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

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.

I just walk and see what I find. I like walking so that’s a plus.

As the others have said, anything you Google is going to be too popular. Just wander and wonder.

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 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.

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.

I usually read a lot about the city in advance and make a list of sights I want to see. And most time I use to stay at least one night. So I arrive the first day and use to walk around the city. In most of the cities (except Berlin) most of the sights are near to the city centre. So most parts of my list are done without any planning. For the next day I only have few sights left. Mostly things apart the centre or indoor activities like museums.

I just go for a run! Usually early in the morning Strava usually has some routes for most of the places I go and It’s a great way of seeing some of the sights! I’ve found some great bars and places to visit later on with my wife when on holidays this way.

Im a bit of a film nut, so I search for “Films shot in place” and see if theres anything that jumps out at me. When I was in Paris/Europe I went to a bunch of Filming locations from Ronin.

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.

Go to local antique shops/flea markets. Cool people and cool old shit

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 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 use a lot of Google Maps to tag things I want to see. From that, you’ll usually get a cluster of things in an area that you want to see.

I also don’t really care about what the articles say more than just getting a basic list of ideas and then looking it up on Google Maps to see what people really think of it.

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.