“Live like a local.” That’s the message that travel publications and influencers have parroted for years now, a simple piece of advice that can supposedly transform your travels. Help you have a more authentic experience. Except is that really what travelers want? To live like locals when they visit new destinations?
On the r/travel subreddit a while back, one user asked, “What is a travel thing that is popular on Reddit, but not in real life?” The responses were varied, but one that garnered a lot of attention was this: “Obsession with ‘being with locals.’ It’s not extremely pronounced in this sub, but tends to be in many travel forums. It’s a special kind of arrogance and I literally know no one IRL who travels with the proclaimed priority to ‘hang out with locals.’” Nearly everyone who responded was in agreement.
“I think it feels like treating locals like cast members in Disney World or something,” one user replied. “It’s an update of the ‘white explorer is accepted by natives and becomes the celebrated foreigner’ trope,” said another. The consensus was that trying to “live like a local” is a form of virtue signaling.
While there’s an element of truth to that, it’s largely a matter of context. Visiting a developing country under the guise of wanting to “live like a local” is, without a doubt, exactly that. There are lots of destinations that encourage visitors to immerse themselves in the local culture, but I don’t believe anyone is truly operating under the pretense that both visitor and local are, at any point, having an interchangeable experience, regardless of what Instagram may have you believing.
But this question also raises another interesting point, which is that aiming to experience a destination through a local doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll do the things that make said destination unique.
“Yeah, people ask where locals go in the city where I live,” another Reddit user wrote. “Dude, we go to a sports bar in a strip mall, eat wings and watch football. If that’s what you end up doing on vacation you could have just stayed home.”
An entirely valid point! I, for one, would not recommend an international visitor spend a weekend in the city where I live in the same way that I do on a regular basis, either. That’s not to say I’m regularly hitting the neighborhood Applebee’s, but I imagine an outsider may find my regular dive or sushi spot wanting.
The more pertinent question is what parts of my city I’d want to show off to someone who’d never been, which would more likely include a buzzy cocktail bar our drinks editor loves, or a sushi restaurant in another neighborhood that my friends have been hounding me to try. It’s more about seeking out the places you wouldn’t have known about had you not had a local on the ground to tell you about them, rather than about where the locals go to hang out after work, for example. Most travelers are not looking to live like a local — not really. So maybe it’s a matter of semantics.
There’s another issue with the “travel like a local” messaging, though: it tends to suggest that doing touristy things somehow makes you a lesser traveler. This is, in a word, idiotic. If you are visiting Paris for the first time, are you going to skip the Eiffel Tower? Of course not. I don’t think any amount of travel puts someone above seeing the Eiffel Tower. Most heavily touristed sites have that reputation because they are historically or culturally significant, and thus worth making time for.
That said, I do think there’s a balance to consider. Maybe you go see the Colosseum but then, rather than relying on Tripadvisor’s “10 BEST Restaurants in Rome” list, or the first result that pops up when you search “restaurants near the Colosseum,” you venture a little further out to the family-owned pizza shop your tour guide swears by. What it means to be a good traveler, and what constitutes an authentic experience, is largely subjective. We all go out into the world in pursuit of different things. The key is to strive for a healthy mix of tourist attractions and local recommendations, and, crucially, not to conflate the latter with “living” like the locals.
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