9 Ways to Glimpse Local Life On Your Next Vacation

In the past, my goal on vacation was to be mistaken for a local. I didn’t want to dress like a tourist or do any activity that was too “touristy”. I wanted to travel “like a local”. (Whatever that means!) After a few months on the road, I realized that goal was so silly! I am a traveler, not a local, and that’s great. Sometimes it’s super fun to see the most touristy sights. (We even listed our favorite tourist attractions that we actually loved!) And looking lost and asking for directions can lead to a great moment when you’re reminded about how awesome people can be!

While I now know that I won’t experience a destination like a local, I still love to glimpse local life during our travels. Gathering experiences and insights into aspects of life that interest us. What is the running culture like in the city? Are U.S. food brands abundant at the markets or practically non-existent? (U.S. foods are typically harder to find in many European markets yet easy to find in markets in Siem Reap and Thailand.) Where are the most beloved parks and squares in town?

After almost a year of travel, here are our 9 Ways to Glimpse Local Life!

ASK FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

So many of our favorite restaurants and beach spots came from locals. Doing your own research online just doesn’t measure up. I loved stumbling upon recommendations from our Airbnb hosts during our check-in process. We would pepper taxi drivers, servers, and other people that we met with questions of where to eat and what to do. Often, people would recommend touristy spots at first. A great way to get some off-the-beaten-path recommendations is to ask where they take their families when they visit.

SHOP AT THE MARKET

A classic, easy way to glimpse local life? Head to the nearest market and shop! Supermarkets, open-air food markets, they’re all fun to explore. We had some of our most “lost in translation”-style moments in markets. European produce sticker machines are sometimes so confusing! But there was almost always a kind, fellow shopper to help us along. Even 10 months into traveling, I was still thrilled to step into a new market and explore. I spent so many hours wandering the shelves, perusing sometimes familiar, sometimes new-to-me items. Always with my Google Translate app in hand.

FIND A POPULAR RUNNING LOOP

Running is a great way to understand the streets in the neighborhood around your accommodation. With a few runs under our belt, Trent and I could traverse the streets near our Airbnb without looking at our phones every two minutes. But finding a popular running loop makes the experience even better. There’s nothing like joining the city’s residents on their regular Saturday morning run around Budapest’s Margaret Island or Edinburgh’s Holyrood Park. The easiest way to find these loops is through Strava’s Segment Explorer.

SPEND TIME AT THE PLAYGROUND

I love watching our kids make friends with other (traveling, expat, or local) kids at the playground! We still love to reminisce about the different playgrounds that we visited on our travels. Sometimes it feels like we could be seeing and doing so much more during our playground time. But playground time was how we recharged or, in our kids’ case, burned off some energy.

GRAB A PINT AT THE LOCAL BAR

When I asked Trent for his recommendations, he immediately answered with “go to a local bar”! On our first night in Budapest, we needed to help the tooth fairy make change for the Hungarian Forint equivalent of a $20, so Trent headed to the bar across the street to get change. A few beers later, he was new friends with a local gardener who was not shy to share what it’s like to live in Budapest. In Siem Reap, Trent made friends with an expat who owned the bar and attached hostel. He almost talked us into moving to Siem Reap ourselves. From small pubs in the Lake District of England to little spots in Japan, we love to sit at a bar and meet the people around us.

ATTEND A RELIGIOUS SERVICE

I grew up going to Catholic schools and attending mass regularly. Catholic mass is familiar experience to me even if I don’t go regularly anymore. During our time in Budapest, I headed solo to Sunday morning mass at Matthias church in the Fisherman’s Bastion area. An hour to sit and admire a beautiful church, watch regular attendees greet each other, and listen to familiar hymns in foreign languages sounds pretty great to me.

STAY IN THE OUTSKIRTS

Easiest way to glimpse local life? Make yourselves the only non-locals. Or at least close to it. I love when we would find ourselves far enough from the regular tourist routes to get bewildered looks from people. Or the occasional question “How did you end up coming to ___?”. Instant conversation starter right there!

JOIN AN EXERCISE CLASS

During our (almost) month-long stay in Siem Reap, I signed up for a 10 session yoga pass at the nearby studio. After so many months of newness, it felt amazing to have a routine of walking to class, meeting up with my regular instructor, and settling into my favorite spot in the room. I was able to glimpse what my life might look like if I lived there through my conversations with the expats who attended class. Sometime joining a class has the opposite effect. Like showing you how different a yoga class can be around the world. I was totally out of my element during my hot yoga class in Nara, Japan. The sign up process was hilariously confusing for both myself and the sweet woman who worked there. We laughed our way through it and honestly the whole class went pretty much the same way. Definitely made for a memorable experience. One traveling regret? I wish that I had join the epic, dance exercise classes at our neighborhood park in Chiang Mai. They looked so fun!

EMBRACE THE CULTURE’S DAILY NORMS

Sure, the differences of daily life stands out immediately when traveling to a new country. Especially during your first trip abroad. But on the whole, life throughout most of the world looks remarkably similar. To the point that we were thrilled to learn about daily norms that were different from our experience in the U.S. We embraced eating dinner late in Spain and taking afternoon naps during quiet time in Greece. It’s a lot more enjoyable to invite these differences into your experience rather than complaining about them.

What are your favorite ways to glimpse local life when you travel?