Everyone wants to get off the Beaten path. Everyone wants a unique travel experience. It’s become cliché. Search for “Off the Beaten Path in _____ City” and you’ll receive several recommendations—then you arrive at one of the places listed and realize everyone Googled “Off the Beaten Path in ____ City.” In Philadelphia the top two off the beaten path recommendations are the Mutter Museum and Philadelphia’s Magic Garden. Those places draw insane crowds. They haven’t been off the beaten path attractions for the past fifteen years. If you want to find your own path, don’t rely on basic Google searches, experiment with different search approaches and find a technique you like. If your travel starts to feel too routine, restart the experimenting.
The concept of going off the beaten path misses one truth—the popular places are popular for a reason. Are you going to visit Paris and skip the Eiffel Tower? Or bypass the Colosseum in Rome? Or the Forbidden City in Beijing? Those are great sights and if visited early in the day avoid the crowds. One of the benefits of around the world travel is you have more time at locations so by default if you blitz the popular places in the mornings of your first few days, you will naturally have more time to discover the local places. I always tried to visit the city’s top sights on the first morning or day of arrival rather than spin my wheels trying to take a deeper dive and exploring off the beaten path. I kept the first day’s adventure easy and knocked out the obvious attractions.
I’ve created my own off the beaten path technique that has been refined through multiple approaches over several years. The first approach was to visit places further down on a travel guide’s suggested itinerary list. I combed through entire “Things to Do” lists on TripAdvisor. I skipped a few pages at the beginning and hoped to find interesting attractions once the rankings reached triple digits. I took this approach when I arrived in Buenos Aires, the first stop on my around the world travels. I spent a week in the city, which is typically how long my standard vacations lasted. That week gave me plenty of time to explore areas of the city I otherwise would not have seen. Buenos Aires has a stunning collection of historical cafes and bars known as Bares Notables. I found a local listing of the best Bares Notables and before heading to one of the TripAdvisor destinations I identified a Bares Notable to grab a cappuccino or a beer before and after the visit. I discovered I enjoyed the walks to the destination (it helped that Buenos Aires is a beautiful city) and the before and after stops in the Bares Notables, more than the TripAdvisor attraction. My final days in Buenos Aires weren’t spent digging deeper through the guidebooks or TripAdvisor lists. Instead I scoured the internet searching for the best Bares Notables then planned my own walking tours. I went on walks and saw neighborhoods I otherwise would not have seen. Buenos Aires has some notable attractions, however, it’s the city’s beautiful architecture and café culture that make it a world-class destination. The Bares Notables are the best way to roam Buenos Aires and to find places to drink a coffee or a beer. In each new location I tried to find the Bares Notables equivalent.
Local bloggers and guides are great resources to find the Bares Notables equivalents of other cities. I start my searches for local guides by using alternative search words: breakfast (instead of restaurant), coffee roaster (instead of café), and microbrewery (instead of bar). I hope to get lucky that one of these searches will bring me to a local blogger or newspaper. In the U.S., I quickly find local experts because many cities and counties have their own newspapers and magazines—searching for “Best of Philadelphia” will lead you to rankings from the local press. That’s the goal: find a local site, instead of a passerby’s travel blog. It’s the local newspapers and magazines that know what events are happening in the city that week. These sources know the hot, new restaurants. You won’t read this information in a guidebook or from a blogger who spent three nights in Saigon two years ago or on page 12 of a TripAdvisor search.
Local tourism websites promote events to give a quick summary of what’s happening for the dates you are visiting. I believe that a tourism page run by the city you’re visiting is a more effective tool to explore a city than guidebook or travel blogger suggestions. Major cities have festivals every weekend—these events can only be found on locally run websites. The guidebooks can’t cover all the events and attending an event that isn’t mentioned in travel guides qualifies as a unique local experience.
