Travel sites are exploding, but don't be put off by the volume
Eva Holland, The Ottawa Citizen:Published: Saturday, November 24, 2007
Where are the best South Indian restaurants in central Delhi? What's the cheapest way from Heathrow Airport to central London? And what's it really like to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway? Whatever travel-related question you have, chances are the web can answer it. Here's a guide to some of the best travel sites on the web:
GET INSPIRED
Good travel writing is a powerful thing: a few paragraphs on a city you'd never thought twice about can fill you with an all-consuming desire to visit. And even if your itinerary is already set, a good story about the place you're heading can be a great way to get primed before you go.
World Hum (www.worldhum.com) is leading the online pack when it comes to smart, literary travel writing in the broader sense of the genre. In other words, it's not just about the latest hotel rooms and day spas, but about the encounters we have with other people and other cultures, and what those experiences mean to us.
Traveler's Tales (travelerstales.com) is primarily designed to promote the many travel books put out by the publisher of the same name. The Editors' Choice section, however, (http://travelerstales.com/carpet/cat_editors_choice.shtml) showcases some of the editors' favourite stories from the piles of submissions the company receives.
Also worth a browse is Brave New Traveler's Tales from the Road archive (http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/category/travel-stories/). Each week, writer Tim Patterson collects his favourite travel stories from around the web, and the result is a remarkable range of voices.
GET INFORMED
Of course, the traditional way to prepare for a trip is to purchase at least one hefty guidebook and to pore over it. But if you don't mind a little progress now and then, it's possible to get almost all the information online: it's fast, up-to-date, and often it's free.
Lonely Planet's World Guide (www.lonelyplanet.com/worldguide) offers sketches of destinations around the world, and can be very useful for narrowing down the countries or regions you're most interested in. The Thorn Tree message board (www.thorntree.lonelyplanet.com) is unbeatable for working out minute practical details. Its thousands of regulars are extremely well-informed, but sometimes belligerent towards new users: keep their feathers smooth by reading the FAQs first and asking specific questions. "What's good to do in Europe?" won't go over very well. The Online Shop (shop.lonelyplanet.com) is also putting more guidebook and phrasebook information for sale online, in pdf and mp3 formats. The most recent addition, Pick & Mix, allows you to buy and download particular chapters of certain titles rather than the whole book.
Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com) has, incredibly, put huge chunks of their entire guidebook empire online, for free. Its Travel Community section (http://community.roughguides.com) features reports written by fellow travellers, searchable by destination, and the shop offers downloadable podcasts, e-books, digital maps, and mp3 phrasebooks.
Matador Travel (matadortravel.com) is a relative newcomer. Members can create broad guides to places they know well, or highlight a particular aspect of a city in a blog post. Certain members are also designated "experts" on a given destination, and encourage people to send them messages with specific travel questions. Specialties so far include outdoor adventure, green or sustainable travel, and travel in the Americas and Asia.
Wikitravel (www.wikitravel.com) operates on the same premise as the popular Wikipedia: users post articles on travel destinations, and subsequent readers can update, edit or add information. The idea is that the content will only get better with time. Sister site World66 (www.world66.com) uses the same approach.
GET IN TOUCH
Keeping a travel blog can be a great way to stay in touch, and makes a great record for you to look back on, too.
Matador Travel (matadortravel.com) is a great forum for keeping a blog about your trip. Members can create a profile and a photo gallery, and post an unlimited number of blog entrie. You can also chart your progress by mapping your location for each entry using a built-in Google Maps application. Using Matador is straightforward and the founders are friendly and responsive to any technical questions you might have.
Travelpod (www.travelpod.com) is Ottawa-based and the oldest travelogue-hosting forum on the web. Members get access to a host of features, including video and mp3 capability, access to your blog from your cellphone, and unlimited personal travel maps, as well as the basic text-and-photos set-up. Enhanced memberships are available for sale, allowing users to make their travel journal password-protected rather than visible to anyone.
Toadfire (www.toadfire.com) is a free, independent blog community founded by two friends in Toronto -- it's not linked to MSN or any other online giants, and it doesn't start trying to charge you for your blog after the first month or two. It's not travel-specific but has a laid-back feel and great support for any problems or questions that come up.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2007
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