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Unrelated to your question, but you seem to have ticked the option in your settings that indicate that you are a bot, so anyone with a blanket ban on bots won’t see anything you write.

I (almost) never make any plans. I travel to the city, and then I decide what to do on the spot. Whatever I happen to be in the mood for. Most places I visit have something I want to see already and I don’t have to plan for it. And if there are night life activities, I’m checking them out. No rules. No itinerary. Just spontaneous adventure.

I personally make sure I stay in a good neighborhood and check Wikivoyage for details like transportation and safety, but that’s pretty much it. If I land in a good neighborhood (not touristy, lots of amenities and restaurants around, easy connection on foot or by public transport to the major areas), then I’m pretty much golden.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but I think not enough research is much better than too much. Any tourist information will draw you to overpriced and/or overhyped places. The desire, say, to “eat the best X” or “visit the most famous Y” is making your travels crappier.

Instead, I recommend cultivating normalcy. Visit your neighborhood by foot, and take chances on unknown places. You can check Google Maps to get the sense of a place, but if the reviews are good and they’re mostly local reviewers, and the place is crowded, you’re in good hands. Check out what other people are eating and order that. (Just point if needed.)

My partner and I have what we call our “grounding ritual.” We set out by foot in our neighborhood and spot what we’ll need: a convenience store for late-night snack runs, a supermarket or fresh market for food, etc. We check out public transportation options nearby. Then we find a nice, no-frills local restaurant and have a meal there. If the place is good, we make a point of returning there over the next few days. Doesn’t matter if we’re there for a weekend.

We just returned from a few days in Warsaw, a city I had never been before. Besides the Old Town, none of the places we visited were stuff I had read about online. We just let our feet, eyes, and noses lead us to interesting places.

Last time I was on vacation alone I googled the few things I knew I wanted to see/do, and the rest of the time I just went out and see where I end up. Looking where locals go and do that is also a great trick.

My experience is that most easily online findable things are very tourist-y. I preffer to see more of the non-tourist stuff. Knowing a local is then the best, but by lack there off, just go with the flow.

I like to aimlessly walk around and see where I land.

Check the neighborhood maps on nomadlist. Check out where there are supposed to be cool stuff/people. Usually I just search Google maps for things/streets in those neighborhoods for things that might be interesting… Cafés, restaurants, bars, shops, etc…

You MUST get used to meeting locals when you’re traveling a lot. Meetup.com, couchsurfing, internations, dating apps, or even the hostel where you are staying.

For context, I traveled full time, nonstop for 4ish years before covid. This is how I did the majority of my travel. Things like attractions or museums or historical places get really old really fast. If I never set foot in an art museum for the rest of my life, I will not be upset in the slightest. People, food, shopping, culture… This is the only thing I feel is worth seeing anymore.

I’ve traveled to many corners of the planet and have a different take than most. Many people try to min/max their trip, filling up every minute of every day which doesn’t appeal to me at all. I prefer a laid back, impromptu schedule to give myself time to see and do stuff I didn’t plan and time to breathe and enjoy being in a new place. To me, the worst thing you can do is overplan and overschedule so you’re stressed out if something happens to screw up your tight schedule.

As for selecting what to do, I usually do tons of internet and book research finding things that sound interesting. I add everything to a list and to Google Maps as saved points and then try to cluster them into days, making sure I’m not packing in too much as noted above. I’m not especially concerned if I don’t get to everything–if I really enjoyed a place, odds are I’ll return and put focus on different experiences.

Urban hiking. Plan a few stops at big tourist attractions and then walk between them, stoping for drinks and food as desired. Easily the best way to actually explore different neighborhoods.

It depends on a lot of things. Which part of the world? In Europe big cities all have the tourist part and the “old town” part. If you are there sightseeing just get a tourist map and start exploring.

You can usually get an equivalent of a tourist day tickets, which will give you unlimited access to public transport, sightseeing buses and some attractions/museums. Just pick up the one which tickles your fancy and usually you can get it from any airport, big train/bus station when you arrive.

If you are there to party and check out the night life I would strictly stick to popular spots.

For any other interests (hiking, historical spots, etc) you can find a city specific list of recommendations online.

Also it usually helps to google which tourist scams are popular in the region to avoid them.

In each city I visit, I always try to do a bike tour. You can see a lot in a 2-3 hours and the tour guides are usually very knowledgeable.

I find the best way is to establish where the main thoroughfare is, and also the old part of town. That’s usually where there’s shops and nice places to wander about window shopping and looking for food options. Bigger cities often have multiple versions of these things so you might need to walk around a few to get a sense of which ones are touristy and which ones are something else.

Once you sort of have your bearings, think about what this place is famous for in the sense of “when have you heard about this place in an everyday context?”. Was there a famous guy who did stuff here? Did something big happen during the industrial revolution? What was the war situation like? If there’s any big notable things that spring to mind, chances are there’s a museum or monument or thing about it. And obviously what springs to mind is going to be different for different people. You might instantly go to some botanist who worked for the national gardens while I might think of some architect who designed a bunch of metro stations, while someone else thinks of that really well preserved tank they have. Don’t go “I have to go to these places because they’re famous”, go “oh that’s where that I thing I know is!”

Alternatively, super niche but if you still use Pokemon go/Ingress, open it up and see where portals are scattered. Generally speaking if there’s a lot of portals in one area, there’s something interesting there. Also idk about Pokemon go but ingress has a ‘missions’ mode where people make little pseudo-orientering maps where you have to run about looking for a specific location, and they’re often themed.

Get to know a taxi driver. Ask locals where to go and what to see. Stop by a visitors bureau or welcome center. Hit up a local colleges student center.

When I traveled a lot, I used to start with the local phone book. Not only did it have business information, but government info, and a section devoted to local arts and museums. These days I (gasp) talk to people at pubs or bars or coffee shops. Obviously, if they are annoyed, I let them be, but you’d be surprised how many people are happy to brag about their community.

I love to get lost and explore on my own. Sometimes I look up some interesting places to visit, museums, pubs and stuff. It is better to do this on your own or with small group (max 4 people). If you want some tips for Czech Republic you can ask me :-)

I like to just to Geocaching. There are often a lot of caches in the cities, and a lot of then often have really niche information on I teresting topics. Plus when doing earth or virtual caches, you often need to explore quite a bit.