Posted by herbertl 22 hours ago
Reality is thousands of white-collar workers (including me), normal locals and many tourists of all ages. Small number of homeless. But no more dangerous than any other city (and a lot safer during the day and early evening )
as a local, there was a lot of places that are "visible to foreigners but invisible to locals" -- cafes/view spots/hipster-places that only advertises to foreigners (they didn't even have signboards) I learnt about those places when some foreign friends took me there
At the beginning, absolutely. At some point though if it keeps working.. a traveler that takes many risks might be better at evaluating them than a random person they could consult. And/or part of getting there is learning to evaluate which random persons to listen to ;)
That should be enough motivation to start where you're already standing. Build up from there. Figure out if you want to see more mountains, more ocean, whatever. It's a great eye-opener.
When I travelled Japan specifically, maps didn't tell you much at all. It might look like a residential deadzone from high up, but be bustling with cool stuff to do when you walk through.
> P.S. if you are a local, you can do all of this too.
Last year, after spending a bunch of money putting in a fence, and having a puppy that didn't travel well, we decided that we were just going to take a week off and be tourists at home. We visited the museums we've driven by daily for eight years, and had a blast.
And, living in a touristy area, I want to point out that "do what the locals do" is excellent advice. I'll tell you all about where to get great food, great hikes, and not-too-crowded beaches. (Except the residents-only beach. We reserve that for us.)
Things I'd like to try -
* Visiting the tank stream (I believe there are tours)
* The Greater Sydney Bike Trail
* Walking from Manly to Bondi (80km along the harbour)
Things I've done but recommend if you visit -
* Walking the bridge (free)
* Catching a ferry to Manly or Taronga
* Climbing the bridge (expensive!)
* Centrepoint tower (since renamed to Sydney Eye Tower)
* The botanic gardens
* Any beach (I prefer the harbour beaches, there's dozens to choose from)
Edit: Sorry I cannot get the formatting correct
Random blog with photos https://www.walkmyworld.com/posts/wentworth-pass
Rent bikes and cruise the Olympic site. Or cut through briefly to the Cooks River and ride to the beach.
Walk through the glow worm tunnel in the mountains or find someone to take you canyoning. Eeevblog has a video. (Not public transport friendly)
Walk through the the coal terminal at Balls Head.
Walk the start of the Great North walk. Or the length of the Royal national Park (Bundeena to Otford).
Bike/walk the Seven Bridges loop.
Go snorkelling / swim the various rock pools.
Swim at the North Sydney Olympic Pool (if they finish it).
Visit Cockatoo Island / picnic on some of the small islands in the harbour.
Go up the pylon on the bridge.
Lots of tour operators doing it, deals on BookMe and Groupon.
This year just called defeat and I'm moving out to the countryside, hopefully. My city had almost no tourist three years ago and now I had to shout twice to a tourist guide for using a very loud speaker in the very street I live in.
Just today I saw a 1 start review in a place I really like, by a german lady that was baffled waiters didn't even try to speak english to her.
It's just impossible to fight this. Guess we'll have to make our nice place elsewhere until tourists find out.
As for touristy things here in Zurich - it's not really a tourist city. When we have guests from overseas we do have a set of activities to bring them on. When I've offered to bring them in the forest to find mushrooms/berries/etc they're usually not so interested.
I wonder when I’ll ever “become a local”!?