After being cooped up in our apartment in Hawaii working on projects all day, Jill (my wife) and I felt like exploding and wanted to just get outside.
You know, one of those moods where you feel like being a rambler and wandering to no place in particular? That was us today, just looking for someplace to explore.
So we started walking.
5 minutes later we run into my sister and her husband who invited us to go on a “new beach finding expedition”. They only had 1 hour, so we had to be quick.
After piling into their car we drove for 10 minutes and saw a beach park none of us had been to before so we swerved to the curb and jumped out.
When we pushed through the bushes to the edge of the beach, the view we saw was breathtaking… A beautiful stretch of white sand, smooth waves and most impressively, not a person in sight. (Well actually an old local guy just chilling at the far end of the beach, doing yoga to the sunset or something.)
What shocked me the most was realizing to my amazement that just around the point at the end of the beach was another very well know and popular beach. Pounders. Pounders was always full and crowded.
It got me thinking, why had I never heard of or seen this place when it was literally around the corner from one of my top most visited beaches? The locals seemed to know about it, why didn’t I?
I feel like when travelling this happens a ton. We travel and see the most mainstream sights and saturated attractions but miss the beauty of the secret local spots. Below I have made a list of 4 things that have helped me in the past explore the world like a local:
- Use AirBnB Not Hotels
Locals don’t live there neither should you. If you want to see the world and meet the people, AirBnB and VRBO let you live where the locals live and see a more realistic view of a country.
- Local Apps
Find and use apps that show you places only locals know about. Do a quick search on the app store and you will see a ton.
- Find Popular places and look for restaurants just out of normal walking/driving range.
There you have it 3 things I have done that have helped me a lot. Hope they help you too!
