Social Media Is There To Help Travelers
The power of social networks and sites is irreplaceable really no matter how you try, people are swearing by it as the future of the web. Social sites are not only for chatting and wasting time, but has a much greater value in them for the people seeking it. You can use it to reach out, learn from different cultures, get targeted advise where you need it from people who want to help. And the same applies for traveling. You can use these social sites to learn more about the different destinations, use what people shared from their experience, and then use other interactive social sites, like Facebook and Twitter to get the extra help you need. In fact, a British guy named Paul Smith (TwitchHiker) is doing just that with his half-across the world trip to raise charity money, relying solely on Twitter for followers offering help, advise, stay, and transportation. So far, he’s already approaching the end of his trip with about 11,000 followers and saying “11,000 people and managing to twitchhiker around the world can’t be wrong“.
Ofcourse, you don’t have to go to that extreme, but Mashable have prepared a very nice article about how and what to use of the social media for your travel needs.
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Organize your trip with TripIt.com
TripIt.com is a trip organizing service that will help you in planning your trips, share them with your friends and family, and it will also keep a stats of your travel habits, days of travel, kilometers taken, cities, countries, etc. The site also provides the ability for some restaurants, theater tickets, and activities booking right from within their site.
But the best feature probably in this site over others is their ability to process your online booking information and created automated itinerary from them. This applies for hotels, airlines, cruises, activities, rails, car rentals, and more. What happens is, when you make an online booking through one of their supported sites, you normally receive a reservation confirmation email. Once you create your accont with TripIt, you just forward this email to their plans@tripit.com address, and they will process it automatically and notify you once the new itinerary is ready for your confirmation. I’ve tried it with an Expedia booking, and it went marvelously. Although I have to say, the AJAX-rich interface of GoPlanit, and the bigger library of locations they have was more appealing and useful to me.
You can make your travels private to you and your selected friends, or you can open it for everyone to see and make use of. If you’ve tried it, or any other travel planning service, please do share your experience. If you need more space than a single comment box, be sure to visit 7ojozat Tours, where you will get your own blogging space for FREE.
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Vacation Rentals could be smarter than hotels!
Do you ever consider Vacation Rentals when traveling? What are they you ask? They are the lease of furnished home or apartment on a temporary basis for travelers as an alternative to traditional hotels. A side from the lack of 24/7 regular hotel service, breakfast, and other luxuries, vacation rentals bring along a load of benefits.
- Cost: Cost of apartments are usually much lower than hotels, as they do not account for the service charges.
- Space: Don’t you hate hotel rooms where you can only sleep or walk outside? Apartments usually bring up much more space, including even multiple rooms allowing families to live together rather than in separate rooms.
- Facilities: With apartments, you can get your own kitchen with all you need to cook, your own washing machine, and many other things that would both make your stay more convenient, and could prove to be an extra saving as well. Cooking at home would be a lot cheaper than ordering from the hotel restaurant.
- Balconies?: While this is not for sure, apartments can have magnificent views from your very own balcony. Something you’re not very likely to get in a hotel.
- Quite: From it’s nature, apartments are likely to be less crowded than hotels from my experience, let alone leasing your own home where there is basically only you and your family.
- Service: Some apartments even have some kind of service available on a weekly basis, and a hot line to call if you need anything.
- Security: Some apartments have very strict securities and 24/7 guards on them, giving you more peace of mind.
Being an apartment leased by an individual sometimes, extra care need to be taken before booking. There are loads of trusted vacation rental sites however, giving you photos, sometimes a virtual tour of the place, and are very professional. My apartment experience at Cardiff Bay Century Wharf from A Space In The City was full of upsides, with few minor exceptions like the slow internet access and the water heater which wasn’t working. There was no cooling system also so for me it’s was too hot, but this seems to be a common thing in Europe and can’t be taken against them. Other than that, we got a large space, 2 tvs, DVD, MP3 Player, washing and drying machine, dish washer, balcony, and the whole complex is surrounded by security measures and access card based outside door.
Other sites that may interest you in seeking an apartment are CyberRentals.com, which seems really professional, have worldwide apartment listing, and include visitor reviews as well. Another site is Perfect Places, which is less organized but with still some good collection.
To read more about the subject, and get more advise and insight, I strongly recommend you go by the smarter TRAVEL article about the vacation rentals.
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