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Comments (27)
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Save/ShareSince the beginning of Internet Time, there has been Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, a place where frequent travelers trade tips with each other.
Facebook came along, of course, and now many people simply post a status update to draw out tips from their connections. (For example: "What should I do in Brussels next week?")
Same thing with sites like TripIt and Dopplr and TripLine, which have tools to alert your connections about your travels.
Some start-ups are trying to create communities of travelers that can interact with each other in a Facebook-style format. My favorite of these is Gogobot. To take full advantage of this site, you need to be willing to be friendly with strangers. Because it is people you've never met who may have the most up-to-date scoop on the best restaurants in L.A., or the smartest way to get to downtown from the airport during a transit strike in Paris. If you're comfortable with creating a new persona for yourself as a capital-T traveler, GogoBot is for you. During my recent weeks of trying it, I've been amazed at the high-quality of tips that users share with each other. The one downside is that Gogbot's community is still fairly small.
A site with a much larger pool of travel hobbyists—half-a-million travelers, in fact—is IgoUgo, a community that's overseen by Travelocity. This past fall, it added social tools, such as an "I've Been Here" feature and a "Get Ideas from Other Travelers" button, which together can help you to find like-minded travelers and learn about their tips as well as share your own advice.
UPDATE 1p.m.ET:
I also ought to mention Travellerspoint, a travel community with 350,000-plus members, who typically seem to travel more frequently than the average American—and are eager to share their insights. Looking for good guesthouses in Goa, India? That's the level of advice you'll find here.
On the opposite end of the marketing scale, heavily-promoted site WAYN has been successful at signing up lots of users, but activity has been stagnant in recent years. WAYN used to have a travel-knowledge focus and stand for "Where Are You Now." Today it seems to be more focused on getting users to date each other.
Some sites help travelers meet up in real life, once you've already arrived at your destination. Perhaps the best of these sites is Couch Surfing, a site for finding free and cheap places to stay in people's homes. It has a forum for meetups in cities worldwide. Budget Travel also recently covered five other sites that help you make friends on the road.
Especially promising is Tripping.com, a social networking site that connects travelers in more than 100 countries. The site stands out for its wide range of safety mechanisms, such as references, anonymous ratings, video validation, and an emergency hotline for all of its members.
How good are these sites? Budget Travel recently sent a writer to Istanbul to test many of these online tools. With a smartphone in each hand, Arianne Cohen tested the limits of online networking in a foreign land. No guidebooks. No language skills. Only social media and mobile apps. (Her story: "The Connected Traveler.") It was fun, but it wasn't easy.
One tool Cohen says worked well is InterNations.org. She wrote that it's "a global expat community with 230 local branches. If your own social network falls through, this is the place to track down locals who speak your language."
So what say you? What's the best social network for travel?
MORE FROM BUDGET TRAVEL
Five sites that help you make friends on the road
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Wow, I can't beleive "Trip Advisor" wasn't mentioned once! I start all my research for any vacation there & have always been impressed with the local knowledge & expertise found thru their forums.
Posted By tanja on January 11, 2011, 12:58 PM
Used Gogobot a few times too, it's pretty fun. Love the nice photos of destinations.
Posted By Toby on January 11, 2011, 3:02 PM
I second the vote for Tripadvisor forums. I don't put much stock in the reviews - but the forums work great and I have gotten some wonderful travel tips there.
I don't put a lot of stock in the reviews - once or twice I have questioned someone about their review and gotten the feeling that they didn't know a thing about the place they had reviewed. :0) So, I take the reviews with a grain of salt. Although I have also sent private questions to several other reviewers and gotten wonderful insight into an area from them.
I have posted reviews myself - hopefully, someone can tell I have really been and there done that - ha! As with anything - ya just never know for sure. But, I like the Tripadvisor forums.
Posted By CMM on January 11, 2011, 6:38 PM
I started using Gogobot a couple of weeks ago and am loving it!
Posted By Susan on January 12, 2011, 1:56 AM
I am very very surprised to see the article missed the most popular site - Tripadvisor.com, entirely !?
I believe that was by large margin the most used site. I have gained a tremendousness amount of info from the site, as it has almost any nooks and crannies on earth, every cities and regions.
I have tried many sites mentioned in the article, but eventually went back to tripadvisor.com. Try it, and I think you will know what I mean.
BTW, the airfare search engine at Tripadvisor is very useful.
Posted By cxc on January 12, 2011, 12:14 PM
www.ajungo.com is the best travel networking site. just recently launched and on it's way to dominating the travel social network.
Posted By Brent on January 12, 2011, 4:38 PM
Why is there nothing about Couchsurfing.org on here. One of the older and most reliable modes of cheap travel I know of. Been a member for years myself with many fun and safe travels.
