The Local Guides Program for me started as an app on my phone asking me to review the restaurants I’ve recently been to. Since I wanted to give a shout out to my favorite places, I didn’t mind - and so it started to become a habit. But then, when I started traveling, I thought: “Well if I don’t mind sharing what’s good in my neighborhood, maybe there are people in my destnations doing the exact same thing”. And, so it started. In the past five years I’ve been to over 18 countries and everywhere I was able to find something dear to me. I am a foodie and a huge fan of local staples, the places that have been there for years and years and people come there as a tradition. Those are usually not the places you’d find in a tourist guide. Those are the places tucked away in a corner of a busy street in Istanbul. Those are the places with an almost invisible sign with the best breakfasts in town in Copenhagen. Those are the places like a tiny family-owned restaurant right on the shore of the Garda lake in Italy. They are all charming in their own way, they have the local spirit to them. I love to come to places like that and just observe the crowd - to see what life is like in the new place, what is similar, what is different. Of course, when I travel I also visit all the “must-sees” - but they never seem to become the gems of my travel collections. It’s always the local places. The hearty ones.
And yes, to find them you’d need - a Local Guide! Luckily, I have one in my phone. And so do you! An incredible opportunity to see the new place with an eyes of a local. It’s definitely made my travels more exciting - well, and delicious!) And most importantly, I think Local Guides embodies what travel is about - it’s about sharing. So to me it embodies the opportunity to hep out a foreigner and make them feel more welcome in the place were I live. And to give some information when I am that foreigner, opening a map on my phone for the first time in a new and exciting location.