Planning a holiday... Know where you're travelling

All travellers have fallen into the trap of being caught out not knowing about where they're heading. Sometimes it can be part of the fun of travelling- getting lost in a city and discovering some beautiful landmark or restaurant that you wouldn't have found otherwise, or getting to know the locals by having them help you out of a sticky situation. But sometimes it can put a real damper on your trip.

Being aware of the customs, do's and don't's of a place where you are travelling can the fine line between having the time of your life and the worst trip imaginable. Quite often it can be as simple as learning 2 or three words of the local tongue or familiarising yourself with their customs by checking out online forums on sites such as tripadvisor, or even buying a copy of a Lonely Planet guidebook.

How in depth you want to go into learning about where your travelling is totally up to you, but the more you know the more you're likely to enjoy it. I'm pretty crazy when it comes to researching places I want to travel- here are some steps I take for just the most basic of necessities (Food), how I find places to eat whenever I travel...

• Get online, if you have a smartphone then download some free apps like tripadvisor, urbanspoon and yelp. I usually hop on these BEFORE I go away and bookmark places in the vicinity to my accommodation so when I get there I can use that as a reference. If you don't have a smartphone, check out the websites on your computer and print out or write down the information of the places you want to go.
  

• Talk to people you know who have been there that can make recommendations. People love bragging about their holidays, so it's a good excuse for them to carry on about their experience but even better for you because they've been your test dummy. Keep in mind that places are constantly changing so if they went 20 YEARS AGO their information will be dated and probably not as useful as someone who was there last week.

• When you get there, before you even check-in, the best opportunity to find out about local must-see attractions is by taking a taxi. The first thing I do when I travel is befriend our first taxi-driver and ask for their insight on the best spots in town. Most taxi drivers know the city better then anyone else, they know the current hotspots and places the locals love. We did this all over Europe and ate at some of the most authentic and delicious restaurants in our lives! In Barcelona we ended up in Le Cherriff- 'The best paella in the world!'. And in Siena, Tuscany we had lunch and dinner at two different restaurants committed to using local produce and only cooking dishes typical of the area (no touristy Bolognese here!) they were both absolutely mind blowing and we would never have found them if we didn't ask our driver!

  

  Taxis in Berlin

• At check-in if you are staying at a hotel or motel, ask the people at the desk for information, they will easily send you in the right direction.. In Thailand we ended up being sent to a restaurant called Cabbages and Condoms and it was one of the funniest and surprisingly delicious restaurants we found in Bangkok. And funnily enough I saw an episode of Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern where he went there and ate some of the same stuff as us!

  

  Hotel Information

These are just a few ways you can suss out the local area, these techniques can not only be used for restaurants, but also for attractions, nightlife and anything else local.