As an experienced and talented procrastinator, I packed for Lisbon, Portugal, in the 30 minutes before I had to leave for my flight (just like how I wrote this blog the day it was due). However, my long notes-app list of recommendations, spanning from the best food spots to the most beautiful beaches, reflected months of careful TikTok and Instagram Reels preparation.
A popular swimming destination in Cascais, a beach town just west of Lisbon.
My first two weeks in Lisbon were consumed by obsessively following this list. Alongside an amazing group of other students in my WorldStrides program, time between classes was spent in trendy cafes, and nights out were plotted in advance on Google Maps. The satisfaction of checking off a box had transformed my notes app from a collection of last-ditch suggestions into a travel to-do list. In my furious determination not to be a tourist (i.e., never ordering an iced latte and only packing one pair of sweatpants), I became something even worse: the target audience of a depthless travel influencer.
When I left Lisbon for a weekend trip to Split, Croatia, I didn’t have a list. I was convinced at the last minute to buy an overpriced plane ticket and meet up with a friend studying abroad in another city. Arriving at our hostel at nearly midnight with no plan and no food in our stomachs, we asked the man checking us in for recommendations and ended up scarfing down a traditional Croatian meal of Crni Rižot (black cuttlefish risotto). This began an exciting pattern of letting strangers’ recommendations shape our entire trip.
The next day, we took a ferry to Hvar, an island off the coast of Split. After renting paddleboards to explore different parts of the island, we chatted with the workers at the paddleboard shop for nearly thirty minutes. They were eager to share about the place they grew up in, how it had changed over the years, what they loved about it, and what they thought we should see and do during our short weekend there.
Paddleboarding around Hvar.
Following their advice, my friend and I boarded a bus the next morning and traveled an hour southeast from Split to Omiš, a port town with a long history of piracy. Our bus ride wound along the coast, passing sunken ships in the water and mountains stretching down toward the Adriatic.
When we arrived, we caught a taxi and rode 20 minutes up the town’s river, the Cetina, to meet Tom, our whitewater rafting guide. For two hours, Tom navigated us down the Cetina, stopping along the way to show us the best cliff-jumping spots and to let us explore hidden caves.
By the end of our excursion, we had learned that Tom was a university student who lived 20 minutes outside of Split. He offered to drive us back to our hostel, and along the way, we answered his questions about American sports and college life while he recommended places to go out in Split and restaurants we had to try on our last day.
Waiting for our taxi in Omiš to take us up the Cetina River.
Back in Lisbon, back with my notes app, my adventures in Croatia made me realize how insignificant a long list of recommendations really is. While there’s nothing wrong with trying social media’s most popular pastel de nata shop or visiting an influencer’s favorite neighborhood for vintage shopping, experiencing a new city becomes disingenuous when explored completely through someone else’s algorithm.
Traveling well – as the hostel host, paddleboard renters, and Tom demonstrated – is less about following the perfect list and more about recognizing whose advice is actually worth listening to.