Since I started as a local guide on google maps, I always wanted to contribute all my experiences in the different places I attended, as well as add the place if it was not on the map. It was something that whenever I had a free moment I did it and I liked to talk about it through the application. But being honest, I never saw a great reaction to my contributions or great visits to my uploaded photos. It was not something that made me feel bad, since there were many people talking about their experiences in the places that I also did and therefore it was more difficult for someone to guide themselves with my stories, When there were others more interesting.
Speaking of this, it never bothered me to be “one more” contributing and not generating likes with my publications, but even so I kept doing it for pleasure and because I kept thinking that contributing my experiences to someone, for more few people outside, could continue to serve for someone to see that place from my point of view.
Thus, the years passed and I kept giving opinions about all the places where I went.
Last year, we had the opportunity with a great friend of mine, to plan a great trip to the old European continent and tour it as backpackers, to be able to discover all the places that are shown in all the stories that people tell of their visit to those countries. After a few months of planning, we decided to buy the air tickets and start our journey to that continent.
Our first stop was Madrid, the great Spanish capital, a new world for the eyes. Once we arrived at the airport, the first thing we did was take the subway to our hostel that we had rented, leave things and start touring the city. The first day we traveled 30Km on foot, in order to know all the possible places in Madrid, Including the great Prado Museum (which has an important role in this history). Once the day was over, we returned exhausted but happy to have been able to see so many new things. We went to rest and check our social networks, and once I finished with that, I go to google maps, then to the local guides section and start writing about the places I had gone to and what my experience had been.
I started writing about everything visited on the day, including the Prado museum. In this review, I told all my experience in the museum, but not only inside, also all the data that I had considered necessary for all the people like us who only went for one day and did not have much more time, about all schedules, time in line, what hours it was free and many more things. By the time I finish writing I felt quite satisfied with my review because I thought that I was bringing a true personal experience. I uploaded some photos and I went to sleep.
The next day I woke up wanting to visit the more of the city and I was surprised to see that I had notifications on my phone saying that a couple of people had liked my review of the museum, although it was not the first time I had a like in a review, If it was the first time that I received a couple of likes in a short time, at that moment I felt that FOR THE FIRST TIME I WAS HELPING PEOPLE WITH MY REVIEW, I felt that I could make their trip easier with my opinions. This helped me to continue telling everything about the trip in my following reviews, while I saw how that review continued to help other travelers and they returned that help with their likes.
Although I wrote about several more places during the trip, that was the one that had the most impact, but that motivates me to continue sharing experiences and feel that it really helped to make it easier for them to get to know different places.
With this I do not mean that if they don’t like my opinion is not useful, but as our main objective is to help people to know better a place, I think it is a nice way of knowing that you are helping people in a correct way and knowing well where to face your next review.
For this and also for the desire to know new places and help others, it is because I keep using local guides to write my experiences and also to look for new reviews of people who have already been in the place.
I would like to close this post, thanking everyone for this beautiful community that we have created and I wish everyone to never lose that beautiful habit of sharing everything they experienced on their travels.