I’m not sure how to explain this but here goes. About 10 years ago I took my girlfriend on a Mediterranean cruise. One of the stops was in Turkey. I’m not a big shore excursion guy so I had no plan. We got off the ship and started walking. While walking along one of the main streets, we looked down each side street trying to decide where to go. We finally saw a narrow street full of people. There were awnings on both sides and elderly women were walking with bags full of groceries. We both agreed that we should check it out. We spent the next several hours stopping at outdoor cafes, the butcher shop, the seafood shop, the bakery, etc. One shop was fresh roasting coffee beans! The sights, the smells, the people...everything was fantastic. We’re married for 3 years now and still agree that it was the highlight of our cruise. It looked like the women shopping for the evening meal. The people having coffee at the cafe didn’t speak English. In fact, nobody did. We managed to get by with some hand gestures.

We travel a fair amount and would enjoy spending time exploring similar areas in other cities. Anyone have any suggestions on how to find places like this? We’ll be in Nice this summer and that seems like the perfect city to explore a street like that.

Even big cities like Nice have streets like that but any suggestions that you get here will just direct you to places already known by tourists.

I think you will be happier sticking to random exploration.

Random meandering is our preferred way to explore. We call it the 'no plan'. We just set out and wander - we've had some wonderful experiences this way. The back streets of Dresden and Munch Ost come to mind.

Yes a quioxtic question - just take off out of tourist center and into local neighborhoods. Like London - hop on Tube and get off on a whim - so so many neat local areas many of ethnic flavor (Out of 8 million Londoners over a million are south Asians and some of these neighborhoods like Green Street in East London are like going to India or Pakistan or Bangladesh.

I can think of three markets that your story reminds me of - two in China and one in Peru - that we found by asking where the locals, not the tourists, go to shop. Seems pretty obvious but it worked.

As noted, if you get directions to someplace like this, you won't have "found it." Just get as far away from the main attractions and you can and wander.

And there are literally infinite possibilites in every city. Ask your hotel desk about what they think.

Like Florence one day I decided to walk around Florence - literally and took the circular, kind of, boulevard that goes around the old town center and thru a series of 'real' neighborhoods - I ran into street markets - kids playing soccer = and just non-touristy areas. No guidebook told me about it - just set out and was one of my most memorable days ever of many in Florence. I especially surprsied at how many young people I saw smoking pot in parks!

My recommendation would be to get a map with the most common/popular tourist sites. Use it as a guide to avoid those areas. Everywhere else is more likely to be "authentic" and not touristy.

Every city has what you describe. I don't think you need to plan in advance. As above, just have a good city map and basically go away from where tourists congregate.

I guess this was kind of a silly question. You can’t find this information anywhere because, if the location was common knowledge, it’s not what we’re looking for. Thanks for all the responses. We’ll just keep exploring. We’ll invoke the no plan plan for a couple of days on each trip.

I don’t think it was a silly question. I also think you could waste an enormous amount of time just wandering around. Your description of what you were looking for was good. Either read up in advance, ask someone at your hotel or ask a guide if you happen to take any sort of city tour before explore day.

Thanks xcountry. I realize now how lucky we were to stumble upon that great little street. I guess some planning is required. I usually seek information from taxi drivers, doormen, parking attendants, etc. I shy away from concierges because they tend to specialize in touristy stuff. I also constantly ask locals where they like to eat. It’s just hard to explain what I’m looking for. When they see that you’re a tourist, they automatically assume you’re looking for the tourist hot spots.

I probably shouldn’t expect to find a hidden gem on every trip but it sure is great when it happens.

I, too, am an explorer outside what seem to be the neighborhoods most geared to visitors. One way I find parts of cities I think I might like is to use google maps & streetview. Often it begins looking at a neighborhood with an accommodation I'm investigating but then I just keep going, to what's nearby. While it may not be the fastest way to explore, I enjoy the hunt. Most places are covered by streetview these days but not all. For instance, Egypt isn't, possibly because of potential unrest or political purposes but I suspect anyplace you want to "walk" around online in France will be available.

That is true. When you wander aimlessly and without any hints from locals, or even guidebook or websites (although obviously those aren't "secret")... you can see some truly BORING parts of the city. Been there done that. I walked Amsterdam for a few days without a plan and there's some surprising not very interesting residential neighborhoods! And a few places where I turned a corner and found myself somewhere I probably shouldn't have been.

To clarify, I meant that Streetview isn't available for towns & cities in Egypt, I presume because the government doesn't allow it. But not pertinent for your purposes, jsless, simply an exception, and I have no doubt you'll find Streetview useful for Nice.

When you are in a big enough city like Nice which has a bus and tram system, one of the best ways to find what you are looking for is to ride the network. Even after all of the years that I have lived in Paris, I sometimes find myself jumping off the bus because "wow, I need to get a better look at that!"

Genoa has an ancient centre with one or two tourist streets threading through it, once you step off the beaten path it is more interesting.
Certainly any good souk say in Marrakesh, Essouira Tripoli (libya) or Damascus gives you some of that feel.
I find a slight difference as I prefer visiting the smaller cities say or Italy or just town France Profond. Somewhere like Cahors or some of the Bastide towns. You might also try digging in in Madrid, Cadiz or Bari.

The problem with this is that while there are many great neighborhoods like the one you found (and are looking for elsewhere), there are also many more boring, drab places. Do you want to spend your whole trip being bored in the hopes you might find someplace good? I'm a photographer, and I take long trips (5 weeks often) so I end up spending a lot of time just wandering and have found some great things that way. But more often when I get too far away from the 'old center' it just gets really uninteresting. Even in the historic centers the tourist 'hot spots' are limited to a few areas, so getting away from them can produce some interesting wanders, but going out into the suburbs/outskirts rarely has produced anything very good.

I don't think it was a silly question at all. One of my favorite memories of a recent trip to Copenhagen was bad directions that got us lost. We had a vague idea of where the hotel was and set out in that general direction. It took us through some residential neighborhoods with charming sidewalk cafes. I have no idea where I was, could probably never get there again, but I enjoyed it.