Experience cuts both ways. People often say they travel to “try something new” or “break out of a routine.” Novel and different things excite us. Dr. David Eagleman said in an article in Current Opinion in NeuroBiology “perceived durations can be distorted by… an oddball in a sequence.” Put simply, doing something different can change the way we experience time.

On other hand, familiarity can make things easier to understand and enjoy. I once tried to watch cricket on TV, but the complexity of the game befuddled me. I ended up getting bored trying to fi gure it out, turning the TV off in frustration. This is not because cricket is impossible to understand. It seems like a lot of people play cricket, someone must understand it. But without familiarity it is impossible to get a lot of cricket, much less see the nuance of the game (I am sure a European would have the same experience with baseball).

A guide can help short circuit this problem. A good guide is like a teacher with infectious enthusiasm. Their love for and understanding of what is fun about a subject, place or sport bleeds over into you, the visitor.

A guide doesn’t have to be someone who wears a uniform or a person that stands at a historic site all day waiting for tour groups. They certainly shouldn’t be a pair of headphones you can rent at a museum. It can be a friend or relative who lives in the place your visiting or even someone who doesn’t currently live there. They don’t have to know when the Louver was built or how many stones are in the pyramids at Teotihuacan, a guide can be somebody who knows where to eat cheap sushi or what movie theaters let you ...