After moving to the greater Seattle, WA area, I found the following tips, websites and tools came in handy and got me out on the street and active.
 |
| Space Needle, circa 2005 |
Helpful Tips and Tools
- Get your bearing, look at a map
- Talk to people and ask them for ideas
- Sign up for local Twitter feeds & activities in your area
- Search for Meetup.com activities
- Read Weekly newspapers
Looking at maps
Getting your bearing so you don't get lost is probably the most important and overlooked tool to hitting the freeways or finding the local parks and walkable locations. Also, when people mention surrounding towns or neighborhood, you will have a general sense of how far or which direction they are referring to.
Talking to people
Talk to your friends and family before you move can help you find some great places they have visited or wish they could visit. But, nothing can take the place of talking to locals. Once landed, speak to the clerks at shops you visit, or waiter/waitress at a local restaurant. Let them know you are new to the area and were wondering if they had any good tips. You would be surprised how open people are to helping you out in exploring. If you are shy, use the meetup idea as a way to socialize.
Sign up for local Twitter feeds
Most towns now have a virtual "town square" under the disguise of a twitter feed. You don't even have to have a twitter account to follow their tips but it would make it easier. A simple search on twitter for your town will show many results. The trick is to filter through the results for groups, companies or individuals you believe will provide posts on local activities or events in your area. e.g. Searching Seattle, WA
Some Twitter accounts that seemed legitimate and I chose to follow
I'm sure your town or city has many similar feeds.
Sign up for a Meetup
Meetup.com has a lot of local people who are interested in a wide variety of topics. I personally use the site to find out about tech related events. However, there are almost an infinite amount of groups on the site including groups interested in dancing, attending concerts, photography, etc. This might be the easiest way to meet a group of like minded people and get their feedback on things to do in the area.
A quick search on Seattle returned more than 30 events in one day.
Read Weekly Newspapers
Remember those things called newspapers. Most larger towns have a local paper that you can find outside of supermarkets, cafes and just about anywhere. These papers are typically written weekly and hold a lot of information on upcoming activities and news that does not always get headlined in the local daily paper. If dead paper trees are not your thing, most of these papers are also available online. Check out your city for similar papers.
No comments:
Post a Comment