Meet Amanda Buttinger
Beyond the Guidebook
People often ask how an American from Annapolis ends up as a local guide in Madrid. It started with those endless summer car rides to visit my aunt and uncle in Chicago. I loved watching the landscape change from the back of my parent's gold Dodge Colt, making quick stops to grab the kind of candy that was usually forbidden at home.
When it was time for college, I headed south to Florida to study Spanish and Arts at Rollins College, a path that eventually led me to Guatemala, Mexico and Madrid. But it was a graduate year abroad in Spain that changed everything.
I remember going back home just long enough to pack my things, calm my parents' nerves, and board a flight back to Spain. I came for a year of study, but I stayed for the heartbeat of the city. That was almost 30 years ago, and I've been here ever since.
My Path to Gather to Travel
For over two decades, I've been exploring the streets of Spain as a guide for Rick Steves Europe. That experience — plus training other guides and updating guidebooks across Europe — taught me that the best travel moments don't happen while reading a map. They happen when you stop being a spectator and start feeling the city's pulse.
In 2020, I created Gather to Travel to try to help all of us find that connection. What began as a way to share Spain virtually has evolved back into what I do best: private walks through Madrid and strategic trip planning that turns travel overwhelm into quiet confidence.
Life in the Sierra
When I'm not in the city, you'll find me in the Sierra de Madrid. I live there with my husband, our two teenage sons, and our Chihuahua-Pinscher mix, Pancho — who has a typically small head and long, professional rock-climbing legs, and firmly believes he is a big dog.
Living between the quiet trails of the mountains and the noise of central Madrid gives me the perspective I love to share. If you had told that little girl, spending her days crossing the country on I-70W, that she would eventually raise her own children 3,800 miles away, she would have been speechless — and she would have had the biggest smile on her face.
Amanda, your friend in Spain