Why do locals give such bad walking directions?
Locals often confuse walking times with driving times or underestimate distances, leading travelers on exhausting, multi-hour detours. Misleading advice about public transit schedules also leaves people stranded or walking in completely wrong directions.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1using smartphone maps
- 2double-checking instructions or taking nothing for granted
- 3relying on dual language maps
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Just realized I walked about three hours in the wrong direction because a guy at the coffee shop told me it was a quick shortcut.”source ↗
“After nearly a 90 min walk in 35°c Greek heat, he arrived. The guy meant 10 minutes by car”source ↗
“A local once told me the bus “comes all the time,” which apparently meant twice a day if the moon was right.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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