For an Authentic Travel Experience, Look No Further Than The Local Market

So much of travel focuses on seeing the best of a city—its iconic buildings, most important works of art, renowned landscapes, and traditional food. These tend to be the things that call us to a new destination; we want to watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle in Paris, see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum in London, experience the dazzling views from the Swiss Alps, and eat our body weight in Italian pasta. While most travellers (by nature) are also eager and open to experiencing other things, these marquee attractions are usually what spark our initial desire to visit somewhere new.

But do you ever wonder what everyday life is like for those who live in a city? If you’re lucky enough to know someone who lives where you’re travelling, or if you’re socially savvy enough to make friends with the locals, you might get a glimpse into the reality of living in a place that attracts a lot of tourists. However, if you really want a clear picture of how the locals live, you need to check out the local market.

The Old Market Hall (established 1889) in Helsinki

Marketplaces have been essential spaces for both community and commerce pretty much since society began. From ancient civilizations to modern ones, markets have been the cornerstone of community—they’re a place where people can buy and sell essentials like food, clothing, and tools, as well as socialize and foster a sense of belonging with their neighbours. When I travel I make a point to try and visit the local market wherever possible, and every single one has offered me a really unique perspective on my destination and the people who live there.

Flowers at an outdoor market in Estonia

Whether you visit a permanent, established market building like Budapest’s Central Market Hall or Florence’s Mercato Centrale or stumble upon one that sets up in a designated space at specific times each week, you will see real life unfolding before your eyes—locals and tourists alike mix and mingle, but these are community spaces typically geared towards residents. Neighbours greet each other, and groups of friends honour longstanding weekly traditions of meeting for coffee and a bite to eat.

Markets will show you the honest priorities of a culture—when you visit one, look around and see what people are buying. What’s sold in the greatest quantities? How is it sold—is it fresh or preserved? Sold alive and whole or neatly packaged and prepared? If there are other goods for sale, are they secondhand or new? Handmade or mass-produced? Are there spaces for people to sit and talk? Prepared meals being sold for people to eat on-site?

Central Market Hall, Budapest

By asking yourself these types of questions when you visit a market, you can begin to gain an authentic understanding of how the locals truly live, and what’s valued in the local culture. As I’m sure you can tell from my blog, I’m a big fan of checking out a destination’s major landmarks—they’re renowned for a reason, after all. But I also think that by occasionally looking beyond the places we are steered towards as tourists—that is to say, by visiting the local market—we can get a new perspective on travel that we maybe wouldn’t otherwise think to look for. Sometimes that can be just as interesting as exploring a destination’s ‘greatest hits’—just food for thought.

P.S. – Vendors know their local customers well (and are often locals themselves), so they can’t afford to garner a reputation for selling inferior product—locals will never be fooled by shoddy quality and certainly won’t return if the quality is sub-par. What does this mean for you, the tourist? Vendors take a great deal of pride in their wares, so the food and goods you can buy at a public market are usually out-of-this-world (if you needed another incentive to check one out).

Piazza della Frutta, Padova – when I asked if I could take a picture, the merchant beamed the biggest smile at me & started rearranging the oranges so they’d look perfect in the photo.

What are your thoughts on public markets? My expertise pretty much extends to the ones in Europe, Canada, the Caribbean, and the UK—I’d be interested in knowing if this holds true for other parts of the world. I can’t wait for the day when I visit Asia and get to experience the madness of their markets for myself! If you’ve got some thoughts, let me know in the comments!

Thanks for reading,

—Meghan—