When I didn’t have success with finding a local blogger or newspaper, I thought that coffee roasters and microbreweries (primarily useful in the U.S.) led me to great places. A local coffee roaster starting operations doesn’t have the financial capital to open in a high rent area. Same with microbreweries which need a lot of space for their operations. But these places do need to be in neighborhoods where people like to go out and have fun. If you find a good coffee shop, you’ll find a good neighborhood, even if the coffee shop lacks the nostalgia of a Bares Notables.
I modified my technique to find coffee shops and bars manually searching in Google Maps versus scanning through Google search results. I entered “coffee shop” or “bars” in Google Maps, then moved the map around and search in different areas to find highly rated coffee shops. I clicked on coffee shops or bars, saw how many stars the place received, and kept moving the map around until I found a place with a high volume of good reviews in a new neighborhood. I would extend my search beyond neighborhoods to the surrounding suburban towns.
To the extent I rely on “Best of” lists I do so with search modifications. New York City has historical and iconic bars. You can drink where George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt drank. Or Frank Sinatra. Or the bar that served as the inspiration for MacLaren’s from the television show How I Met Your Mother. There are famous bars around the world and adding “Historical”, “Oldest”, or “Iconic” in front of a search can generate more refined results. The “Oldest Bars in New York City” search returns great, tourist-free options, with McSorley’s being the only exception (and even McSorley’s is worth the visit).
I extended the off the beaten path experience from neighborhoods in popular cities to entire cities. There are cities that people pass by but never stop. The smaller cities seen outside the train window between the major cities. Many of these destinations do not require a significant adjustment to an itinerary. Pecs is an easy stop on the way to Budapest from Zagreb. Tianjin has a lot going on and is an hour from Beijing on the way to Qingdao or Shanghai. Around the world travel gave me the time to see neglected industrial cities. To find where to go in these less visited locations I returned to my basic searches: coffee shops and bars. At this point every town, including Tver, a minor city between Moscow and St. Petersburg, has a local coffee shop or two and those coffee shops tend to be in popular areas.
You’ll be nervous the first time you plan a trip to the Tianjins of the world. Off the beaten path means that there are sometimes misses (hopefully the first time isn’t a complete miss). That I had a memorable time in Tianjin does not mean you will have a similar experience. A travel writer won’t stake their reputation on telling someone to visit Tianjin. From off the beaten path cities you can expand to a larger scale, off the beaten path countries, like Bangladesh. There’s no need to plan anything extra with a trip to these countries. Just go. Get off the plane and visit the top sites. You’ll be the sole visitor.
In addition to visiting random cities I also believe that spending the night in a city where others visit for a day trip is another easy way to get off the beaten path. Locals at bars and restaurants in Okayama will appreciate that you spent a night in their city instead of returning to Osaka or Kyoto. Mostar is a completely different city once the day trippers return to Croatia. Many Southeast Asia backpackers go directly from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Huay Xai, Laos—spend the night in Chiang Rai, Thailand. You have the time to chart your own course, so chart your own course. Stop at the places between the destinations on the standard, suggested itinerary.
One technique that conceptually should work is asking locals for their advice on where to dine. I’ve had trouble executing this technique in practice. I think that when asked for a dining recommendation, a local’s first inclination is to suggest the touristy places. They will recommend the sights and restaurants their city is known for. If you ask a Philadelphia where to eat a cheesesteak, many respondents, when put on the spot, will default to “Pat’s or Geno’s”, the iconic but tourist heavy restaurants. They won’t mention the place they patronize because they want to be helpful and think you don’t want to go out of your way to an obscure place in their neighborhood. When I received the “Pat’s or Geno’s” response I tried asking the dining question in different ways—where would you eat to celebrate your birthday? You are relocating for work, what restaurant do you want to dine at before you transfer? Where would you celebrate your anniversary? Nothing. Totally stumped the local. It’s difficult to receive great responses when you put a local on the spot.
