source: Spotted by Locals |
Would you like to explore a city and skip most of the typical touristic places so you do not end up having paella in Las Ramblas for example? Would you be willing to waste your precious time going straight to Sagrada Familia without buying the tickets online in the right website if you could avoid it?
Many are the mistakes we can make when we play the tourist in a foreign country. But what if we were able to get the best advice from dozens or hundreds of local 'guides' that volunteer to give you the best hints about places they have spotted for you, places that are their favorite secret troves.
Yep, those things you can have with Google reviews, Google Maps' local guides, Foursquare, Yelp or the omnipresent but sometimes dubious Trip Advisor. In fact, there is a jungle out there of contradictory opinions that you have to sift and filter a lot to make your final decisions. Many of these helpful sites have their own biased interests, like selling accommodation, earning commission from restaurants, favoring the big business in the city and ruining the good guys, you name it. Well, sometimes money counts. Many of us sell stuff online with more or less success. It is just that the big shots are very unfair in their game.
And so, let's keep going with our hypothesis of the, what if? What if you could take those volunteered opinions in one city guide that you can navigate offline like a map, that you can update with fresh opinions from locals and to which you can add your own favorite spots? What if not only you could cover Barcelona for example but also 70 other cities in one single website? Or what is best, what if all that, traveled with you in a single app?
Spotted by locals, founded by two experienced nomadic travel experts, Sanne and Bart back in 2008, is a network of almost 500 hand picked local spotters from all over the world that meet each other regularly and enjoy the benefits of sharing their own findings among them and fortunately with us. And they not only offer this excellent service on their website but now also in an app available for android or ios.
And you would say, this guy is selling me stuff, just like the rest. You are right! I am selling you a bright idea, an all-in-one travel app recommended by the New York Times. What did I get for this? What if I tell you that I am a happy user of the Barcelona Spotted by Locals app? I wish I could pay 3.99 euros for every city I visit. It would save me a lot of trouble. So far I just got Barcelona. It comes handy on many occasions. Another good reason is that last year Barcelona Photoblog was selected among the best Barcelona blogs of 2017 by Spotted by Locals. They were kind enough as to try my site and found it useful. I have tried their app and I loved it. And so why would I keep it just for myself if everything Barcelona, everything good in my lovely city is the reason for this blog to exist. I hope you enjoy their great work as much as I do.