National Historic Sites, so a National Park Pass is not required for all locations. Special shout out to the Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau for being one of the better audio tours ever. iPhone users, you CAN connect two pairs of Airpods to your phone for audio.
There are a number of ways to get to know the city you’re visiting. Let me know in the comments your favorite way to “meet” a new place.
