If you want to see more of a city or country, a self-guided tour is your ticket to becoming fully immersed in the experience. It takes you out of a follower mentality and makes you a leader. It forces you to use your skills as you research, organize, and plan the details of your tour. Doing so allows you to enjoy more of the things that pique your interests and get you feeling happy, healthy, and inspired.
Here is what you need to do to see an area without the use of a guide:
- Find a few attractions of interest. Research places you want to visit. It could be landmarks, restaurants, local businesses, natural settings, and even big venues. Select a handful of things in the same general vicinity of one another. You’ll want to be able to get to them by foot or short bus/trolley/train ride. Transportation in other cities and countries can be part of your tour experience.
- Locate a map of the area. Keep it on you and study it. That way, you can decide which route to take while going on your self-guided tour. You may find a few extra stops that you hadn’t first considered.
- Plan a few breaks. Find a place to sit down and people watch. Order a drink and jot down a few notes about the location in your travel journal or note-taking app. You’ll get more out of the experience that way.
- Take lots of pictures. Enjoy what you’ve seen at a later date by taking and posting the photographs from your trip. Sharing them with others is a great way to connect more intimately with your travel experiences. Let people share their insights and questions with you because it makes you a sort of travel authority which feels very empowering.
- Access audios that tell more about the area or place of interest. There are recorded files of famous speeches, other people’s self-guided tour experiences, and music clips that you can get from the internet and make it part of your travels. The app, Detour, offers over 75 new audio tours in 12 new cities. It’s free to use and downloadable for iOS and Android devices.
- Visit with the locals. Get to know the people in the area by talking to them. Share what you’ve seen and done so far. Ask them for recommendations. You’ll find a lot of things to do off the beaten path which is incredibly exciting. You never know how one idea, place or person can change your trip for the better.
A self-guided tour of an area can be a lot of fun. It takes advance preparation to pull off but can take you as long as you want to give it to fully explore a neighborhood, business district or natural part of a city or country. It puts you in control of your experience by highlighting the things that are important to you. Most guided tours don’t offer a lot of flexibility so you’re at a real advantage when you decide to go on a self-guided tour instead.