When nothing else is working, I have two go to sources for off the beaten path searches: Atlas Obscura and For 91 Days. Atlas Obscura is a user curated website with destinations that in the aggregate would be defined as…well…obscure. The website lists the graveyards, abandoned buildings, and similar attractions that are scattered in remote places. If you are in the middle of nowhere and wondering if there are any possible attractions nearby, Atlas Obscura may have something listed to check out. For 91 Days is a travel blog where the authors spend 91 days in a location. That extended time period allows the authors to reach neighborhoods and attractions that others aren’t reaching in a week stay.
Keep your expectations in check, even if they are exceeded every time. Off the beaten path isn’t as much about the destination as it is about you. I love having a place to myself. In that sense you will never have a miss. I had Tver all to myself and a year later I still think as much about the afternoon I spent in that city as I do St. Petersburg and Moscow.
I’ve created my own off the beaten path technique that has been refined through multiple approaches over several years. The first approach was to visit places further down on a travel guide’s suggested itinerary list. I combed through entire “Things to Do” lists on TripAdvisor. I skipped a few pages at the beginning and hoped to find interesting attractions once the rankings reached triple digits. I took this approach when I arrived in Buenos Aires, the first stop on my around the world travels. I spent a week in the city, which is typically how long my standard vacations lasted. That week gave me plenty of time to explore areas of the city I otherwise would not have seen. Buenos Aires has a stunning collection of historical cafes and bars known as Bares Notables. I found a local listing of the best Bares Notables and before heading to one of the TripAdvisor destinations I identified a Bares Notable to grab a cappuccino or a beer before and after the visit. I discovered I enjoyed the walks to the destination (it helped that Buenos Aires is a beautiful city) and the before and after stops in the Bares Notables, more than the TripAdvisor attraction. My final days in Buenos Aires weren’t spent digging deeper through the guidebooks or TripAdvisor lists. Instead I scoured the internet searching for the best Bares Notables then planned my own walking tours. I went on walks and saw neighborhoods I otherwise would not have seen. Buenos Aires has some notable attractions, however, it’s the city’s beautiful architecture and café culture that make it a world-class destination. The Bares Notables are the best way to roam Buenos Aires and to find places to drink a coffee or a beer. In each new location I tried to find the Bares Notables equivalent.
Local bloggers and guides are great resources to find the Bares Notables equivalents of other cities. I start my searches for local guides by using alternative search words: breakfast (instead of restaurant), coffee roaster (instead of café), and microbrewery (instead of bar). I hope to get lucky that one of these searches will bring me to a local blogger or newspaper. In the U.S., I quickly find local experts because many cities and counties have their own newspapers and magazines—searching for “Best of Philadelphia” will lead you to rankings from the local press. That’s the goal: find a local site, instead of a passerby’s travel blog. It’s the local newspapers and magazines that know what events are happening in the city that week. These sources know the hot, new restaurants. You won’t read this information in a guidebook or from a blogger who spent three nights in Saigon two years ago or on page 12 of a TripAdvisor search.
Local tourism websites promote events to give a quick summary of what’s happening for the dates you are visiting. I believe that a tourism page run by the city you’re visiting is a more effective tool to explore a city than guidebook or travel blogger suggestions. Major cities have festivals every weekend—these events can only be found on locally run websites. The guidebooks can’t cover all the events and attending an event that isn’t mentioned in travel guides qualifies as a unique local experience.
When I didn’t have success with finding a local blogger or newspaper, I thought that coffee roasters and microbreweries (primarily useful in the U.S.) led me to great places. A local coffee roaster starting operations doesn’t have the financial capital to open in a high rent area. Same with microbreweries which need a lot of space for their operations. But these places do need to be in neighborhoods where people like to go out and have fun. If you find a good coffee shop, you’ll find a good neighborhood, even if the coffee shop lacks the nostalgia of a Bares Notables.
I modified my technique to find coffee shops and bars manually searching in Google Maps versus scanning through Google search results. I entered “coffee shop” or “bars” in Google Maps, then moved the map around and search in different areas to find highly rated coffee shops. I clicked on coffee shops or bars, saw how many stars the place received, and kept moving the map around until I found a place with a high volume of good reviews in a new neighborhood. I would extend my search beyond neighborhoods to the surrounding suburban towns.
