By Ed Perkins, Tribune Content Agency
Do you ever decide you need a vacation but aren’t sure where to go? If so, a few websites are eager to help you. In the five years since I last covered online destination choice search systems, surprisingly little has changed: I found only two that were new to me. But both are interesting and potentially useful.
Google Destinations is one of the most innovative, but it’s currently available only as a smartphone app, not online. Once you log onto Google and trigger the system by entering some region plus “destinations,” you can start the process by entering one of nine “interests” or “all interests.” The nine options are heavily tilted toward recreational activities; you can select “architecture” and “culture” but not “food” or “shopping.” Once you choose, you can narrow your search by dates and maximum budget for a week. The display also shows how cost varies when you change dates. And you can either dig for more information or book your hotel and airfare.
The biggest problems with Google Destinations are (1) that it’s limited to trips of just one week; no more, no less, and (2) that its popularity-based suggestions tend to return the “usual suspects.” But it’s a real pioneering idea and worth a look.
RoutePerfect is on the Internet; it focuses entirely on Europe. Start out by entering starting and ending points, a vacation type (romantic, friends, family, or solo), number of days, starting date, budget (economy, moderate, luxury), and whether you plan to drive or take public transportation. Although an initial mapped itinerary pops up immediately, you can customize your choice by ranking eight travel preferences: small towns, culture, great food, historic places, nature, beaches, night life, and active.
I tested it with a trip from Munich to the Italian Lake Country, and to start I maximized the first four factors. The result had me spending two or three nights in Munich, Davos, Interlaken, Como, Sirmione and Bellagio. Oddly, the reversed preferences gave the same itinerary. You can also enter the same city as both starting and ending points, and you get a circle trip, where the itinerary for a driving trip was much more extensive than a trip by train.
Once you’ve decided, you can have RoutePerfect price your trip, posting a “package” price for all chosen hotels but giving you the option to change hotels. You can also enter a rental car or train tickets, and book the whole trip through RoutePerfect.
All in all, the destination choices seem to be appropriate to your input conditions. If you really don’t know an area, you can do worse than following RoutePerfect’s recommendations.
Three other sites I looked at previously are still working:
- TripAdvisor has acquired Wanderfly, a pioneer in the field, and integrated it into TripAdvisor’s “Travel Inspiration” function (tripadvisor.com/Inspiration). You enter the type of vacation you want and select one of seven world regions or “anywhere,” and you see a list — often quite long — of places that match your preferences. Typically, the results are reliable although many are something of a “round up the usual suspects” listing.
- TravelMuse works about the same way as TripAdvisor.
- BestTripChoices is different; it puts you through a brief “personality test” to determine what sort of traveler you are; “authentic,” venturer” or four others. Then it offers a series of suggestions for the top 30 destinations for your type — evenly split between U.S. and foreign options. BestTripChoices rates destinations on two scales: attractiveness of the destination and the “value for the money” you’d expect at each destination.
If you aren’t sure where you want to go — or even if you just want a few new ideas — by all means give these systems a try. You never know when you’ll get a great idea that wasn’t even on your radar.
(Send e-mail to Ed Perkins at eperkins@mind.net. Also, check out Ed’s new rail travel website.)
Tribune Content Agency — March 23, 2016
(c) 2016 TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
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