Travel for the people, by the people. Bart and Sanne van Poll.

Spotted by Locals is a website offering travel tips from local residents of 29 cities in Europe, Oslo being the most recent addition. Spotted by Locals is run by Amsterdam husband-and-wife team Bart and Sanne van Poll, who got the idea for the business when they started using local blogs as sources of travel information. The company uses a network of local ‘spotters’, all of whom are vetted by the van Polls in person. What makes Spotted by Locals special is the quality and insider feel of the information, a quality that was also acknowledged by Lonely Planet, which awarded the site Best Group Authored Blog in their 2009 blog awards. The site also offers downloadable city guides which are updated monthly and cover all the tips from spotters.

And indeed, when I tested the site myself it lived up to its reputation. The suggested spots include several of my own local haunts in West (See Stientjes and De Nieuwe Anita) which are often hard to find in other travel guides, and I even found a suggestion for a monthly flea market I had never heard of before. In that light, it’s not surprising that 30 per cent of all Spotted by Locals users are locals themselves.

In short: a website recommended for Amsterdammers at home and away.