Friday open thread: a tourist in your own home town

[dolorosa_12]

I'm not likely to get to your responses to this open thread until Sunday, as my in-laws are visiting for the weekend and I'll be flat out looking after them and showing them around.

This is in fact what sparked today's prompt: do you find it easy to think of touristy things to do for visitors?

(For those of you new to this journal — e.g. the people who subscribed through the recent snowflake_challenge friending meme, these 'Friday open threads' are a semi-weekly feature. I ask a prompting question, and people can chat about it in the comments.)



Depending on how you define 'home town,' mine could be New York, Sydney, Canberra or Cambridge. The town in which I live now is really only my 'home town' insofar as it is the town where my home is, but it's not where I was born, it's not where I spent my childhood, it's not where my family is from, and it's not really somewhere where I had particularly formative moments. In any case, all of my previous 'home towns' have ample things to do to suit various tourist-y tastes — museums, art galleries, historic buildings, nice places to walk, shows and cultural performances, good food, etc etc. That being said, I was starting to run out of things to do with repeat visitors in Cambridge, particularly if they weren't very mobile or keen on walking.

Where I live now has ... a massive cathedral, a tiny art gallery, and a couple of pretty parks along the river. If you like walking or bike riding, there are lots of routes on which to do so — all through flat fields and fens (the landscape here is very much like that of the Netherlands). It's got a handful of nice restaurants, cafes and tearooms, but basically it's the sort of place that a tour group is bused into for the day from London, they're shown around the cathedral and given a scone and a cup of tea, and then taken back to London on the bus at 4 or 5pm. So I really struggle to know what to do with people who have a) seen the cathedral before and b) have limited mobility. The whole thing is, of course, more complicated when you are an immigrant and any visit from relatives will last for longer than a few hours, and things to do need to be found to fill the time.

In general, I find cities easier to see through the eyes of a tourist and find things to do to suit all interests and needs. Small towns (this town's population is just over 20,000, and by my standards that is tiny) are difficult if the visitors in question can't or don't enjoy going for long walks.

Do you get the idea that I'm a little bit stressed about the whole thing?

Comments

[ursula]

When my in-laws are around, I cook and teach them board games. Ticket to Ride has worked pretty well--there's enough randomness to it that the more ruthless family members can't completely dominate.

[yarnofariadne]

The town in which I live now is really only my 'home town' insofar as it is the town where my home is
I resemble this remark. And being another immigrant I'm sure you understand without me needing to explain it, but I don't think I have a home town. The place I was born isn't somewhere I ever felt at home, and while I love it here, everyone sees me as an immigrant first and foremost, so it's hard to feel like this is a place that's part of me. I never felt like I belonged in the place I left, so I came somewhere I thought I'd belong better, and everyone here just sees me as a representative of everything I ran away from.

On the lighter side, though! Touristy things! We have actually quite a good variety of touristy things to do here. Because I am, at heart, a mercreature trying to drag everyone into the sea with me, I'm always suggesting the beach. We have some lovely ruins and a nice lighthouse nearby, and on weekends there's a local market (which tragically we haven't been to since the pandemic began, but in the Before Times it was a staple of showing people around). If you go into town there's a plethora of galleries and museums, and a delightful historic haunted pub that has a very fun gin menu. I've taken a few visitors to the castle but I try to temper expectations because ours is very puny. Fantastic view from the top, though. It's a chain so I do feel a bit shameful for not recommending somewhere more local, but I do love our Botanist; and, in my defence, everyone I've brought has been just as entranced by the interior aesthetics as I am, so at least we're all having a good time overpaying for our fancy cocktails.

Best of luck with your in-laws this weekend! I hope you're able to find suitable things to fill the time.

[el_staplador]

There's the museum and Oliver Cromwell's house. Depending on the day and the visitors, it's also fun to take people to the market, or turn them loose in the charity shops or Toppings. And I think I'd also consider day trips to Cambridge - maybe Bury St Edmunds or even Norwich, too.

The last time we had people staying in the house, I was still very tired after Covid and mostly had to let them amuse themselves. They went to Aldi and bought an absolute shedload of hot cross buns. So there you go.

[lirazel]

Aww, I'm sorry you're stressed!

My hometown is mostly known for country music-related things which I know nothing about, nor do I care. Most people go to Nashville to go to bars and get drunk. Which I also don't care about.

For someone who is more like me, I have a handful of places I would take them, but it would definitely be hard for me to come up with a long list of things to do! There probably are a ton of things that I just never think about as a native because my experience of the town is so different than a tourist's.

[nerakrose]

this is an interesting question - paired with what one consider one's hometown.

