What I personally do every time before going on a vacation, is to check the destination on Pinterest and Instagram. Usually, when you write it down in google you will find the most popular places that all tourists visit, which are beautiful, but not as unique as some others (hidden from the public) are. I think that in order to have a proper vacation and dive into the culture, except visiting the main attractions, you should also see some traditional and/or hidden places for tourists. I find Pinterest extremely helpful in that case! There are amazing boards with unusual gardens, sculptures, etc which are worth seeing! For restaurants, I most often search on Instagram because there, I can find pictures of the meals that people have posted, look at their feedback, as well as the way the food looks. Which is always important for me before sitting at a restaurant I haven't been to before- especially if you are on a budget! ;) Here is some more information on both platforms that might be helpful for comparing the features they have. However, there is no need to use them both, but that's what works best for me.
Ps when you search in Pinterest type "unusual things to do in" or something of that sort, also the platform has some nice restaurant suggestions as well.