It started as I had planned a trip to a local hill station called Lansdowne because a friend had spoken so highly of the place. However the place turned out to be very dull and disappointing. After coming back when i was seeing it on google maps I stumbled upon the google guides program and I also found out that there were honest reviews already there by helpful travellers and if I had seen it earlier i wouldn’t have wasted a wonderful weekend and travelled to someplace better.
It is a boon for travellers like me who like to explore new places as it gives a lot of information about the place. I know that reviews are very subjective and may vary a lot, but one can trust the numbers. If a lot of people are trash talking about some place, its not worth the time to actually go and check if the place is actually trash.
Travelling has always been a pursuit of self discovery and it has served mankind well. Its the chicken soup for the soul and has been this way for centuries. The only change through the ages it has seen is that it has become cheaper and easier. One need not devote his/her life to exploration, a few weekends a year would do just fine.
Magellan surely told us that if you travel west too far, you’ll end up in the east but he didn’t say where to get the best pizza on the way, or if there is a magnificent waterfall nearby. That knowledge is with the local folk and what google local guides does is connecting the local with the global.
The exploration of today is not geographical but cultural. The foods, the clothes, the language is what sets cultures apart. All islands seem the same on a map but Maldives is as different from United kingdom as icecream is from pizza. And in that exploration local guides program helps a lot as this is our local guide for the world. Like the compass assisted the explorers of antiquity, it is the google local guides program that is helping explorers of the day in their exciting discoveries
Local guides reviews tells not only about how a place really is,what the local attractions are, it also provides schedule of the place and even suggests which is the best dish to have in a food joint. As I use it immensely to plan my weekend trips I do my small part by contributing to it so that the information may help other travellers like myself.
So ending with a stolen but apt quote
IT IS BETTER TO SEE SOMETHING ONCE THAN TO HEAR ABOUT IT A THOUSAND TIME