My name is Andrey, I live in the city of Haifa in Israel. My wife and I love to travel. One of our favorite travel activities is walk in nature. On weekends, if the weather permits, we usually go out of town to take a walk in beautiful places. We always take our youngest son with us and he is usually very much delighted going with us. Our older kids sometimes go with us, too, but rather rarely.
When we walk in nature we get rid of stresses and negative emotions and restore the energy we have spent during the work week. Finally, we improve our well-being and mental health. In addition, we also get a lot of impressions from visiting new places, although sometimes we walk around the same places where we already were.
One of my hobbies is photography. I like photographing a lot. I do not do it professionally, but rather for fun. While there, I always take pictures during our walks in nature. I photograph both my family and beautiful natural objects, as well as the places we visit. It could be National Parks, Nature Reserves, canyons, hiking areas, zoos, etc.
Since I decided to become a Local Guide, I also started posting my photos on Google Maps. It began to bring me even more pleasure and satisfaction. Why? It is simple. First of all, it’s fun and easy. There are no obligations to do something special. I just live my own life, do what I usually like to do, travel, hike, walk in nature, etc. And I can be a Local Guide at the same time. It is really exciting! Secondly, now I can share my photos and my opinions regarding different places not only with my family and friends, but also with people from all over the world. With those who wants to know more about specific places.
When I plan a trip in my country or abroad I always carefully study all the places I want to go to. I gather information on the Internet and work a lot with Google Maps. I read reviews, look at photos and decide whether to go to this specific place or it’s better to find another one. Once I was planning a trip to southern part of Israel. I came across one interesting place while searching interesting sights on Google Maps. The reviews and the photos of this place impressed me so much that I immediately included a visit to this place on our agenda. As a result, all my family including me really enjoyed this fantastic place.
Reviews and photos on Google Maps are often crucial to decide about visiting any specific place, not only for me. I am sure that millions of people in the world do the same things. When I see the number of views of my photos and reviews I understand that my contribution also helps other people to make the right decisions while traveling.
Natural sights are not the only places we travel in. We also travel around different cities and historical sites. We visit restaurants, shops, theaters and other places. As a local guide, I share reviews and photos of some of these places. But anyway, my favorite topic is natural sights.
The photo above was taken in Haifa. Right in the middle of the city, there is the Nahal Siah hiking area. This photo is the most viewed one (more than 80.000 views) from my pics of nature that I shared on Google Maps. I am so glad that people are interested in nature walks. I am also glad to help other people by writing reviews and posting photos. I am proud to encourage people to get a little closer to nature by contributing to google maps.
