Ways to Travel Beyond The Typical Holiday.

Have you ever had the feeling on a holiday that you’re only scratching the surface of a travel destination? It’s hard to get beyond the touristy restaurants, beaches and iconic sites on any short trip. What are some options to get more of the true local flavour of a place?

1. Travel long-term with your kids.

Travelling with your children causes you to do more “everyday” things when you travel. Kids need routines like playgrounds and picnics, and usually need to stay in each place longer. Therefore, it’s worth considering renting apartments rather than just staying in hotels or hostels.

Locals are much more likely to strike up conversations with you when you’re travelling with young children. These truly authentic experiences are often what makes a trip very special.

2. Wangle an expat job.

When you’re thinking about your career moves, think about what companies and roles might create the opportunity for an expat job. We’ve got friends who got a intra-company transfer to Los Angeles, and got to spend several years living by the beach in LA. A true California lifestyle experience! Another friend works for the UN and gets transferred all around the globe. They’ve ended up buying properties in a number of countries they’ve lived in. Once they leave, they rent them out. That process has given them a good stable of investments, and they’ve really got to understand the local market and culture of different places in the world they’ve lived in.

3. Utilize co-working spaces.

Even if you work online, you can interact with other local freelancers and startups by purchasing a short term membership to a co-working space. Virtually every city has them these days. You should be able to do a day or week membership and then upgrade to monthly once you see if you like the vibe. Freelancers and people with more established businesses are likely to be friendlier than people who are in startup grind mode of walking 20 hours a day. A co-working space is a great environment to stimulate creativity as you’ll come into contact with people in all sorts of different business and it’s also quite a supportive place because many of the others will be having or have had similar experiences to you. Co-working spaces usually have fast internet and good coffee, so you’ll save money on both of these.

4. Volunteer.

Volunteering with an organization that has long term expat volunteers is a great way to learn about all the do’s and donts of your new destination. This happened for me when I volunteered for an NGO in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. By chatting with the other volunteers who had already been there for more than a few weeks, I got tips on the best local places to eat, where the best markets were and the best and cheapest transportation to Siem Reap ( to see the incredible Angkor Wat) and Kampot. Organizations usually have a mix of locals and expats so you’ll likely make friends and connections with locals like I did too. It can be hard to find quality volunteering experiences, but once you’ve found your first one, you’ll either keep going back and back, or you’ll make the connections and get the references you need to find others.