How To Find The Best Local Restaurants On Foreign Trips

Posted by Rachel in Travel Tips on 12 28th, 2010 | Read Comments(1)

When you’re on a foreign trip to a town, city or country new to you, then one of the best ways of soaking up the atmosphere and learning about the culture and lifestyle is to eat the local cuisine.

But when you’re new to the area and there’s so many restaurants to choose from, and many trying to lure the tourists in, how do you find the best local eateries?

Ask For Restaurant Recommendations

If you’re staying in a hotel, bed and breakfast, self-catering accommodation or hostel, ask the owners or staff for recommendations of where to eat. Depending on where you’re staying, there may well be information or brochures available giving details of good eateries, so make the most of these and glean them for details.

You can also ask other guests where they’ve eaten, or ask any locals you meet. Locals can be the best possible source of good restaurant information and their recommendations can lead you off the beaten track to the real gems that tourist guides may not even know about.

Go Online

If you’ve got mobile broadband or an Internet connection, then head online and post a query on a travel forum or on Twitter – you might be amazed at the replies you get!

You can also surf the net for restaurant reviews (assuming the results don’t all come up in a foreign language you don’t understand) and get the crucial details about what time the restaurants open and what type of food they serve.

Look for the Restaurants Locals Are In

It sounds the most obvious, but as long as where you’re staying is safe and you don’t get lost, it’s always useful to go and have a look for restaurants, especially the ones the locals are in. Big, noisy restaurants that are full of tourists may be able to pull in the crowds, but they don’t always offer the best local cuisine.

Instead, look for the restaurants that seem to have more locals in them and try and gauge what the atmosphere is like. For example, if there’s local music being played, instead of the radio or loud pop, or if there are lots of people eating there, even on a mid-week evening, then the chances are it’s a popular local restaurant.

It might not look glitzy or glamorous from the outside, but if it serves good, wholesome, fresh local food, then you’re onto a winner.