2. Do it YOUR way

Everybody wants to see/feel/taste/experience a city differently, so don’t feel pressured into doing everything in the Lonely Planet guide. Lonely Planet serves a good purpose and it can be rather useful at times with maps or finding places to eat. To be honest though, I think quite a bit of their activity suggestions are boring. 

Instead if you are wondering what to do for the day ask:

1. The receptionist at your hostel

2. Someone staying in your hostel 

3. A local 

4, (Or the best one) Just wander. 

At the beginning of traveling, we get caught up in the tourist syndrome. We have this overwhelming need to see every statue/monument/museum in the city. If we don't accomplish a couple of the excursions on our list we start to feel like we are failures at traveling. We aren't seeing enough or doing enough. It took me four cities to realize that I actually don't like museums and I much rather spend my day in a park. I was forcing myself to go to museums because it was the "thing to do." 

After a beautiful heart to heart in a brewery in Amsterdam, Lynn and I decided we were going to do it our way. From that point we stopped worrying about seeing every monument and plaza in a city. Instead we ended up focusing on the things we love such as food and nature. We discovered a park in every city we went to and began a journal rating each one with pros and cons.

One afternoon we sat in a small plaza for two hours in Barcelona with some British guys making up a story about all the people walking their dogs that day. Looking back, it was one of the highlights of my trip. The adventure is not always about crossing sites off the list but doing it your way.