Looking for things to do in a city? Finding affordable local activities and international excursions

So we know the tried and true way to find activities in an area: social media. But I have learned that just because it's "instagrammable" does not mean it will be enjoyable. I have been to more than enough Instagram restaurants and places to know that things are really a combination of curated photos and videos and monitored comments. In this blog, I will discuss some of the sites I use when traveling, both internationally and domestically, to help me find things to do. Take it from me, if you are traveling with a group, these alternatives might be better than having one person be the point of contact, and these sites allow you to find fun things to do in your city, if you just want a solo outing.

Overseas, or even at home, trying to find activities, solo or in a pair, is daunting. Finding activities to fit an unlimited budget, well that's easy to do. The difficult part is finding affordable, fun, and yet still IG-worthy activities. This is why using sites like Viator, Airbnb Experiences, TripAdvisor, and Booking.com has made finding things to do at home and, most importantly, overseas, a breeze. (Pun intended.) These sites allow you to look at locally owned and operated tours in your designated area, contact the organizer to ask any questions, and book directly through the site. The best part is, these sites allow for one person to be the point of contact, or everyone can purchase their own tickets. Personally, I prefer everyone pays their own way, and one person just designates themselves to be the person to reach out to the company to arrange transportation for all who are in the group. Usually, I am the logistics friend, so this falls on me, which I do not mind, as I do not like leaving certain things in the hands of others.

Personally, I enjoyed my Airbnb experience as I felt like I had a more in-depth "local" experience. My first "Airbnb experience" was in Toronto, when I turned 25. I made a vow to celebrate my birthday outside of the country every year until I turn 50, and Toronto was first on my list. Because I am an "I am going here, you can come if you want, but I will be in attendance" person, I intend on doing things solo, first. Because of this, I truly never know what I am doing in a city; I just know where I am sleeping and how I am getting there. In the midst of planning for me and my line sister, who agreed to meet me in Toronto, I was casually scrolling through the app when I came across the "Party Experience in the Six" hosted by Brian, a Toronto native. The host was black and the people in the reviews were predominantly black, so we booked it. My friend and I got to bar hop around Toronto for $80, and we went to the good bars, not the rundown random places.We met Brian at an agreed upon venue and just like that, "I was running through the six" (sorry I had to. (It's Toronto, I couldn't pass up a Drake reference.) No matter the spot, we got full VIP treatment. We took photos, drank and had fun, before heading to the next venue. For the next 3 venues, it was the same. We had fun, and even met some girls from Detroit who were just in town because they drove over. While admission to the venues was free, of course, you had to buy your own drinks and food. Luckily for us, because it was a group of 8-10, somebody at least bought the first few rounds while we were there. Another added benefit from my experience was that when booking I told Brian it was my birthday weekend, so he allowed us to tag along to bars and venues the next night for free. In fact, because it was my actual birthday that night in one of the clubs, he had a lady come out and pole dance. In another, there was a cake and bottle service. Overall, it was a fantastic experience that I would repeat.The benefit of Airbnb experiences is that you tend to know what to expect, as you can see which ones have reviews and are recommended directly through the app, similar to how you can see reviews for home rentals. This site is also perfect for finding "local" activities near you if you want to go out and have fun but don't have anybody to go with. The hosts are really great and they enjoy what they do.

In my experience, Booking, Viator, and TripAdvisor are all too similar to differentiate. It really just depends on preference. However, these sites are all great as they are the premier sites to find tours. You just plug in your destination, and if they have a tour available, it will pop up. On these sites, you tend to find more tours where transportation is included in the price. However, these details are usually listed in the tour description, with many tours picking up from most hotels in an area or having a central pickup point. Overseas, these tours give you the most bang for your buck. Just this past February, while in Dubai, we found an excursion on Booking.com for $55. This tour included: shuttle pickup and drop off at our hotel (if you wanted a private vehicle, you could purchase that for an additional cost); Dune Bashing (think fast and furious but in a car over sand hills); camel rides, sand boards, henna painting, live shows, all you can drink tea and water (liquor was there for an additional $5-$15); Dinner Buffet (the food was good) and FREE Hookah. Now I am indifferent to hookah, but I got to smoke hookah in Dubai for my 28th birthday. My trip was lit.

An additional benefit to using sites like this is that if you have a large group, you can reach out directly to the organizer and get special rates. In 2021, when I went to Costa Rica for my 27th birthday, this is how I organized the outing to Vista Los Suenos Adventure Park. I came across admission to the park via one of the abovementioned sites. While getting admission tickets was not an issue, none of us had a car, so getting to the park would have been an issue. Being the logistics person, and since this was my birthday trip, I reached out to the company directly and scheduled a shuttle and discounted admission to the park. In this scenario, I had to be the person responsible for everyone's tickets, but that was not an issue. Everyone paid with no issues, so shoutout to them, and the excursion was booked. The night before the excursion, the driver confirmed the address via WhatsApp, and in the morning, we were off on our excursion. All we had to do when we arrived was sign waivers and get fitted for our ziplining harness.

Now here is the fun part: finding things to do when you are in your city. My personal favorite at the moment is feverup.com. Just like Airbnb experiences, this site allows you to see things in your city, that I am 100% sure, your IG is not telling you about. The sites top cities are London, New York, Madrid, Paris, Barcelona and Los Angeles, so when I say you can use this site to find international and domestic activities, I mean it. Through this site you can get admission to immersive dining experiences, pop-up food festivals, cultural activities, to curated events with some international DJs. So if you have somebody coming into town for a visit and you want to do something fun, check out fever-up. However, the perk of these activity booking sites are: they are always local to somebody. You do not need to leave your city, state our country to experience them. Get out there and have fun and I can guarantee, these will be Instagram worthy.

*Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I will be doing a DFW Halloween series at the end of the month. Using primarily events I found on FeverUp. So if you are in the DFW area and want to tag along, you can. If not stay tuned for October 31st, when my full recap goes live*