What it's all about
I started this website because, despite the huge number of guidebooks, travel websites and forums out there, I still felt frustrated with the resources currently available to the independent-minded traveller.
A slightly longer rant about other websites
All right, so how is this website different?
The future - a network of like-minded travel websites
The guidebooks, in my opinion, have a frightening amount of influence, particularly "the Book" - I'm sure you'll know which one I mean... Hotels, restaurants and other businesses that get a good mention have it made (and often hike their prices or give up on decent service as a result), whereas other, perfectly good, businesses fail simply because they are not in it.
So much depends on what goes into the guidebooks, yet the authors don't actually stay or eat in many of the hotels, guesthouses or restaurants they are promoting or condemning to oblivion. Their whistlestop schedules hardly permit more than a flying visit to each place, yet these hastily-formed opinions guide millions of travellers.
Make no mistake, I use (and sometimes rely on) the guidebooks as much as the next person. They can be extremely useful, without a doubt, and I wouldn't have made it to half the places I've been without them. But we should be very wary of relying on them too much.
A slightly longer rant about other websites
Which brings me to websites. The internet provides an amazing opportunity for everyone to have their say, but the problem is when it comes to travel, hearing what everyone's got to say just leaves me confused. For me, half the fun of travel is in the anticipation and I love planning my trips - even if I'm going to wing it and book nothing in advance, I like to see what's there and what the possibilities are. If you're reading this website then you're probably the same!
The problem is that when I start researching places I want to go, all too often trawling the internet spoils my fun and makes me wonder if I should bother going at all. Why is this? Well, let's take a certain review website - the one that advises you on trips... Is it just me or is there always a negative rant in there somewhere about every single place?!
OK, so it provides a sense of balance, but I'm not buying a washing machine, I'm planning my exotic adventure, so I want to enjoy it! If I've just found my ideal place to stay, I don't want some miserable killjoy spoiling my fun just because they happened to be having a bad day when they stayed there and took personal offence at the hotel's failure to provide the right type of shower gel!
Another problem with this type of website is that you know nothing about the people writing the reviews - how experienced they are as travellers and the type of place they normally prefer to stay, for a start.
Someone who usually stays in shoestring backpacker dives might rave about a pretty ordinary mid-range hotel simply because it was the first place they stayed in two months with a hot shower. Meanwhile someone who normally does four-star package holidays might not be able to see past the patch of peeling paint or temperamental light fittings and give a damning review to a wonderfully quirky old place.
And finally, having worked in the travel industry, I know for a fact that many companies - tour operators, hotels and others - misuse such sites by writing 'reviews' posing as ordinary punters, both singing their own praises and slagging off their rivals.
While I'm on the subject of travel websites that spoil your fun, let's not forget travel forums. I would estimate that they are approximately 49% useful and 51% annoying. Why? Because there's always some smarty pants on there who has nothing better to do with his time than trash other people's ideas to make himself feel superior.
You asked a simple question about how to get a train from A to B but Mr Been-there-done-that has to put his oar in and inform you that you are in fact stupid to be even considering going to B in the first place because it's way too touristy/ boring/ expensive and you should be going to C instead (only reachable by 3 days on a bus and some extreme donkey riding) because it's, like, way more authentic. Never mind that you've only got two weeks of precious holiday and he's been bumming around here for months on parental handouts...
All this is not to say that there aren't already any good travel websites out there - of course there are. Travelfish is one excellent example (see links page for this and other good sites) ... but wait, don't abandon this site just yet! Even Travelfish has the same limitations as the guidebooks, in that authors don't actually stay in most of the places they review.
All right, so how is this website different?
1) Reviews are written by people who've stayed in the places they're writing about.
2) Quality not quantity: There is one good quality review for each place rather than lots to confuse you. The only time there will be more than one review for a place is if a second review is felt to add significantly to the original one. If a review is found to be misleading (i.e. there is feedback from others who disagree and can justify why), it will be replaced.
3) The only places that appear on the site are the ones that contributors would actually recommend. There are other sites where you can rant about the places you didn't like, but this isn't it. This site is for people who actually want to enjoy planning their trips.
4) Reviews are checked and edited for quality, so no wading through badly-spelt, incomprehensible waffle.
5) No anonymous contributors - read about the reviewers and decide for yourself if you want to trust their opinion.
The future - a network of like-minded travel websites
I started this website because it's the kind of resource I would like to have when planning my own travels. I know a little about Vietnam and want to share what I know with other travellers, in the hope that when I'm planning a trip elsewhere, someone else will share their knowledge in the same way.
I'd like to build up a collection of links to other small, quality websites with a similar ethos covering other countries worldwide. It would mean that if you've found this website helpful for your Vietnam trip, you could easily find a similar site to help plan your next one to, say, Mongolia. Between us, we could build a network of independent travel websites covering the whole globe.
