| 10 Recommended Products | Recommendations | Price | Last Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 Tripadvisor· · · | 15 | 0 | – | Apr 9, 2017 |
| #2 Lonely Planet· · · | 7 | 0 | – | May 22, 2016 |
| #3 Wikitravel· · · | 6 | 0 | – | Apr 16, 2016 |
| #4 gogobot· · · | 5 | 0 | – | Apr 16, 2016 |
| #5 TripExpert· · · | 5 | 0 | – | Apr 14, 2016 |
| #6 Couchsurfing.com· · · | 3 | 0 | – | Apr 12, 2016 |
Pro High quantity of reviews
Tripadvisor lists tour options for many of the available attractions. Many of the individual tours have lots of recent reviews so you can get a better idea of what the experience will be like.
Pro Good for food/restaurants
Tripadvisor will usually have the not-to-miss restaurants, even if they can end up being touristy. A good yelp equivalent in non-US countries.
Con Lack of trust in reviews
There is a lot of incentive for companies to post fake reviews in order to increase their ranking/visibility. Tripadvisor does very little to catch the false reviews, so it's hard to know what's authentic and what isn't.
Con Lots of sponsored content
Sponsored content such as sightseeing tours and hotels can clutter up the content users are actually searching for.
Pro Detailed overview of each destination
Lonely Planet provides plenty of information about the area It tells you about attractions and restaurants, provides a map, and links you to articles about the area. Under "Survival Guide", you can find information about transportation, the currency, and costs.
Con Limited exploration features
You can only explore destinations by continent. There are some interest categories that you can also check out, but they don't have a focus on specific destinations.
Pro Overview of the best/most popular attractions
Rather than give you a long list of all possible attractions, wikitravel lists only the most popular/must see spots. This saves you time when picking out quality attractions.
Pro Doesn't look like a marketing pitch
Wikitravel, true to the format of Wikipedia, doesn't have ads, and the content isn't worded in a way that makes readers feel like they're being pitched to go somewhere by a travel agency.
Pro Attractions are separated into a variety of categories
It's easy/quick to find the type of attractions that appeal to you most because of the way they are organized. "See", "Do", "Learn", "Buy" etc..
Con Limited pictures
There are very few pictures of the destination, with none (in most cases) of specific attractions. If you want to get an idea of what the attraction looks like, you'll need to find images on google or other sites.
Con Short descriptions
Descriptions of each attraction are often only a couple of sentences.
Pro Detailed information on each attraction
Along with having a photo gallery, each attraction has a small description, plenty of reviews and a map. The "Tribe" feature tells you what type of travelers enjoy that attraction the most (Outdoor Enthusiasts, Local Culture, Adventure Travelers etc.).
Pro Attractions have photo galleries
Each attraction has a photo gallery that any reviewer can add to. Many of the galleries are quite large with great pictures of the attraction, so you can get a good feel for whether or not it's something you're interested in.
Pro You can ask a question about your destination/attractions
gogobot has an "Ask a question" feature where you can inquire about your destination, and get answers from both locals and frequent travelers.
Con Website layout can be confusing at first
The website design is fairly crowded. With so many features available on the site, it can take some time to figure out how to navigate it.
Con Lists places that are out of business
Gogobot does not keep their lists of businesses and attractions up-to-date, so some of their listings are no longer in business.
Pro Trustworthy reviewers
Rather than accept reviews from anyone, TripExpert relies on reviews from selected experts and locals.
Pro Only quality attractions are shown
Rather than provide a long list of attractions, TripExperts only show the best attractions in a specific area based on expert reviews. This makes it much faster to find quality attractions, rather than searching through hundreds of less interesting options.
Con Only shows a few attractions for each destination
They take a "quality over quantity" approach, which results in a much smaller list of attractions than is available on many other similar sites.
Pro Gives you a chance to talk to locals
Group members are made up of both locals and travelers. Participating in the groups gives you a chance to ask locals questions and get insider information about the best spots.
Pro Very friendly, welcoming community
Most people on couchsurfing are very friendly and love to chat with others. Members are often very happy to help out with suggestions.
Con No feature specifically for finding attractions
Couchsurfing does not provide a list of available attractions in various locations. The only way to discover things to do on your trip is by chatting in the groups or by sending messages.
Pro Reservation system authenticates every reviewer
In order to write a review, you must have had gone the restaurant, and your review is marked with the exact date you went.
Pro Separates rating into food, service, and ambience
Allowing users to easily distinguish between fancy, but not so tasty restaurants, and vice versa.
Con Ratings tend to run high
The same restaurants will typically get between .5~1 points higher on open table, the audience usually gives between 4~5 stars as long as there weren't major flaws. This is partially do to the fact that service/ambiance plays a larger role in the ratings than other platforms. Since most restaur...
Con Photos are not in chronological order
They appear to be random.
Con Low price cutoff
$50 and over is the highest price rank, which doesn't help much when comparing prices at sit-down restaurants.
Pro Large collections of candid customer photos
Lets you know what the dishes actually look like, not what it looks with an Instagram filter on.
Pro Review keywords are helpful for menu must-orders
If enough people have posted reviews repeating the same key words (e.g. tiramisu), Yelp will highlight them. A good sign of something you should definitely order if it's your first time at the restaurant, or something that the restaurant does particularly well.
Pro Search filters allow a lot of customization
"Most Reviewed" for popular restaurants, "Highest Ratings" for well-received restaurants, use the # of reviews the popular restaurants as an anchor for had to evaluate the restaurants with the highest ratings. For example, if popular restaurants have ~1000 reviews, then well-rec...
Con Android app lacks certain features
The iOS app allows you to use all the filters of the desktop site, but users can't sort by most reviewed or highest rating on Android devices.
Con Best Match is rarely the best match
The best match is usually the result of some continuous feedback loop of recommending the same set of restaurants to people over and over again, instead of the best restaurants in the area.
Con Awkward photo presentation
They show from oldest to newest, even though the newest photos are more relevant. The desktop version of Yelp also has an old photo display system where you have to click to reveal each page of photos.
Pro Follow your friends
Everyone like to get their friends recommendations of their favorite restaurants and other places. Use the Posse app to follow all of your friends and other people that have good taste in places. Get the inside scoop of the hottest places with the best food from the people you trust the most, your...
Pro Large Network of Businesses
The Posse app has a large network of restaurants and other businesses in many large cities for you to find your favorites and hidden gems you may not have known about. Use the Posse database of places to choose a new favorite or find something you like when in a new town.
Pro Display and share your favorite places
The Posse app allows you to collect and display your favorite places, and lets you share those collections in a way your friends will enjoy. You can make different types of collections depending on your interests, if you are into seafood restaurants or want to give info on the best stores in your n...
Pro Gives the exact price
Instead of a some symbolic price range, the price for a typical meal is provided.
Con Smaller restaurant selection
Zagat mostly reviews sit-down, mainstream restaurants.
Con Not up to date
Post-Google acquisition, Zagat has been integrated into Google, but it's unclear where it's headed.
Con Confusing 30-point scale
With so many points to give, restaurants that fall below 24 all become questionable. Either that, or users are forced to convert it to a 5 point scale in their head, 24 = 4 stars, 18 = 3 stars, etc.
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