For the past 15 years or so, I’ve been lucky enough to have traveled the world with my parents, checking off more than 60 countries. Most of the travel was done through cruise ships and rushed bus tours, and while this method of travel allows you to maximize the amount of cities and countries you can hit (I think our record for one trip was 14 or 15 countries in the span of three weeks), you only get a glimpse of the city that you’re visiting. It’s a flurry of activity–running from attraction to attraction, taking photos when you get to a spot and not having the time to simply take in the view, and just trying to see as much as you can in such a limited amount of time.
Because of these crunched timelines we always work under, I love traveling to a place for the second time, sometimes even more than the first time. While there’s less novelty (which is sometimes the best part when it comes to traveling), in my mind, you get more of the “local experience” the second time around.
When you visit a place for the first time, you’re laser-focused on seeing the renowned tourist attractions. If you go to Paris, you’re gunning straight for the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. If you go to Rome, there’s no doubt you’ll be rushing off to see the Colosseum and do a quick stop at the Vatican. It makes sense–these attractions are what the port in question is known for and you’re going to want to see them the first time you visit the city. More often than not, you’ll be stuck in massive line-ups, taking photos for the sake of showing friends when you go home, perusing souvenir shops and probably seeing more tourists than locals.
By contrast, your second time to a city can be spent trying to immerse yourself in the local culture, since you’ve seen most of the famous attractions already. We’ve visited a few of the popular cities a second time around–Rome, Paris, Copenhagen, New York City, just to name a few. In each case, the second time has been way more interesting in the sense that it felt like I was more in tune with the city. You can stay away from all the crowded tourist areas and instead go for a picnic in a local park, stroll through the shops of the area, or just sit on a bench somewhere and people watch. Everything is easier—less stressful and rushed.
For example, my parents and I first traveled to Paris in 2010, but in 2016, my mom and I later went back and stayed for a few days. That trip, to this day, is still so clear in my memory because of how much I enjoyed it. We’d wake up every morning and grab brunch at one of the local cafes on Champs-Elysees. Then, we’d spend the day doing whatever, whether it was stopping for eclairs mid-day, going shopping or just walking an insane amount. We still did touristy things, like doing a river cruise on the Seine, but it was clear that it was different from the first time we’d been in the city. Instead of rushing to take pictures of each sight we saw along the riverbank, we just sat back and enjoyed ourselves.
So, if you ever get the chance, in the near or far future, you should go back to a city you’ve visited before and see how it’s different. It doesn’t even have to be one you loved the first time around. I hated Rome at first because I felt like I hadn’t seen any of the city, which was true. We were there for about eight hours (it was a day stop on a cruise ship) and our tour took us to the Colosseum and the Vatican. That was it. But we went back again last summer, and this time I loved every second of it because I felt more immersed in the culture and the city.
After all, travel is about broadening your mind’s perspective and experiencing new things. So what better way to do so than to visit somewhere old and see the new in it?