I’ve long wondered why there hasn’t been a comprehensive Travel Budget database of sorts with all the web app hype that’s come alive recently. Sadly, the developers of “2.0″ online travel apps have focused almost exclusively on social networks, “where i’ve been” and flight aggregation. Well, awesome. But really, an accurate, quick centralized database for travel prices and budgets has been a pipe dream of mine that I even failed at creating in Backpackability.com.

Sure, us backpackers and wannabees can sift through BootsnAll, Lonely Planet, and Trip Advisor for prices and then brag about how much time we spent [wasting] planning our trips, but why? Or better yet, we could definitely all order new copies of the recent Lonely Planet guides off of Amazon! not. that’s just silly.

I’m obviously not leaving you hanging with ranting post here shaming the big boys of travel for not developing a travel price database already. So Here comes BudgetYourTrip.com.

BudgetYourTrip is something of what I’ve described above. It’s a relatively new, but no soooo green, website that is alot of what I wanted to develop before I understood database powers. In their own words:

Estimate travel costs by country, city, and category. Use the Estimate Trip Costs search form to plan your expenses, or browse the list of countries. The trip expenses entered by other travelers help us calculate daily averages by location and category.

It’s straight forward, and a golden idea.  There’s no reason for me to sit around and talk about it anymore. Just check it out. Better yet, contribute!

Final Disclaimer This is NOT a paid post at all, surprisingly enough. I’m just a fan of truly helpful travel websites, unlike most of the gunk out there.

Bus travel is coming back. After the industry has declined for numerous years, the past few have seen a slight resurgence in bus travel which might be offering budget travelers a decent domestic travel option. But when it comes to booking buses, who honestly knows where to start when booking tickets? Neither Kayak, Vayama, nor Expedia tell me about buses.  And call me naive, but I have honestly only heard of Megabus and Greyhound. Compare that to our knowledge of airline carriers, and you get what I’m saying.

So, obviously, I’m going to give you the solution to the problem and tell you how to find low bus fares (and even compare prices!)

BusJunction.com

BusJunction is a bus fare aggregator that’s a self explanatory bus fare search brought to my attention by its founder in a buried email half a year ago which I just rediscovered. Like Kayak, it’s an aggregator, which is an important clarification because this means it is independent of the bus operators, thus offering you unbiased fares and information.

So, naturally, I’m partial to BusJunction (not even having used the service) and would recommend it. If my word doesn’t mean anything, Frommer himself hearts BusJunction in the HuffingtonPost, one of several high profile coverages the site received. The final kicker of BusJunction is its integration of Yelp, another site i’m a fan of.

GoToBus.com

GoToBus.com is the other, bigger and older bus fare search tool. The site features just Chinatown bus routes zig zagging across the US. While also super helpful, it engages in ticket partnerships with the bus companies for profit, thus potentially resulting in worse bus route and fare searches.

As a capitalist at heart, I love to see BusJunction’s emergence on the scene to give GoToBus a run for its money and help out the lowly bus travelers out there. Let’s hope that this increased bus travel trend continues so budget travelers aren’t left out to dry when attempting to travel on the cheap, and so I can feature fewer rants in posts on US budget travel.

Get on Twitter already. If you aren’t, everyone’s doing it. Your favorite online travel stars are all over twitter, so if you want some travel reminders, tips, commentary or deals in your home feed check out my list of top Travel Twitter -ers to follow for some saweet travel tweets. (more…)

Hello all. I have a few social networking updates to connect with me and BudgetGlobetrotting.

Twitter

I encourage everyone to start following Budget Globetrotting on Twitter since I finally got one. My new BudgetGlobetrotting account is Twitter.com/BudgetGlobetrot and Twitter is a great utility to stay up to date with friends and news sources your interested in. I’ll be posting relevant/interesting travel links, commentary, and links via the Twitter, and also be giving updates on blog posts, etc. So follow me, @ me (send me msgs), and watch for BudgetGlobetrotting’s future tweets. (you can follow me personally as well: read about me)

TravBuddy

I’m starting to get a little more into travbuddy as I’m solidifying travel plans, so at me as a friend. My username is nickobgt and profile can be viewed here: travbuddy.com/nickobgt

Facebook

Always open for Facebook as well. See about me if interested.

If not evident already, I love web 2.0, online travel networks, and I now bring you a review of GeckoGo. First off, GeckoGo is basically 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 planning…

First Impressions

First, according to the site:

“travel planning made friendly” and “the fun and easy way to find out where to go and what to do based on your specific interests”

As for my first impressions- they were okay - clean layout, easy to navigate, etc. A drawback is that you have to sign up right away before testing out the service, but sign up is pretty quick and easy fortunately. As a travel guide connoisseur, I quickly jumped to the map to read some country reviews, where I became really really impressed with how much content is already on the site. The major destinations (the Paris Travel Guide for example) have the typical paragraphs and pictures to give prospective travelers a general overview of the country - but where I was really impressed is in the comments on the guides by participating members. The travel community seems to be very active at GeckoGo due to the amount of comments that are already up. For a site to only be live for 2 months and have that much participation, I was impressed.

More Review…

But moving elsewhere in the site, users have the ability to contribute their own guides, build their personal profiles, and connect with other travelers by adding them as friends - sot it’s a true social travel network.

Finally, one of the more unique features is under the “answers” tab, which acts as a type of Yahoo answers for travel. Members can ask a question that will hopefully be answered by an expert, and are encouraged to help out answering as well obviously. Pretty nifty, and with an active community, definitely a feature to watch out for.

Conclusion:

While most of the review has showcased the average, expected, and good features, the site does have its drawbacks as well like everything. The main drawbacks are

1. the required, immediate sign up which is just kind of annoying. and

2. the guides aren’t as intuitive as they seem. most of the specific categories under a country on the left, like “natural environments” and “politics and economy,” are empty and have no added content yet.

However, I think the site is worth checking out. While the guides aren’t perfect yet, that’s expected with a new site. But if the community involvement keeps up as the site grows, that is honestly all that matters, and everything else will fall into place. So check out geckogo if you have any travel questions and are looking to connect with fellow travelers.

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.