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Do you find yourself searching the internet for "fun things to do near me"? Perhaps you are planning your next trip and you do not want to visit the typical tourist locations and venues. Here are some of the ways we plan an upcoming trip and how we apply these same practices in our home city! We are always learning new tips and tricks so make sure you subscribe for updates.
RESEARCH LOCAL RESTAURANTS/BARS
We love delicious food and we will often visit a city through their local restaurants. There have been many days on vacation where our planning starts with the meals we plan on eating and the rest of the day is spent wandering the streets, trying to work up enough of an appetite for our next planned meal.
The first place I will check for local food recommendations is eater.com While they don’t have the easiest, most searchable site, they are a great source for new restaurants or if you are looking for something more specific (happy hour, patio seating, live music, etc)
Next, I will consult Tripadvisor.com, searching for both the top attractions and then the best restaurants. I will search the restaurants by city and I always display my results by “traveler ranking”. I also make it a point to also do a filtered search of just “$” and another one of “$$-$$$”. I love delicious food, but I don't want/can’t afford fancy meals multiple times a day. We also feel like some of our best meals are in tiny, more affordable locations.
I will then follow all the interesting restaurants/bars, and their chefs and sommeliers, on Instagram. Not only will you know if there are any specials or special events, but they will often post about other chefs/Resto/bars that they frequent on their days off. Bonus for when they themselves travel, I save all the places they visit in private collections on Instagram, usually separated by country or city.
I have detailed things to do and eat on our city guides. I hope you enjoy these tasty finds, activities, and things to see.
Join meetups to find like-minded people. It is searchable by location and you can find a large selection of different events, meet-ups, book clubs, hiking clubs etc.
GEOCACHING
Go on an adventure and find some cool stuff
Ask the community and get answers. Sometimes getting better results than sites like trip advisor or yelp reviews.
COMMUNITY MAGAZINE
The best place to find them would be local coffee or mom-and-pop shops. They are usually free or available for a small donation and feature community calendars and local events. Most of these magazines or papers have also moved online, it’s just a matter of searching “city”+” community paper or magazine“
CITY TOURISM WEBSITE
Most cities have a website that lists local things to do. Careful because there are many fake ones. make sure its a .org to .gov
Montreal tourism is an example.
FACEBOOK CALENDAR
Check out local events
Intimate concerts
The best way to find upcoming concerts and discover new bands.
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