At Not in the Guidebooks, we’re passionate about the power of local travel. By putting the human back in your holiday, you’ll not only have a better travel experience to start. But don’t just take our word for it. Last week, the Telegraph picked us up for our exciting local-based experiences and our passion for local travel.

Meeting passionate local people makes it so much easier to get right to the beating heart of a new location. But it’s more than that.

Local travel means you can be sure that every penny you spend is finding its way back to the communities you visit, supporting them and helping them thrive. It’s also better for the planet – it emits less while helping you really connect the natural world around you.

Until now, though, local travel has been the bastion of smelly backpackers and group tours. For many of us, for whatever reason, local travel has not really been an option. Until now.

Not in the Guidebooks makes local, authentic travel experiences easy to find, book, and enjoy. Whether you want to make unforgettable memories with your loved ones, or you’re looking to immerse yourself in a brand-new skill, getting to know the locals is a great way to go about it.

And we make getting to know the locals as simple as can be.

Here’s what our founder, Carol, said about why she thinks local travel is so special.

“Local experiences are so powerful because they put the human back into travelling,” says Carol Savage, of Not In The Guidebooks (notintheguidebooks.com). “Travel has amazing potential to help build a better world. As the tourism industry has grown, it has moved away from those deeply human ­connections and instead focused on cramming people on to tour buses. But when you meet local people, learn about their way of life, see the world through someone else’s eyes, you get under the skin of a place. That expe­rience is not just more rewarding for you, but is also better for local communities – and better for the planet.

“There are some wonderful people out there who are passionate about where they live and are keen to show you all about their lives,” adds Savage. “Come the end of lockdown, it will be more important than ever to make those connections by travelling local.”

It’s truly amazing to see others taking up the mantel and championing the cause of local travel.

Especially after all this time away from each other, it’s exciting to put people back at the centre of our lives again, and to start searching for those very important, very human connections during our time away.

Not in the Guidebooks were featured in the Telegraph online. You can see the article here.