There is something slightly unfashionable about staying in the same neighborhood twice. Travel magazines are structured around novelty — 'this year's hot new district' — and the implicit message is that revisiting anywhere is a failure of imagination.
We disagree. The second time you stay in a neighborhood is when you start actually knowing it. The first visit is an audit: you learn the streets, you figure out where the coffee is, you identify the one restaurant you want to return to. The second visit is the payoff. You skip the tourist sites, you eat at the restaurant you loved last time, and you walk around like someone who lives there for a week.
The third visit is where it gets interesting. You start recognizing regulars at your favorite bar. You have opinions about which bakery is best. You stop photographing the neighborhood and start just living in it.
Our editorial recommendation: pick three neighborhoods you love around the world and go back to each of them every few years. You will learn more about those three places than you will learn from thirty novel trips, and you will enjoy them far more.
