Posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 by Shachar Pessis
Tripwolf – What makes a good travel website stand out from the rest? High resolution photos? Informative and engaging content? Or maybe including geographic locations outside the Western mainstream? All of the factors above would, no doubt, make one hell of an online travel guide, and there is a fair number of such sites available on the Web (check out our Travel page for a variety of these). Nevertheless, there is one particular travel site that is truly unique and innovative: Tripwolf. It’s one of those sites which makes the whole much greater than the sum of its parts.
Why is it so special? Because Tripwolf “combines travel tips from professional travel writers with a vast collection of travel information, experiences and reviews from a worldwide community of thousands of travelers like you.” Isn’t that great? You get the best of both worlds: feedback from professional savvy travelers, and from regular people’s travel choices worldwide. To test Tripwolf’s service, I explored their take on Barcelona, which I visited last year. Well before our trip, my girlfriend and I researched the city’s attractions, and we got a general idea of which places we should visit.
As is the case with many first time tourists in Barcelona (however well-informed they may be), very soon we realized we couldn’t possibly visit all the sites on our check list. We had to skip Parc Guell for example, which was a bit of a disappointment. If we were to consult Tripwolf prior to our visit to Barcelona, we would have learned that the very same Parc was voted as the top Barcelona attraction by travelers…