The idea that a holiday can improve by walking one street back from the main drag isn't new — travel writers have preached it for decades. What is new is a mass-market operator building a whole campaign around it. easyJet holidays has launched "One Street Over", a video series aimed at nudging package holidaymakers into the quieter neighbourhoods of Europe's most-visited cities, starting with Paris.
The first episode, released on 17 September and already past 10,000 views, stars Jade and Ryan, the couple behind the YouTube channel @LiveTheDash, whose whole premise is that small budgets can go a long way. They explore museums, galleries, parks and street markets away from the queues and souvenir shops — the sort of places first-timers often miss and returning visitors skip in favour of the hits they already know.
Matt Callaghan, the company's chief operating officer, frames it simply: sometimes the best part of a holiday is just around the corner from the places everyone already knows, and encouraging customers to linger in residential neighbourhoods spreads money to local businesses while giving travellers something unexpected. Scott Lawson, the operator's senior ESG manager, has been talking up the campaign's fit with responsible travel thinking.
The timing tracks with a wider shift. Demand for what the industry calls "meaningful travel" — closer contact with local communities, less time in crowds — keeps accelerating. YouTube channels promising hidden gems now pull tens of thousands of subscribers, and social anthropologists have long drawn a line between "frontstage" places built for visitors and the "backstage" where residents actually live. easyJet holidays is betting that its customers want a peek behind that curtain, and that an operator with serious reach can mainstream what used to be an indie-traveller habit.
There's a caveat worth taking seriously, and the Travel Tomorrow writer behind the article makes it well: even repeat visitors and self-styled local-savvy travellers are still guests. Wandering one street over is only a force for good if you treat those streets as someone's home rather than a backdrop for content — keep noise down, spend in independent shops and cafés, and don't resent residents going about their day.
For holidaymakers, the practical takeaway is refreshingly cheap: you don't need a new destination or an expensive tour. Pick one big-city break you already have booked, choose one sight you'd normally queue for, skip it, and spend the hour in the next neighbourhood instead. Paris is just the first episode, so expect more cities in the series — but the principle works anywhere from Barcelona to Prague.
Who is this for? Anyone who has ever visited a famous city, seen the three or four must-do sights, and left feeling they'd barely scratched the surface. It's also a nudge for repeat travellers to a favourite place to vary the routine. The campaign lives online as a video series, so you can watch an episode before your next trip and steal an itinerary or two from it. Credit: Travel Tomorrow.
