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| Being A Tourist In Times Square! |
As some of my readers know I grew up in New York City, and when people ask me today things to do and see I am happy to tell them some great spots, many well known, some not as well known, but either way I always tell people that when I lived there I never took advantage of any of those things! In fact, I would say 80 to 90 percent of the many touristic things I've done in New York, I did as a tourist not as a resident. As a resident me and my buddies would sit in a Dunkin Donut's parking lot (parking lots are rare so we opted for this an easy meet up spot) most nights and drink fast food coffee as we were surrounded by millions of people visiting. I thought about it then, that millions of people were spending fortunes to visit and we are sitting there drinking Dunkin Donuts when we have all of this at our finger tips. Yet I did nothing about it, because a little probably well known secret is New Yorker's have a dumb stereotype against doing tourist things.
"What are you doing this weekend Joe?
"Hmm... I don't know, maybe go to The Museum of Natural History or the Statue of Liberty?"
"Hahahah, what are you!? A f--king tourist!!!???
I caved to the "Tourist Things" then, but I obviously don't now! And I am here to tell you it's ok to do the tourist things! So many times on forums I see people that want to visit epic places but don't want to do the tourist things lets go to France and skip the Eiffel Tower, want to go to Bolivia? Sure but I don't want to see the Salt Flats. Especially as more experienced travelers it is awesome to see the less famous-but still somewhat famous- things, a less known vineyard in France, the dinosaur footprints in Bolivia, etc. But it's also perfectly okay to do the main tourist things!
Now a reason I think many people don't enjoy the main tourist things is totally understandable:
- overcrowding
- people taking 1,000 selfies
- prices
- overcrowding
- same knock off souvenir guy omnipresent from Egypt to Japan
- Long lines
- Overcrowding
- Overpriced
- And overcrowding
- Go off peak or even opposite season. I had zero lines when I went to Chicago for New Year's in fact I had navy pier to myself... slightly freezing. But epic photos and memories.
- Sydney Australia is a great reference for this article, I've been for New Years at travel peak but also in August in the low season, when do you think hotels were $80 vs. $500 ;)
- A lot of us especially Americans do have the same vacation times, so then we can just plan ahead and figure out something different than where the main stream is going. I love going to the Southern Hemisphere in the American Summer for their winter. Domestically even think about places that are in the same state they may be a fraction of the price, much less crowded and even a reasonable drive to the main tourist thing you may wanna do anyway.
Dana Point, California is an hour from Los Angeles, but way less crowded even in the peak of summer with the same gorgeous weather. - I went to Disney World once in January, zero lines... a historic event!
- If you have a flexible schedule instead of going on the holiday weekend when everyone goes, how about going the week after? You will notice significantly less crowds and much better prices!
- Can't travel in the off season? Ok, book way in advance before prices go crazy, stay near the center not in the center, also...
- Wake up early! We all want to sleep in, but getting there at the opening time is almost universally less crowded, whatever is on the itinerary for the day, plan the crowded places first.
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