Neighborhooding
noun
- the pursuit of a hyper-local travel style;
- a desire to break free from the expectations of hitting the top 10 must-see sites;
- the search for a more human connection to a destination, as experienced through a local’s lens
verb
- to travel on a smaller, less grand, less Instagrammy scale
- to take a deep dive into a rich, sometimes gritty 10-ish block radius of a specific destination
Instead of sitting here and complaining about how Instagram has ruined travel (eg. influencers lining up to take photos in front of a twinkling, azure-as-the-Mediterranean lake made of chemical waste, traffic jams in Provence to get that perfect shot in the middle of a lavender field, a 100-person long line of people snaking through the white-washed streets of Oia to get that perfect sunset shot… the list goes on), I like to focus on the positives.
Instagram has opened up the world. It has democratized the search for natural beauty and unique experiences. If I am traveling to Barcelona, I can search Instagram for five minutes and come back with a complete itinerary of where to find the prettiest, most delicious tapas (for that iconic overhead table shot), which streets have the best graffiti (for posing), and what time to show up in front of that famous Gaudi building (so you can get the best shot without a crowd of one thousand tourists clogging up the sidewalk). The goal of travel in the age of Instagram is to get The Shot. That amazing spread of authentic food, that casual pose in front of an iconic bit of architecture.
In our search for that perfect photo to post on Instagram, we’ve lost sight of the true beauty of travel — the fleeting chance to teleport yourself into a completely different world. To sleep, eat, breath, drink, party, dance, think, and move like another version of yourself.
And that’s what we are trying to capture every time we neighborhood. We want to free ourselves from the nagging voice that tells us we have to get to the top of that mountain so we can get that magic, twinkling shot of the city down below and post it to our feed. Instead, we want to spend a few days in that neighborhood at the base of the mountain where we discover a tiny bakery at the back of a convenience store that makes the most amazing croissants. We want to linger in those few blocks at the base, discovering a local digestif that the bartender only hands out to the locals.
We want to get to know a place through its neighborhoods, its regular haunts, its people.
We are The Neighborhooders.
Neighborhooding Guides
When putting together our Neighborhooding guides, we try to highlight some key elements that let us experience a place like a local:
- Where to Stay: Either a hotel that has a true connection to its community or an Airbnb.
- Eat Like an Olympic Sport: You’ve only got a few days on the ground and you need to cram at least a month’s worth of eating into that shortened timeframe.
- Drink Like a Local: Dive bars, upscale cocktail spots and everywhere in between.
- Where to Caffeinate: Just say no to your hotel’s Nespresso and get out there for a morning cup.
- Stalk the Stylish Locals: Whenever I’m heading somewhere new, I like to find someone local on Instagram whose taste aligns with mine and see where they eat, drink, shop, etc.
- Steal Free Wifi: Pretty self-explanatory.
- Worth a Detour: So, it’s not necessarily in the neighborhood, but it’s relatively close by and we think it deserves a visit.
