My first trip overseas was bad shocking to say the least!
I slept on the floor of a 12 bed dormitory, in front of a fire exit in Amsterdam.
I settled for fast food in almost every location because it was familiar and easy to order.
I got stuck in tourist traps and paid top dollar to visit locations because I didn’t do or know how to research.
This was the world before I discovered Google Maps and fell in love!
It all started with being able to cache a map and explore it offline.
Prior to that, I had become a tourist like my parents, carrying a giant paper map, stopping on every corner and conveying an image of confidence so I wouldn’t be targeted by fraudsters and cheats.
Surely there was a better way so I dabbled my toes and started using Google Maps overseas - a stark comparison to Sydney where I used it all the time. Of course, back in those days, mobile data was expensive and complimentary wifi was hard to come by - how the world has changed!
Our love quickly evolved and I started dropping pins on places I wanted to go. Reviews helped to shape my itinerary and before I knew it, I was learning local insights about the best places to see and the right time to visit locations to benefit from free entry or lower than average crowds.
Then I had an epiphany - I’m traveling so often and I value the reviews of others so much - I’ll start posting my own reviews!
I look back on my early posts and cringe - I’m not sure how many times I used ‘good’ and ‘fantastic’ as adjectives- but with all things, over time, the quality of my posts and reviews improved. Nowadays, I have close to 2m views of my reviews and >80m views of my photos and lists curated across every continent (except for Antartica … for now…)
Today, Google Maps and I are totally in love and have offspring in the form of lists that I build and share with others as well as encouraging friends, family and strangers to start contributing and to be part of the community/
I am passionate about exploring, capturing, sharing and enjoying all that this world has to offer and Google Maps makes this valuable information available to everyone. If you are safer, happier, save money or time and can share the experience with others - why wouldn’t you want to be involved in the Local Guides Community?
Altruistically, we’re also contributing to the ethnographic research of our time. We leave a legacy of how people today interact with their environment and technology. How cool that a simple photo or paragraph that you post today will provide so many insights, in the future, of how we lived?! I’m completely passionate about documenting historic and ancient sites because there are too many examples where we’ve taken these treasures for granted, only for them to be lost in cataclysmic events (Syria’s Palmyra, Rio’s National Museum, Seoul’s Namdaemunn Gate etc etc). We have the power to preserve these icons and share the unwritten aspects about them and this is what also drives me to keep contributing even-though I’ve achieved L10. You can check out some of my tips on how I capture these amazing sites here.
Below is a snapshot of my dropped pins which kind of illustrates my passion of being a Global, Local Guide! I can’t help but kick myself when I think about all of the missed opportunities to contribute more when I first started traveling all those years ago - looks like I’ll just have to book some more travel 
See you soon.
-David
I’ve been twice before I started using google maps - bring me back!
