Please Point my Way - Local Recommendations

Lifestyle
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Hello! I’m surprised this thread doesn’t exist yet because this community is nothing if not helpful and eager to recommend things to each other.

This is a thread for people who are visiting a place and want recommendations, tips, advice or whatever else from locals. Good restaurants, events happening or maybe meeting fellow Waypointers!
Important note: Do not discuss specific times and dates of meetings publicly in this thread. For safety reasons, use DMs to co-ordinate with whoever you want to meet with.

The impetus for this thread is, I’m visiting Miami at the end of August and I have a free week to just do whatever. I’ve nothing planned yet and never been to the US at all so it’ll be all new to me. Any advice for things to do or see while I’m there? Restaurant recommendations are welcome, though I’m vegan. I don’t expect anyone to carefully vet a menu, so suggest away even if you don’t know what would be vegan there. But maybe you can skip if it’s a steakhouse. :sweat_smile:

EDIT: There’s already a great map of food recommendations that you can see here:

Feel free to mine it for options and add your own local offerings.

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I’ll go ahead and add a link to the collaborative map put together by the #dishcourse channel on discord. Good food recommendations are to be found there, and I’d say that any tips from this topic should also be put there for good measure!

Unfortunately I don’t have any Miami knowledge, so I’ll also add a request: I’ll be in NY for a couple of days in mid-May and would very much appreciate any recommendations for cool things to do for someone who’s seen the most touristy stuff there already!

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I don’t have any Miami, or NY recommendations either, unfortunately, but I’d also like to throw my request in the ring, even if it may be a long shot. I’m going to Scotland for a few weeks in June, and would love some recommendations for things to do/places to eat at, if people have them! I’m going to be around Inverness, and then a few days in Edinburgh.

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Not a local but I recently visited Edinburgh and I’ll just mention that the city is actually very hilly and beautiful. Be prepared for a lot of difficult but rewarding slopes when walking. (it is also slightly confusing how vertical the city is, almost like a Dark Souls level)

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For Inverness, there’s a really nice riverside walk if you follow the Ness towards the south. It keeps going forever and has some nice river islands you can visit! Outside Inverness, you can follow the road towards Ullapool for some nice scenery or go towards the Cairngorns if you’re willing to go a bit further.

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Make sure you take the free Harry Potter Tour, lots of fun facts and end at the inspiration for Diagon Alley. Also, There’s a bar called the Garden Shed or some such on Potter Row (yes, JK Rowling got the name from there). It’s right beside the U of Edinburgh which is a nice walk, and finally make sure you go to the Scotch Whiskey experience right up by the castle.

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Going to Dublin, London, Paris, and Barcelona this summer, any tips/recommendations would be great!

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I’m going to Atlanta, GA in June, any recommendations?

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Random Paris stuff:

The city was built on a swamp so it’s literally shaped like a bowl - so if you happen to get turned around and aren’t comfortable asking for directions/using your phone’s data just keep walking downhill to get back to the center. It’s a very walkable city so that’s worth doing anyway, like just take the nearest train to end of its line and then spend the day walking back doing whatever.

You’re on this board so you probably like video games so make ABSOLUTELY SURE you go to the Museum of the History of Medicine. It’s a small space inside a still operating medical school but despite being a single room it’s super dense with tons of old prosthetics and other unique things and very informative. There’s no way in hell it wasn’t used as a photo reference when they were making some of the items and areas in Bloodborne. Also has a small table that’s made of human ears and various bodily fluids sealed together. :grimacing:

Also the catacombs fuckin’ own and are worth the wait. You can technically reserve a time slot to go through them but there’s a wait either way so if it’s too late for you to do that just go in like the middle of a weekday or whatever.

Wander into big churches a lot.

