When we travel, we often focus solely on our destination. The sights. The museums. The bars.
But sometimes we get the best perspective of a location by leaving it. By venturing beyond the city limits we get a different view of a destination's past: the people who founded it, the rock it was carved from, the events that shaped its values and culture.
Even the best history museums can't replicate driving 15 minutes from a developing country's capital to a village that was part of another country just a generation ago. All the books about the resiliency of a city's people pale compared to hiking the desolate mountains their ancestors crossed centuries before. And the stories your friends you meet along the way tell about their childhoods become richer when you smell the dinner cooking in their native villages.
Savvy travelers know the most authentic way to experience a destination is by replicating the life of the locals. And while it's important to know where they go to eat and drink and be and do, it's also valuable to find out where they go to escape.
Here at Global Yodel, we've rounded up eight photos that show us where residents of destinations around the world go when they need a little perspective.
-- Helen Anne Travis
