Travel Recommendations for Novelty-Seekers Like Me [Live Post]

Oct 19, 2022 recs

I thought it would be cool to share some of the cool spots/hidden gems from all the countries I’ve visited. I try to select spots that are really unique, especially in their vibe, experience, or culture ‒ the farther it is from anything I’ve experienced before, the higher it’ll be on this list. I’ll also try to list the “best” versions of things I’ve tried, like food types or libraries. I usually care much less about historical significance or aesthetics, and there are plenty of lists for that already. The best adventures will always be the unplanned spontaneous outings you risk yourself, so definitely don’t lean too much on this list :)

These are surprisingly hard to surface ‒ Atlas Obscura is alright but seems more geared to places than experiences, and TikTok #hiddengems and Reddit are also just alright, but often prioritize instagrammable places (I assign very low weight to that in contrast). Personal recommendations seem to be the only way that really works for me – apps like Fever purport to systematize this (I haven’t tried it), but it seems potentially promising.

This alive document will be updated every time I travel.

USA
- Seattle, WA
  - Food
    - U:Don: Chipotle for udon ‒ build your own udon bowl. Incredibly tasty, best low-price meal I had in Seattle.
- Cambridge, MA
  - Food
    - Yume Wo Katare: This isn’t just a ramen shop ‒ they brand themselves as a shop of dreams. You say a dream you have for yourself before your meal with everyone else, in the intimate 15 person setting. Very affordable (maybe $15/person), but make sure to get there just before they open to avoid waiting in a line.
    - Yume Ga Agakura: Sister shop, the best udon in MA. They shout a rating for your meal at the end, based on the amount of the Udon you were able to finish. Also affordable ($15/per).
    - Life Alive: The best vegetarian food I’ve ever eaten ‒ I hate vegetarian food and still really enjoy this place.
    - Jules’ Jamaican Pop Up: This secret tent only appears on weekend afternoons in Central, and serves huge and tasty portions of jerk chicken.
  - Experiences
    - Next Haunt at MIT: An interactive, horror escape room with actors, built by students inside a dorm. If you have a friend going here able to get you a ticket, it’s definitely one of the most unique experiences I’ve had.
    - Level99: This is one of my favorite places in MA; only about a 30 minute drive from Boston. There are 40ish puzzle rooms, each with one minigame in it (walk the plank, the floor is lava, timed jenga for maximum height, etc), and fun little bands that track the number of stars you have so far. Everyone I’ve told about it has loved it.
    - Hacking at MIT: This is a secret, orally-passed down tradition where students take each other to hidden spots on campus, like a dusty vent with a videogame lounge in it. Ask any MIT student (or me) and they’ll be able to take you!
    - The Viz Lab at Harvard: Apparently this lab has a set of goggles and projectors that let you see any image as a “hologram” in a room on a massive curved screen. That sounds completely nuts to me, and I’d love to make a trip over and check it out.
    - Find me, and I’ll happily offer you an algorave tutorial class (shout out to @alsoknownasrox for teaching me!) or play crazy cool VR videogames with you (my favorites are Minecraft in 3D, games with crazy realistic physics, and space exploration games like No Mans Sky!)
- New York City, NY
  - Food
    - Genki Omakase: I haven’t been here yet, but it’s one of the most affordable omakase’s I’ve ever seen at < $100/person, and a friend who’s been to 4 omakase’s said it’s the best of the lot.
    - Action Burger: I haven’t been here, but it looks interesting ‒ it has a sci-fi theme and a bunch of videogames setup for patrons.
  - Experiences
    - Wonderville NYC: I don’t usually like bars or clubs too much, but this queer club had a fantastic live-coded algorave performance on the night I went. The dance floor is lined with locally-created bespoke arcade machines, and the bar had a hacking CTF going on at the same time – I couldn’t get enough.
    - Speak No More: I haven’t been here, but I really want to go. It’s a play where you move around a space and see different parts of the play as characters act in real time in different nooks and crannies of a mansion.