I've been an immigrant (emigrant?) since I was 11 ('99) and we moved away from my hometown when I was 9, so for much of my life I've really struggled to consider that town my hometown. I've been back there only once, maybe twice (I can't remember) since we moved away, and while I do still have some cousins there, my dad moved to Reykjavík in the mid to late 00s (I can't remember) so I haven't had a reason to go there in almost 20 years. I often say I grew up there, but I left when I was 9 - how much growing up did I really do in that place?

(could I think of things to do there off the top of my head if I were to visit? yes. I'd go straight to the natural history museum to check out if it has changed at all. it was free entry when I was a kid and I went all the time. I'd go down to Sprangan and probably be freaked out by how much smaller it will look to me as an adult than it did when I was a kid and couldn't scale the cliffs easily by myself because I was a tiny child, and then I would probably injure myself having a go on the rope anyway. I'd go to the 73' volcano eruption exhibition which I have never seen because the archaeological dig wasn't started until years after I left. I'd probably go check out the half-buried house I used to play on as a kid (without permission) to see if it was still there. I'd go check out the Norwegian stave church. it was erected when I was little, I remember the big do about it. while there I'd go out to the tiny light house nearby (not a light house) that helps guide the boats safely into the harbour and check if the tiny beach next to it is still there, and I'd stand by the light and watch the ferry come in or go out and the waves crash against the cement and wash away the beach. maybe I'd go to the lighthouse on the northeast side of the island. I'd go out to the beach on the south peninsula and see if people are still collecting söl and laying out to dry and maybe collect some myself for a snack. maybe I'd go to a motocross event. I'd probably go on a boat tour around Heimaklettur and into the caves there and listen to the guide tell smuggling stories in heavily accented English for the tourists and wonder if the guide will tell x or y story. maybe the guide would even tell stories about the Turkish pirate invasion. I'd probably hike Heimaklettur itself. I'd go to the valley with the artificial lake and be bored because there's nothing there to do when it's not the festival. (I'd probably glare at the golf course and engage in some vandalism against it, as usual, because it's been 26 years since I last vandalised it.) I'd go to Stakkagerði and check if the troll sculpture is still there (and again be shocked at how much smaller it will look to me and maybe be a little sad I'm to big to snuggle in the troll's arms now) and check if the memorial plaque to the Turkish pirate invasion is still there (they weren't actually turks, they were from Algiers and Morocco, and it happened in the early 17th century). I'd go to the library. Maybe the librarians would remember me. There's a museum in the library, I'd go to that. I'd definitely go out to the airport if I didn't come by air to look at the old plane suspended from the ceiling in the terminal, I loved that plane and I hope it's still there.)

I spent 10 years in Copenhagen which is where I've usually had people come visit me, and I never had any problems finding anything to do or see. There are a variety of things for different tastes and while some things repeated (I would always insist on doing a canal tour - it's 1h and costs something like 40kr if you go with the right company, the other company doing the tour charges almost 200kr for the same thing, it's ridiculous. I would also sometimes go on the tour even if nobody was visiting, it's lovely enough and for that price tag it's perfect) there would always be something else exciting to do when the next visitor came. the other place I've lived where people came to visit was Scotland and there was stuff to do there, both in Stirling where I was based and in other easily reachable cities and towns. I didn't have to think very hard to suggest things to do.

I also think that Copenhagen is probably the place I would call my hometown these days. when I talk about going home it's to Copenhagen because my siblings live there. for as long as they live there I will have strong ties to the place. plus I've thought about moving back once my pre-settled visa expires, depending on my career situation when the time comes. the few times I've been back since I moved to the UK I've gone to some of my favourite places and shops and eateries, the same places I would go to when I lived there, and spent the rest of the time with my family. being in Copenhagen does make me feel calm and relaxed in a way that I don't feel many other places, and it is in large part because I know where everything is, I know which bus to take and whether there's a 7-11 round the corner without having to look it up first.

I live in London now and obviously there are about a million and half things one can do here, and I haven't even explored a fraction of them yet. but I also feel with London that it's not my home, and not only because I don't *want* to live here, it's more like... London has for me been a place that I've seen on TV/film and a place I've gone to on city vacations and done touristy stuff. so it's not that it's a 'fake' city, it's that it's difficult for me to think of it as a place where one can live long term and build a life because it's so utterly foreign to me - even though I've been here almost two years! it doesn't gel with me on a level I can't even explain. we are just incompatible. like having different blood types or something. or to try to put it in other words I would never move to New York, for example, not just because it's on another continent but because it's also a huge city that exists in film and TV and I just can't picture myself in it. or like, idk, Sydney. Mumbai. Rome. Paris. Tokyo. it doesn't seem like a real place where one can live. and London is a lot like that, and a big part of it is, yes, it's expensive, and I don't feel like I belong here for many reasons, but it also just a lot of the time feels like it's full of...facades with nothing behind them. it's like my whole body and soul rejects the idea of London being 'home'. what does it feel like to live here for people who were born here and grew up here and have never lived anywhere else?