To the extent I rely on “Best of” lists I do so with search modifications. New York City has historical and iconic bars. You can drink where George Washington and Teddy Roosevelt drank. Or Frank Sinatra. Or the bar that served as the inspiration for MacLaren’s from the television show How I Met Your Mother. There are famous bars around the world and adding “Historical”, “Oldest”, or “Iconic” in front of a search can generate more refined results. The “Oldest Bars in New York City” search returns great, tourist-free options, with McSorley’s being the only exception (and even McSorley’s is worth the visit).
I extended the off the beaten path experience from neighborhoods in popular cities to entire cities. There are cities that people pass by but never stop. The smaller cities seen outside the train window between the major cities. Many of these destinations do not require a significant adjustment to an itinerary. Pecs is an easy stop on the way to Budapest from Zagreb. Tianjin has a lot going on and is an hour from Beijing on the way to Qingdao or Shanghai. Around the world travel gave me the time to see neglected industrial cities. To find where to go in these less visited locations I returned to my basic searches: coffee shops and bars. At this point every town, including Tver, a minor city between Moscow and St. Petersburg, has a local coffee shop or two and those coffee shops tend to be in popular areas.
You’ll be nervous the first time you plan a trip to the Tianjins of the world. Off the beaten path means that there are sometimes misses (hopefully the first time isn’t a complete miss). That I had a memorable time in Tianjin does not mean you will have a similar experience. A travel writer won’t stake their reputation on telling someone to visit Tianjin. From off the beaten path cities you can expand to a larger scale, off the beaten path countries, like Bangladesh. There’s no need to plan anything extra with a trip to these countries. Just go. Get off the plane and visit the top sites. You’ll be the sole visitor.
In addition to visiting random cities I also believe that spending the night in a city where others visit for a day trip is another easy way to get off the beaten path. Locals at bars and restaurants in Okayama will appreciate that you spent a night in their city instead of returning to Osaka or Kyoto. Mostar is a completely different city once the day trippers return to Croatia. Many Southeast Asia backpackers go directly from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Huay Xai, Laos—spend the night in Chiang Rai, Thailand. You have the time to chart your own course, so chart your own course. Stop at the places between the destinations on the standard, suggested itinerary.
One technique that conceptually should work is asking locals for their advice on where to dine. I’ve had trouble executing this technique in practice. I think that when asked for a dining recommendation, a local’s first inclination is to suggest the touristy places. They will recommend the sights and restaurants their city is known for. If you ask a Philadelphia where to eat a cheesesteak, many respondents, when put on the spot, will default to “Pat’s or Geno’s”, the iconic but tourist heavy restaurants. They won’t mention the place they patronize because they want to be helpful and think you don’t want to go out of your way to an obscure place in their neighborhood. When I received the “Pat’s or Geno’s” response I tried asking the dining question in different ways—where would you eat to celebrate your birthday? You are relocating for work, what restaurant do you want to dine at before you transfer? Where would you celebrate your anniversary? Nothing. Totally stumped the local. It’s difficult to receive great responses when you put a local on the spot.
When nothing else is working, I have two go to sources for off the beaten path searches: Atlas Obscura and For 91 Days. Atlas Obscura is a user curated website with destinations that in the aggregate would be defined as…well…obscure. The website lists the graveyards, abandoned buildings, and similar attractions that are scattered in remote places. If you are in the middle of nowhere and wondering if there are any possible attractions nearby, Atlas Obscura may have something listed to check out. For 91 Days is a travel blog where the authors spend 91 days in a location. That extended time period allows the authors to reach neighborhoods and attractions that others aren’t reaching in a week stay.
Keep your expectations in check, even if they are exceeded every time. Off the beaten path isn’t as much about the destination as it is about you. I love having a place to myself. In that sense you will never have a miss. I had Tver all to myself and a year later I still think as much about the afternoon I spent in that city as I do St. Petersburg and Moscow.