Tour guides or sites like Getyourguide (out of Germany), or Peek, the San Francisco-based travel site that gives users a curated list of options in individual cities, tend to come down on the experience side. Other travel sites like Tripadvisor veer towards the advice side. But few startups have attempted both sides.
Dopios, a new travel community, allows travellers to search for local guides by destination, and then filter the results by their own preferences to find a trip that suits them. For example, people who like going out may like to find a guide who can take them to all the speakeasies in San Francisco. At the same time the community can also give personalized and tailored advice to travellers. In other words: advice, experiences and local people as guides all under one roof.
The company was originally started by Greeks living in San Francisco, but has now moved back to Athens. Founder Alexandros Trimis says right now Greece offers “talent, cheaper operational expenses, and a strong desire from the public to see something positive happening.” He’s also secured the startup’s first institutional investment from the Openfund, which put in a seed round of 120,000 euros.
After testing in Greece, San Francisco and Istanbul, today Dopios opens up guides and communities in London, Berlin, Barcelona and Buenos Aires.