You know the independent shops and restaurants in your favorite cities? They are usually run by families or people insanely passionate about what they do. These city gems can be a bit hard to find unless you have an insider to tell you about them. Gowalla Trips are a great way to share your knowledge with friends and the rest of the Gowalla community.

If you haven’t created a Trip yet, here’s a quick guide to get you started. Note: If you don’t already have a Gowalla account, sign up here.

1. Login to your account, click Trips at the top, then Create a Trip:

2. Create a snazzy title and description and then categorize it.  A good rule of thumb for your title is to imagine it on the cover of a local magazine.  What would cause someone to open that trip and then start exploring?

3. Add spots. It helps to narrow your search by city, and then find the spots to add to your trip.  There should be default descriptions but it’s always nice to add descriptions as they pertain to your trip.

4. When you’re ready to publish it, select Publish Now and then Save Trip. You can also save a draft if you’d like to work on it a little longer.

5. You can tell your friends on Twitter and Facebook about your trip by selecting Share This on the right.

That’s it!  Creating a trip like this one takes less than five minutes and can be easily found by your friends in the Gowalla app anytime they are near one of the spots in your Trip.

Made an interesting trip already?  Let us know in the comments and we’ll share it with our other users.