What, Where, Where: Travel Blogs Overview

Summer is in full swing, but not everyone managed to get out on vacation. Information is a sea, and navigating on the go in it can be difficult.

Where to go, how to get a discounted ticket, book a hotel room, learn about the pitfalls of selected destinations from experienced travelers and just spend time with interest reading travel reports and looking at photos - wellcome to cat, read a comparative review of tourist social networks.

The survey were:

turometr.ru/
tourbina.ru/
tourout.ru/
flagatrip.ru/
geoid.ru/
tripster.ru/
venividi.ru/
yapiligrim.ru/

Geoid.ru

The main menu immediately reports on the riches of this resource: the number of cities and countries on the site, as well as reports, photos, facts and users who write about all this. I liked the list of popular countries - although five is still not enough, and the list of popular cities / places, too, would probably be useful.

However, the site is not rich in functionality - there are no useful bells and whistles like the ability to book a ticket / hotel on it. Its main service is the ability to read numerous photo reports.

Despite the fact that all posts are evaluated by the users themselves, the main topics are, nevertheless, displayed topics which are not “hardened” by users, but selected by the editorial staff. You can see the readers' choice by clicking on the “reports” link and selecting “popular”.

Registration on the site is simple and unbroken - you do not even need to enter a password twice. If you don’t add your photo right away, then instead of a stub you will be chased by a funny black man with fangs - I’ve never met a reason to upload at least some photo to your profile. He will chase you in the literal sense: a plate with the user menu, search line and bug report button and, in fact, the avatar always remains at the top of the page when scrolling, eating away a considerable part of the height of the screen. It’s easier to log out - especially since the die for unauthorized users is half as high, and there’s no way to collapse it or fasten it at the top of the page.

In the profile menu, the “send message” link next to my nickname pleased me. To whom - it is not clear, not to himself? Clicked, a text input field appeared - again, there is no recipient input field. I drive in a “blablabla”, click send and a red dash appears: “Why do you need to send a message to yourself?” Really.

Verdict: they are too smart, but you can read.

Turometr.ru

Smart as a Christmas tree, a site with a penguin in the logo. Penguin is an excellent totem for a tourism project, rich in various connotations. I personally associate it with Kinder Surprise, and you?

There are so many special effects in the form of pop-up layers that it seems as if you don’t click anywhere on the main mouse - something will pop up or open somewhere. Most of the useful links are hidden in such menus - presumably so as not to overload the page. In some places it’s very relevant, but in general the main one came out just a little overloaded. The apotheosis of meaningless prettiness - a pop-up menu at the bottom of the page, a la Mac or Sony Vaio.

At the same time, the “Turometer” functionally is the richest service in this review. In addition to the gentleman's set - booking air, train and hotel tickets, the site has announcements of hot tours with the possibility of ordering online, and information about events held by the site or with the support of the site - expeditions, quizzes, contests. By the way, the other day a quiz about Turkey ends , the prize of which is a ticket to Antalya for two. You can still have time.

For the rest, this is a normal blogging service with all the standard features for communication, exchange of information and making new connections. By the way, the site is made on the livestreet platform, so in some places it is almost a Habrahabr.

Registration on the "Turometer" is the most convenient, because, oddly enough, this is the only (!) Of all the sites in this review service that provides the ability to log in using OpenID.

Verdict: the richest and one of the most convenient services in the review, but too many unnecessary ruffles in the design.

Yapiligrim.ru

The reduction of PL in the favicon of this site causes associations with a resource of a completely different subject .

The main feature of the site is a map on which elephants, eiffel towers, balloons and other icons randomly appear, displaying, respectively, user reports about travel, attractions, events, as well as hotels, museums, where to eat, airports, railway and bus stations . Simply hovering over the cursor to understand what exactly is hiding behind this or that icon is not enough - you need to click, and then you will see an explanation and the author of the entry. I did not catch the principle of displaying the icons - in one of the combinations I got a link to the Beijing 2008 Olympics. In theory, past events should be somewhere in the archive, but oh well.

The site trusts its new users - firstly, you can create a community right away (there is even a special link to this in the user menu). Secondly, as elsewhere, there is also the opportunity to evaluate user entries. Only for some reason, voting is possible only from pages with lists of announcements of materials, and on the page of the article itself a rating is displayed without the possibility of voting - to change it, you need to return to the list page. Or rate articles in advance.

Verdict: a very boring site.

TourOut.ru

98th in Liveinternet ranking, statistics closed.

These guys on the site also have a map, only a small one, and also with their own chip - it shows the popularity of countries among users of the site. On the page with the same map there is a larger heading “Visited and planned to visit the countries of the Earth” - for those, apparently, who visits the site from somewhere from Alpha Centauri. Well, or just forgot what planet he woke up today. Where do the people in black look? Two scales displaying gradations of red and green with values ​​of divisions, which are only known to developers, are also from the same opera - maybe this is just a barcode like that?

The design of the site as a whole, however, does not look like an alien from another planet - rather, a guest from the past, but using the site, however, is quite convenient. The main feature is the ability to organize trips and look for fellow travelers, you can rob the corovans in this way to collect entire expeditions. Tyoma would have liked.

Despite the fact that the site positions itself as a “social network” and it even has blogs, there is almost no sociality in it: if you want to share your impressions with someone, then all you can do is upload photos by accompanying their brief note. It is impossible to put ratings on reports, add users to friends, and even comment on reports. Moreover, that you can’t find out only when you sign up: you can’t view photo reports to unregistered users - yes, you can’t. By the way, registration on TourAut is the most confused and this is the only site in this review that requires confirmation of registration by link in a letter, and after clicking on the link you will still need to click the "confirm registration" button - apparently so that you still have some an opportunity to change your mind.

