My wife and I have traveled all over Europe the past 10 years. For every area we go to, we pick up a Rick Steves travel book and it has been amazingly helpful. The beginning of each book gives a few recommended timelines of how long to spend in each city/area. For each city it does a great job sorting through the bullshit tourist traps. The recommendations are tiered (must see, see if you have time, see if the attraction might be specifically interesting to you). This really helps with prioritizing and helps you figure out how much time to spend in an area. There are also great recommendations for restaurants and lodging which is especially helpful since TripAdvisor isn’t what it once was. Well worth the $20 for a book, can’t recommend it enough.

I also agree with what others said. Find a pub and chat with the locals. Happy travels!

Awesome essay and the sources/additional readings section at the bottom links to 3 great articles that really helped me understand the history and what neoliberalism is.