Back in July, there was a great thread on Ask Metafilter called Upgrade my tourism answering the question:
What do you do when you visit a new city? I feel stuck in a rut of going to the well known museum, maybe visiting a local landmark or the downtown arts district or food hot spot. Everything starts to feel kind of the same. Any suggestions or ideas?
There were a lot of great ideas (and at least a couple of recommendations for Atlas Obscura): suggestions to visit the grocery store, or local food trucks and bakeries; find botanical gardens, great little parks, interesting alleys; and lots of encouragement to just walk around as much as possible. More than one person said they liked to visit the oldest parts of town, where you can often find interesting old architecture and surprising remnants of earlier eras. One comment mentioned sense of place: seeking out museums specific to the city's history, rather than just viewing the typical traditional European art at the biggest museum.
I loved the suggestion to visit the local library, especially to explore any exhibits or special collections they might have.
Something I have not done much of is people-watching; when I visit a city, I'm usually checking out particular neighborhoods or museums. I would actually love to do more people-watching in different places, see how people move through their cities, their rhythms and mannerisms and moods.
Seriously: there are 45 answers on that thread, full of the kinds of personal experiences and well-considered, helpful suggestions that make Ask MetaFilter one of the best places on the internet.
I wish I were travelling more these days; I would love to spend more time falling in love with the million magical places in the world.
(Photo: Men and women sitting in a cafe on the sidewalk, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, from US News & World Report collection, Library of Congress)