    - Union Square Cyphers: On Friday nights 8pm-midnight, a group assembles to do spontaneous rap battles on the Southeast corner. Really fun energy, and definitely a goal to one day be good enough to join in :)
    - Subway shows: On the longer segments (i.e. across the bridges), performers often do a little speech or rap or dance bit, and it’s usually strange enough to be entertaining. Hard to plan, but you’ll inevitably run into a few if you take long subway segments often.
    - Hyprov: I haven’t been, but hypnosis with improv sounds pretty interesting.
- Other
  - McKamey Manor in Summertown, Tennessee: I haven’t been, and wouldn’t recommend it. It’s a real-life torture haunted house, where you say a 40 page waiver document out loud and then the guy running it tortures you. It’s definitely toeing the line of sadistic and illegal (though reportedly there is a safe word that works most of the time), but it is novel nevertheless and thus makes the cut here.
  - Akron Ohio Haunted Schoolhouse: I haven’t been, but this looks interesting ‒ much more benign than a real-life torture chamber, but the online reviews rave about the quality of scares and actors.
Maldives
- Experiences
  - Bodu Beru dancing: This is a traditional dance where the drum beat puts dancers into a psychadelic state. The hotels tone it down a decent bit -**I recommend trying to find a spontaneous one on the smaller islands, and jump in yourself! Mentioned in Impro.
  - Undersea restaurant: Food isn’t worth the price, but being in a giant tube underwater while eating was pretty sick.
Singapore
- Food
  - Labyrinth: This chef takes you through a Michelin-starred whirlwind story of his childhood – including street food, candles made of lard that you eat with the meal, and a custom printed cereal box. Felt very personal in a way that no other meal ever has.
Seoul, South Korea
- Food
  - Shin Migyeong Hongdae Dakgalbi: Dakgalbi is incredible, and ths was the place I happened to stumble upon: the best chicken I’ve ever eaten.
- Experiences
  - Meerkat and Friends: Play with meerkats, racoons, wallabies, and foxes ‒ the only place I know where you can really get up close to them. Alternatively, Zoo in the City seems new and equally as good.
  - Teacup Animals Store: A shop that breeds very miniscule pets, and ships them across the world. Absolutely adorable tiny cats and dogs that fit in your hand.
London
- Food
  - Formal Dinner at Trinity/Cambridge: If you’re lucky enough to have a friend at a university, chances are they have dress-up formals where they serve you an incredible 5 course meal for $13 in a Harry Potter-style dinner hall. An old man even rings a gong and mumbles 20 seconds of unintelligible Latin!
  - Camden Market: I love Smorgasburg markets like these – I ate here every day for like a week and never got sick of it.
- Experiences
  - Immersive Gatsby: I haven’t been, but it looks interesting. A real life great gatsby party, where you dress like it’s prohibition and actors act the play amongst you.
Egypt
- Food/Experiences
  - This Specific Luxor Airbnb: This Airbnb I stayed in had incredible homemade food, the best food I had in Egypt. The Airbnb was designed from sandstone by a French designer as well, and came with a cat! With plugin mosquito repellent, it was one of the best stays I’ve ever had.
Thailand
- Food
  - 100 Mahaseth: Really incredible Thai-inspired meats, sauces, and dishes. Recommended by a local, only like $15/person.
Japan
- Experiences
  - Metal Gear Solid escape room: There are physical guards you have to sneak around apparently, which sounds really cool.
  - Studio Ghibli Museum: Is booked out a month in advance – make sure to book on the 9th of the month for seeing spots during the next month.
Anywhere
- Experiences
  - Sensory Deprivation Tanks: Haven’t tried one yet, but looks fun as long as you have constant oversight/some type of safe word/short hair or very well tied long hair.
  - Scuba Diving Certification: Make sure to bring your own GoPro (I use this $70 budget one with this $8 chest strap, charged batteries, and a microSD). You can get a provisional 90 day, 12 meter deep license by finishing 2 dives and 3 modules of the Open Water e-course on PADI. If you do the introductory Discover Scuba course that everyone offers instead, make sure to still buy the open water course so you can get credit for your first dive.