GetYourGuide for the first 30 days in a new city. The free cancellation default and 60,000 plus activities, the working booking layer for the scouting trip.
The first 30 days in a new city pose a structural problem: you need to learn the city quickly enough to decide which neighborhoods to focus the housing search on. GetYourGuide bundles city walking tours, market food walks, and the museum that runs the city history orientation into bookable units. The free cancellation default (24 hours out on 82 percent of listings) makes it low risk to over schedule the first week.
Rule 1: book the city orientation walking tour for day 2, not day 1. Rule 2: skip the bus tours; walking tours are universally better. Rule 3: food market tours are worth the cost in cities where the local language is a barrier (Tokyo, Seoul, Bangkok, Istanbul). Rule 4: museum skip the line passes pay for themselves in Paris, Rome, Barcelona, and London.
Skip: the multi day excursion bundles, priced for tourists doing the city in 4 days. Skip: airport transfer add ons. Skip: the photographer tour package; overpriced versus hiring a local Instagram photographer directly.