Live Like a Local

Welcome to the Live Like a Local section of Marginal Boundaries.

As the name suggests, this is the part of the website where you can find more information on what it means to live like a local in various destinations around the world. This is hands-on information that is gathered over extensive periods of time spent in each location. My Sofia, Bulgaria guide is based on 2.5 years of living there and 6 years of traveling to the city before moving there, and my Cancun, Mexico guide is based on over a year of living here (I have been here since September of 2010). As of December, the Bogota, Colombia guide is still being finished with an anticipated release date in late 2011 or early 2012.

The information in the Live Like a Local guides is beyond what you can find on the Lonely Planet forums, the CouchSurfing community forums or by typing in the city or country in Google. Anyone can find general information on a city with the click of a button, but the real information, the kind that is available only to locals and people who have been living on the ground immersing themselves in the environment for long periods of time, is only available to those who actually know about it. Things like where to find the best discounts on groceries, who to talk to in order to find local discounts on apartment rentals, where you can find the most affordable dentists and doctors, the safest places in the city, which sections to avoid, the real prices you should be paying for public transportation,which schools have the best reputations on the local level, and basically everything that you will never find on Google because it’s only talked about on the local level, rather than in the Wiki pages or generalized forums populated by weekend warriors and part-time adventurers who only visit somewhere for a couple weeks at a time while on vacation.

Many travel guides are written by people who are sent on location for a few short weeks and they only focus on the Western-style accommodations, the Western-style amenities and the Western-style restaurants and neighborhoods. Here, at Marginal Boundaries, our goal is to take you beyond the generalized, free information you can find on the Internet and show you what it’s like to actually live like a local, on the ground, day by day, week after week, month after month, using the same transportation as the locals, shopping at the same supermarkets and local markets, utilizing the same market days and discounts, renting the same accommodations and enjoying the same cost of living as the locals. The Live Like a Local guides are not merely travel guides; rather, they are immersion guides that teach you how to flawlessly integrate into the cities you want to live in so that you are living and blending in with the locals, rather than standing out like a tourist. The goal is for you to immerse yourself in the environment, to respect and integrate into the local culture, to “go native”, as they say.

Regardless if you are pensioner looking for a tropical destination where you can retire on the cheap or you are a location independent digital nomad who wants to get on the fast track to settling down in a city without needing to take the time to learn the lay of the land on your own, the Live Like a Local series of travel guides are designed to put you at the heart of living in cities around the world. I show you step-by-step instructions on how to get your residency visa, which types you should apply for, the actual methods of negotiating local bureaucracies, I show you the local markets, where to find discounts on what days of the week or what months of the year, where to find the cheapest furniture, where to shop for home supplies, the local schools, the local restaurants, the local bars, the local doctors, accommodations, immersion centers and programs, cultural centers, parks and plazas, beaches, jungle retreats, eco tours and more. If you are looking for generalized information on a destination, feel free to use Google or any other generalized resource on the Internet. If you are looking for culturally specific information that teaches you how to integrate into the local culture and live just like the locals do, then you’ve come to the right place.

Don’t forget to sign up for the free newsletter for more concentrated travel advice on how to live like a local in foreign destinations, as well as pick up your free copy of the 30 Ways in 30 Days: Transitioning into the Location Independent Digital Nomad Lifestyle ebook, which shows you how to make the transition into a lifestyle of absolute freedom as a digital nomad in just 30 days. It’s a great starter point if you haven’t actually ever lived in a foreign city before, and with 77 pages of hands-on information it can serve as an appetizer for one of the actual guides. In addition, signing up gives you access to discounts and special promotions on the various products sold through our store. Leave a comment and stay in touch with us via our blog, as well as join in on the conversations over at Facebook and Twitter, or sign up for our feed to get email notifications when our latest blog posts are available. And if you ever have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at twanderson@marginalboundaries.com. I read every comment and every email sent to me, so don’t be shy!