Twelve years ago, before “like a local” showed up on every travel site and in every listicle, it was just a phrase rattling around in my head.
I was getting ready to launch a food tour company in New York, and I wanted a name that captured the whole point of it — experiencing a city the way the people who live there do, not the way a guidebook tells you to. “Like a local” said it perfectly. But before I committed to it, I did what anyone would do: I googled it.
I found one other project using a similar name. It was based overseas, focused mostly on European cities, and didn’t have much of a presence here in the U.S. The name was available to trademark in the States, so I secured it — and Like A Local Tours was born.
Twelve years of doing it our way
What started as a phrase and an idea became a company built on a stubborn belief: that the best of a city lives in its neighborhoods, its family-run kitchens, and the people behind the counter — not in the tourist traps. Over the past decade we’ve walked thousands of guests through the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, Chelsea Market, and beyond, and we’ve made supporting local small businesses and community partners a core part of every tour.
Along the way, we’ve been lucky enough to be recognized as one of the city’s top food tour experiences — but honestly, the part I’m proudest of is that we’ve stayed true to the idea we started with.
Full circle
Here’s the part I love. Years later, our paths crossed with that original project again — and I learned the team behind it wasn’t actively using the name anymore. Not long after, it found a new home with us. The phrase that started it all came full circle, and today it lives right alongside the company it helped inspire.
It’s a good reminder that the best things in this business often come from a chance connection and a shared way of seeing the world — the same way our tours do.
Come see it for yourself
The name has always been a promise: that you’ll experience New York like a local, not a tourist. Twelve years in, that’s still exactly what we do.
(And if you like to plan before you go, our companion guide is back too — take a look at Like A Local Guide.)
