10 Tips for Visiting a New City

Introduction

If you grew up in a bubble, I have news for you! Bubbles were made to pop.

Your greatest sources of wisdom will come from adventures outside of the bubble you knew your whole life. Time away from the familiar orchestrates the extraordinary. Traveling to new cities can widen your horizons and sharpen your sense of perspective. 

It’s as important to be well-traveled as it is to travel well. With these 10 tips, you can create a fulfilling, enlightening, and enjoyable experience as you escape the familiar and explore the unknown.

1) Prepare an Itinerary

You look forward to the moments trips will give you. But how can you look forward to experiences you know nothing about? You might be planning to venture to an area you don’t know much about.

Perhaps you’ve chosen a vacation spot based on its general sense of allure, though you are unable to visualize exactly what your experience will look like. You’ve chosen California for its beaches or Las Vegas for its night-life. But what are you going to do after you’re done at the beach or during the day before you party? Planning a trip will bring clarity to and fuel exciting daydreams about the full extent of your experience.

Several online platforms can help you create a schedule for an unforgettable adventure. Among the best are TripIt, Tripadvisor, and Roadtrippers. Click around to see which website works best for the experience you plan to create.

The sights, sounds, and smells of a new place can be overwhelming and chaotic. An itinerary helps you maintain the stability you need to stay present.

2) Make a Packing List

Once you’ve got your itinerary in a polite little bow, your packing list creates itself. If you plan on having a picnic in a city park, you’ll pack a blanket and a basket. If you plan on going on a scenic run, you’ll pack sneakers. 

Packing lists help you cut down on unnecessary last-minute spending. Utilize more of your budget on happy hour deals or appetizers at the restaurants you visit instead of last minute umbrellas or tissue packets.

Here are some ideas of necessities you might want to consider to get you started:

• Comfortable shoes

• Extra cash

• Feminine products

• Gum

• Floss

• Rain jacket or umbrella

• Sunblock

• Water bottle

If you’re an under-packer, make sure to add to your packing list a magnifying glass, because your family will be just about ready to kill you if you last-minute force them to spend $30 on another bottle of Sun Bum. If you’re an over-packer, make sure to add to your packing list a prayer that your backpack zipper won’t break this time. 

3) Book a Hotel or Airbnb

If you’re staying overnight, book your stay as far in advance as possible. Your options might dwindle the closer you get to your arrival. 

Concierges at hotel desks can enhance your trip. Although your itinerary looks phenomenal at this point, maybe there’s something you missed, or maybe unforeseen circumstances change your plans. A concierge can brainstorm a Plan B and make sure your time doesn’t go to waste.

Stay within your budget and enjoy hotel amenities and offerings, but most importantly, make safety your priority. Check the reviews for the place you book. Research the location to make sure you’re comfortable with the area the hotel or Airbnb is placed in. 

You want to spend your night after a long day in comfy pajamas and a deep sleep— not hosting a bed bug mixer. 

4) Get to Know the Public Transit

Why go choose normal delivery when Prime exists? 

Before you embark on hour-long walks from one attraction to another, research the public transit in the area. Sometimes you’ll need something along the lines of a MetroCard. Knowing what you need to buy in advance will save you time and confusion.

With a bit of background research, you can understand a city’s public transit below the surface level. For example, it’s unsafe to use certain modes of public transportation past a certain hour of the night. In these cases, paying more money or choosing to walk will always outweigh the risk to your safety. 

Keep in mind that you’ve had your directional toolbox in your pocket well before you planned your city trip. People used to memorize long-winded lists of directions to get to their destinations. Now we have navigation applications in our phones that diminish our directional brain expenditure.

Apple Maps is one application that offers an easy, convenient way to view the most practical routes to reach your destination. Follow these steps to utilize Apple Maps:

1. Type the address of your destination or the name of your destination into the search bar  (e.g. “78 Morey Street” or “Green Thumb Restaurant”).

2. Select the blue icon for directions.

3. Compare and contrast the different modes of transportation. The application might offer an option to drive, walk, bike, take public transit, or rideshare. 

4. Evaluate the shortest and most cost-efficient mode of transportation and tap the green button.

5. Follow the prompts until you find your destination.

You might find engagement with new transportation daunting, but Apple Maps holds your hand and walks you through each step of your journey to deliver you to the correct place in one piece. 