If you go to the Louvre, much like the Met in NYC and every other major museum there’s the main entrance everyone lines up at, and also a side entrance that no one actually thinks to go to, so use that one instead so you can just stroll in instead of waiting forever. Look for Porte des Lions on a map of the Louvre grounds, towards the southwest of the plaza with the Pyramids entrance. IIRC it’s not open on Fridays and one other day so plan around that.

Also there’s the Museum of the Arab World which is really good.

I know this is common sense but have some cash on you. Places to eat/shops/whatever will be fine but even if your card has a chip there’s still a good chance it might not work on the subway and bus kiosks if it’s not from France. You’ll also want some cash to hit up the endless bookstores filled with awesome comics.

There’s a ton of retro game shops throughout the city you might have fun browsing (though maybe avoid the ones in the Republique area unless you’re $$$$, just avoid the neighborhood in general :stuck_out_tongue: ), just do a Google search and you’ll find a bunch.

If you like Cathedrals make sure to take a train to St. Denis so you can be in the first Gothic cathedral ever built. Take a train to Chartres also since the Chartres Cathedral is rad and also the town has a lot of cute small shops and like, little hole in the wall places where apathetic old people will sell you the best crepes ever. Chartre’s kind of a half a day/day trip depending on what you’re doing but you can do St. Denis easily and it has a large North African population so you can get some awesome food there.

If you want to drop some $$$ on food, Glou in Le Marais is EXTREMELY good. But you can easily get by just eating street food too because it’s also really good. I don’t know your accommodation but when we go we don’t really go out to eat much, just roll into any bakery in the morning to get some bread/etc. and get some groceries when we’re done for the day to cook up. There’s places to pick up good food everywhere but something easy is if you take the 3 train to the end of the line at Gallieni you’re within walking distance of a good mix of bakeries, small specialty food shops, cheap grocery stores, etc.

If you ever felt like you have too many teeth, forget about macaroons and stuff and go to one of the Algerian pastry shops on the east side of the city. I grew up in an ultra-Catholic household in Bensonhurst so I grew up just knowing that, like, yeah you have some insanely sweet pastries every couple of weeks for whatever feast day/occasion/hey it’s the weekend. And my wife is Palestinian so she had a similar food situation, and like, we were still like holy shit at the richness. They fuckin’ rule.

Just northwest of the Lourvre there’s a place called Angelina, it looks like kind of an old timey stuffy fine dining sort of place, and it sort of is, buuuut, they have a good pastry shop built into it that’s awesome and also sells chestnut butter/etc. things you can take home that are really really good if you’re into that or want to get some sweet things to give to friends when you get back or something. They’re the original place to have a pastry called a mont blanc that’s pretty rad imo.

If you drink, bring an extra empty suitcase since you can go into a Monoprix and buy wine that’s like kinda sorta expensive outside of France for about 6 USD a bottle. :heart_eyes:

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The most important Scotland tip is to be thankful you’re going now and not when this was still viewable in person:

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The cage-esque apparatus behind actually wraps around the entire statue and was put into place because of how often it was vandalized.

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Miami is my hometown! Here are some places I like to recommend to folks who visit. Not a comprehensive list but some quick thoughts. EDIT: Just realized I don’t have any vegan options. Sorry @SuperBiasedGary!

Historic Spots

Nature Spots

Restaurants

Also fuck Wynwood. Fuck gentrification.

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Also for Paris: maybe my favourite out-of-the-way thing in Paris is the Cité Universitaire in the 14th, which is just a huge park with a bunch of student residences in all architectural styles imaginable. The fact that I used to live in one of them might make me a bit biased, but I really think it’s a cool place to visit if you’re into architecture!

(also I’m one of the people who think La Défense is a cool place to visit so what do I know)

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There used to be a restaurant called La Défense in MetroTech and it was one of the worst restaurants in NYC and this event I used to work for would hold like an after event dinner there every year and now I carry the curse of the actual La Défense reminding me of it forever even though it is cool. :frowning:

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No worries, I can still check the menus and see! I am definitely down for those historic and nature spots. The state park especially!

