Hmong villagers in Lao Cai Province, Vietnam (Skip Nall/Digital Vision/Getty)
Getting travel advice the "old-fashioned" way used to require stepping out on the smoker's balcony at your backpacker's hostel and joining the conversation (cigarette or not). That philosophy—talking to your fellow travelers—still applies once you're on the road, but these days it's even easier to get advice via the Internet, plus share your wisdom once you return. And now with the explosion of social media, a new and almost bottomless layer has been added, offering the ability to tap your network of connections and seek advice from people whose opinions you probably trust even more than guys named Arthur Frommer and Rick Steves.
Which gets us to the current problem: Information overload and too much choice. Where do you start? Which sources of travel information are even worth the effort? It's enough to (almost) make you yearn for the days when you could set off with little more than a round-trip ticket in hand, vague itinerary in mind, and a vagabonding spring in your step.
Finding travel advice on the Web can feel a little like buying a car. First, you settle on the make and brand. Then you decide on the details and fittings you want. Last, you go hell-for-leather for the best deal. A search for "get travel advice" on Google throws back 80 million results; the market is packed with brands to get you what you need. So to help winnow down the choices, following are a few of the better sites that I've used to eke out pre-trip advice, including suggestions for a trip to Québec next month where I'll literally only have a half day to explore. Note that I don't really go into too much detail about social-networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter, where the efficacy of your search for advice can depend on the breadth of your network, plus your own engagement and activity within those networks. If you have lots of well-traveled friends, tap into their font of travel wisdom. If not—or in addition—the below resources might help you get the info you need without too much extra legwork.
An Oldie But Goodie
Like the aforementioned backpacker's hostel, guidebook publisher Lonely Planet is still the lifeblood of budget travelers. And Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum is where they go to engage in the kind of online banter that happens in cafés and bars, and on long bus journeys once they hit the road. Despite an extensive effort to catapult Lonely Planet into Web 2.0 Land, the forum interface, like most discussion boards, can feel a little clunky. But the activity here is prodigious—a travel-advice seeker's best friend, as nobody wants to post a call for help on a site where such pleas go to die. In response to my Québec City question, I got some useful, honest feedback within about an hour, plus a gratifying snippet of LP snark ("Be sure to stop at McDonald's for lunch, an old Québec tradition not to be missed"—thanks, carracar).
Size Matters
TripAdvisor.com is a beast in so many ways, so it goes without saying that the TripAdvisor Forums are one stop worth making if you need advice quickly. As with its millions of hotel reviews, you do need to read between the lines when it comes to the quality and trustworthiness of the advice being offered. My Québec City quandary netted a quick response from a user called travelrrr who has contributed over 1,500 posts to TripAdvisor's discussion boards. If I'd met travelrrr on the road, my guess is he or she would be the barfly who could tell me everything I need to know for a useful lay of the land, but with whom I'd be looking to settle the drinks tab after a quick pint or two.
New Kids on the Block
As I mentioned above, Facebook, MySpace, and other burgeoning social-networking sites are great places to hit up people in your direct and extended network. A new generation of travel-specific websites like WAYN, Tripwolf, TripConnect, and TravBuddy are expanding the options for travelers looking to connect with those people who either live in the places they're visiting or have visited them in the past. The challenge for all these Web 2.0 sites, I find, is that they require you to build and feed profiles specific to each site, a tedious undertaking if you just want to graze the buffet of online travel advice. For that reason, I recommend newcomer GeckoGo.com, a site run by a trio of enterprising Canadians where the M.O. is simple—give and get advice—and the interface gets you what you need fast without too much extra profile-building. The site is a fun place to hangout, plus the users who contribute are typically young, adventuresome, and world-savvy. Another site, in its infancy but worth checking out, is Go-Lo.net, which seeks to connect travel writers and industry insiders with travelers seeking advice. It has a very small user base right now as the site just launched in beta mode, but potentially a fantastic backdoor route for scoring expert advice from the people who travel and explore for a living!
Travel Advice: Tips to Make the Most of Your Search
Away.com has its own blossoming Travel Q&A, where users can seek advice about any destination in the world from fellow Away.com readers as well as the site's panel of expert travel writers and editors. I spend a lot of time moderating and answering these user-submitted questions, so here are some of the common missteps I see users making when soliciting advice from the online travel community:
- Do Your Research. Browse the existing forums and archives to see if someone hasn't already asked and/or answered your particular query. That way you can find what you need without feeling like you're being ignored at some point down the road!
- Keep It Relevant. When submitting your question, make sure that you're asking it in the right place. If you want to know about Québec, post your query in the Québec or Canada section, for example. Sounds blatantly obvious, but worth stressing that the more granular you get, the better chance you'll find out something useful.
- Offer Details. Likewise, the more specificity to your question, the more likely you'll receive useful, actionable intel. Don't offer a complete autobiography (and no emails, telephone numbers!), but be sure to include any travel specifics (i.e., you're a family traveler with kids 4-12; you're planning on traveling to the Caribbean in, say, December; a ballpark budget) that will help other users understand your objectives and needs.
- Know Your Website. Don't ask to be mailed a travel brochure or request admission prices for a museum on a website that only specializes in providing editorial coverage for destinations around the world. You won't hear back. Forums and discussion boards are a great venue for getting useful info, but you should also be prepared to conduct your own groundwork on other easily accessible resources like Google Maps or directly on attraction and hotel websites. Don't be lazy—just because the "Ask It Now" link's there doesn't mean you'll get answers to everything and anything!
Tell us about social-networking sites you use to plan your travel in the comments section! And don't forget to join us for more travel conversation and ideas on Facebook and Twitter!
| Email this post | | | Permalink |
Many experienced travelers would actually be given voluntarily, the thrust from the flight and take a later flight the same hour flight destination for a target in the vicinity.
Posted by: Birmingham Flights | January 26, 2010 at 01:39 AM
I too agree that it is necessary to get travel advice from a trustworthy source. This will definitely be of great help to anyone who wants a joyful journey.
Posted by: William Alexzander | December 11, 2009 at 04:29 AM