How to Travel Like a Local, 10 Habits From My Own Trips

I try to travel like a local wherever I go, which mostly means doing the slightly inconvenient thing. The bus instead of the taxi. The small town instead of the capital. The workshop with three tables instead of the one with a tour bus parked outside.

I have been an immigrant in Singapore and now Melbourne, so I know the difference between visiting a place and living in it. These are the habits that get me closest to the second one, even on a short trip.

1. Join a Small Workshop, Not a Tourist Production

The easiest way to travel like a local is to make something with your hands next to someone who does it for a living. In Kyoto, after two wrong turns on a 0°C evening (I refused to use Google Maps), Fafa and I passed a tiny storefront with three workshop tables. Fafa, a man who does not do crafts, said “let’s check it out.”

We left glanta with matching silver rings, hammered and polished on the spot, engraved with Ichigo Ichie, one time, one meeting.

KK tip: Skip anything that comes with a group pickup. The best workshops are the ones you nearly walk past.

2. Visit a Prayer House

Temples, shrines, churches and mosques are where a city shows what it actually cares about. I never plan my wishes. In Kamakura I wandered away from the big temple grounds and found the tiny Kakigara Inari Shrine, where the ema boards are shaped like oysters. I paid 300 yen and wrote my only wish, JOY.

KK tip: Dress modestly, watch what locals do first, and copy them quietly.

3. Visit a Local Town

Capitals are built for visitors. Small towns are built for the people who live there, and they will not rearrange themselves for you. In Furano, we arrived famished at dusk and learned that every restaurant near our Airbnb had already closed. That is the point. You eat when they eat.

And sometimes a village makes you want to stay forever. I can still see myself living in Takahara, up in the misty mountains on the Kumano Kodo.

KK tip: Buy supplies before dark. Small town kitchens close early.

4. Go Where Locals Go on Holiday

If you want to travel like a local, holiday like one. In Japan that means a hot spring town. In Kinosaki Onsen, Fafa and I spent two nights hopping between all the bathhouses in yukata, in a bath town Japanese holidaymakers have loved for over a century, and I chose crab 13 times out of 14.

KK tip: Learn the onsen etiquette before you go. Wash first, soak second, and leave your towel out of the water.

5. Find the Indie Bookshop

Chain bookstores look the same everywhere. Indie bookshops tell you what a city reads, and who it wants to be. On a work trip to Auckland, I fell for Lamplight Books and left with two poetry books. In Santorini, I dragged Fafa through a windy maze in Firostefani to find Atlantis Books, and walked out with a small blue journal stamped with the shop’s seal.

KK tip: Ask the bookseller for one local author. You will get a book and a conversation.

6. Take the Bus

Taxis show you the destination. Buses show you the city. Our trip to Ine started on a very cold morning, on a bus pulling out of Kyoto as the buildings thinned and the mountains crept in. In Wakayama, Bus 53 carried us away from Yunomine Onsen while I waved the village goodbye. (In Nouméa, public transport is not really a thing, so even I gave up and took taxis.)

KK tip: Get the local transport card on day one, and keep coins for the buses that still want cash.

7. Read a Local Blog

Guidebooks are written for everyone. Local blogs are written for the neighbourhood, so they tell you which bakery just opened and which famous one locals stopped queuing for. Search in the local language and let Google Translate do the rest.

KK tip: Look for the blogger who writes about their own suburb. They are the ones with opinions.

8. Go to McDonald’s (Yes, Really)

Hear me out. McDonald’s is a tiny lesson in local culture, starting with the name. Australians say Maccas, my Filipino colleagues in Singapore said MacDo, Indonesians say Mekdi, and the Japanese apparently say Makku. Every country has its own, and the menu changes with it.

KK tip: Order the item you can only get in that country. Never the Big Mac.

9. Eat Your Own Country’s Food There

This one sounds like the opposite of travelling like a local, but it shows you who has migrated there and how the local palate bends their cuisine. I have been tracking Indonesian food around the world for years. On my birthday in Nouméa, I found Traiteur Le Surabaya in the most industrial part of town. The owner spoke Bahasa, the Teh Botol was the frothiest I have ever had, and the food tasted Asian but not quite Indo. Still my most remote Indonesian meal yet.

KK tip: Talk to the owner. Their migration story is the best thing on the menu.

10. Go on a Food Tour

A good food tour is a shortcut to a neighbourhood’s kitchen. The Sandringham Food and Spice Tour in Auckland’s Little India, run single-handedly by Mary, was the most fun and educational I have done. Homemade spiced cashews before we even started walking, award-winning biryani with Thums Up, tandoor roti, Sri Lankan lavariya and an Afghan kebab feast to finish.

KK tip: Pick a tour run by one passionate local over a big company. And arrive hungry.

Travel Like a Local, Not Like a Checklist

None of these habits needs a bigger budget. They need a bit more time, a bit more curiosity, and a willingness to get lost twice on the way to dinner. That is usually where the good stuff is.

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