Do you visit "tourist attractions" on vacation?

Gearheadotaku wrote: After a quick sweep of the big ticket tourist suff, I like to find local flavor. Little bars and diners. Old stores and roadside odditys.

Same here.

I just like exploring and finding restaurants and cafes and bars that I feel at home in. When I was in DC over the summer, I had one afternoon free, and the whole time I walked, drank coffee, and ate lots of small portions of random food (an empanada here, yucca frita there, pastry, etc..).

Coming from a small southern town, the best part about traveling in a city is feeling the density of people stacked on top of each other. I like it; it's a different type of privacy.

Was in Israel, didn't bother to see Jerusalem. Visit Africa, and didn't go on a safari. Hit the Grand Canyon and stay there for about half an hour. Drove right through the painted desert. Etc, etc, etc.

I was "too smart" to fall for those traps. I would go out and experience the "real" whatever. No matter where I was.

OH GOD YES I HIT TOURIST PLACES! I missed so much by not doing it before. So now I make darn sure I eat weird local foods. Celebrate strange local customs and festivals. Go to the fun and silly and memorable places. I dive, I fly, I ride scenic trains and boats.

Funny how much more memorable those trips are now.

I like to do the touristy stuff and the local stuff. I find that touristy restaurants are total crap as a whole, and try to find local grub.

It troubles me that my state's two biggest tourist attractions are the casinos. There's so much more to see here. Of course, nothing else is coming to mind right now.

Woody wrote: It troubles me that my state's two biggest tourist attractions are the casinos. There's so much more to see here. Of course, nothing else is coming to mind right now.

Mystic Seaport, Gillette Castle, USS Nautilus/Groton Submarine Base, Bushnell Park, innumerable 3-400yr old salt-box and Cape Cod homes and churches, Lime Rock.

Connecticut was a great place to grow up!

Woody wrote: It troubles me that my state's two biggest tourist attractions are the casinos. There's so much more to see here. Of course, nothing else is coming to mind right now.

We had a good time in Mystic. If anyone was serious about seeing the Emipire State Building we've had good luck going just before it opens on a weekday. I do try to steer people away from the "touristy" resturaunts. Planet Hollywood is the same here as it was everywhere else you've been and if you really need a Hard Rock shirt from every city you can probably get them online. If you need to eat at a famous place there are so many here that aren't gimickie burger places.

Also in CT I forget the name but we stayed on a battleship for the night with my dads scout troop

Isn't the Coast Guard Academy in CT also?

aussiesmg wrote: Wallster looks like I will be headed your way in June, My Mom is coming to visit after a Euro vacation and I'm going to meet her there, where should we go while there..? Just serious, want to meet up and have a beer in a cool bar and run our Automotive afflicted minds until we get thrown out.

I'll know my schedule for the next six months around Christmas, but most likely I'll be off all day sunday and monday and after 11pm the rest of the week.

think about it from the perspective of the tourist after they get home. "yeah, we saw all the standard crap, but we found a little hole-in-the-wall [fill in the blank] and it was awesome! our bus driver told us it's where the locals go for [whatever it is]."

you're becoming part of their family lore, and you're giving them a chance to sound cool to their family and friends.

A lot of it depends on if I take my daughter or not she really likes the tourist stuff. I do a little but it wears thin very fast. If I can avoid it I will not eat at the tourist resturants. Local food is almost always better.

Kia_racer wrote: A lot of it depends on if I take my daughter or not ...

Very true; kids make a big difference in travel plans. They likely won't appreciate the delicate local flavor, prefering instead whatever glitz and glamor the tourist places offer.

93celicaGT2 wrote: I tend to not have an intinerary when i go places. I like to explore, get lost, and attempt to find my way back again, while checking out everything i can. In NYC, this probably sounds like a bad idea, doesn't it...

But it actually works VERY well.

But the next time I get down there, all I want to do is hit up the Met and go to Ave.Q.

Or a Mets game if it's in the spring.

I'm all about doing the kitch and learning the area. My wife and I lived in an RV for three years and we stayed long enough in each area to get the vibe. In some places that was 3 days, in other places it was 9 months. BUT... when we were on the road, we ALWAYS did the off-beat stuff. We made it a point to see the world's largest ball of string, the largest bull, the largest roadrunner, as well as visiting the geographic and geodetic centers of the U.S. That is stuff that means something cheesy, but its not like waiting in line to see the grand canyon, or going to disneyland like everyone else does.

Its not about laundromats and shemales... its about getting a real feel for the city. Going to NYC and seeing a broadway show, going to central park, and then eating at Mama Leone's is like going to L.A. and going to Disneyland and Hollywood Blvd. No one who lives in L.A. ever goes to Hollywood Blvd, just like very few New Yorkers hang out in Central Park. I'm not suggesting that you send folks on a walking tour of Brooklyn and Queens anymore than I suggest wearing a red bandana in Compton, but there is so much more "real" in cities than you can experience by seeing the tourist sites.

If you live in a town, you experience the laundromats, the shemales, and the pharmacies. If you are a tourist, you are guided around to the tourist attractions - which are not necessarily indicative of the city, merely indicative of what makes money from tourists. Instead, I shoot for the middle - the truth of a city. I can go anywhere and see a good musical and eat an italian meal. I don't have to go to Manhattan for that. I go to NYC to explore what it has to offer to itself, not what it has to offer to sucker tourists.

That's it... (I should patent this). Those who live in a city do so because of what it offers those who live there. Those who are tourists in a city visit because of what it offers tourists. Those who wish to experience a city need to find what the city experiences.

My wife and I like to drive the backroads and see the little towns that the big highways miss. We usually have a great time doing it.

Last time we went to Portland my wife went on the website for "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" and found every restaurant they went to from Everett to Portland. We ate our way through Washington and part of Oregon and had a blast doing it.

If you're in Portland, make sure you visit "The Alibi". It wasn't on the show but it's this great 1950's Polynesian lounge on North Interstate. I don't think it's been redecorated in the last 50 years. The deep fried mac&cheese rocks.

Shawn