Little Richmond Guide

One of my side hustles is running an Airbnb in Richmond. I am always answering questions for guests about places to eat and things to do around this amazing city. And when I first moved to Richmond, I had a friend make me a map of all the places I should check out around town that I found super helpful. I thought an illustrated version of this this would be a fun way to get all these questions answered.

The book in my Airbnb features a little introduction to my house itself and answers common questions about each room. I touch on quirks, like the fact that there is an air vent in the closet so it actually helps to sleep with the closet door open AND the giant machine in my house is a vintage letterpress. After that I dive right into the good stuff like food & activities.

I chose to categorize each page by “meal type” so you could see a collection of what Richmond has to offer in that way. I tried to pick places from around the city and highlight my personal favorites.

Under each location name, I added a little nugget about that spot. For Lamp Lighter, I wrote “must have mint brownies.” Honestly, those things are to die for. I can’t go to get coffee there and NOT buy a brownie!

I did all of the writing and illustrating by hand on my iPad. I built the final booklet in InDesign putting all the pieces together in a loose format. The final step was labeling everything. I kept the booklet in black & white so it matched other work I’ve done, like my cocktail book.

I had to remake the book at the beginning of this year because one of the restaurants featured on the dinner page had closed. I took the opportunity to split out some more pages, creating one entirely for dessert & drinks. We’ve had a few more spots open up around town that also needed some call outs.

My Airbnb’s have loved the booklet so far, so I created a version that DIDN’T contain all the little details about my home in the introduction for other Richmond friends. I thought it would be a great book to keep in a guest bedroom, to give to a friend that recently moved here, or for brides leaving goodie bags for wedding guest's in hotels! This book could also be fun to color in as you visit each location around town.

The last page of each book has a minimal map (recycled from Richmond Maps I already sell) with a QR code to link to a full Google Map with all 73 locations.

Pick up your own copy on Etsy here. If you want to get the booklet customized for your business or local event, reach out to me.

And I made a sample poster. I haven’t yet decided if I want to print these because the price point is a little higher. but if you want one, reach out to me.

I framed the poster without a piece of glass so I can color in the places that I’ve visited!