You're a Tourist: Be a Tourist
Yep, that’s me, 100 percent owning my tourist role, in Paris on top of the Arc de Tromphe, taking a selfie with the Eiffel Tower. August 19, 2022.
After moving back to Europe and meeting up with several people for part or all their voyages to travel a bit together, I’ve again noted that certain people get hung up on “doing the tourist thing.”
By “getting hung up on the tourist thing,” I mean they want to just “wander.” They don’t like museums or landmarks or big sites—other than to happen upon them at random or to pass by and look briefly before moving on to the next thing (whether site or food or what-have-you). They don’t like tourist-oriented guided tours or activities, such as tour buses and boats and tour-group events. They say they want to “do as the locals do” and “don’t like feeling like a tourist.”
If this describes you, take heed: You are a tourist. You will never do as the locals do in any given place. If you do not “do the tourist thing,” you miss a massive opportunity—and beg the question about why you’ve taken the time and spent the money to travel somewhere.
Let’s address these points in succession.
You are a Tourist
If you’ve traveled to a place—whether you plan to work a bit from your place of stay or plan to take the time off work entirely—you are a tourist.
Someone who comes to a place to see that place, be in that place, experience that place—and hasn’t moved there for several years or permanently—is a tourist.
Few people traveling would refuse the designation “tourist,” though many of them will refuse to do anything they think makes them look like one or act like one. I assume this comes from a sense of shame, because being a tourist isn’t “cool.” Owning the tourist designation in action, if not in term, makes them feel dorky.
Okay, sure, some tourist activities—if not all—will absolutely scream you out to the world as a tourist. No one who lives there will see you following a tour guide around a neighborhood or sitting on a tour boat with an announcer pointing out landmarks and mistake you for one of the locals.
But here’s the thing: You’re not one of the locals.
You Will Never “Do Like a Local” as a Tourist
At home, as a local, what do you do with your time?
For most of us, for the majority of our time, we work in some way—whether in an office or place of work outside the home or at home.
Outside of work, we take care of our personal lives, whether that means paying bills and running errands or taking care of children and other family members and participating in regular and ongoing hobbies and activities. Probably all the above.
Also, maybe not every week, but at least every so often, you’ll go to the doctor, dentist, or other professional (including accountants and financial advisors) for what I call “life maintenance.” You might go to the gym or participate in a sport. You’ll likely need to periodically pay taxes or go to a parent-teacher meeting or stand in line to vote, too.
You won’t do any of this—other than, sure, maybe working a bit in your hotel room or a café for your back-home job and life maintenance—in whatever place you’ve traveled to visit.
Rarely do people who live in a place go anywhere near the tourist areas in their town or area. You likely don’t, either, when at home. You don’t have the time, energy, or flexibility. You may occasionally visit a museum or do something cultural, but you’ll do this to see a special exhibit or performance that interests you or, possibly, entertain a visitor.
There’s a reason for the Parisian quip that no real Parisian has ever visited the Eiffel Tower, after all. (Though they should!)
What You Miss Not Acting Like a Tourist
If you don’t own the tourist role and do the tourist thing, you won’t understand the why, how, and rationale of the place you’ve spent so much time and money to visit.
Through taking guided tours—whether led by person, audioguide, or tablet—you’ll learn the history of the place, you’ll gain insights into the location’s culture and its evolution, and you’ll understand why this or that landmark, site, or cultural item (whether art, architecture, or beyond) is important in the overall grand scheme of the place, region, and world.
If you don’t, you’ve just gone somewhere, stared at stuff, and said “neat.” You cannot grasp the overall context of a place you’ve visited without doing the tourist thing. It’s just not possible.
Further, you’ll have a lot more fun learning about a people, place, and culture via in-situ interactive visits—where you can pose questions and ask for customizations based on your interests—so much more than you could reading a book or watching a documentary on your couch.
I’ve made the mistake of visiting places and cheaping out on the guided tour—thinking I had enough education on the subject to understand it or believing that my guidebook would give me the context I needed—and left as ignorant as I’d arrived. (See my story about one of my visits to Rome!) What a ridiculously missed opportunity.
I vividly remember a couple I knew when I lived in London who spent significant sums and weeks at a time in different places across the globe. Upon their return, I’d ask them what they thought and saw and did, and they’d report that they’d mainly spent their time in bars and restaurants. They couldn’t tell me a single fun fact or interesting insight—they could only tell me whether they’d found it “pretty” or “cool” and whether they’d liked its bars and restaurants.
Why? They didn’t want to “look like tourists.”
Tourists, Not Just Travelers, Expand their Horizons
I understand not wanting to get eye rolls from locals going about their daily lives. I really do. For most of our lives, society has trained us to avoid looking stupid. Very, very few humans want to go against this sociocultural programming.
However, if you don’t recognize this programming as social shaming, get over it, and see the place you’ve visited, you’ve spent a lot of money and taken a lot of time out of your life without gaining the full benefit of that resource allocation.
Remember: Those locals who might—though will probably not—roll their eyes? You’ll never see them again. And that’s if you even see any locals in the touristy areas of town.
Go beyond wandering streets, looking at other tourists, eating at restaurants and drinking in bars, and doing other superficial things that cannot possibly spur any substantiated insights. See the place via learning about it from experts who know it—licensed or certified guides or even experienced locals. Truly discover the place’s history and culture in context and why it’s different and important.
Only by really seeing a place does travel help us expand our horizons.
P.S.—Have a little extra time in a place and really do want to go deeper, seeing a little of the local life? I’ve written up a few tips on how to “go local” in the right circumstances.