Influencer Series – Travel Advice From Locals

How do you get travel advice from locals? Follow them on Instagram!

Locals know best. They know where to eat, where to drink and all the unique or hidden places you want to see.

Before I moved to Amsterdam, I was looking through pictures on Instagram and I ended up following a couple local influencers. When I got here, I already had a list of restaurants and bars I couldn’t wait to check out. And check out I did, I was shamelessly living like I was on vacation for the first 6 months here! These influencers also have some amazing photos of the city, so I was able to seek out those same places when we started exploring.

When you research travel on Pinterest, a lot of times you get a list of “bests” but they are written by a travel blogger who has probably only visited the city once. Because they have spent such a short amount of time there, they might have missed a lot of great spots. They haven’t spent enough time to discover new places and really get to experience the city.

I still encourage you to read travel blogger posts, not just because I want you to read mine, but because it is good to get a travelers perspective on things. Locals are so used to their environment, they don’t always foresee the problems a foreigner would run into when it’s totally normal for them. Travel bloggers can also provide great advice on the logistics of traveling and recommend good tours.

The only downside to locals is they could see the things travelers find unique and exciting, as totally normal. I know I’ve hesitated in the past to post pictures of the canals in Amsterdam because I see them every day and feel like those kinds of photos will get boring for my followers. But you want to see canal pictures… right?

I recommend following the locals, primarily for the food & drink recommendations and also the lesser known or hidden gems of each city. I also recommend following locals when you’re an expat or before you move abroad.

It is a little hard to find the best local Instagram accounts, so I’m doing the research for you in my “Influencer Series”. I’ve started with Amsterdam but I will be adding more soon!