{"id":1596,"date":"2026-07-26T11:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1596"},"modified":"2026-07-26T11:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T11:08:12","slug":"how-to-be-a-tourist-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commercialrelocationpros.com\/?p=1596","title":{"rendered":"How to Be a Tourist at Home"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This is an edition of The<\/i> Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. <\/i>Sign up for it here.<\/i><\/small><\/p>\n

Read more A Brief Exchange That Shows the Enormous Difference Between Trump and Obama<\/a><\/p>\n

Travel has a way of making us curious. We wander unfamiliar streets, strike up conversations with strangers, linger in museums, and notice details that we\u2019d otherwise rush past. But that mindset doesn\u2019t need to be reserved for vacations. Below, Atlantic<\/i> writers and editors share their advice on how to rediscover the places they know best.<\/p>\n

Stop at your neighborhood ethnic restaurant. This is on my mind because the World Cup just ended, and for each day of the tournament, I tried a meal from one of the countries playing that day. Over the course of 32 days, I ate food from 32 different places (the final was the first time I had to duplicate, eating Argentinean cuisine again), mostly without leaving the Washington, D.C., area.<\/p>\n

Every day, I felt like I was taking a new trip. Two blocks from where my kids go to school, I found an Uzbek restaurant that I\u2019d never known existed. I walked into an Egyptian place down the street from my house that I\u2019d previously overlooked. When I went to a Haitian restaurant one evening, I felt like I\u2019d been transported to Port-au-Prince. I had Senegalese food for the first time. I sampled \u0107evapi<\/i> at a Bosnian restaurant and vori vori <\/i>soup at a Paraguayan spot.<\/p>\n

By doing so, I saw my neighborhood in a brand-new light and discovered what surprises are around the corner in even the most familiar places.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Viser, staff writer<\/p>\n

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One way to see the place where you live through fresh eyes is to borrow someone else\u2019s. When a friend visits from out of town, I’ll give them a little time, in deference to custom, to stretch their legs and get their bearings. Then they\u2019d better buckle up, because I\u2019m going into tour-guide mode. Did my college buddy who drove up from Baltimore bargain for a whirlwind circuit of my objectively not-that-interesting Delaware town? Doesn\u2019t matter. The nerdy facts and local lore that I\u2019ve accumulated over the years will come spilling out with rapid-fire enthusiasm and questionable accuracy. (\u201cSee that hill over there? General Washington once walked up it looking for the British, saw none, and walked back down.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Landmarks that I haven\u2019t been to in years will be explored anew. Drinks and subpar nachos will be shared beneath the musty rafters of the tavern where the surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon once imbibed. Inevitably, my friend will ask questions about my town that I had never thought to ask. We\u2019ll go looking for the answers. And new local knowledge will be gleaned, with which future visitors will someday be regaled.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Will Oremus, staff writer<\/p>\n

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I live in Chicago\u2014which means there\u2019s no shortage of places to try and things to see. However, getting stuck in a routine of going to the same neighborhood spots can be easy. One way I\u2019ve found to break myself out of that pattern is to tack on a new experience to something I already have to do: I\u2019ll visit a nearby coffee shop after getting my driver\u2019s license renewed downtown, I\u2019ll get on the L train to dinner early enough to wander through an unfamiliar neighborhood, I\u2019ll pop into a new grocery store after a workout class, or I\u2019ll take the scenic route along the lake as I drive out to the suburbs. It\u2019s a low-effort way to discover new corners of the city without the pressure of planning out an entire excursion\u2014and it makes even the most mundane errands a little more exciting.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Katie Anthony, associate editor<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n

I\u2019ve always found meeting strangers easier while traveling than when I\u2019m at home. Planes are like dive bars, in the sense that within these dimly lit, claustrophobic spaces where drinks are served regularly, you may find yourself making friends with a seatmate in 32C. My brother once asked to borrow a laptop charger from a stranger at the airport, and somehow, that stranger ended up at my next birthday party. In new cities, taxi drivers and tour guides become temporary companions.<\/p>\n

So why not re-create that openness at home? Host a party and tell people to bring plus-ones. Use those bruised bananas to make bread for the neighbor you still haven\u2019t met. Buy coffee for the person standing in front of you in line at the caf\u00e9. Or here\u2019s a ridiculous idea: Ask a stranger for directions\u2014even if you already know where you\u2019re going. Perhaps they\u2019ll send you along a new route that you never would have chosen yourself.<\/p>\n

Read more The Mounting Cost of War<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Lila Shroff, staff writer<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n

This week, I\u2019m visiting my hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for my grandfather\u2019s 90th birthday. I come here at least three times a year, so I\u2019m used to the same routine: my daily hour-long morning walk around the neighborhood, pickleball with my very competitive and skilled father, a pilgrimage to Franklin Street to relive my college days, and so on.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s new on this particular trip is the addition of my six-month-old son. He\u2019s at a fun age where, with bright, Carolina-blue eyes, he perceives his surroundings and knows he\u2019s somewhere unfamiliar <\/i>but comfortable. Bringing him along for all of my Chapel Hill activities has given me a fresh perspective on coming home. By going with him to the local pool, putting him in a new He\u2019s Not Here<\/span> Blue Cup onesie, and seeing as much family with him as possible, I\u2019m reexperiencing my hometown through his eyes. As my son takes in the sights and sounds of North Carolina, I gain a deeper appreciation for where I grew up and for my own parents, who created those traditions for me.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Michael Leibel, senior editor<\/p>\n

***<\/div>\n

Take a city tour. A long time ago, I spent a couple of summers working as a tour guide and bus driver in Alaska, where I would lead tours of Anchorage and Valdez. Whenever somebody local would come aboard (usually with family from out of town), I\u2019d be nervous, afraid they\u2019d be bored or that I might get some facts wrong. Instead, I almost always heard that they had come away with a new outlook on a place that they passed by every day or had always meant to visit.<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t even need to have out-of-town guests as an excuse\u2014just hop on a tour bus or boat for an afternoon, and you\u2019ll almost certainly notice something you\u2019d overlooked before.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alan Taylor, senior editor<\/p>\n

Here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic<\/i>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

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