In a nutshell, Local Guides is a place of collaboration and sharing, where guides from all around the world offer their knowledge, and their recommendations, aiding total strangers in discovering new places of interests, and helping local businesses grow.
In my frequent solo trips, Local Guides have helped me find my way, plan my day and benefit from the experience of others to spend the best time. Whether I wanted to find information about a museum or a castle and its opening hours, or a nearby restaurant to satisfy my craving for a particular cuisine: Opening Google maps, searching and reading reviews was easy, and most importantly reliable. It is because it is not based on advertisements, but rather on real word of mouth of like-minded people, fellow citizens of the world.
Queen of Tarts: The dessert shop I stopped by on my first day in Dublin.
I was craving desserts and reviewers gave it 4.5.
Sharing recommendation about places with others wasn’t new to me. I had already started my travel and food blog TastyErrands.com where I would write recommendations about places I have visited and give some tips and tricks. It was easy to transition to Local Guides, where the information I share is accessible to more people. So I started contributing with pictures and reviews as well as answering questions, hoping they would be useful and valuable for others.
Contributing as a local guide in my home country Lebanon, and in places I visit around the globe is also rewarding, especially when answering questions, or receiving Google reports about the number of visitors checking my reviews and my posted photos. I hope these collaborations are helping them plan their visits more efficiently and up to their expectations.
Snapshot of some of my stats on number of views at some of my favourite restaurants in Beirut
In this era of globalization, it is heartwarming to see I’m helping fellow citizens of the world improve their businesses based on guides reviews. As a foodie, I might be focusing on restaurants, but I also add reviews on historical landmarks in Lebanon to encourage locals and tourists to visit them and see the beauty of my country.
Finally, I hope that the ongoing coronavirus outbreak comes soon to an end, so people around the world can once again visit, recommend and enjoy places in their countries and abroad.