Why I love city walks and a Giveaway

I promised to take you shopping in Bali, but let me take you for a walk first.

Why I love City Walks

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I like slow travel. As in taking as much time as possible to explore a city and as in walking a lot.

I love to walk around in cities, since there’s always so much to see and do.

On the left: exploring Sentosa Island, Singapore. Top right: taking a break at hipster place Wheeler’s Yard. Bottom right: posing in front of photogenic Alkaff bridge at Roberson Quay Singapore. Hm, I seem to have a cross-your-leg-pose tendency nowadays. Note to self: don’t make a habit out of that!

Also -very important;-)!- cities provide ample possibilities for pleasant coffee-breaks, lunch-breaks, cooling down breaks, warming up breaks and breaks-for-no-reason-what-so-ever.

So how about that giveaway? Patience, please! Keep reading and you’ll find it at the end of this article.

How to make the most of your city walks

Come prepared!

Wear the right shoes

Nothing is more annoying than wearing shoes that hurt your feet. Wear shoes that will last you all day. Like ballerina’s or good sneakers.

Wearing ballerina’s while exploring Chinatown in Singapore (left). Comfy in my neon-colored Nikes while hiking in Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve Singapore.

And if you want to look pretty and feminine at some point during your day, just bring a pair of pumps along.

Heels like these ones look nice, but I absolutely cannot walk miles in them. So either I bring them along in my bag, or…we go by taxi;-). Left: Clarke Quay Singapore. (Hey, there we have that crossed legs pose again.) On the right: in Gardens by the Bay.

Check the weather forecast and dress accordingly

I hate rain, but I hate umbrellas more. So I prefer to have a lightweight or throw-away raincoat with me, if rain is expected.

Two occasions on which I was caught by the rain in Singapore. Left during Chingay and on the right during a guided walk by OH!

Dealing with extreme sunlight for hours can give you a headache and make you squint your eyes, so don’t forget your sunnies and a hat.

Staying fashionable when it’s burning hot in Singapore is not an easy task.

Being too hot or too cold, or thirsty or hungry, really takes the fun out of my city walks (or anything else for that matter). That’s why I wear layers, bring a shawl, have a bottle of water with me and a few emergency (because diabetes) cookies in my bag.

Nauseatingly hot in Cambodia.

Be picture-ready

Most of us are on Instagram nowadays, on FaceBook, Twitter, or maybe even have a blog. So we love to take selfies, welfies and pictures during our holidays.

There are some choices to be made here.

Do you want high quality pictures and ‘options’, then -like me- you need a good camera, maybe even with multiple lenses. I often walk around with two cameras plus lenses, spare batteries and so forth, because I like to come prepared for different situations. The price? (apart from the investment) Carrying around a lot of bulk and weight and believe me, after walking for 8 hours or so, that becomes real-ly heavy on the shoulder.

On the left you can see the photo equipment that I tend to carry with me. Usually two cameras in my hands and the rest is in the black bag. On the right I took a selfie with one of Cenos artworks behind me. Both pics were taken in Singapore.

If you don’t want or need that, you can do a lot with your smartphone. Be sure to bring a selfie-stick and your charger, both for the phone as for the selfie-stick. Invest in a wireless stick with bluetooth. It’s not that expensive and so much handier than wired models with a button.

Spot good, fun photo opportunities

Recognise a good, interesting spot or moment and use it immediately for a picture. At least one of the pictures you take should include yourself.

Spotting photo opportunities: top left - stroking a two meter beard in Haw Par Villa, top right - duo pose with a ballerina along Orchard Road. Hey, the ballerina is doing a crossed-leg pose. Could this be the origin of my cross leg pose syndrom? Bottom left: Statue of Liberty, in….wait for it….Tokyo! Bottom right: Bruce, my man! He’s sulking, as you can see, since I refused to share my Starbucks latte with him. Sorry, Brucey. Hahaha…

I was lucky enough to run into two of my Singaporean idols during my city walks. I ran into my favorite street artist Ceno while he was painting a mural in Haji Lane. Such a fantastic artist and a humble person. And on the right we see Mr. Teo, Haw Par Villa’s painter since 65 years, a true legend. He too was busy painting, at the moment that I met him.

Take a break. As a matter of fact: take lots of breaks!

Breaks are an essential part of my walks. Not only are they important for recharging my energy (a 10 km stroll through a city can be pretty exhausting), for cooling down when I got completely overheated or warming up when it’s freezing outside. They also allow me to spend time in the hippest, coolest cafes, restaurants and bars. Not being a real foodie, I choose these places more for their ambiance, design and beauty. A good cappuccino is a huge plus as well. As is a sparkling glass of bubbly.

Breaks are the best part of city walks for me;-). Top left: in Antwerp, Belgium. Top right: in Singapore. Bottom left: warming up with a nice lunch in Haarlem, the Netherlands, during a freezing cold day last winter. Bottom right: a glorious sunny day on the beach in Bloemendaal, the Netherlands.

Where to go

So you’re wearing comfortable footwear and a layered outfit. You brought your □ sunglasses □ raincoat □ smartphone □ camera □ water □ cookies □ hat □ whatever.

Now where do you go?

Wandering without a plan

The easiest way is to just go out and start walking. Some people are huge fans of this approach. Go and stumble upon, trial and error, where ever the wind brings you. Spontaneous, free and full of surprises.

It that works for you, fine. I do that sometimes too. But it’s not my preferred way.

Plan your walk

I prefer to plan my walk. You can do that in many ways. I usually gather information via:

• guidebooks, travel books,
• online: blogs, websites, Instagram, Tripadvisor
• tips from friends and family

If that sounds like too much work, you can decide to

• join a guided tour
• do a self-guided tour, e.g. by picking one up at the local tourist information office
• use an app, like GPSmyCity, which brings us to the giveaway.

Giveaway!

GPSmyCity is a cool app that provides (5000!) self-guided city walks in over 470 cities all over the world. Their slogan is “Lose yourself without getting lost”.

The walks are interesting, well-written and curated by local insiders, travel writers and bloggers.

Many cities have a number of walks, from the obvious ‘highlights walk’ to walks about niche topics like art, bookshops, ‘taste the top 15 Dutch foods’ (Amsterdam) or ‘Entertainment spots for kids ‘ (Singapore).

I tried some of their walks in Singapore and to my surprise they guided me to places that were new to me, even though I consider myself to be a Singapore insider.

The walks can be used offline. Very important when in a foreign country, since you want to avoid roaming costs.

GPSmyCity gives away 20 promocodes for 20 readers to download one of their walks for free. (normal price US$ 4.99 in the App store). The code gives you access to all current and future walks in the city of your choice.

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post and tell me in which city you would like to ‘lose yourself without getting lost’ aka that you would like to explore by foot, why and wether you would like your promocode in IOS or Android.

The first 20 readers who leave a comment will receive a promocode.

Disclaimer: this is a sponsored post in the sense that GPSmyCity gave me 20 promocodes for my readers and two promocodes for myself. GPSmyCity asked and received nothing in return. All opinions are my own.