Top 10 Travel Social Networks and Communities
social networks are more powerful than ever and web 2.0 has brought us tons of social networks available to travelers exclusively. While most of them generally have the same, overlapping features, their functionality, community, users, and feel vary pretty greatly. So here are the top travel social networks and travel communities available online today.
Newer Blood
There are a bunch of very new, not so established travel social networks, some that even just opened up to the public in beta.
 |
Dopplr - This sleek, very web 2.0 site has a large variety of features. It’s very easy to navigate, and lets users create trip itineraries and find travel tips created by other travelers. You can share your trips with others and find connections. Most importantly, Dopplr is all about integrating other popular services you already use into the site, like Twitter, Facebook, Calendars, and Flickr photos so it meshes well with your online lifestyle. |
 |
Trip Wolf - This very new social travel community just launched July 2008. I like this site because of it’s personal nature, and it reminds me of a Facebook for travel because of its “friends” and “travelers” features. TripWolf’s “travelers” allows you to find “gurus” of destinations who can help you plan your trip, so it’s personal nature is a huge plus. Since it is brand new, it’s not as full as most other sites, but in time TripWolf can be great. |
 |
Trip Say - Trip Say is still in beta invite only, so it is very new as well. This travel social network reminds me of Digg.com and is big on social voting (thumbs up, thumbs down, etc) and quick tips/comments on destinations. It is very easy to navigate, guide-like site with many integrated features like photos, nearby destinations, maps, groups, and links outgoing to more comprehensive guides on a destination. |
 |
Trip Hub - Trip Hub is a social travel site that takes on a little different focus. Trip Hub is centered around groups planning trips together. It’s arguably the best group trip planning tool and website that allows users to invite travelers, share itineraries, map out their plans, and create travel blogs. |
 |
Driftr - Similar to TripWolf, Driftr is a Facebook-esque travel social network site that lets people have friends, create profiles and trips, and research others’ trips. For your tirps, you can share photos, and tips on where to eat, what to do, etc. It has a slightly cleaner, less cluttered design which is awesome and easy to navigate and use. Unfortunately, it’s still very new and small, but with a few thousand more users Driftr could be great. |
 |
World66 - World66 is a travel community that is more based on travel articles and guides rather than actual networking with others. The site has some new forums which aren’t too active yet, and also has new blogs and gallery features. |
Old Timers
Several older travel networks and communities don’t quite fall under the “2.0″ category because of their age and designs. But, they are still very very useful and have much more content than the new blood sites, which might be the most important thing anyways.
 |
Virtual Tourist - Virtual tourist is the web’s largest travel community and social network. With over a million members, there are member tips, guides, and photos on literally every place on earth. It has a sort of archaic, but functional, design but makes up for it with it’s massive amount of relevant, helpful travel facts, guides, and tips, as well as forums. |
 |
BootsnAll - BudgetGlobetrotting’s favorite travel forums by far. This comprehensive travel community revolves around the message boards, where forums are loaded with great guides and tips that come from the best user base around. The users and community is very friendly and helpful, and contacting individual travelers with questions is a great solution to answer your travel questions. |
 |
Lonely Planet Thorn Tree - Publishing giant lonely planet has the second best forums and community online. The boards are very active and busy just like Bootsnall, and there’s a lot of helpful information on different travel destinations worldwide to assist you in your travel planning. |
 |
Trip Advisor - This age old travel site got an updated 2.0 look and feeling, but is not one of my favorite travel communities. It’s focused around free travel guides and information, but lacks a sense of community with other members. |
[...] Top 10 Travel Social Networks and Communities By Nick While most of them generally have the same, overlapping features, their functionality, community, users, and feel vary pretty greatly. So here are the top travel social networks and travel communities available online today. … Budget Globetrotting - http://www.budgetglobetrotting.com [...]
We have a newer blood travel web 2.0, http://www.OurExplorer.com. It's a platform for individual tourist guides and travelers around the world. The feature is to book a personal tour guide online, and after the trip, give rating and comments for other traveler's reference.