....sorry about all that text, don't feel obliged to read all of it, or even reply.

[forestofglory]

I'm not as good at this as I think I should be! I live in place with many many things to do, but my default seems to be go somewhere and wander around for a bit. But then when I'm visiting people I mostly just want to see those people and experience a bit of what their day to day life is like. I like to go shopping and cook together. So hopefully my guests don't mind my lack of planning too much.

(when I was in Cambridge my default thing to do with guests was to walk to Grantchester for cream tea)

[svgurl]

There is a difference between 'home town' and place where you live and place you were born. I was born in one place and lived in a few different ones until I reached what I consider my home town since that is where I really grew up and spent the most time and where I still live. However, it is definitely the suburbs so there is very little to do that is actually the city, but they would know that coming in. Depending on what they want to do, most people need to go to a bigger city (San Francisco, about 40 mins away) or go to the beach. The public transportation isn't all that reliable though so you do need a car. If people aren't aware of how big California is, they will be a little surprised that San Francisco and Los Angeles are not right next to each other though lol

Good luck with the in laws! Are they the kind of people who need to be kept busy or are they more chill? I don't know how the weather is right now but maybe a picnic at the park? I feel like if you visit a place multiple times, you can't expect to be wow'd with something brand new after a while, especially if there are restrictions.

[tellshannon815]

The running joke in my home town is that, if asked something like "If someone's come to Hereford for the first time, what would you recommend they do?" the answer is usually along the lines of "Turn round and run!" That's probably a fair assessment; the times I've had family here it's usually involved going off somewhere out of town for the day.

[corvidology]

As you say, it depends!

Cities aren't necessarily a better resource when there's nothing particularly special about them. I mean, send me home to London and/or the Cotswolds and I'll keep your tourists coming back for new experiences.

Where I live now? Erm... how much do you like shopping malls and rivers?

[bethctg]

I live just outside of a college town (Ithaca, NY), and there are lots of unique shops, cafes, and restaurants (including the famous Moosewood vegetarian restaurant) to share with visitors. We also have plenty of museums, live music venues, and theatres. My only problem with entertaining visitors is that one of the main draws of this region is its waterfalls, gorges, and parks... and I am so *very* not outdoors-y (ironic icon is ironic). My poor hiker friend was so disappointed that I wouldn't go camping with her! ;)

[chestnut_pod]

I think, perhaps like you, I tend to come up with a small handful of stalwarts and then repeat them for new visitors. But, when I have a long-term guest, I try to remember that they're also here to see me, so going to a nice cafe and then just chatting is probably serving the same purpose as any number of nice museums.

Also, cooking. I feel like one can never go wrong by just feeding people.

[merit]

The biggest place I lived in before university had a population of 5K, so. There were two places to drink (in Australia!!) and one was the bowls club. However, it is adjacent to a very popular regional centre so technically there is a lot more to do there now compared to when I was growing up there. Before that, there weren't really 'towns' per se, so hard to have one ^^

I didn't realise Cambridge was so small! best wishes finding some places or things to do.

[justanorthernlight]

I live in my state's capital, so while there are some touristy things to see here (the capital building itself, pretty overlooks of the lake) and the kinds of things/events most cities have (farmers markets, occasional art fairs), I wouldn't consider my city itself to be a tourist destination. I might suggest some of the more interesting attractions within an hour or two's drive of my city (I live in the US midwest, so distance is relative), but generally if someone is visiting me it isn't for tourism reasons.

I used to live in a tiny town (population 2,000 at the time) about 30 minutes from my current city, and we had a famous brewery and a bunch of painted cow statues around town that the tourism board turned into a scavenger hunt challenge.

[gingicat]

I live in the metro Boston area, so somewhat spoiled for choice. But in the little city where I am, there are some nice restaurants, a theater that does everything from Trevor Noah to movies for children (not at the same time), and a whole lot of walks with historical plaques. Tall ships used to be built here along a canal and then floated down the Mystic River to Boston Harbor. There's also a plaque for "Jingle Bells was written here" and another for the grandmother's house mentioned in the song.

[thawrecka]

I live in Melbourne, so I could very easily think of things for visitors to do. I've not had call to show any around, much as I've tried to convince friends from overseas to visit 😀 but there's so many museums and galleries and a lot of great food. I already go to all of those. If they like long garden walks there's a few nice places for those in the city, too.

When I was a kid in Kalgoorlie, any family from elsewhere would mostly go on long walks with us, but there was always a small museum and the public library, which can be a surprisingly fun tourist thing to do.