Posted By Chimel on January 12, 2011, 6:14 PM
I'm still a huge fan of Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forums. Some great sites out there (including Trip Advisor and couchsurfing) but nothing beats the advice I get on Thorn Tree. I can ask anything, about anywhere and get an answer. I don't find that anywhere else.
Posted By Mark on January 12, 2011, 8:13 PM
Love the Thorn Tree. Still the best for me. Nothing beats the advise I get there. Best places to meet real travellers and learn about absolutely everywhere, no matter how off the beaten path. I love Trip Advisor too, but I don't really make friends there. It's just good to search for information.
Posted By Mark on January 12, 2011, 8:17 PM
I'm with Mark. Thorntree is the oldest and the best because it is a community of like-minded travelers who really want to help each other. There are a lot of new technologies emerging, but Thorntree has the most street cred because of the people it attracts.
Posted By Trudy on January 12, 2011, 8:38 PM
www.travbuddy.com is great...the forums are very active and you always find users that are able to answer questions about any destination. I highly recommend it!
Posted By Kimberly on January 13, 2011, 12:52 PM
i like Thorntree too but I think it appeals to a certain type of traveler - luckily, i have not grown out of that type of traveling, I use trip advisor for the U.S. when I want to do something more touristy with the kids. I feel that in their "things to do" section, it's often lists tours & things to do that cost money.
I'm excited to check out the sites recommended by the magazine & from other travelers in the comments section.
Posted By Toobusy2 on January 13, 2011, 1:04 PM
Re. forums, I use Tripadvisor and I DO read the reviews then sift out the extremes.
Three other "tried and true" forums with knowledgeable and helpful communities are Slow Travel, Fodors and Frommers. They may have been around forever, but I have found the discussions and recommendations on the forums lively and current.
Posted By Lois22 on January 13, 2011, 4:49 PM
I have used Tripadvisor forums for all my travels and have always received great advice and suggestions. Even the reviews has guided me to some great hotels and attractions. But like Lois22, I also tend to ignore the extremes and also check out reviews from other sites as well.
Posted By Amy on January 13, 2011, 5:14 PM
Tripping.com is my new favorite site when it comes to social travel. As a lone female traveler, safety is something I'm very conscious of, and I am definitely a fan of their safety mechanisms. I also really like that I can send text messages through the site.
Posted By Liz8 on January 13, 2011, 6:50 PM
I agree Trip Advisor is a favourite of mine...As is Frommers...both can be trusted to have valid reviews and information. I often cross reference reviews from both and find they are generally very close in comparing hotels,restaurants etc.
They get my vote
Posted By deb on January 13, 2011, 8:55 PM
I always begin my trips with tripadvisor.com!! Then I move on to Frommers, though I think the Frommers site is very difficult to get maneuver around.
Posted By mslewis on January 14, 2011, 12:37 AM
Cannot believe it either! Trip Advisor not mentioned! Shame; they are the best!
Posted By Debra H. on January 14, 2011, 2:21 PM
Sorry if I disappointed anyone by excluding TripAdvisor from this piece.
I did so on purpose.
I think this is a question of what you mean by "social network."
When TripAdvisor announced integration with Facebook, its chief described it as integrating "social" tools with the site and bringing the "world's largest travel community and the world's largest social site" together.
Just like TripAdvisor thinks of itself, I think of TripAdvisor as the world's largest travel community--but that is something different from a social network. Now, with added Facebook functionality, it is becoming part of social networking, and that's a great thing.
Posted By Sean on January 15, 2011, 8:10 AM
What about bootsnall.com? And I,too, can't believe you left out tripadvisor.
Posted By Larry on January 17, 2011, 7:30 AM
The new "Network" system on Tripping.com seems to be a quick way to connect with travelers of similar
likes such as "Americorps Alums" or "50+," "labrats," "expats," "foodies," etc. Easy site to navigate w/great features. Nice to see the "Do Good Things"
option which supports volunteers/social change.
Posted By Michelle on January 17, 2011, 6:16 PM
We like to think I BonjourParis.com isn't an unfriendly place - including it has an active Q & A section.
http://www.facebook.com/bonjourparis?ref=mf
The Bonjour Paris Facebook page is also very active.
Posted By Karen Fawcett on January 20, 2011, 12:46 PM
If you want the hotels to come to you instead of searching the entire web for the right place to stay, check out theZouk. You receive tailor made personal offers directly from hotels and other room profiders in the area you are going to. You can even include personal messages to the hotels in your request and bargain about the prices you are offered. Great stuff!
Posted By Julie on February 16, 2011, 3:56 PM
If you are female, you MUST know Journeywoman.com, a network of women travelling alone. And their HerNET.com, a social net who matches you with women in the destination cities you´re visiting. GREAT! It works really well.
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