Cultural exchange for a day

Services like Meet The Danes and Like a Local make it easy for travellers to meet locals and to really get to know the place they’re visiting. Offering an alternative to dining in Copenhagen’s restaurants, Meet the Danes matches tourists with a local host family for an evening of Danish food. Dine with the Danes makes an effort to pair visitors with hosts of similar ages and interests. An evening in a Danish home can be experienced for about USD 58 / EUR 47 / GBP 32 per person, which includes a two-course dinner with drinks. Some hosts also offer bed & breakfast for an additional fee. Dutch Like a Local takes bookings for experiences in three categories: Eat, Live, and Go, in The Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Besides home-cooked meals, the service also offers accommodation in private homes. Last but not least, ‘Go’ is a selection of activities off the beaten tourist track, organised by locals. Guests can sign up to be taken on a private shopping tour of Barcelona, stopping by undiscovered young designers, or cycling through Amsterdam’s rural outskirts before hitting the hottest new clubs. Like a Local was founded by three women who always seemed to find out about a city’s secret gems from locals just as they were heading back home. Appealing to consumers who crave authenticity, these concepts demonstrate that a modest innovation, sparked by an entrepreneur’s personal need, can create a whole new experience. And in a sea of sameness, you can never be local enough! (For another small-scale approach to travel, check out: minipreneur travel agents.)