How do you feel at home quickly in a new city?

The first weeks in a new city have a particular texture. Everything takes longer. You don't know which supermarket is good, which bus is quick, or whether the bar on the corner is charming or merely loud. Even buying stamps feels like a small expedition.

The good news is that "feeling at home" is not mysterious. It is mostly familiarity, and familiarity can be built quite deliberately.

Start with routines, not landmarks

Tourists collect sights. People who live somewhere collect routines. In your first fortnight, try to establish a few small fixed points:

• A morning coffee spot you go to most days.
• A bakery or market stall for weekend shopping.
• A walk or run route from your front door.
• A Sunday ritual: a long lunch, a park, a particular newspaper and bench.

Repetition does the work. The third time you walk into the same café, the city starts to have a centre, and it's yours.

Become a regular somewhere

Of all the routines, being recognised is the one that changes the feeling fastest. Choose one place, a café, a bar, a bakery, and go often, at roughly the same time. Order the same thing. Learn the name of whoever serves you. Within a few weeks, there will be a nod, then a "the usual?", and a surprising amount of belonging comes with it.

We have a whole piece on how to become a regular, because it's one of the most underrated skills in adult life.

Walk everywhere

Public transport moves you between dots on a map. Walking joins the dots. Walk to work at least once a week if you can, take a different route home, wander on Saturday afternoons with no destination. You'll find the good shortcut, the courtyard with the fountain, the shop that sells exactly the thing you couldn't find.

If you run, exploring by running route is a lovely way to learn a city quickly. There are ideas in our guide to finding running routes in a new city.

Say yes early

The first couple of months are the time to accept almost every invitation: the colleague's birthday drinks, the neighbour's barbecue, the language exchange, the five-a-side game, the book club with three members. Not every event will be fun. But each one adds a face, a name, a thread, and threads become a network.

It also helps to start one thing that meets regularly: a class, a club, a choir, a running group. Seeing the same people weekly is how acquaintances turn into friends, slowly and without effort.

Make your flat feel lived in

Home in a city also means home in your four walls. Unpack fully, even if the lease is short. Put up a picture, buy plants, cook a proper meal in the first week. Invite someone round, even if you only have two chairs. A place where you've hosted dinner feels like yours in a way an unpacked flat never does.

Be patient with the strange middle stage

Somewhere around the second or third month, the novelty fades but the deep familiarity hasn't arrived yet. This is normal. Keep the routines going, keep saying yes, and the city will quietly tip from new to known.