2022
What does the Local Guides program mean to me?
I joined Local Guides program 3 years ago, when I discovered it casually. I come from Naples, Italy. I'm a level 8 and I joined Connect Live in 2018.
I find very useful some Google Maps new features such as Lists, the Explore tab and the affinity info. Features like these make me discover a lot of places that I don't know and that I probabily like. For example, I can be informed when a new restaurant opens in my city, and I always want to try new places! Last year I was in Milan and I looked for a japan restaurant in a my LG friend's list.
I was a LG even before to join the program. How many times I travelled, visited an historical site, ate in a restaurant and then I suggested to my friends to visit that place because I liked? Being a Local Guide is making the same things in a different, better way.
I travel often and LG world is very helpful for my decisions. Sometimes I asked suggestions on Local Guides Connect to choose places to visit, I always read reviews of a place before to visit it, because they are full of precious informations. For example, I went to the cableway of Teide volcano (Tenerife, Spain) in January. I booked the tickets online with exact day and time, but reading reviews on maps, I discovered that I could access the cableway even earlier than my programmed tickets, so I earned time to do something else in my itinerary trips. In the same way, I can contribute to help other people with my experiences, and this is very fulfilling.
How many times do you travel in a year? 2-3? But you spend the most of time in your city and maybe you want to try again a restaurant, for example. So I read my old review and if I like or want to give another chance, I visit that place again a make an update of my first review, leaving the old one down. Sometimes I look at the photos I upload and I get excited for the memories of my travels, using Maps as a travel blog.
I don't care to earn points or to be in the top 1% of Local Guide in my city (even if I'm 😂), I'm proud to offer quality content to add value to Maps, and to be appreciated seeing a lot of views on my activity is a big thanks for me.
