Explore Local – How To Love Your Neighbor’s Backyard

Explore Local

Starting small by Exploring Your Backyard hopefully filled you with confidence, was enjoyable, and gave you a taste of adventure that made you want to try something bigger. Regardless if your initial trip, or trips, were to a big city or a small town, it’s time to Explore Local. 

BRAINSTORM A LIST

Grab a pen, a piece of paper and ask yourself (and look at a map if you need inspiration): 

What’s within a couple of hours of your home that’s fabulous? 

Your Explore Local List Might Include:

• Art Museums 

• Science Museums 

• Zoo

• Church 

• Cemetery

• Local State Park

• National Park

• Well Known Reservoir or Lake

• Scenic Drive

• A Castle or Mansion

• World Famous Landmark

• Well Known Restaurant

• Alien Landing Location

• Pioneer Trail

• Burial of a Famous Person

• Historical Movie Theater (they have the best popcorn)

If you’re having a hard time creating a list, try a Google search of Places Near Me to Visit.

My Quick Explore Local List

I just did a search and found the Real-Life Up House, Bingham Copper Mine, several parks, a couple of reservoirs and Butterfield Canyon . . . and that’s just in my Neighbor’s Backyard.

Put everything you can come up with on your list, even places or experiences you aren’t particularly interested in. Include places you’ve been and would like to visit again.

View your nearest city through the lens of a tourist who’s exploring something new and ask yourself . . . What would an out-of-town visitor find interesting? 

The More the Merrier!

Salt Lake City is the closest city to me and my list might look something like this:

• Utah Museum of Fine Arts

• Utah Museum of History

• Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur Museum

• Tour the Salt Lake City Library

• Lunch at Lion House at Temple Square 

• Visit the State Capitol

• Cupcakes from Mrs. Backer’s Bakery

• Salt Lake City Cemetery

• Great Salt Lake

• The Coffee Shop at Little America for dinner

• Bingham Copper Mine

• Hiking Along Foothills

• Hogle Zoo

• Family History Museum

• Shopping at City Creek Mall

• Utah Jazz Game

• Pioneer Theater Play

Salt Lake City isn’t known for having a lot of big, exciting places to visit, but as you can see I had no trouble stringing together a long list of fun things to do.

Explore Local Places that Interest You

I prefer culture and cupcakes to action so my artsy day will be a snap to put together.

Your dream day might include completely different things . . . the zoo, a visit to the stinky Great Salt Lake, spending the day at the Family History Museum or hiking the trails along the foothills of Salt Lake City. Only you know what excites you.

RESEARCH

Narrow down your list to what interests you and is do-able in a day. When you have a good feel for what excites you, do a little research on each place you’d like to visit.

See if your potential sites have:

• Wikipedia articles
• News stories
• Are of historical significance or importance
• Hashtags (if there aren’t hashtags, you can create one! How exciting!)

Other Questions To Ask

• Is there a famous person buried in the local cemetery?

• A well known piece of art on loan to the local art museum?

• Does the big smelly lake offer a dinner cruise?

The options are endless and it’s up to you to pluck out the treasures.

Other Things To Consider:

• Are there two or three places that are near one another that you could visit on the same day?

• Does the city offer a discount ticket to visit multiple sites?

• Should you buy tickets for something in advance?

• Is there a free day?

• Is there a well known restaurant you’ve always wanted to have lunch at?

• Who sells a World Famous Treat to get you through your afternoon slump?

Don’t forget to check social media sites, you don’t want to accidentally miss a Must See in the area that somehow slipped your list. 

Do your research, make a plan, get excited about it and attack! 

My Explore Local Salt Lake City day:

• Visit Utah Museum of Fine Arts

• Swing by Salt Lake City Library

• Lunch at The Lion House

• Wander through City Creek Mall

• Visit the State Capitol

• Mrs. Backer’s Bakery for Cupcakes

• Stroll through the SLC Cemetery

• Dinner at The Coffee Shop at Little America

• Sunset at the Great Salt Lake

Whooee, that’s a big day! It’ll be exciting to see how much I actually end up fitting in. 

For added fun, why don’t you take a day off in the middle of the week and make your “trip” feel like a vacation? It’ll give you something to look forward to on Monday and Tuesday.

ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION:

You get bonus points if you park your car and take public transportation into your destination. Here’s why:

If you’re like most Americans you drive everywhere. Outside of the U.S., most big cities around the world provide affordable, excellent public transportation.

