Various

As you have probably noticed, we completely upgraded our design a few months ago. One of the new features: rotating header pictures. Our Spotters have sent us some amazing picture of their cities, but there’s room for more!

Do you have a nice “Spotted by Locals” pic that you think would work well as a header picture for one of our websites? Please send Sanne (sanne@spottedbylocals.com) your pic, and we’d love to see if we can use it! Of course we attribute you as the photographer in the picture!

'Waiting for transit' by A.Kuzminski

I’m conscious of how easy it is for me, as a man, to write enthusiastically about traveling alone. I’ve written in previous posts about the joy of enjoying an unhurried solo drink in a bar, about confidently walking into a restaurant and occupying a table for two. But all the while it’s bothered me that for single women travellers these experiences must be that much more difficult.

Do you have experiences (good or bad) of travelling alone as a woman? It’s said that solo women attract attention when travelling. Unwanted advances from men, confusion or disapproval from service staff or other travellers, lists of no-go areas and inadvisable activities: none of these are a worry for men but women will at some point need to deal with them. Some feel forced to compromise their itineraries, others invent identities or hide behind masks. Author Jenny Diski observes:

“It’s true that, for different reasons in different places, people can be curious, suspicious even, of a woman (young, middle-aged or old) travelling alone. Yet tell them you’re a writer and not only is everything explicable but people will stay and talk to you, telling you sometimes wonderful stories about their lives.”

If you have experiences you’d like to share, or advice for other women travelers, I’d love to hear from you. I’m planning a series of posts focusing on women travelling solo and would like to include your stories and tips. You can email them to solotravelstories@gmail.com, or add your comments to the end of this post.

Our guest blogger Roger Christian is a London based graphic designer, blogger and fiction writer. In his bi-weekly articles for Spotted by Locals Roger explores the pleasures and occasional challenges of solo traveling in Europe.

We love inspiring others, so were very happy to find this article and quote about us on sauceloves.com:

Buthaina Al Mazrui: “When I lived in Munich, I had absolutely no idea where to eat! I was lost… until I discovered Spotted by Locals. It took me less than a month to become a “local” there and that’s when I started telling my German colleagues where to eat. Once I came back to the UAE, I decided it was about time I started writing a blog (written by a local) so people could know what places were really worth visiting in the UAE (in my humble opinion) and what to order at those places.”