I like to aimlessly walk around and see where I land.

Urban hiking. Plan a few stops at big tourist attractions and then walk between them, stoping for drinks and food as desired. Easily the best way to actually explore different neighborhoods.

I personally make sure I stay in a good neighborhood and check Wikivoyage for details like transportation and safety, but that’s pretty much it. If I land in a good neighborhood (not touristy, lots of amenities and restaurants around, easy connection on foot or by public transport to the major areas), then I’m pretty much golden.

It’s a bit counter-intuitive, but I think not enough research is much better than too much. Any tourist information will draw you to overpriced and/or overhyped places. The desire, say, to “eat the best X” or “visit the most famous Y” is making your travels crappier.

Instead, I recommend cultivating normalcy. Visit your neighborhood by foot, and take chances on unknown places. You can check Google Maps to get the sense of a place, but if the reviews are good and they’re mostly local reviewers, and the place is crowded, you’re in good hands. Check out what other people are eating and order that. (Just point if needed.)

My partner and I have what we call our “grounding ritual.” We set out by foot in our neighborhood and spot what we’ll need: a convenience store for late-night snack runs, a supermarket or fresh market for food, etc. We check out public transportation options nearby. Then we find a nice, no-frills local restaurant and have a meal there. If the place is good, we make a point of returning there over the next few days. Doesn’t matter if we’re there for a weekend.

We just returned from a few days in Warsaw, a city I had never been before. Besides the Old Town, none of the places we visited were stuff I had read about online. We just let our feet, eyes, and noses lead us to interesting places.

In each city I visit, I always try to do a bike tour. You can see a lot in a 2-3 hours and the tour guides are usually very knowledgeable.

It depends on a lot of things. Which part of the world? In Europe big cities all have the tourist part and the “old town” part. If you are there sightseeing just get a tourist map and start exploring.

You can usually get an equivalent of a tourist day tickets, which will give you unlimited access to public transport, sightseeing buses and some attractions/museums. Just pick up the one which tickles your fancy and usually you can get it from any airport, big train/bus station when you arrive.

If you are there to party and check out the night life I would strictly stick to popular spots.

For any other interests (hiking, historical spots, etc) you can find a city specific list of recommendations online.

Also it usually helps to google which tourist scams are popular in the region to avoid them.

I like to just to Geocaching. There are often a lot of caches in the cities, and a lot of then often have really niche information on I teresting topics. Plus when doing earth or virtual caches, you often need to explore quite a bit.

Reading comments here to find a better way, but we just walk or take a train or subway and get off and walk and see what we find. Talking to locals helps too, as they will tell us about places they are proud of and think we should see. We have stumbled on really cool places most tourist do not find or ended up riding paddle boats in a park. We do research ahead of time and have a list of places we do not want to miss.

This does not always work. Some places are too big and lack public transportation. We have had to return to a train station a get a cab to a local attraction (Dover, UK).

Get to know a taxi driver. Ask locals where to go and what to see. Stop by a visitors bureau or welcome center. Hit up a local colleges student center.

When I traveled a lot, I used to start with the local phone book. Not only did it have business information, but government info, and a section devoted to local arts and museums. These days I (gasp) talk to people at pubs or bars or coffee shops. Obviously, if they are annoyed, I let them be, but you’d be surprised how many people are happy to brag about their community.

I love to go on free walking tours if they’re available. Other than that there is a view of most popular attractions on Google travel which you can filter by most popular for tourists or locals.

My wife and I love to visit new places. We will generally prepare by asking friends who have visited what they liked and disliked, I would check the areas affiliated subreddit to get guidance from the locals, and do a little online searching to get a general feel for the city.

Once there don’t be afraid to talk to people. Talk to a can driver, spark up a conversation at a cafe. Locals are almost always willing to share their favorite places with you since you’re a visitor to their city and they want to shed it in the best light.

Research beforehand to find all the best local bars and watering holes, not the tourist traps… The ones where I’ll probably be the only tourist there… Make that list and hit them all… You make new friends, see impromptu entertainment, get a whole different experience from your average tourist

Go on a paid pub/bar crawl. They’re super cheap and you’ll meet other travellers/locals

I usually read a lot about the city in advance and make a list of sights I want to see. And most time I use to stay at least one night. So I arrive the first day and use to walk around the city. In most of the cities (except Berlin) most of the sights are near to the city centre. So most parts of my list are done without any planning. For the next day I only have few sights left. Mostly things apart the centre or indoor activities like museums.

Im a bit of a film nut, so I search for “Films shot in place” and see if theres anything that jumps out at me. When I was in Paris/Europe I went to a bunch of Filming locations from Ronin.

I search for the types of things I like specifically instead of the things that are thought to have wide appeal. Wherever I go I look for: vegan food, extreme metal concerts, goth clubs, swinger clubs, anime/gaming stores, and the occasional park with a nice lake or river. Do the same but with your interests! All cities are mostly similar to each other in a lot of ways. Also, you can spice it up by trying to do one or two things that are unique to that city’s culture without being tourist traps, such as a local food item or a particularly good museum or coffee shop.