How to Make a City Feel Familiar (Even If You’re Only There for 48 Hours)

Solo girlie edition — intuitive, low-key, and built for comfort over chaos per usual 💁🏼‍♀️ There’s an underrated skill that every solo traveler eventually masters...making a brand-new city feel like someplace you’ve already lived.

Not permanently but just enough to move through it with confidence, ease, and that subtle “yes, I know where I’m going” energy. Here’s how I do it! These methods keep me feeling grounded, safe, and connected, even when I’m miles and miles from my actual bed and fur baby, Stormi.

Curate the City Before You Arrive

I make it a point to do my research! I use TikTok, Instagram, and Pinterest to do my recon before heading to a new destination. When I arrive to a new city I’ll take 1/2 day to hit all the obvious touristy spots but then save the rest of my weekend to try my best to experience what it may be like to actually live there.

What I look up:

“City name dinner spots”

“City name solo travel girl”

“City name best neighborhoods”

“Where to stay in city name”

“Underrated places in city name”

“Feel like a local in city name”

This is actually my favorite part aside from the actual travel! I love looking up new places, seeing other travel content, and making my reservations. Once I get there it’s fun to make my own assessment of all the places I booked and they never disappoint!

Pick a “Home Base” Neighborhood

Even if you’re only in a city for a weekend, choose one neighborhood to commit to! Pick the one with the vibe you’d want if you actually did live there.

Here’s how I decide:

Is it walkable?

Are there vibey bars & cafes?

Safe at night according to locals?

Feels human, not tourist-saturated?

Once I choose my “home base,” I:

Get breakfast there

Walk the side streets

Learn the nearest metro stop

Find the one cafe I’d return to

This tricks your brain into building routine and routine = familiarity.

Learn the Transportation System Early (It Changes Everything)

Nothing makes a city feel foreign like not knowing how to get around. So I learn transit before the plane even lands.

I check:

The color-coded lines

How to buy a ticket (machines? app? cash?)

How late do the buses or metros run

The one route from my stay → downtown

The one route from downtown → home

Once I ride transit twice, I swear the anxiety melts. Suddenly the city feels manageable, not chaotic.

Find One Ritual

Every city I visit gets one small ritual that makes it feel like mine. It doesn’t have to be profound. But it quietly says to your brain: You live here… even if it’s just for the weekend.

Examples:

Morning coffee & croissant from the same cafe

A nightly walk down one street

Sitting at the same park bench every afternoon

Or a glass of wine at the same spot before dinner

Same spot for gelato after dinner

Talk to One Local

You don’t need ten different conversations. One genuine interaction can crack a city wide open. Locals give you intel TikTok simply cannot.

Examples:

Ask a barista: “Where do you get coffee?”

Ask a bartender: “What bar do locals go to for dinner?”

Ask someone at a shop: “How safe is this neighborhood at night?”

You don’t have to live somewhere to feel like you belong. Fake it till you make (basically how I live my entire life, lolz)! The secret is all you need to know is where to get a good coffee, how to get home, where you’d take a walk, and where you’d go for drinks with your girl friends. Once you know all those, you’re already halfway to belonging.