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Category / Don’t Be A Tourist

The Messy Nessy Personality-Curated Gift Guide

“Remember, the big stores don’t do ‘a little Jig’ when they make a sale. Make someone ‘jig’ this year.” I’ve always put a lot of thought into finding unique gifts at the holidays and if you’re a long-time reader, chances are we probably share similar tastes. So without further ado, let’s go gift-shopping… For the…

A French Youtuber went to Visit China’s Fake Paris for Himself

It’s been over a decade since we first blogged (yes, back when we called it blogging) about the European clone towns of China, including the city on the outskirts of Shanghai built around a fake Eiffel Tower with a replica Champs Elysées and rows of Haussmann-inspired Parisian townhouses. The gated community of Tianducheng, built in…

The Little-Known Los Angeles Cemetery Where LA’s Hidden History is Buried

There are plenty of dead people in Los Angeles. Some of them are even in the ground. Forest Lawn is very formal. Tidy. Hollywood Forever feels as much like a park as it does a boneyard, a chic place to commune with the dead. That’s not Valhalla. There are ghosts in the jet trails. It’s not just…

This guy collects Do Not Disturb signs from Hotels around the World

Don’t I always say you can find absolutely anything on the internet? Well, I said it to someone recently. Anyhoo, I came across a collection of “Do Not Disturb” signs from hotels around the world and as far as hotel collectibles go, the doorknob signs seem to have gone largely unnoticed, despite being pretty interesting design-wise.…

Rocky Horror Picture Show in the Paris Catacombs

For our latest adventure on the Don’t be a Tourist in Paris web series, we go 30 feet beneath the city to discover the subculture of iconic midnight movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show just in time for Halloween. Below ground, we’re in the subterranean cinema of Alexander J E Bradley a photographer, filmmaker and catacomb-dweller (aka. cataphile).…

What happens in Pinecraft stays in Pinecraft: Where the Amish Vacation

The Amish, like everyone else (or perhaps more than everyone else) deserve to get away from it all and put their feet up every once in a while. So where is a devout Christian who maintains minimal interaction with the modern world to vacation? Florida of course! That is, Pinecraft, Florida, aka the “Amish Las…

The Enchanted Cities Hiding Inside Theatres

For some lucky theatregoers, a trip to see the latest B-Movie at their local picture house also means a trip across space and time. It’s all thanks to the atmospheric movie palaces and theatres of the early 20th century, whose construction brought veritable mini-cities, from old Spanish streets to lost temples of Ancient Egypt, into…

Movie Pitches for Women the World Forgot

Their stories have been buried in the past, eclipsed by others who perhaps achieved more or possessed qualities the world deemed more important. But today, we’re meeting a few muses that fell down the back of the history’s sofa. I’m filing the result of today’s internet finds under “women to make movies about”. Princess Amélie…

The Desert Town Built Around a Mirage, Come True

When I imagine a mirage, I think of epic tales of adventure and perilous journeys through the desert where our hero is dangerously lost, hallucinating in the barren landscape ahead. Rarely does the mirage turn out to be something real. Except this one did, and you don’t have to be a character in a storybook…

Adult Playground Holiday Homes: A Closer look at the Supersized New Travel Trend

Some of us may dream of relaxing at a serene beach villa or a cosy little cottage nestled amidst a luscious landscape, but if a popular new category created for the Airbnb market is any indication of current travel moods, there appears to be a growing demand to vacation on what can only be described…

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