Zeus of the ‘NetReviews of the Coolest Sites on the Net

For those who’ve already selected the destination(s) for their big trip, the next step is deciding what to see & do once you get there.  A new site called Tripomatic makes planning your trips a whole lot easier by allowing you to create a personal itinerary.  With deep Google Maps integration this site allows its users to create a day by day sight-seeing schedule with directions from one location to the next location on their itinerary.  As a quick side note, the Google Maps integration is quite impressive and probably one of the best I’ve come across.

In addition to showing all of the more popular things to see/do in a particular city, Tripomatic also has a “must see” filter (pretty self explanatory).  They also have a “Hotels” filter which shows all of the hotels in the area in which you are currently looking at on the map.  The only downside I saw as of right now is that there are only European destinations available.  However I’ve been told that destinations in the U.S., Canada, and the Caribbean will become available by the end of this year, with countries on other continents coming sometime early next year.

I have to say this site does a really good job of balancing features and functions with a clean looking design that’s intuitive and easy to use.  So next time you’re planning a trip, go prepared and plan it all out ahead of time using Tripomatic!

If you’re like me and love to travel then I’m sure you can’t wait to take your next vacation either.  But the thing that always gets me (other than having the $$) is making all the arrangements.  It’s such a hassle.  Now I know there are some people who probably enjoy this, but I’m definitely not one of them.  So if there’s any way to make the process quicker and more efficient, I’m all for it.  With this in mind I happened to come across Oyster.com.  Right from the get-go I knew that the site just had “it”.  What exactly “it” is can be hard to pinpoint, and it can also vary from site to site.  However with Oyster (so named after the Shakespeare quote “the world is your oyster”) I believe it’s a combination of the new approach they’ve taken with hotel reviews and booking, combined with an excellent website.

What I like most about this site is the photos they take of the hotels they review.  They’re high-quality and haven’t been retouched.  The only drawback I can see is that as of right now the site only covers 14 destinations (within the U.S. and around the globe) but I’m guessing as they get more exposure, visits, and bookings, that this number will increase.

So next time you sit down and start making those travel arrangements, be sure to look up Oyster and check out some photos of that hotel you were thinking of staying at.

There are a ton of sites out there dedicated to searching for the best deals on flights (read my previous post on Kayak) but what sets Hipmunk.com apart is the fact that it’s quick and easy to use.  Unlike some of the others where you have to input a bunch of info and click through multiple pages, Hipmunk shows all of the results of your search on one page.  You can also filter the results by: price, stops, departure time, arrival time, duration, and ‘agony’.  I thought the last one was interesting.  According to their FAQ page, ‘agony’ is “our way of sorting flights to take into account price, duration, and number of stops. There’s more to a flight than its price, so we provide this sort to give you better all-around results.”

I like that the site is easy to use and that you only have to enter in where you want to depart from and arrive at, and the dates.  This makes the whole process quick, and a lot easier than the other bigger more well known sites.  So next time you’re searching for a flight, remember to check out Hipmunk.

If you’re looking to try out a new restaurant, bar, hair salon or dentist but aren’t sure where to go or which one to choose, check out Yelp.  Soaring in popularity since Google began including reviews from Yelp on their local listings section, the concept is simple: a place to talk about what’s great and sometimes what’s not so great about the places and business you visit.  Known as Yelpers, the users that comprise Yelp make the site what it is.  The very definition of Web 2.0, Yelp is a great site for users and businesses to find each other, and learn more about what the other is all about.

Once an account is created (free of course) you too can become a Yelper and upload photos, add a bio, and most importantly begin reviewing!  And with the addition of Mobile Yelp users on the go will never again have to randomly choose a restaurant or bar without first seeing what their fellow Yelpers have to say about it!

**Update** Yelp now has both an iPhone and iPad app, both of which are free. Since I wrote this post I’ve come to use Yelp all the time, especially when I’m trying to decide which restaurant I want to eat at. If you have either one of these devices, I highly recommend downloading their app.

If you’ve ever wondered which roads and highways are the most dangerous in and around your neighborhood there is a site that can help out.  I came across SafeRoadMaps.org thanks to a recommendation by my girlfriend and was immediately impressed with not only the idea and the information given, but how it was presented.  The website is a mashup that integrates data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and uses Google Maps to present the information visually.  Some people might think this site is a bit morbid, however I think it can be very useful in helping to save lives.

According to SafeRoadMaps there are over 42,000 crash related fatalities each year in the U.S., which is why this site (a joint effort between the University of Minnesota and the Center for Transportation Studies) was created.  After selecting the Maps tab, and then Safe Street Maps, users can do a simple address search to see how many fatalities have occurred in their neighborhood.  After entering in an address, results can be filtered further by selecting a distance, anywhere from half a mile to ten miles away.  A Google Maps satellite view is then displayed, showing an icon where each fatality has occurred.  For further information, users can click on the icon and can find out the date, time of day, age, and sex of the driver and passengers, as well as if speeding or alcohol was involved, or if seatbelts were worn at the time of the accident.

Websites like SafeRoadMaps.org offer valuable information to help keep yourself and your loved ones safe.  With the holiday travel season coming up, hopefully the information given can help make it a safe trip for everyone.

The holiday season is quickly approaching, and that usually means two things: shopping and traveling. With shopping covered in the last post (Looking for a Good Deal…) that just leaves traveling. And that’s where Kayak.com steps in. Pulling from over 140 travel websites, and covering flights, hotels, cruises, car rentals, and more, Kayak is the place to start if you’re planning on traveling and are searching for cheap travel deals.

There are quite a few features that make this site stand out from the crowd. The first is the ability to filter the results of your initial search. Users can filter by price, star rating, hotel brand (i.e. Hilton, Marriott), amenities, or by miles away from certain landmarks or neighborhoods. The second is the different views in which the results can be displayed. There are three options, List View, Map View, and Photo View. The Map View can be particularly useful if you used the landmarks or neighborhoods filter, and are looking to stay in a very specific region of a city; and the Photo View helps to give you an idea of what the hotel and the rooms look like.

With so many websites out there selling or offering the same or similar services, it can be difficult to cut through the clutter to find a good deal. Traveling is no exception, but Kayak.com helps users to navigate through all the clutter to find the best deals.