Upset your habits and use the locals to discover a city, region or country! By travelling in this way, you will be a winner and we will explain why
Real experts in the destination
If travelling through an agency is reassuring, it is not always the best way to really discover a country... Agencies tend to take you mainly to the most tourist sites. As a result, you most often find yourself in places invaded by other travellers and you are rarely anchored in the reality of the country. Travelling like a local, with advice from people who know the area like the back of their hand, is the ideal solution to this problem. For example, in Venice, rather than taking you for pizza around the famous San Marco Square, in one of the many restaurants on the sightseeing tours, a Venetian will be able to show you his hidden good addresses and lead you away from the crowd in a small café he particularly likes. You can then discover the real Venetian cuisine and it's still better than yet another pizza!
The right way to save money
By following the advice of the locals, you are guaranteed to go to places frequented above all by the inhabitants and where tourist attractions are almost non-existent. Thus, the small designer shop that a Berliner will point out to you in the east of the city will have much lower prices than those of the classic department stores where many visitors go, unless they are better oriented.
And even in cities that have a reputation for being expensive, you can do good business if you follow the wise advice of the people. In Miami, for example, it is possible to enjoy good, inexpensive meals as long as you are away from Miami Beach. Newer and less touristy neighbourhoods, such as Wynwood, are very popular with locals because they are full of good deals. So don't hesitate to ask them for more information!
The guarantee of an original stay
By following the advice of locals, generally passionate about the country where they live, you are sure to have good surprises because they obviously want you to fall in love with their country and for that they have more than one tower in their bag!
Thus, a local wishing to make you discover the Portuguese capital by night will show you something different than the classic fado evenings. You will discover through its indications that Lisbon is a city with an incredibly rich and lively nightlife where there is no shortage of unusual places to go out. Did you know, for example, that in Lisbon you could party until the end of the night on a beautiful rooftop above a car park? Incredible but true, and so local!