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Sprinkled in a few recommendations across Canada. Now it’s not just Vancouver and Toronto!

God, I wish I could remember ANY of the places I’ve eaten at in the Maritimes, but I’m drawing a blank. I really need to go back there.

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I’ll copy paste this from another thread:

I live in Atlanta , so here are some of my favs:

Doraville has some of the BEST spots in the entire city. There’s just a looong stretch of road that features Korean bakeries, traditional Mexican, Pho, Indian, all you could want! One of my favorite spots in that long stretch of goodness happens to be this place:

Yelp

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El Rey del Taco - Atlanta, GA

Specialties: Our main focus is customer service and high quality of food. We make sure your food gets to your table fast and accurate. This restaurant is a Family Restaurant and we love to see families, friends, co-workers having a great…

They’re tacos are what to get… Hand made tortillas, with any number of meat choices, including Barbacoa, Chorizo, Cow Tongue, etc. The margaritas are pretty dang strong too. They also decorate the small space OUT with whatever holiday is on the horizon. I bet the place is decked in pink for Valentine’s Day.

Atlanta is known for its wings. And while a lot of people will recommend J. Christopher’s as the spot to go to, I find them a tad dry at times. Honestly, there are TONS of wing spots around the city, and what you like

My favorite wing spot in the city is Wing Factory:

TripAdvisor

Wing Factory, Atlanta - 4279 Roswell Rd NE - Restaurant Reviews, Phone Number &…

Wing Factory, Atlanta: See 19 unbiased reviews of Wing Factory, rated 4.5 of 5 on TripAdvisor and ranked #825 of 3,757 restaurants in Atlanta.

My favorite thing to get here is the 8-piece combo with fries. Hot Lemon Pepper is my flavor of choice, but there’s plenty of variety. People debate wings over here like politics, so my top may definitely not be your top, but give them a shot!

Burger wise, you can’t go wrong with Grindhouse Killer Burgers:

Yelp

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Grindhouse Killer Burgers - Atlanta, GA

Specialties: We specialize in juicy burgers, thick milkshakes, zesty chili and cold beer.

They’re a fantastic burger spot that basically has terrible movies playing on their TVs, as well as surrounding itself with a sort of rockabilly atmosphere. Plenty of choices here, including making your own burger to specification, with vegetarian options! I’d also recommend ANY of the boozy milkshakes. I think my favorite has to be the Stimulus Package: Oreo, Schnapps, and chocolate syrup.

For drinks, there are a few spots I love:

Yelp

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Joystick Gamebar - Atlanta, GA

Specialties: Old school arcade with small batch whiskey, amazing beer, hand crafted cocktails, and killer bar food all in a relaxed and casual atmosphere. Arcade games from the 70s, 80s, and 90s with some retro pinball to round things out.…

This place has weekly D&D events, as well as just being a fun arcadey, but trashy, atmosphere. It can get a bit rowdy with the surrounding bar hoppers. Bring a cup of quarters for the X-Men machine.

Yelp

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The Bookhouse Pub - Virginia Highland - Atlanta, GA

Pubs in Atlanta, GA

Locals get mad when you say 'The Bookhouse is based off Twin Peaks." Which I have no idea why… It’s named after a key place in the show, and there were drinks and food items named after characters in the show. I have been yelled at a number of times for saying this… Whatever, the place is amazing. When it gets warmer, they open out the back area which is a nice, chill spot surrounded by Christmas Lights.

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I have nothing constructive to add to or ask this thread at the moment, but I just wanted to stop in and say how much it lifts my spirits to see the Waypoint community interacting positively and helping each other out like this (as in plenty of other threads, too). I love these forums.

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I’m going to be spending the Summer in Seattle, does anyone have any hot recs?

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This is fuckin’ awesome, thank you so much. I’m going to add most if not all of this into my plans.

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I’ve been in Mexico City for a few years now so if anyone wants some foods tips or other info I’m happy to help.