What’s the best way to explore, immerse, and learn?

You’ll likely spend most of your day scouting various neighborhoods and sights - the well-known ones as well as the lesser known hidden gems - sometimes hiding in plain sight.  Soon, you’re part of the city’s daily ebb and flow, in sync with the town’s vibe.

You’ll become familiar with the time restaurants open for lunch and dinner, and when and where happy hour starts.  You may even loosely plan your day’s activities around meal times – leaving lots of room for intermittent spontaneous experiences that will naturally come along when exploring the nooks and crannies of your host town.

When slow traveling like a local, many travelers become more emboldened and forge new ways to dig deeper and immerse more - wrapping themselves in an exciting, different ways to experience their world.  

One might say that food discovery, cultural immersion, and historical edifices often become the destination target.  So, plan to visit a popular museum, garden, or outdoor market and then explore the surrounding area, at your own pace. 

For even more spontaneity, pick a neighborhood as your starting point and then see how the day naturally unfolds as you wander the area.  One of my favorite ways to explore home base, is to loosely plan the day around “destination happy hour” - where I want to land by sunset to enjoy happy hour in old town or a trendy neighborhood.

Soak in sights, sounds, and smells …

New smells, sights, and sounds initially stimulate and intrigue – like sweet aromas wafting from the bakery’s fresh-baked pastry or the hustle and bustle buzz from street-side restaurants preparing for the lunch crowd. 

Some can mystify and confuse - like the rhythmic sweeping sound heard every morning below your window (which turns out to be the street cleaning machines washing the cobblestone streets) or the intrusive horn honking echoing from cars, motorcycles and bicycles signaling each other when close to colliding.

Enjoy each day in new and exciting ways – on your own discovery tours …

• If a history buff or culture-curious, the historic center is always a great place for discovery escapades.  You get to peel back the layers of time and let the history-soaked old town tell its story through museums, monuments, period architecture, castles, remnants of walled cities, and ancient civilization ruins.  You’ll garner a good sense of the town’s storied past and the old city will likely be the center and foundation of serial repeat discovery as you dig deeper to learn more, about both the past and present.

  

  Florence, the cradle of the Renaissance, is the epitome of cultural immersion, the absolute delight of history buffs like myself.  It’s a perfect example of how an old city’s attractions like Florence’s Duomo (Cathedral) and famed Ponte Vecchio (Old Bridge built in Roman times) seduce and lure you back over and over again for further cultural immersion.

• If an avid foodie, a fun discovery tour involves visiting food markets, wildly popular with locals and tourists alike, offering farm to table produce and fresh food stalls and counters with local meat, seafood, cheeses, breads, and wine.  Usually, there’s at least one of these popular markets downtown where you can leisurely wander the aisles, sample tapas and drinks, and even have a market-fresh meal. 

  If you opt for restaurant fare, join in on the locals’ practice of restaurant-surfing whereby they focus on an area to dine, and then check out a handful of restaurants to see which has the day’s highest quality seafood or most interesting menu of the day, at the most reasonable price.  Since every country, region, and town proudly offers unique traditional foods, observing expert local restaurant-surfers actually becomes a fun foodie discovery experience of sorts. 

  For example, Nice is a foodie’s delight thanks to a variety of outdoor markets perfect for discovery tours. There’s a centuries-old Fish Market that opens pre-dawn selling the day’s fresh catch from the Mediterranean Sea and where you barter like the locals for choice seafood delicacies.  A short walk away is Nice’s world-famous outdoor market, Cours Saleya, where vendors sell their home-grown flowers and fresh produce. 

  With the flower market bordered on both sides by rows of restaurants, you can browse the market stalls for a while, and afterwards enjoy a lovely long lunch at one of the square’s restaurants.

• If a nature lover or if you like to be active outside, head to pedestrian-only areas for discovery by foot and find out where to rent bicycles for venturing on city bike trails. Or, scout where there are spacious parks, palace gardens, nature trails and walking paths in the neighborhoods, riverside, or along sea coastlines.  Sometimes, the best nature or outdoor escapes are hiding in plain view, just around the corner or atop a hill.

  

  A good example is Barcelona where Montjuic Hill (Jewish Mountain), rising from the Mediterranean Sea, commands panoramic views overlooking Barcelona’s eclectic old city and expansive Port.  One of the favorite local’s spots, Montjuic is a city oasis hiding in plain sight, boasting a variety of top attractions focused on nature, culture and history. 

  With botanical gardens, art and archeological museums, hilltop perched castle, restaurants, palace and Olympic sights (1992 Olympic venue) Monjuic is worthy of many discovery tours – just ask the locals.