Verdict: It would be a completely useless site and not a social network at all, if not for the opportunity to gather people for joint trips or join strangers. True, if Vkontakte suddenly adds to the creation of events the laying of routes on the map, then TourOut.ru will have problems.

Tourbina.ru

A site with the name “but it has the word tour” at first glance causes a slight cognitive dissonance: the header, logo and menu in the style of the forums of the beginning of the zero combines with quite fashionable ajax special effects and a full range of broadcasts - from Twitter to Yandex.Tape (the latter pleases especially, because unlike Yandex, who scored a bolt on his reader, I use it and so far I’m not going to change it to another service).

As in the case of TourOut.ru , some archaism of the site does not interfere with its use - on the contrary, after some time you begin to perceive the “unfashionable” design as a convenient and effective classic.

Everything is in order with the sociality on the site. There is, for example, the ability to export materials to LiveJournal, Li.ru, Ya.ru, as well as to share them in all popular services. Other users can be added to friends, bookmarks, and for good posts - in addition to the usual pluses - say "thank you."

There are no reading restrictions, but in order to rate and comment, please apply for registration (by the way, why doesn’t any travel site register in the style of registration for an airplane, for example?). Although it is much easier to register with Turbine - you don’t need to take off your shoes, you also need to go through customs - the requirements are limited to only a nickname, mail and a double password, after which you can immediately use the site without any restrictions.

Of the services provided, you can especially notice the convenient and informativehotel reservation service . Separately, you can pay attention to special projects to support the most interesting trips .

Site statistics is closed, but in vain. In my opinion, everything should be very good for them.

Verdict: blogging, hotel booking, usability - everything is very convenient.

flagatrip.ru

The site with the incomprehensible name “flagrip” is one of the most modest in terms of functionality resources in the review. The main service is blogs and photo reports. You cannot vote for posts, there are no opportunities for sharing posts either. Among the photos posted on the resource there are really interesting ones :) Of the additional social opportunities, there is only the opportunity to plan a trip and invite friends with you. Of course, this feature is only for registered users.

To register on the site, you need to follow the link in the registration confirmation letter.

Verdict: there is nothing on the site that would not be on other resources from this review.

Venividi.ru

77th in the rating of the internet among those travel sites that are not sick to put yourself a meter. At first glance, it’s a rather unpretentious site - at least it doesn’t strive to look glamorous-webdvannilny like most modern projects. I would even say more, but, looking at the logo originally from the 90s, I will not say anything. But then he has two chips at once, available even to unauthorized users.

The coolest is the IQ game , where you must answer questions about different countries and places, guessing them and marking the location on the map. Hit - points are awarded, missed - removed. The game is really addictive - the best timekiller for those who work at work, just do not work. Added this toy to bookmarks.

Another cool thing is a widget with the countries you have visited on the world map. Purely viral such a thing with the ability to insert into blogs, and also does not require registration for compilation.

Further more. The site can be completely safely used in the form of photo hosting, where images are " stored on the server without restrictions and are not deleted under any circumstances " (spelling of the original, yeah). And also - without registration. Why do they need this, given that on the download page there are no ads or links to other pages except the logo - I do not know, but the thing is very convenient. Also bookmarked.

From the actual useful for vacationers - search for airline tickets on the websites of airlines and a link to an affiliate service for comparing prices for hotels and airline tickets.

And yes, there are blogs, ratings, ratings and comments too. You can also comment and rate without registration. Actually, you only need to log in to Venividi to write your posts. Registration is simple and undefiled - once and done.

Verdict: Having registered, I no longer want to leave the site. Even despite the logo comes from the 90s.

Tripster.ru

“Tripster” - it probably should have been something like “hipster”, but my first association was a little different.

Despite the abundance of glamorous web-sites in the review, Tripster is the only site in this review that meets the user with a die at the top of the page with the text “Are you here for the first time?” Learn more about the project. ” And thank God that the only one is a feature as glamorous as useless.

The main feature of the site is the service of information on discounts on flights . Another feature is the question and answer service .

As for the social component of the site, its specialization is not reports on past trips, but preparation for the future. When planning a trip, the user can ask questions and view previous discussions on the chosen place, find out about discounts on airline tickets again. In this sense, the site pleases with an original idea, but the functionality of the resource could be richer - you can’t even dream about getting all the information you need in one place. So "Tripster" is rather an auxiliary resource for the traveler.

When registering, you must specify the city in which you visited. A good approach is if you haven’t been anywhere, then you can’t help the other participants in any way, which means you can count on their help too. The rest of the registration without troubles, it is not necessary to confirm the email.

After registration, new questions will appear on your site every two days in the mail. In the settings, you can both correct this frequency and unsubscribe from them altogether.

Registered users have access to “take-away bells and whistles” in the form of widgets and buttons for blogs with a map of your travels, as well as a drag-and-drop button for the bookmarks bar, with which you can even add information about the city you are interested in or your favorite attraction.

Verdict: a convenient site with clear tasks, it is worth having bookmarks just in case.

Total

As a result, of the eight sites in this review, I would recommend the following four as the most interesting: turometr.ru/ , tourbina.ru/ , tripster.ru/ and venividi.ru/ - in any order. “If you put Ivan Nikiforovich’s ears to Ivan Ivanovich’s nose ...” Each of these sites has its own advantages and disadvantages - but most importantly, each of them has some kind of chip that distinguishes them among other faceless "Portals" and "social networks", and makes them potentially interesting for users and readers. Which one is best for you - choose.