How To Be A Tourist In Your Own City

Traveling can be expensive and hard to find time for sometimes. There’s only so much your hometown has to offer, especially if you’ve lived there for your entire life, or at least long enough to see everything you think you’d ever want to see. However, even if you think there is no way to see anything new… there is always a way to see old things in a new way. And who knows, you may end up finding something new along the way, like a statue you drove past every day and never stopped to look at or a park that was just a few miles down the road from your favorite coffee shop you never had the chance to check out. When you just stop and really look at what your hometown has to offer, you might be surprised at what you find and what you end up experiencing.

Try being a tourist in your own home town. Even if you only end up visiting places you have already been to before. These familiar places might bring new experiences and new memories. You can do a solo trip around town or take a friend who might or might not have grown up right next door to you in the same small town. Sometimes if you put yourself in the shoes of a tourist, you might have unimaginable experiences and create funny and goofy memories. It is always rather interesting when you take something you look at everyday and put a spin on it and try to look at it a new way or pretend you are looking at it for the first time.

I can relate to you if you are reading this and say you feel like you saw everything your town could ever offer you. I lived in the same town for my entire life up until last year. Now, for the past year I’ve lived in a town that is less than a square mile big. So, I agree, sometimes I think there is nothing I want to see, nothing I haven’t seen. So, if this is the case, think again. You’re going to be a tourist in your own city and you are going to go to every single spot you have already been to, but just pretend it is your first time going there. It is your first time taking in the beauty of a flower garden or sights of a mountain. Your first time tasting your favorite coffee. Your first time falling in love with the place you’ve spent so many days before.

Start this adventure by listing all of your favorite places to go to in the town, map them out and start going to them one by one. When you’re going to a park or a favorite scenery place, spend some time sitting there just looking at it. Take in all of its beauty and spend some time walking around every inch of its land and you never know, you might end up on a trail you never knew existed. Make sure your phone has enough battery or you have a nice camera with you, you are going to be taking a lot of pictures. Take as many pictures as you want. Take as many selfies as you want. Capture every inch of its beauty, you might end up capturing something magical.

Try going on a walk around your neighborhood. Maybe go down a street you might not usually go to, walk a little slower past familiar homes. Pretend that you’re scoping out a home to live in one day or raise a family one day. Pretend like you are judging your neighborhood and really paying attention to every detail as you are thinking about making it your forever home. Sometimes, you might see a house every day but if you stop and look at them you might notice something unique about it or something slightly different about it.

When you go out to eat or get coffee from your favorite place, try reading the reviews first. Pay attention to the reviews and what other people have ordered and their critiques on it. When you go to order food, try ordering something new, try ordering one of their specialties or a dish that they might be famous for. This will get you to also experience and enjoy a tasty new meal or drink that you might have never had before you just never ordered anything other than your usual. Make sure you take a picture of your tasty treat as photos are the main thing that comes from being a tourist.

Does your town have a library? If so, take a trip there. Grab a book and spend some time reading a few pages somewhere. Pick up a book about the history of your town and read about facts you may have already known or try to learn something new you may have never known about your town. Take a few laps around the building and really begin to appreciate the history of it and think about how different things play a role in the history of your town. Again, take as many pictures as you want while walking around.

Does your town have any historical buildings or sculptures? Do you have any factories in your town? Is your town known for making something or inventing something? Make a point to visit as many historical buildings as possible. Go to each landmark and read about it on any plaque they have displayed and do some extra research online to learn more about it. Really take in and observe all of these historical landmarks of your town. There is so much that you can learn and you can find so many ways to appreciate your town in different ways.

If you want to experience something new, try just driving around. Turn down every single side road and drive as far as you can in any direction without leaving your town. You might end up seeing a cool house or finding a park you can now spend the day at or simply just seeing new scenery you may have never seen before because you never had a reason to go that way. Try taking different routes to go to the coffee shop or the store. This could be simply taking an alternate route or taking an extended route that takes you through the other side of town.

If you aren’t much of a driving for fun type of person, there are still ways you can try to find something new in your town. You can start by asking your friends and family and neighbors what some of their favorite places to go to are in the town. What places do they go to for coffee? Where do they ride their bikes? Where do they go for lunch? What is the coolest thing they have seen in the town? What is their favorite historical thing about your town? The list goes on and on, there are an infinite number of questions you can ask in an attempt to find new places within your hometown.

So, what if they don’t give you any new places? What if everything they recommend you’ve already seen and been to? Well, the next option is google. Try searching up on google things to do in your hometown. Search up historical sights in your hometown. Search up coffee places or restaurants or parks or hiking trails in your hometown. Or you can simply pull up a map of your town and move it around and see what you can find. You can also drop a pin somewhere random on the map and start driving there and see where it takes you.

By experiencing new things, you really can be a tourist in your own hometown. You really will be seeing things for the first time and taking way too many pictures.

When being a tourist, make sure you are taking pictures of absolutely everything. I already know when you go somewhere new you take way too many pictures of something. So why not do it for the things we see every day? Whether you decide to see something new or relive a day of all of your favorites, being a tourist in your own city is definitely a way to experience old things in a new way and leave you feeling like you just had a great adventure without ever leaving home.