18 good reasons to visit little traveled places
1) THERE IS NO TOURIST EFFECT
Unlike cities like Berlin, which have launched the campaign "Berlin doesn't love you" (Berlin does not want you, as a counterpart to "I love New York"), people who live in little-visited places are glad you're there.
2) THEY INVITE YOU TO EAT
In fact, they are so excited that you are walking through the streets of their town or city, that many they will want to invite you to dinner, to have a glass of wine or to listen to a traditional song . Whether or not you speak their language, it doesn't matter.
3) YOU WILL FEEL LIKE A HOLLYWOOD STAR
People will look at you strangely and curiously: What is someone like you doing in a place like this? Why are you dressed in such a strange way? Get ready to be the center of attention on the street.
What is someone like you doing in a place like this?
4) YOU WILL HAVE A NICKNAME
Mzungu, Toubab, Obroni, Pixapins… many words define the white man, the tourist or the stranger. In countries like Nigeria they will immediately call you Oyibo Pepe, which means “white burned by the sun ”. Everything from love, it is understood.
5)NEW PERSPECTIVES OPEN
The journey does not revolve around what we see, but the people we talk to . Although we visit great desolate landscapes, the individuals we meet are what we will remember most of our adventure.
6) THEY BRING OUT THE EXPLORER THAT WE CARRY INSIDE
Although there are also many ways to experience the Statue of Liberty or the Sagrada Familia, untouristy sites give us the feeling that we are the first to be there , to live that experience and to relate it afterwards. An authentic source of posture, everything must be said.
You will bring out the explorer in you
7) UNITE US WITH OTHER TRAVELERS
If we find someone who has visited that same hidden place, we feel an instant connection difficult to explain, that binds us to that person for a few moments. Surely you share more than one anecdote in common and you have a laugh remembering the trip.
8) THEY ARE A SOURCE OF ANECDOTES
Few surprising things can happen visiting the Louvre Museum or Madame Tussauds, or seeing the San Francisco streetcars. In little tourist places everything is a bit of an adventure : nothing is well signposted, we get lost more often and good food is not always guaranteed. And that is an inexhaustible source of anecdotes.
9) EMBRACE THE UNKNOWN
In these types of destinations it is much more difficult to plan. We cannot take a guide and define, day by day, minute by minute, what we are going to do in advance. It is a leap into the void of travel . And that fills you with terror and adrenaline in equal parts.
10) YOU PUT YOURSELF TO THE TEST
What the Americans call 'Take the challange'; accept the challenge. You will surprise yourself solving problems in other languages or staying calm in stressful situations –for missing a bus, for not understanding a salesperson or for any typical setback of travel-.
You will fill your trip with anecdotes
11) DISCOVER OTHER STORIES
Of those that you had never heard of because they do not appear in the big media. Both about the present of the country and its most recent past. And you learn much more about history than you imagine.
12) YOU BECOME AN ANTHROPOLOGIST
It is also an opportunity to see the daily life of the place where we go . To visit a royal house, try a dish cooked by a native or listen to music with homemade instruments. No topics designed for tourists; just life as it is.
13) YOU DO THERAPY
Explaining where we come from and why we are traveling are two typical things of a trip to a little touristic place. The natives will be very curious to know details of how we are, what we think and how we act. How long has it been since a stranger asked you something intimate?
14) YOU WILL EAT VERY RARE THINGS
Because you won't find Lidl or Mercadona, or possibly anything like it. Either you have to buy directly from local vendors or farmers in town, or you have to rummage through tiny shops with a score of products. Embrace this opportunity to taste strange flavors and, surely, much more intense than those found in our supermarkets.
You will eat the same as the locals
15) REMEDY AGAINST PREJUDICES
By being in contact with more local people, you discover what prejudices they have towards foreigners, and you yourself question some things you thought about that town , city or country before the trip. An express way to question everything you believe in.
16) THEY REMAIN RECORDED IN YOUR MEMORY
It costs more to get there, but it also costs more to leave. In a world where everything is becoming easier and more comfortable to learn, getting to places that require effort -hours of bus, of maps that are not understood and of confusion- it has something unique. And that's why leaving them makes us strangely sad.
17) YOU LIVE A STOCKHOLM SYNDROME
Because surely you have a bad time during many moments of the trip, you have trouble sleeping and food makes you sick. Oh my God! You can't even drink tap water normally! But in your memory that adventure is one of the best of your life and you will have an affection so intense that it can only be explained by a transitory syndrome.
18) EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS
Whether it's a visit to a secluded town in Lleida or a Korean megacity, off-the-beaten-track places open up a new perspective on what travel is, and why we travel. They allow you to rethink what exactly you are looking for when you leave your city and prevent you from falling into tourist clichés. They won't work for Foursquare, that's for sure, but who hasn't wanted to be an explorer at some point?
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You will enjoy with the locals
goodbye, civilization