Beyond Popular Opinion: You Should Act Like a Tourist

I've been thinking about our obsession with not looking like tourists. Everywhere I look, travel advice tells us to find where the locals go and avoid the obvious spots.

I understand the appeal because I do it too. I want the secret restaurant recommendation. I want to drive through the countryside, wander into random shops, and stare at the fields as if it is the first time I have seen grass. There is something beautiful about a new place making the mundane feel interesting.

But when did “don’t act like a tourist” become a rule?

Maybe it is because travel now passes through social media first. Before we even arrive, a stranger has already decided which neighborhood is chic, which restaurant is worth the reservation, and which unknown town we need to visit "before everyone else ruins it."

It reminds me a little bit of high school. In the summer, I loved going to New Jersey to visit my stylish auntie. We always did back-to-school shopping, and I loved finding clothes that no one back home had. My aunt would buy them for me, and I would be so excited about them until I actually had to wear them to school. Suddenly, I was embarrassed by the same clothes I genuinely loved.

I think that is what I am noticing about travel lately. We let society’s biggest marketing machine do its thing, and we let other people’s ideas of good taste make us second-guess our own curiosity.

If you want to see the famous, touristy thing, why shouldn’t you?