To travel is to experience and to experience is to live. Experience in its most intricate sense to me, means to fully immerse oneself in something. The local guides program has enabled me to experience the world like never before. I use local guides to figure out my itinerary whenever I’m traveling. I’m keen to look at ratings of places around where I’m staying then plan to visit. The authenticity of opinions presented by people on local guides most drew me to it. After trying it a few times, I noticed that most ratings were often consistent with my experience when I visited the place. This motivated me to contribute to this community of travelers bent on giving their raw opinions. Traveling has become more fun knowing that I have a reliable source of information of places to visit. I no longer have reservations about finding myself in a pickle due to bad service; I know that previous travelers have my back, and if it happens that I get bad service, then I’ll do my best to protect future travelers from the same. I have found that the more I travel, the wider my scope of thinking gets.
More importantly, the local guides program has enabled me to experience local cuisines. I am convinced that food is a universal language and to experience a people’s authentic cuisine is to be one with them. I enjoy Swahili food and when at home in Nairobi, I tend to go to this joint that offers Swahili food, @swahili plate. However, this past month when I was in Zanzibar, I ended up at this local hotel, that had received high ratings for offering authentic Swahili food. I fell in love. That was probably the tastiest food and made me realize that the Nairobi version came nowhere close. I finally could confidently say that I had had Swahili food.
Given that it was just a small restaurant, I was able express my gratitude to the two cooks who had put so much effort into making my food. We exchanged numbers and they promised to offer more food should I return. From that, friendship was formed. The local guides program has enabled me form friendships with both other travelers and business owners. This one time I was in Cape Town, having just taken a photo of my dish and was writing a review, this gentleman came up to me and his first words were, “Is that for local guides” in his heavy South African accent. I said yes, and he was excited as he would do the same. We struck a conversation from this and our friendship still lives on to date.
Using the notifications on email of all the people and places I have helped using my reviews on The Local Guides Program, I know that in my own small way, I am able to give back to my community
When all has been said and done, the locals guide program has revolutionized my travel experiences. As I seek to start a career in travel vlogging, this trip will be a learning opportunity to meet and interact with other passionate travelers.