If you’ve never taken a train or bus, it’s in your best interest to learn to navigate public transportation in a city that’s familiar to you, instead of, say, Paris. There are many places around the world where inexpensive public transportation or a very expensive taxi ride are your only options.

Get comfortable and learn how to ride the bus and train. 

If you’ve never taken a train or bus before, it seems intimidating and you probably have lots of questions.

Things to consider:

• How do you pay for bus or train fare
• If you transfer, do you pay again
• How do you find the bus or train
• Are individual tickets or a day pass better
• What if you’re stopped by transit officers who bark at you in a foreign language 

Geesh, it might be easier to stay home and drive my car around. 

There’s no need to be anxious. Check this page out for some helpful tips about public transportation.

The good news is, in most cities and countries around the world, the bus, subway and train stations run exactly the same way. If you can master your local bus and/or train situation, you have the skills you need to ride the bus or train anywhere, even if the city you’re visiting uses a completely different alphabet (we’re talking about you, Russia).

Any good guidebook will give you useful tips and tricks to help you navigate public transportation for the specific place you’re visiting, but it would serve you to equip yourself with some basic knowledge. Give you a boost of confidence by learning to navigate public transportation while you’re safe at home and recognize the layout of your city.

If you’ve never taken public transportation, “at home” is the place to start. 

I love nothing more than a bus or train ride and I take public transportation wherever I can. 

Time To Head Out

The big Explore Local day has arrived and I hope you have great weather. Put on your most comfortable shoes, pack a couple of snacks and get going on your big adventure.

Take your time, don’t rush and enjoy the experience. Read all the captions, take pictures and don’t hesitate to deviate from your original plan if you find something that interests you.

Just because you created a plan doesn’t mean you have to stick to it (unless you bought timed tickets for something).

Savor your lunch (try to eat local if possible) and enjoy every bite of the World’s Best Sugar Cookie.

Even if you’ve seen your city a million times before, this is your opportunity to view it through the eyes of a tourist. What an amazing opportunity!

Recommendations for All Your Trips

I don’t want to tell you how to do your exploring, but I do have some suggestions to make your trip more meaningful (Borrowed from the Explore Your Backyard section if you skipped it).

Local food, drinks and snacks should be a part of every journey. If there’s a family-owned shop or restaurant, make it a point to eat there before, after or during your day.

If someone in town makes “The World’s Best Cinnamon Roll” pop in and buy one.

Part of the fun of traveling is experiencing the local food flavor and supporting local business. Don’t skip this important aspect of your journey. McDonald’s has enough money, let’s shop small on this fun journey.

For a bigger adventure, take your food to-go and have a picnic. 

If you start your travel journey with good habits, they’ll serve you in the long run. 

Souvenirs/Geocache

Before you set out, there’s one final thing to consider . . . is there something you want to collect from the places you travel?

I collect Christmas ornaments, bracelets and earrings . . . things I use in everyday life. Alex collects rocks, pins and patches. Not every place we visit sells what we collect . . . except for rocks . . . unfortunately there are rocks literally everywhere.

Consider what you’d like to collect and start now if you can. Visit my section on Souvenirs for ideas.

Lots of people with or without kids Geocache during their travels and collect Geocache virtual souvenirs, which can also be fun, although do your best not to look like a terrorist. 

BE INSPIRING

Make sure your phone or camera is charged. I’d suggest you take some pictures of your big trip!

In fact, I dare you to post pictures of your local trip (you can hashtag #explorelocal).

You never know who you’re going to inspire to step out of their comfort zone by stepping out of your comfort zone.

The truth is, it’s exciting to explore and it doesn’t matter if you’re in your own backyard or on the other side of the globe.

There’s a good chance that Peter from Portugal is interested in that strange headstone you saw . . . post it online and give him the opportunity to see it. 

When you get home, pull out your travel journal and make a few notes about your day. I guarantee you’ll smile when you’re later journaling about visiting The Louvre or Buckingham Palace and you reread your original post about the day you bravely visited a local Catholic Church during Mass and instead of running out, you decided to stop and observe the service.

Culture loves you. Repeat this process until you’re ready to move up. 

I encourage you to share this with a friend who’s never explored a nearby city. Let’s encourage everyone to step out of their comfort zone and try exciting things!

Thanks for Stopping By

Please feel free to share your questions or comments below. If you see any typos, let me know!

I encourage you to share my tribal knowledge with someone who loves or would love to travel.

The Art of Travel (TAOT) ~ Written by Kylie, a huge thanks to Alex for helping with photos.