“Cool” Travel websites
By Darren Cronian on Monday, August 21st, 2006

Since I haven’t blogged for a week due to my camping trip this news has probably been mentioned on tons of Travel Blogs already, but did you know that six Travel websites are among the 50 “coolest websites” of the year as chosen by US magazine Time.

Personally, I’ve not heard of any of these websites, and they all appear to focus on the US audience – and where was Travel Rants in the list huh?! Anyway, time to hang out my wet clothes from my camping adventure, so here are the sites in question;

Yelp
A social networking website, which gives you the opportunity to read what people are saying about restaurants, hotels, nightclubs, etc. in New York, Seattle, Phoenix and 21 other US cities, or you can submit written reviews of your own.

Zip Car
A car sharing website, that allows you to reserve a car – ideal for people who need a set of wheels every now and then but prefer not to own one, and have the costs associated with owning a car.

Kayak
A travel search engine which allows you to search for car hire, flights and hotels – based on US cities and destinations, and searches hundreds of travel sites to give you the widest possible choice of flights and prices.

Central Park
An interactive guide to NY’s Central Park - one of the world’s most famous public spaces offers up-to-date information on 43 different attractions, from the Carousel to the Conservatory Garden, Strawberry Fields to the Swedish Cottage.

Farecast
Interesting website which calculates whether the lowest price on plane tickets will rise or fall over the next week, to help you decide the right time to buy. Choose from 120 destinations, and you’ll get a fare history chart, price prediction and bottom-line tip.

HopStop
Very useful site provides step-by-step directions via bus or subway in four cities: New York, Boston, Washington and San Francisco. Plug in start and end points and you get clear instructions, alternative options and maps.


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14 responses to ““Cool” Travel websites”

mikeyboy | 22 August, 2006 at 2:47 pm

C’mon man, any so-called ‘travel’ expert worth his salt would’ve at least have heard of Kayak.

Darren Cronian | 22 August, 2006 at 3:27 pm

C’mon man, I blog because I enjoy travelling, I’m a travel blogger, certainly not an expert, but I’m damn chuffed though that by reading by blog you think that I am a travel expert.

The fact that I’ve been interviewed by a few reporters in the media, and run a very successful travel blog, doesn’t mean I class myself as an expert. Having not travelled to the US, I have yet to come across Kayak (isn’t that a Canoe anyway?) or any of the websites mentioned in this blog entry.

Kevin May | 23 August, 2006 at 9:07 am

Indeed, Darren, ‘cool sites’ mentioned on travolution.blogspot.com last week. Trust you had a good time on hols.

[don't worry about wise-cracking blog posts. surely mikeyboy was member of the Beastie Boys?!?]

for info: as reported in travolution, kayak is expected to make a major push into the european market later this year. as a meta search engine they will certainly shake things up here, against the existing sites, such as travelsupermarket, travelfusion, and the slightly different business model of cheapflights.

interesting times ahead.

Jeff | 24 August, 2006 at 1:20 pm

Wow, I am shocked my site did not make that list. Maybe next year!

Jeff

mikeyboy | 25 August, 2006 at 9:15 am

Kevin, I was just teasing Darren, he’s a good lad ;-)

Jeff, like your site by the way. It may have a chance next year if you move it away from the dreaded splogspot ;-) (not that your site is a splog but 99% of them on blogspot seem to be)

Kevin May | 25 August, 2006 at 9:30 am

mikeyboy. i hope you don’t think travolution.blogspot.com is a splog?!?!?!!?

Darren Cronian | 25 August, 2006 at 9:39 am

HaHaHa @ Splog!!

Kevin, have you not heard that term before??

Splogs, I mean blogspots have one advantage over hosting your own blog - and that’s the dreading Google search engine sandbox - they don’t get clogged up in it. I’ve been testing this out with my own blogspot. I’m a BIG fan though of the Travolution Blog though!

mikeyboy | 25 August, 2006 at 12:43 pm

Kevin, I’ve subscribed to you travolution blog, a rare thing for me to do for blogspots.
I certainly don’t consider it a splog.

Amazing that Blogspots isn’t clogged up in Google’s SE sandbox, I wonder why that is? ;-)

Who owns Blogger by the way? Oh yeah, it’s Google!

Darren Cronian | 25 August, 2006 at 12:54 pm

Funny thing its not just blogspot. Any blogging platform where the main domain (i.e. blogspot.com, wordpress.com etc.) isn’t in the sandpit, sorry sandbox, has the advantage over a new domain. That is short term though - long term in my opinion its best to have your own domain name, own hosting, that way you have total control of your blog.

Jeff | 25 August, 2006 at 1:33 pm

Thanks for the vote of confidence milkboy. I have some larger plans that do include a move away from blogspot someday. I have a lot of work to do in this regard, as I am still new to this world.

Jeff

Darren Cronian | 25 August, 2006 at 1:39 pm

Jeff, add my new blog promotion blog to your favourites, or if you use an RSS reader you can add the rss feed too http://www.feed.feedburner.com/BloggedOut or visit blogged-out.com

Oh, and I had to laugh @ Milkboy!! :D

Bill Monroe | 20 September, 2006 at 6:23 pm

Good list - how about http://www.notesfromtheroad.com

Pete | 5 December, 2006 at 10:20 am

Hey guys

what about this site http://www.cheaperholidays.com

Pete

Darren Cronian | 6 December, 2006 at 7:14 am

What about cheaperholidays.com Pete?

I would’nt say it was a cool travel site, more a holiday booking website. Cool sites are the ones that help us search for a holiday in unique and new ways, no offense but anyone could create a holiday booking website, it just has to be unique and um cool ;)

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