There's a new network of cityblogs in Europe - SPOTTED BY LOCALS.
Spotted by Locals is a series of cityblogs, all writted by locals.
The authors, “Spotters”, are all selected after a face to face meeting in their city. This way Spotters are knowledgeable and really write out of passion for their city.
"Experience cities like a local"
[...] - Why your company needs to be on facebook? by Charlene Li from Harvard publishing (I deliberately choose this article, not only because it’s from Harvard publication, but because it’s full of pragmatism). I definitely like this quote “..ignore these new communities only if you believe your customers are not there“… Are tourists in those social networks? My answer is YES (fr), definitely YES (fr). (Charlene Li is a Vice President and Principal Analyst at Forrester Research. ). This article is about facebook, but there’s a lot of social networks for your tourism business around [...]
[...] a brand new travel recommendation and planning network, or ‘new blood’ according to my top ten travel social networks. So now Budget Globetrotting’s take on GeckoGo’s travel [...]
Hi,
There is also http://www.TrekCafe.com - a new social network for backpacking, adventure and low budget travel
Regards,
Rog
No one has mentioned yet this one? http://www.MisterContact.com
Travelbeen (http://www.travelbeen.com) is also a new travel website which is collating and indexing thousands of travel websites. You can search across them all and bookmark them into trip folders and easily see which are popular. Launched in Nov 08 and still in beta mode.
I'm amazed that WAYN.com with 10,000,000+ members didn't make it to your list.
Harris
(not affiliated, barely a user, of WAYN)
I found Trip Wolf a good networking site for travel related information. I had also found that lonely planet has very good forums and community online.
shocked that WAYN which seems the only worthy social netwrk for travel didn't make it to your list, whci actually acomodates just ideas
I found many of these useful but XploreU.com, which is still in beta, has been the best I've found so far for connecting with people. It presents a lot of great opportunities to meet new people and has a nifty points system you can use to buy stuff or donate (well when it's out of beta you can).
In my opinion Dopplr is best. What You think?
[...] solo en las redes sociales y siguiendo un artículo de Budget Globetrotting listaremos las 10 mejores redes sociales para viajeros, según ellos, sin seguir ningún orden preferente por nuestra [...]
Hi guys, we are almost ready to launch our travelling social network called Tips And Trip: http://www.tipsandtrip.com
What do you think? Thank you
hey guys,
I know this is an old topic, but may I remember you here is missing one of the largest european travel community: http://www.trivago.com or at least one of the 20 international plattforms of the group? trivago was born in Germany in 2005 and has developped widely his business internationally over the last pass 4 year. Today have been recognizes as one of the best hotel metasearch (50 booking agencies integrated), besides that a strong international travel community partecipate in a 2.0 travel project in gathering travel infos. they exchange first-hand travel information about hotel, destinations, attractions in order to create the most comprehensive Tourist guide and help other people in planning their holidays. Would like to know what do you think about, leave comment if you like. Me personally, I still like Doppl and Lonely planet:-)
[...] estás buscando redes sociales de viajes, hay un artículo de budgetglobetrotting donde habla de 10 redes sociales de viajes, además de las 10 que trata, en los comentarios al [...]
[...] link sul sito a nessun network di commenti di turisti, né delicious, né tripwolf, nessuno dei travel social network che potrebbero aiutare il turista (sia esso leisure o business) nella sua scelta (ovviamente [...]
Do you know of any social network for medical practitioners who travel a lot?
Here's a new resource we just set up called http://www.budgetyourtrip.com. It lets you plan and track your travel costs. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.
I agree, WAYN and Travbuddy.com should have at least made it to the list! But http://www.biziker.com is also worth mentioning as it's a travel social network specially made for business travellers worldwide! You can interact and meet business professionals wherever you are by attending specially arranged dinners by Biziker. It also provides a search engine for business venues and events happening around the globe which is being updated daily..