I live in Lake Geneva, WI, a quaint little town in Southeastern Wisconsin. Lake Geneva is not only my home, but it's also home to Chicagoland tourists looking for a “get away.” I have lived here most of my life, and this is where I’ve become who I am. I didn’t truly learn how unique it was living where I do until I went to college and realized just how different my hometown was then most. I love Lake Geneva, but living in a tourist town definitely comes with its frustrations.
1. Once Memorial Day hits, so does the traffic.
Summer starts and everyone wants a vacation, so where do they go? Those quaint little towns swarming with other tourists wanting exactly the same thing: a get-away. Memorial Day Weekend is opening weekend for most tourist towns, so everyone hits right at once. Most people are out of school or off work for Memorial Weekend, also, which makes vacation easy. In my case, living in Lake Geneva, WI, we get all of the Chicagoland visitors and all of the traffic they bring along with them. What once took me five minutes to travel the three blocks through town, is now a constant stopping and starting cycle that takes nearly fifteen minutes to complete. Secret detours become our best friends since nobody from out-of-town knows those streets.
2. Prices skyrocket on everything.
It makes sense: every store knows that tourists will pay high prices while they’re on vacation, but what about everyone who shops at the stores for day-to-day things? Food, clothes, gas and any sort of gift has all nearly doubled in price in a matter of days.
3. We actually have to pay to park downtown.
We’ve all done it. From September to March parking is free, so when April hits, you forget we now need to pay for parking because all of a sudden there’s a little white piece of paper on your car. In my case, April 1st is my birthday, and I’ve gotten one of those nice little presents twice now. All summer, we find ourselves walking half a mile just so that we can avoid paying for parking because paying the $1 per hour starts to add up.
4. We’re constantly asked where we’re from by vendors.
I always feel like I’m a let down when a vendor asks where I’m from, expecting some exciting answer like California or Florida, and I reply with, “I live right down the road” and point in the direction of my house. In tourist towns, asking, “where are you from?” is almost as common as, “how’s it going?”— it’s a question I’m asked often. Sometimes I think it would be more fun to just make something up, but then it would get weird when I see the vendor every week. We all get used to being asked these question over and over again, but sometimes we end up bonding with the vendor over our mutual tourist frustrations, and then it’s not so bad.
5. Nobody believes us that we actually live here.
I honestly think that sometimes people forget that there are people who live in tourist towns year-round. Living in a suburb of Chicago, I always get a confused look when I say I’m from Lake Geneva followed with disbelief or a, “that’s so cool, I guess I didn’t realize people actually lived there.” We all then think to ourselves that it’s cool for a total of five seconds, and then it gets somewhat old.
6. Restaurants are constantly packed.
It’s almost not even worth trying to go to a restaurant downtown in-season because we all end up waiting at least an hour just to be seated. Restaurants that are our everyday, normal restaurant never see our faces in-season, it’s just not worth it. But on the bright side, we get to give restaurants in neighboring towns a try.
7. Stores never last more than two years.
I can count on my hands which stores have been around for my entire life. It seems the second we get a new store, coffee shop or restaurant, it’s gone and replaced with something new. What small businesses fail to realize is that there’s always customers in the summer, but once September comes around, it’s hardly worth being open during the week because the tourists only come back on weekends. It’s not always a bad thing, though. I love seeing what new stores we get!
8. All of the attractions are only fun the first few times.
Water parks, ski hills, trolley rides and cute little ice cream shoppes definitely lose their charm. Living in a tourist town, we learn to space them out so that they don’t get old. We save them for times when friends are in town visiting, so really, we’re just pretending to be tourists for the weekend to half-enjoy attractions we’ve somewhat gotten used to, but pretend are still exciting. It’s more seeing our friends have fun that we truly enjoy.
9. The town is deserted once summer is over.
We all face a little bit of shock once the season is over. We’ve finally gotten used to all of the tourists invading town for the past three months and then just as quickly as they came, they all leave. We’re back to having half the population and the occasional remaining tourist that comes on the weekends.
10. We’re definitely the minority.
Not being a tourist in a tourist town generally makes us the minority, but that’s okay. We learn to overcome the frustrations of living in a tourist town and enjoy that we live a life unlike any other. We know the in’s and out’s of the town and experience the “vacation” that everyone else only experiences once or twice a year.
At the end of the day, living in a tourist town comes with its frustrations but there are definitely worse things in the world. Deep down we all truly love where we live, overlook the annoyances and secretly feel special for where we live.
