Love of travel starts locally.
Passion for adventure begins in a backyard, on a neighborhood walk, with a bookshelf, when you accidentally discover a new favorite restaurant down the street. Local adventures lead to longings for elsewhere.
Exploring your home turf can happen in many ways — through food, art, history, monuments, and outdoor spaces, to name a few. Some cities even offer “be a tourist in your own town” or “staycation” programs to help you uncover hidden gems where you live.
I’m not sure if I ever would have been interested in travel if I wasn’t already curious about the world around me, regardless of where I was. Cultivating an attitude of exploration locally will lead to adventure when you’re abroad. Don’t expect to be an adventurous tourist if you don’t look for adventure in the every day routine at home.
Plus, once you get acquainted with your local area, you’ll know how to bring the world home when you’ve returned from traveling. If you’re a frequent traveler or you want to become one, you’ll probably want to recreate some new experiences you’ve had at home. When I come home from being abroad, I often find myself bringing bits of those places into my life, whether it’s through food or music or some other piece of the culture that I appreciate. I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally — seven years after visiting Spain — find a place that serves great paella. (Now if only I could find a good place around here for ceviche. My recipes never turn out like I had it in Ecuador.) And ever since I returned from Italy, I can’t stop listening to Italian pop and my husband has been planning to perfect his homemade pizza recipe.
Start local, then take your love of adventure on the road!
Booked & Ready 
Great post! I can identify with this so much! Glad we can enjoy exploring together and experiencing the local flavor whether it’s Raleigh, Atlanta, or elsewhere!
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Ahh, your first comment on the blog! So exciting! And yes, I totally love exploring with you!
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Beautiful blog. I love the pics you take and post here. I recently moved to a new area so this post really resonated as I get to know everything locally.
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Thank you for the kind words and thanks for stopping by! Exploring a new town is always exciting to me, and helps me feel more settled.
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I’m actually guilty of being terrible at exploring locally. Back when I lived in London I did far too little travel in the UK and in Europe – or in fact in London itself. Funnily enough moving to Hong Kong made me realise how little I appreciated what I had on my doorstep and I have every intention of going on local adventures once we make it back to the UK.
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Sometimes you don’t know what you have until you leave it. Both London and Hong Kong sound like great places to explore, though!
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Great post! I’ve lived here for over ten years and just recently took a walk down by the State Capitol. It was a really nice place to walk, plus I loved going to all of the free museums. 🙂
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Free museums and free state parks kinda make me okay with NC’s taxes. (I came from a no income tax state.) North Carolina makes it very affordable to explore locally!
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I really need to do more local exploring. I live a bit outside Atlanta, but I’m not from here, so I don’t know all the best places to see. I’ll have to research it!
2015 A to Z Challenge Co-Host
Matthew MacNish from The QQQE
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Thanks for dropping in — nice to see a co-host here! Atlanta is a fabulous place, as is the surrounding area. I’m actually originally from Georgia, so I love that area. One of my best friends lives in ATL, so I visit her a lot and we love exploring together. If you’re interested, I actually have several travel posts on the area…check them out here: http://kaitlinthrogmorton.com/tag/atlanta. And I have another one coming soon from a recent trip there. Happy exploring!
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I’ve listed a few places to visit in Georgia on my blog as well if you need some extra inspiration and more reason to visit Atlanta!
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I totally agree with your opening line.
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🙂
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I hate when you go somewhere and have a great experience (I’m thinking specifically about food in this instance) and when you come home you can’t find anything like it! Bringing home what you’ve learned and your experiences from travel is definitely one of my favorite parts!
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Right? I’ve had that problem with a few things — mostly food, too — although it does help that we live in a pretty large city and the Internet makes it a lot easier to recreate things. 🙂
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