How to research non major cities?

[Anonymous]

I’ve been to plenty of major international cities in my own. And I’ve been to some more unique areas with tour groups. But I’d love to travel to some countries on my own and NOT stay in major cities. But how do I find places to stay and things to do on my own?

Current example (but not limited to), if I want to go to Iceland but not Reykjavik, how do I even begin to plan?

[Anonymous]

A guidebook at your library.

A Google search. A Reddit search.

[Anonymous]

Buy a travel guide.

[Anonymous]

The internet makes all things possible. My coworker just came back from a self-drive trip to Iceland with young male friends.

Iceland seems to have select major natural beauty landmarks that major tours visit. Do you want to avoid those? Or just skip the guided tour?

Cloning guided tour itineraries and adding a few more days is a pretty successful strategy in my book.

[Anonymous]

The internet is a wonderful thing

[Anonymous]

I like TripAdvisor forums. The ux is not great,, it they have details by country, city and state.

[Anonymous]

Of course the internet. But there’s almost TOO much information. And too many crappy blogs that seem to be about getting insta-worthy pictures and not just great travel experiences.

[Anonymous]

Example:

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g189952-i223-k15094266-Beginning_Itinerary_Advice-Iceland.html

Be sure to validate any post that is more than 2-3 years old, especially pre Covid ones.

[Anonymous]

Rick Steve's books.

[Anonymous]

Ask ChatGPT to design an x day itinerary in Iceland that excludes Reykjavik. Some of those results may be made up or not to your liking, but you can then use the ChatGPT results as a base from which to start Googling, Redditing, DCUMing, reading selected parts of a guidebook from the library, etc.

[Anonymous]

Iceland is easy because there’s so much info online. I found YouTube (specifically the Iceland With a View channel) and the TripAdvisor forums to be most helpful.