Remember you are standing in someone's street
The bulk of friction comes from a simple perceptual glitch: a holiday destination feels like a stage set, so we behave as though nobody lives backstage. But the picturesque alley is a commute, the church is a working place of worship, and the balcony above the bar belongs to someone with an early start.
In practice this means stepping to the side of the pavement to look at your phone, keeping voices down in residential lanes late at night, and not blocking a shop doorway for a photo while people are trying to get on with their day. On public transport, take your rucksack off in a crowded carriage. In a market, ask before photographing a stallholder or their display — a gestured question and a smile is usually enough, and the answer is nearly always yes, which makes the asking cheap.
Spend where it lands
Travelling well has a financial dimension that has nothing to do with how much you spend. Eating at the restaurant on the main square once is fine; eating there every night while a street of family-run places sits two minutes away is a choice with consequences for the neighbourhood. Buy the pastry from the bakery rather than the airport chain. Book the guided walk run by someone who lives there. Pay for the small museum nobody mentions.
Tipping customs vary enormously — in some countries service is genuinely included and a large tip is confusing, in others it is a substantial part of someone's income. Look it up on the flight rather than guessing, and err towards the local norm rather than exporting your own.
