Why You Should Say “Yes” When Friends Invite You to Visit Their Hometown

We all have the best intentions when friends move far away, don’t we? “Come visit me!” our friends say, and “Of course we will!” we say back. And we mean to, but we don’t. And then years go by and we have friends that fade into acquaintances all over the place… and we sort of wish we had gone to visit at least once.

Since my husband and I are always looking for ways to travel to cool places efficiently (and having the equivalent of a free personal tour guide that we already know and like in an amazing place seems highly efficient to us), we try to take as many people up on this offer as we can.

Below are just a few examples (in no particular order) of friends’ hometowns my husband and I have been to visit in the last few years, just because someone said “Hey you should come visit me!” and we said “We’re in!” (It’s possible that all of these friends regretted their offers immediately, but that’s beside the point.) We really can’t thank them enough for being such a huge part of such amazing experiences. This list doesn’t even include the hometowns of immediate and extended family we’ve had the pleasure of visiting, and who we are also forever grateful to.

Stateside Destinations 

 

Salt Lake City, UT

 

 Nashville, TN

 

 Orono, ME

 

 Seattle, WA

 

International Destinations 

 

Cochabamba, Bolivia

 

Paris, France

 

Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

 

Prague, Czech Republic

 

Beijing, China

 

I highly recommend all of these places, and if you get the chance to visit any one of them, you should. Even more so if you get the chance to have a local show you around.

There is something incredibly special about being toured around a place by someone who knows it well and loves it. This holds true if your destination is a couple hours down the road or on the other side of the globe. You get to see the best sights, eat at the best spots, and (if you are somewhere with a language you don’t know well) have all the stupid things you say translated properly to the locals. Most importantly, you get to do all this with a friend.

It’s been my experience that more you accept invitations to travel and adventure, the more you meet people who do these sorts of things, and the more you get invited. It’s a self-perpetuating cycle of awesomeness.

So remember: If a friend of yours says “Come visit me! I’d love to show you around!” the correct response is “I’m buying tickets as we speak!”

Bon Voyage!