As I mentioned in Do You Need a Guidebook to Travel? we get all of our travel info from the Internet. Below are the top five travel resources I’ve used, that you might not have even heard of!. Hopefully you’ll find something new for planning your next trip.
1. WikiTravel
I am shocked if more people don’t use this resource. WikiTravel is a free guidebook, constantly updated and extendable. I consult WikiTravel before doing anything. You have a free, easily updated guidebook anywhere you go. There is also an offline version you can download and use on your kindle or Android smartphone, which isn’t pretty, but could be useful if you’re in a jam.
2. Travel StackExchange
I hope more travelers will use this valuable Q&A resource. This is one of the many sites on the StackExchange Q&A engine. There are strict rules to follow for questions since it is a Q&A focused site, and not a general forum. If you ask a specific question, there are thousands of users with travel experience ready to give you advice.
Some of my favorite questions from the site:
- OK we’re all adults here, so really, how on earth should I use a squat toilet?
- How to avoid drinking vodka? (When in Russia)
- Flight tickets: buy two weeks before even during holiday seasons?
3. Travelfish
If you are traveling through Southeast Asia, this site has all the information you need. There are excellent trip planners which we used for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and learned about motorbiking the Bolaven plateau. The articles are well-written, informative and exhaustive, most importantly they are honest. Spend time reading the reviews, they don’t sugar coat anything in the, they simply tell it how it is. We found information on Travelfish for everything we wanted to do in SE Asia and had a lot of luck with some great accommodations. .
4. FlyerTalk
FlyerTalk is the mother of all forums related to frequent flier miles, points and credit cards. The forums here are full of travel experts and information to get you to your destination cheaper or in a higher class. Even if you don’t have lots of frequent flier miles, I’ve found this site to be great for coming up with interesting and inexpensive ways to get to exotic destinations. Next time you’re wondering the best way to get between point A and B try a search on FlyerTalk and see what comes up.
5. Other Travel Blogs
Suprise suprise! We get so much help and information from other travel blogs, it’s the main reason we decided to start ours in the first place. While there is useful information on forums and the big travel websites, blogs offer more personalized information plus it’s easy to contact the author via comments, email or Twitter. I use site-specific searches on Google to check whether any of my favorite bloggers have been to the destinations im searching.
For example, whenever I want to know something about South America, I head to Neverending Voyage. You can search within a specific site just by adding the “site:” parameter to your Google search. When I wanted to read about learning Spanish in Argentina,
I Googled:site:neverendingvoyage.com argentina spanish and found exactly what I was looking for.
Hopefully this list has given you some ideas for when you’re planning your next trip!
What online resources do you use to plan your trips?
Good stuff didn’t know about most of these but will check them out. Also nice new design, took me by surprise!
Thanks Dave! Glad you like the list, and the new design!
Loving the new site design guys and this article too! Have never heard of Flyer Talk or Travel Stack Exchange so will definitely be checking those out. Also never realized on google you could select a specific site to search within – very good to know!
Thanks Vicky! FlyerTalk can be overwhelming, but there is so much good information. I hope more people will use Travel Stack Exchange as I think it’s a great platform.
Totally recommend Travel.Stackexchange.com – I’ve had such good help from a variety of people from all over the world!
Hey Mark, thanks for the comment! I had a feeling you would feel the same way… 🙂
Great list. Thank you, thank you! I love how sharing the travel blogging community is.
I love wikitravel! I downloaded the app for my iTouch. It’s great to peruse a few hours before the bus or plane arrives to get a sense of what is going on.
I also find the Get In Get Out sections a huge help when trying to find the best ways to move on to the next country.
Great list!
Which app did you download? I don’t think there is an official one. I’ve been using the oxygenguide on my kindle. Get in and Get out is so useful.
I find WikiTravel is the first thing I check before I visit a place – even before I read my Lonely Planet guidebook! (I love the re-design by the way!)
Same with me, and thanks for liking the new design!
Thanks for the mention Josh! Glad you find our South America posts useful. Wikitravel and Travelfish are two of my favourite resources, as well as other blogs of course.
Of course, yours is the first site I go to when researching something for South America.