To belabor the ongoing physiological metaphor, attractions are a trip’s nervous system.
It is the nerves that allow the traveler to feel the cool, smooth solidness of a Baroque-era statute or give the daredevil the adrenaline to run with the bulls through the narrow streetways of Spain. But it is also the same system that triggers the knee-jerk reaction to pull the pipingly hot slice of pizza out of the mouth or reminds the aching trip-goer that a brief stop at an inviting neighborhood café is more than warranted. In essence, it is our nerves that attracts us to or repels us from things. Attractions have the similar ability–to draw in or to push away.
Rome has the Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon. Paris has its Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Champs-Elysees; London its Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Big Ben. So where do you even start?
We literally asked ourselves the same exact question.
The internet probably has more “Top Ten Places To Visit In Enter city here” websites than there are attractions in the actual city. If you are as anal-retentive as I am, you cross reference at least a dozen of those webpages for the most “popular” attractions; you do not under any circumstances stop after the first dozen attractions, you go through each item the website lists. Your FOMO should be running high at this point. After you have narrowed down (or, at least, attempted to) the attractions, you then map them out on Google Maps to see their proximity to each other. You read up on the museum or castle or what have you to determine whether it is something you really want to visit. You take note of hours of operation and admission costs. Then after a week has gone by you have serious doubts about your selections and you do the entire exercise over again. Just before your third attempt, you wonder whether there is something already out there that could help.
Voila! www.visitacity.com. Clearly not the be all and end all but was just too lazy to hunt for another trip-planning website.
Could the food of a place be an attraction in itself? Could a perfectly-executed Greek lemon tart stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of the Statue of David? Could the experience of travel be enriched by the right dish?
TRAVEL TIP: When traveling with companions or family, make sure to get their input as to what attractions to visit and incorporate these into the travel itinerary. Have a good balance of touristy spots and some out of the way ones. The website Atlas Obscura is a great place to start.
