(or how I turned my journey into a new way of guiding and communicating)

After 16 years living in Barcelona, I’ve learned to look at the city as one reads a layered text.
I like to reveal its contrasts, stories, and less obvious corners.

Since I arrived, accompanying friends and family on tours became a pleasure — I planned itineraries, suggested restaurants, translated menus, and shared curiosities.

In a way, I’ve always been a guide.
The difference is that now I’ve turned that experience into a professional service: Personal Guide, created especially for people over 50 who want to travel calmly, authentically, and with a personal touch.

A Journey That Connects

Coterrats Barcelona Event

Before getting here, I lived many lives within communication and culture.

I spent over 20 years as a copywriter and creative director, writing for brands and campaigns in Brazil and Barcelona. Later, I dove into behavioral and trend research, working as an investigator, analyst, and lecturer on projects related to culture, innovation, and consumption.

Furthermore, I hold a postgraduate degree in Visual Culture and a Master’s in Sociology — studies that expanded my perspective on human behavior, cities, and contemporary forms of communication.

This combination — communication, research, and a sociological lens — has therefore shaped everything I do, including how I travel and guide.

I also founded Coterrats, a cultural project developed in Barcelona between 2017 and 2019, and created a neighborhood experience for Airbnb Experiences.
Beyond that, I’ve written travel and itinerary texts for tourism agencies in Brazil.

The Personal Guide project is, therefore, a natural outcome of this path — a synthesis of my creative, analytical, and human experiences.

The First Experience

Map of Spain showing the travel route

My first trip as a Personal Guide took place in May this year, in collaboration with Excellence Tours, a travel agency from São Paulo.

The idea was to accompany a couple from Brazil for 22 days in Spain, visiting five cities — Madrid, Seville, Marbella, Granada, and Barcelona — with stops in Ronda and Setenil de las Bodegas.

The agency handled flights and accommodations; I was responsible for curating the local experience — designing the itinerary, selecting attractions, restaurants, shops, and shows, and providing daily assistance.

My role was to make sure everything flowed smoothly: translating, capturing moments in photos, suggesting detours, adjusting schedules, and turning planning into a light and enjoyable journey.

Each city had its charm.

Flamenco dancer in Seville

In Madrid, the couple was moved during dinner at El Botín, the oldest restaurant in the world.
In Seville, a flamenco show became one of the trip’s highlights.
And in Marbella, the pace slowed down — a perfect day of sun and sea.

Along the way, Ronda and Setenil de las Bodegas revealed unforgettable landscapes — white villages, streets carved into rocks, and that deep Spain few tourists ever see.

Then, came Granada, with the magic of the Alhambra and its delicate architecture.
Finally, Barcelona — my emotional territory.

We visited the Sagrada Família, Parc Güell, Casa Batlló, the Gothic Quarter, and Passeig de Gràcia.
There was even time for a shopping day at La Roca Village, where a salesperson asked if I was a personal shopper.
I smiled and thought: why not?

After all, being a Personal Guide is exactly that — taking care of every detail, adapting, and making the trip more comfortable and meaningful.

More Than Accompanying: Translating Experiences

Metropol Parasol in Seville

That first trip confirmed something I already sensed: being a Personal Guide is much more than a companionship service.

Rather, it’s a work of communication, curation, and empathy.

It’s not just about visiting places, but about experiencing cities in a unique way.
Creating a travel experience is, above all, an exercise in listening and sensitivity — understanding the rhythm, desires, and gaze of each traveler.

Moreover, it’s also about translating what’s around: language, customs, flavors, and silences.
It’s about being present, observing what sparks wonder in each person, and making that wonder possible.

The City as Text and Experience

Allambra Granada

My background in communication and sociology taught me that places speak — you just need to know how to listen.

Every street, square, or façade reveals much about history, time, and people.

Barcelona, for instance, is a mosaic of narratives — modernism and avant-garde, tradition and everyday life. And that’s what I try to show the travelers I accompany.

Traveling with me means diving into an itinerary that isn’t only on the map, but also in stories, conversations, and pauses.

It’s about observing how people live — what they eat, consume, and value.

I like to think that every trip is a story written by many hands, where I help organize the plot, but the meaning comes from those who live each moment.

Communication, Research, and Presence

Presence and care in the traveler’s rhythm

For me, the Personal Guide represents the union of three dimensions that have always walked together in my career: communication, research, and presence.

Communication, because storytelling has always been my craft — whether for a brand, a class, or a traveler.
Research, because I observe, listen, and interpret behaviors and contexts, translating what I see into meaningful experiences.
And presence, because walking alongside someone — attuning to their rhythm, doubts, and moments of awe — is what makes each journey unique.

Being a Personal Guide is, at its core, an act of mediation: between cultures, languages, times, and perspectives.
It’s about transforming movement into experience — and travel into narrative.

A New Chapter

Travel memories

When I returned home after that first trip, I realized something had changed.

Not only because the couple had lived a remarkable experience, but because I had found myself in a new role.

A role that unites everything I’ve learned throughout my professional life — from advertising to research, from sociology to photography — and turns it into a living, heartfelt practice.

The Personal Guide is not just a service.
It’s a way of being in the world.

It’s using communication and cultural insight to create journeys filled with meaning, comfort, and beauty.

And that’s how the copywriter became a Personal Guide.
Or maybe I’ve always been one — I just changed the way I tell stories.

💌 Want to work with me?
Write to me or give me a call. Let’s create a new way of traveling — together.