A defense of "traveling like a local"

Bad framing, but a sensible idea

Photo by Elizeu Dias on Unsplash

It’s a common complaint. Tourists show up at a far-flung destination and immediately want to experience “the authentic”. They want to “avoid tourist traps” and “travel like a local”. This can be exasperating. Plenty of Reddit threads complain about it. I’ve traveled with people who are obsessed with finding “authentic spots”. To which I say, then why are you staying in South Beach? The worst is when people I’ve traveled with want to find “local shops” to pick up a souvenir. Local shops, almost by definition, don’t have souvenirs. They have canned tomatoes and blue jeans and power tools. You know, the exact same things YOU buy when you’re at home. As one friend of mine put it, “You want the local experience… so you want to go to the Jiffy Lube with me and watch them change my oil?” Often, the same people that claim the want a local experience would be aghast at staying at an Airbnb in a local suburb that’s 60 minutes from the airport and 30 minutes from the downtown. Never mind that that’s where all the locals live.

So yes, some tourists can be annoying this way. Especially when they insist on simultaneously having authentic experiences and staying in the most tourist-friendly part of a city. There really isn’t such thing as a local restaurant in South Beach or Cinque Terre. Of course a restaurant with great views of the ocean is going to be overpriced and chock full of tourists. But eating fresh seafood with a panoramic view of the ocean is awesome. Do I really care if the person at the table next to me is a local accountant or another foreigner? Not really. The locals mostly work minimum wage jobs in the hospitality industry. They aren’t interested in spending $100 a person at dinner with a view that they can look at every day on their way to work.

Additionally, there’s a reason that tourist attractions are tourist attractions. Will you find many locals in Notre Dame Cathedral? No. But Notre Dame is still one of the most beautiful buildings ever constructed by man. It’s one of the best things to see in Paris. Also, and this is important, almost all Parisians have visited Notre Dame themselves at some point, so it isn’t a “tourist trap” built to ensnare foreigners who don’t know any better. One of the best tourist things to do in Chicago is to take an architecture river cruise. At the same time, most Chicagoans have done it as well. Tourism and localism are not always mutually exclusive.

That aside, I think complaining about tourists wanting the authentic experience is being a bit obtuse. Of course tourists don’t want to ride the commuter rail or go to the dentist’s office. When a tourist says they want to see how locals live, they want to see how locals play. And that, in my opinion, is a sensible way to travel. When I visit a new city, whether it be in America or abroad, I generally want to see the tourist attractions. But I also want to know what leisure is like for those who live there. I don’t want to see the office buildings or the DMV, but I absolutely want to see the parks, restaurants, and bars. I want to see the libraries, college campuses, and main streets. Even supermarkets and post offices can be interesting. I want to see the third places locals spend their leisure time in.

I think back to a group trip I took to San Antonio several years ago. After seeing it on TV for many years, usually in a short clip before a sporting event, I wanted to see the San Antonio River Walk. Yes it was touristy. Yes it was expensive. There was a Bubba Gump Shrimp restaurant. I doubt most of the people I rubbed shoulders with were from San Antonio. At the same time, it was spectacular. The San Antonio River Walk should be studied by urban planners everywhere. It’s one of the most unique places I’ve ever been in my life. The dinner was excellent. The piano bar a blast. I even saw one guy who jumped in the river to try to recover a cell phone. I didn’t go to the San Antonio River Walk to live like a local. I went because it kicks ass.

Sure there aren’t many locals… but do I really care?

At the same time, yes, I wanted to have an “authentic” San Antonio experience. I wanted to see what the locals did for fun. So we ordered puffy tacos. We visited the Pearl District, which seemed to have a mix of tourists and locals. And we went out one night on St. Mary’s Strip, where the locals go on their Saturday nights. It was great, but in a different way than the River Walk.

I think doing both makes sense. I want to see the tourist attractions. Visit the Bean in Chicago. Drink on the Bourbon Streets of the world. And I also want to see what locals do for fun. When they are celebrating a birthday or going out on Friday night, where do they eat? Where do they drink? What do they do on pleasant Saturday afternoons? I look forward to this almost as much as the sites.

So yes, tourists can be annoying when they insist on the “local experience”. Tourist attractions are tourist attractions for a reason. But local experiences are worth having. Local recreation is a lot different in Chicago than Boulder. The authentic experience for an Alaskan is exotic for a Texan, and vice versa. Enjoy both.