The social web has come a long way since my first major travels abroad, even since 2005 when I went to Thailand to spend 6 weeks with my parents. Back then, there was no obvious way for me to connect with people overseas, apart from the traditional online journals, chats etc. Certainly not ways to find reputable, non-creepy people. These days, however, there’s a certain comfort in knowing that you can go to a new place and easily connect with people for work, or for personal interest. Here are some of the social travel websites you may find me on:
Airbnb
Riding on CouchSurfing fame, if you’re looking for a bit more of an upscale experience when traveling abroad and wanting to stay with locals, check out this site for listings that you actually pay for. You can find some places where the owner doesn’t live there and won’t be there when you visit, and others where the owner will be there. The interface is also a lot more user-friendly than CouchSurfing’s, and you’ll find user reviews and photos of potential shortstays. The service also boasts a mobile app, so you can look for places and book on the go. At least useful for research into prices, you may be lucky enough to find somewhere to stay for about the price of a hostel nearby to wherever you’re heading.
Expat Blog
This site is mainly a way to research information about any place you’re planning to travel to or live abroad in. You can connect with others, browse classifieds and read blogs about the places you’ll be staying. There’s not a whole lot here, and it’s not the best of interfaces, but it’s another place to bookmark and keep an eye on.
You can find me there at http://www.expat-blog.com/forum/profile.php?id=161545.
Gogobot.com
Gogobot is the latest of travel social networks I’ve noted has sprung up in the past few months. Heavily integrated with Facebook (sometimes to an annoying extent: inviting one of your Facebook Friends through Gogobot involves a very spam-like, public post to their wall stating you’re inviting them to the service, rather than a discreet message in the sidebar or through private message), it has a lot of sharing capabilities. You can ask questions about specific locations you’ll be visiting, create “city collections” where you can keep all the places you’ve been and want to go in one easy to find “folder” for later, and you can create trip plans so you can keep track of where you’d like to go when you know you’ve got something coming up.
The site integrates with Facebook, Twitter and now FourSquare (so you can automatically import your FS check-ins – pretty cool in my books!).
The only things on my wishlist for this site are, the ability to automatically create trip plans from imported travel bookings (including hotel stays and flights), the way you can at TripIt; sharing a trip plan with another member of Gogobot, so you can all keep track of the same trip; the ability to invite friends in a non-annoying manner; full cross-browser compatibility (right now, you’re best off viewing the site in Firefox or Google Chrome).
If you want to look me up and keep track of my travels, you can access my profile at http://www.gogobot.com/user/christina_habberjam.
Disclaimer: I participated in the City Collection contest earlier this year, and came in third place. I won a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate from Gogobot, so I may be a little biased towards the site. However, I do find it to be a comprehensive review and trip-tracking website, with few areas of improvement.
InterNations
Started by some lonely expats abroad in Germany, this travel-based social network has really taken off. I remember joining up a little while ago when researching the possibility of moving abroad, and a close friend of mine actually then told me about the site a few weeks later, mentioning she’d been going to some of the parties they hold in Toronto and meeting lots of people there. I found that somewhat startling, as I’m usually the one inviting friends to new networks – and I hadn’t thought to invite her, thinking she probably wouldn’t join anyway. So when she told me about it, I knew it was taking off.
Since then, I’ve met a few people through the parties they hold, and invited a few friends from real life who I thought might find it useful. The resources there are pretty limited unless you sign up for a paid account, but there is at least a forum for nearly every major city you can think of, and they often have meetups in all of them. You can dig out information from anyone on there, if you’re looking to relocate, and get pointers on settling into your new destination. While I find that many people on there are really just looking to hook up (I’d call it something along the lines of a travel-dating site), if you can avoid the people who are obviously just trying to hit on you through private messages, it can be a useful tool.
You can check out my profile at http://www.internations.org/users/profile/226217.
TripAdvisor
If you’ve ever looked up reviews for a hotel online, you’ve probably come across TripAdvisor. I don’t need to explain that this is the most comprehensive travel review site online. Its interface is a little busy, and can be overwhelming, but for the detailed and relevant information you’ll find here, this service can’t be beat. You can also get the iPod App.
You can find me at http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/tinuvielt.
TripIt
I’ve been signed up with this service for the longest, and have seen the slowest adoption of it amongst all these sites. I don’t know why, but most people don’t really find the service useful. I think it would be far more useful if more people signed up on it, because then you can see people’s plans and connect when they’re going to be in the same places as you – but so far I’ve benefited from it, at least on a personal level.
A fair number of my travels have involved the need to meet up with my parents once overseas, or even in another city in North America. This site allows me to import all my travel plans – train rides, planes, even car trips – and share those plans with whoever will find them useful (in this case, my parents). This way, they can keep track of when I’m arriving where, and whether my method of travel is going to be on time, etc.
I really wish more of my friends would sign up, however, so we can plan trips together or meetups whilst abroad. A good many of them travel, especially these days as they gain more flexibility with their jobs and finances. Unfortunately, until more people do sign up, it’s going to feel rather lonesome looking at my travel stats and seeing how far I’ve traveled in my lifetime. Oh, well.
You can find my profile here: http://www.tripit.com/people/envy+creative.
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