Once you have those plane tickets in hand, planning the next steps of your journey can seem overwhelming. There are often so many options and so much information to sift through online, you get stuck. In reality, you don’t want to go where all the tourists are, but you don’t know how to plan otherwise. Here I lay out the steps we take when planning to visit a new destination WITH keeping in mind that in the end we want to get “off the beaten path”.
Here are the steps we will take:
1. Research major sights
Your first step for planning an off the beaten path trip, is to get to know the major sights in your destination. Look at the WHY.
- Why are they major sights?
- Are they important in teaching your children about the destination culture?
- Do they fit with one of your children’s interests currently?
Bring your list of major sights down to one or two max. In the end, you may visit more, but for the sake of planning and giving yourself time to get off the beaten path and explore the culture, having only one or two is important.
We will use Tokyo to model throughout this post as I recently planned this trip. Our first major sight was the Making of Harry Potter theme park as our daughter has been a huge Harry Potter fan for years. Our second sight was Shibuya Crossing/Hachiko statue (same place) as we had heard about it from reading a book and watching Amazing Race. I knew that the Making of Harry Potter would have a specific time to arrive and was more outside the downtown area. So, we chose to focus our efforts in that direction.
2. Check out the area around the sights you chose
After you have that sight in mind, look on a map at the area around it.
- What is available there that you could check out?
- Is it a crazy busy area with lots of tourists/big name hotels?
- Is it easy to get around?
At this point, you already want to be thinking about finding an area that can show you the “real” culture. I go on google maps and begin to look at the accommodations (how pricey and how many). I look around at what is available and see any red flags of tourist shops and restaurants.
For Tokyo – I found that the Making of Harry Potter was quite far outside the city. Besides the Making of Harry Potter theme park and the small vicinity around it near the train station, it seemed that it was (for Tokyo) a pretty sleepy area. This could be a good option.
3. Choose your main mode of transportation
Once you have looked at that area, you want to check out which mode of transportation you will be mainly taken during your time in that place.
- Is there a source of public transportation that can get you to where you want to go – a subway, train system, bus transit, or ferries?
- How far reaching are you wanting to go in that area – is renting a car necessary?
- How difficult is parking in that area if you choose to rent a car?
- When you think about the use of public vs. private transport, what is the cost comparison? (specifically with large families with little kids, public transport often wins out with cheap or free kid tickets verse renting a larger vehicle)
As you can see, the transport dilemma is a huge part of planning. What you decide to do about transportation can really make or break your trip. Think carefully before moving on to the next step.
Our experience in Tokyo was, as expected, that we would be taking the subway system. What we found when looking at the metro near the Making of Harry Potter was that it was the end of a metro line. Which meant that every time we wanted to go other places, we would have to go down that metro line before meeting up with another metro line to transfer trains. We actually switched our area that we were looking at because of this. We moved down to an area where two train lines crossed so that we could have access to a greater area in less time.
4. Begin your accommodation search in the area easily accessible by the mode of transportation
With the knowledge of how many people are in your group and what your budget is, begin looking for housing near the transportation. If you are renting a car, you have a larger area to search for accommodation, but you also need parking availability.
- What are your options for accommodations?
- If it seems like options are sparse or expensive, is there another area you can begin looking at? Do you need to go back a step or two because you aren’t finding the results you are hoping for?
If you have found an area to look for accommodations that is a bit away from the main tourist area, you may take more time to find the right fit for your family. Don’t lose heart! And don’t be persuaded back to the chaos of tourist central. Continue to look around and you’ll find that perfect spot!
In Tokyo, we kept looking in the area near two main train lines, but only a few stops to the Making of Harry Potter theme park. We ended up finding a spot that was actually 10 minutes to one train line and 10 minutes to a junction of two other lines. Perfect!
5. Begin getting to know your accommodation area
This is one of our family’s favorite steps for planning an off the beaten path adventure! We love Google street view! Looking at what is around our accommodation to go see is so much fun! They all have something of value to us during our stay and give us a good overview of what we are going to find in the area.
We look specifically at:
- 7-11/minimarts
- Grocery stores
- Restaurants
- Historical buildings
- Religious structures
- Bodies of water
- Parks
- Playgrounds
In Tokyo, we found that our apartment was in a university area, so quite off the beaten path from the tourist area. We were down the road from a Shinto temple, which the kids loved to learn about even before we arrived! We also read reviews of the ramen restaurants in the area and the park that was closest to our accommodation. We were very excited to be in an area with so few tourists!
6. Live like a local
Your last step! Once you arrive, you have done so much planning, you should be able to enjoy your off the beaten path stay! No matter whether you are in one of the largest cities in the world or in a rural village setting, you can see how locals live and experience the culture firsthand!
To end my example of planning our visit to Tokyo – we had a delightful time walking around the area we stayed in and getting to see the daily rhythms of college students in Tokyo. Something so different than we would have had in one of the main tourist areas of Tokyo.
