What does the Local Guides program mean to me?
Sharing widely with the world to help people discover, bringing to light untapped destinations, the fulfillment that my reviews are supporting businesses across the world.
My name is June, I live in London and I am a Level 7 local guide.
I live by the motto that says “to really understand and know the world you live in, you have to experience it”. But what is a great experience when you cannot share it with others.
As a wanderluster, whose passion is vested in global travel, art, culture, outdoor dining, café culture, theatre and film, I have visited thousands of places and have had some of the most fascinating experiences around the world.
With my love for writing and photography, I have been writing on my blog and my social medial networks about my personal wanderlust experiences for many years, However, I never realized I could reach even more people through the Local Guides Program until a friend recommended the program to me in 2019. He is a Local Guide himself and after reading my blogs, one day said to me” June, do you realize you could the same on a global platform and do it in a less cumbersome and exciting way”. So I got home that day and made my first post and I never stopped. We even ended up having a small circle of friends and became competitive with posting our reviews. I have subsequently introduced my family, friends and colleagues to the program across the world and they have all started reviewing.I must confess I have never found any other online platform in the world that helps me share my experiences widely with millions of people about my city, London and the world in general. When I started receiving the monthly emails from Google on the number of views my reviews were reaching, I was initially surprised and to be honest but it motivated me to do more and so I even retrospectively started reviewing places I had visited before I joined the program. Maybe that’s why I reached Level 7 reasonably quicker than some of my friends who had started before I did.
Being a Local Guide and finding meaning in the program means me sharing beautiful experiences with others but more importantly bringing to light undiscovered, untapped, unfamiliar yet absolutely exciting hidden gems across the world and more specifically, in London where I live.
Whether its the champagne bar in Harrods, to the Electric Cinema at Notting Hill where you can find sofa beds and an indoor bar, to 24 hr breakfast restaurants like VQ or unique art galleries like Huxley Parlor, one of my favorite ones, pubs with war history like The Grenadier in Mayfair, England’s oldest pub, built in 1720, the pub was originally used as an officers’ mess for the foot guards regiment and then became a pub in 1818, the Poetry Café for poetry lovers and great vegan food in Covent Garden, restaurants that are unique and conceptual, for example Les 110 de Tailevent, a beautiful French restaurant in Marylebone village that pairs wines with the food on the menus, I continue to share on Google Maps.
Here is a link to a list I made for tourists and locals visiting London, some of which have detailed reviews on Google Maps
There are so many beautiful places in the world where people experience a variety of pleasures whether it’s a cocktail bar, or known restaurant, a popular pub or a famous beach. However, there are so many absolutely untapped places in the world and by being a local guide, I am proud to bring these places to light and share them with the world. One of my favorite places in the world is a little Island in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, East Caribbean called Bequia, it is called “The Island of Clouds”. This island is untapped, undiscovered and absolutely breath-taking but as a result of my local guide presence, friends new and old have now discovered the island through my recommendations and are beginning to visit the island and support local businesses there. It also means me reviewing some of the services on the island on Google maps, hoping to bring more attention to a beautiful destination.
But what genuinely tops it all for me and makes being a Local Guide worthy of fulfillment is waking up most mornings to an email by a service or a business saying “thank you June for your kind and detailed review, it means a lot to us, please visit us again”. A message of that nature makes me feel so fulfilled to be giving back to society in the smallest yet most impactful way. Notwithstanding, that brilliant undiscovered businesses or services are getting the well-deserved exposure they need.