Three reasons to revisit a place

Travel is all about exploring, adventure and experiencing something new. When you visit somewhere for the first time, it’s exciting! But it can also take a lot of planning and research to make sure you see everything you want to see, as well as find great restaurants, bars, coffee shops, that ‘must visit’ cronut bar/ice-cream shop etc etc. It can end up being wonderful but also a little stressful. 

But it doesn’t always have to be this way. 

When we find somewhere we love, we like to return – sometimes, again and again! Last year we visited Polignano a Mare in Puglia for the first time and loved it so much, we went back again this year. 

Take New York – we’ve been four times and are most likely going again for New Year. There are so many places we’ve been to more than once (or twice, or even three times), such as Rome, Cape Town, Taormina, Ischia, the Amalfi Coast… the list goes on.

So why do we keep revisiting places instead of going somewhere new?

It’s more relaxing

When you revisit somewhere you’ve been before, there’s no need to rush around trying to see and do as much as you can. Sure, there might be something you’d like to see again or dedicate more time to, but generally you’ve already done ‘the tourist thing’ so second time (or third time) round you experience the place more like a local. You have more time to just ‘chill’.

You get to see more

If you’re going to a big city, such as New York, you’ll never fit everything in the first time round so when you revisit it, you actually see MORE of the city. You get to tick off all the places you didn’t see the first time round. For us, I think it was actually our third time in the city before we ticked off The Top of the Rock, on our second visit we explored MoMA and on our fourth, we visited a part of Brooklyn we’d never seen before.

I already have a list of new places to see for our next visit. We definitely want to see more of Brooklyn, plus while we’re there I want to go to Liberty State Park in New Jersey as it has an amazing view of the New York skyline. And while we’re in New Jersey, we might seek out a Soprano’s tour!

You know what you like

The first time you visit a place, you rely on Tripadvisor or even recommendations from friends or fellow bloggers for great places to eat or drink but when you visit again, you already know what you like.

In every city we revisit, there is at least one restaurant we’ll always return to. In Taormina in Italy, it’s Vineria Modi. On the Amalfi Coast it’s Next 2 in Positano and Lido Azzurro in Amalfi – and from our last visit, we’ll be adding Il Flauto di Pan in Ravello. This means we know we’ll have a good meal and it saves time figuring out where to eat – or worse, having a disappointing meal.

Top tip – leave your favourite restaurant for your last night so you end your holiday on a high!

Are there places you find that you keep going back to? I’d love to hear which cities or towns they are so please leave me a comment or tweet me at @LondonKirsty.