Playa de La Zurriola, in front of the cubist Centro Kursaal (a center for arts and culture), is the beach locals tend to hit first.

This "reconstruction of ethnicity" becomes important, because locals tend to act out cultural patterns and behaviors that they believe would satisfy tourists most.

As in much of the country, locals tend to gravitate toward 'dance bars', basically restaurants that devolve into bacchanalian dance parties after dinner, often with floor shows.

For the most part, locals tend to live apart from expatriates and rarely interact socially with them.

I understand that the locals tend to head out of the city and up to the Northern beaches.

And though locals often tend to be ethnically insular, there really is something to the sometimes jaded "aloha spirit."

The door policy is pretty strict - locals dress up - but tends to be a bit more relaxed for tourists.

Many locals are Spanish-speaking but not generally interested in the art of the conquistadors, tending to be descendants of the conquered.

Car-owning locals, however, still tended to prefer the increasingly tedious drive to work.

Another telltale sign is if locals tend to avoid these spots like the plague.