Last Updated on July 9, 2019 by Larious
Several decades ago, a traveler could easily be recognized by a pack of maps and guidebooks in his hands. Today, the tourist has the habit of looking into a smartphone, because all the necessary information is available online.
The fact is that the Internet helps not only checking out which places are worth visiting in a particular city but to organize a place to stay, as well as buy tickets for the whole company. Many services allow you to find car rental under 21 Florida or to rent a car anywhere else in the world. Also, special online services for tourists provide a lot of other useful features.
Here’re some simple but very effective web resources for your upcoming journey.
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Tripadvisor.com
The largest international database of user and expert reviews on tourist destinations, attractions, hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues in almost all cities of the world are waiting for you there.
The site has 60 million reviews, and the flow of notes doesn’t dry out. In addition, 50 million users of TripAdvisor annually make up a variety of tourist ratings. For example, all destinations of the globe were examined for the best gastronomic entertainment. In Europe, the winner is Florence, and in North America – New Orleans.
The world’s major beach is Providenciales – it’s located on an island in the Caribbean. The most fabulous family-friendly hotel in Europe is the British Sands Resort Hotel & Spa. For romantics, the TripAdvisor community recommends Four Seasons Resort Bora Bora in French Polynesia.
Tripit.com
This smart service allows you to store all your travel paperwork — tickets, electronic receipts, reservations, policies, scans of documents — in one ‘cloud’, which can be quickly accessed from a computer, from a tablet, and from a smartphone.
In order to do this, you simply send the necessary letters to your address in the TripIt system, where the data is automatically sorted and displayed on one screen in a convenient form.
(photo by CuKin)
If this is not enough, TripIt independently finds the weather forecast, maps and entertainment programs for the desired destination and allows you to book tickets to theaters and restaurants.
The service is free of charge. However, by becoming a TripIt Pro client, you can get privileges. For example, a special assistant will notify you about changes in flight schedules and offer the most cost-effective flight options. TripIt also has an affiliate program with Hertz, which gives discounts for car rental.
Lonelyplanet.com
The LonelyPlanet Internet guide has two major advantages over the competitors. At first, professional journalists, but not enthusiasts, take part in its filling. More than 200 authors are working on the project, and since 2007, BBC Worldwide, known for its high standards of content, controls 75% of the company’s shares.
Secondly, this web-resource has a beautiful story: thirty years ago, hippie newlyweds Tony and Maureen Wheelers began to release printed guidebooks of Lonely Planet.
Tony and Maureen were desperate romantics and adventurers and spent their honeymoon traveling around Europe, Asia, and Australia on a small budget. Today, their LonelyPlanet is a huge publishing business with 450 employees around the world, with guides, magazines, and a terribly interesting website.
Holidaypad.net
Holidaypad is an online magazine, which searches for interesting housing options around the world. The base of offers is impressive: you’ll find their underwater hotels, Indian wigwams, knight castles, abandoned bomb shelters, floating houses, huts on the trees, flying saucers, and tent camps.
Also, there are such unique offers as lighthouses, mills, shepherd’s huts, and wintering houses. All housing presented on the site can be rented, but the authors of the project are not engaged in the booking. You’ll have to click on the links and negotiate the rental by yourself. However, all the necessary information about accommodation – price, number of beds, can be found without leaving the HolidayPad website.
Apartmentsapart.com
This is the world’s largest database of rental apartments and villas. The price of housing is often lower than in nearby hotels, the site does not take agency fees, and there’s no need to make preliminary contributions.
Also, if necessary, you’ll get many last-minute offers there. Today, there are more than 4,000 objects in the database, each of which includes a layout plan, photos, and guest reviews.
The site has a convenient search filter – for example, by the availability of infrastructure for people with disabilities, permission to smoke in the room, the ability to take pets with you. Among the competitors of ApartmentsApart is the successful American start-up Airbnb and HomeAway. By the way, you can register your own apartment on the website.
Don’tForgetYourToothbrush.com
This is a special site for travelers who often have problems with taking the necessary things on a trip: its functionality will help to make sure that nothing is forgotten. A smart expert database will recommend a shopping list for your trip, asking a couple of simple questions: how many people go, what their gender and age, what countries you intend to visit, where to stay, where to go and what to see.
If there are not enough items in the generated list, you can add them by yourself, after which the computer assistant will ensure that everything is bought on time and deleted from the list.