Take advantage of the technology that makes your excursion more accessible. In the process, however, keep Mother Earth in mind and select options that don’t overflow her lungs with pollution. We’re talking to you, private flyers. 

5) Explore a Quick Storage Option with Exchange Zones

During your trip, your bags will weigh on your back or on your patience as your kid starts to complain about the weight of his backpack  (even though he was the one who insisted on bringing all four Furbies). When you want to relieve yourself of the burden of your stuff, take advantage of on-demand luggage storage options near you. 

Exchange Zones are secure, convenient locations that allow people to drop off and pick up items asynchronously. Exchange Zones remove the burden of your luggage so that you can free your hands to capture pictures, hold the hand of a loved one, or sip on a cup of coffee.

To use Exchange Zones, follow these simple steps:

• Download a Relai App

  • Search SHIFT in any App Store

• Select an Exchange Zone near you

  • Review the list of active Exchange Zone locations in your city.

• Choose a block of time

  
  
  
  

  • Decide how long you plan to leave your belongings in the Exchange Zone

• Navigate to the Exchange Zone

  • Copy and paste the address of the Exchange Zone into the search bar of your navigation application and follow the route

• Drop off and pick up

  • Follow the in-app prompts to drop off and pick up your item on your own time

Exchange Zones allow you to enjoy your time knowing that all of your stuff is in a safe place. If you spend your brain power worrying, you aren’t spending it immersing yourself in your experiences.

6) Conduct Background Research on Culture

While you’re wandering the concrete sidewalks of a new land, make sure you don’t step on any toes. 

Research the culture of the city you’re visiting for awareness and respect. Some cities have areas devoted to religious pursuits and expect people to cover parts of their bodies within them. Some cities host populations who don’t support cursing or drinking. Some cities do worse with road rage than others.

Aside from cultural awareness, some cities have unique laws you must abide by, including those revolving around traffic. With a quick search of “What laws should I be aware of when I visit ____?,” you’ll find everything you need to know to keep your record clean.

Part of visiting a new city is befriending different people with different perspectives. Meeting others is the epicenter of enlightenment and fulfillment. Respect for other cultures may require a bit of research, but you’ll be happy you spent the time when you have friends all over the world. 

7) Keep Your Moments Alive

If you don’t have one of those huge fancy cameras, the one on your phone works better than ever. Capture the happy parts of your trip so that you can revisit the city even after you’ve gone home. 

Consider writing about your endeavors, as well. When you take pictures, you can record what you saw. When you journal, you can record how you felt. 

When you plan to take pictures or journal, you’ll find yourself searching for and noting beautiful moments to capture. Planning to capture moments creates a natural inclination to enrich your experiences and a way to relive your memories after your return. 

If you set out to record, you feed your mental algorithm with positive content. 

8) Try New Food

Keep your stomach as happy as you keep your mind. Places you’ve never been offer food you’ve never tried. Or at least food quality you’ve never tried before. Lobster tastes better in Rhode Island than it does in Nebraska.

Find out what types of food the city is famous for and indulge when you get there. Whether you like what you try or you don’t, some of the more exotic food choices will turn into stories to tell your friends when you get back.

Research food festivals the city offers during your visit. Many cities host diverse and interesting ones that allow you to try a variety of fresh snacks you might never have thought existed. These are the perfect places to scour for free samples. Your taste buds will thank you later. 

9) Visit a Park

You can only spend so much time on the concrete. Many cities have beautiful botanical gardens or parks tucked between the aftermath of centuries of industrialization.

Finding a park in a city can be like finding a candle in the dark, and the contrast between the neutral colors of the city and the green of the plant life might fill you with overwhelming peace and serenity.

10) Buy a Souvenir

Ah, yes, something to spur the question, “Where did you get that?” The right souvenir can spark a smile out loud and a warm fuzzy feeling long after your trip has ended. 

Why not start a collection? Visit a hundred new cities and collect a souvenir from each to create a mini representation of the journeys you’ve embarked on. Souvenirs allow you to take home a physical emblem of a city to represent the city’s emotional emblem that has newly taken homage in your heart.

Conclusion

Your visit might serve as a vital milestone on the path to the person you become. If you spend money traveling to a new place, milk it for all it’s worth, so you can learn deeper and enjoy fuller.

Life is too short not to start attacking your bucket list now.