Hi people,
I've organised many of my travels before mainly using advice from friends and travel agents. I've recently been tipped off on the huge resources available online and am really interested to know if you think the tips from people on these sites are more helpful/genuine than those from travel agents?
Thanks for your help.
Sarah 😊
Reply to this Hi Sarah,
Welcome to TravelBlog.
I think the real value in getting advice from genuine travelers through sites like TB is that proof of the validity of their advice is usually only a click away - in their blog entries. Also, it is usually objective.
I know some travel agents go on paid trips to check out destinations, but I guess most of them would just stay in pre-chosen hotels. Few probably stay in hostels or visit out-of-the-way places.
(Absolutely no offense intended to those who consider themselves 'glampackers'/whatever name is relevant)
Although I might check flights and visa info with a travel agent, give me online travel forums for the rest of the info any day.
Reply to this Hello Sarah
Welcome to the forum! I prefer the reviews of people on the travel sites - mainly because there are usually many of them on each hotel/attraction, so you get a diversity of views. However, I am wary of 'fake recommendations' (that is someone recommending a hotel that they own) but if there are many reviews, any fake ones will make a minimal difference. Also, I like sites where travellers can post their own photos - especially with hotels - as you tend to see how the place really looks, instead of the hotel photos which only display the best room with mood lighting.
I also sometimes rely on reviews from friends, as they tend to know your taste in travel. For example, I usually steer away from beach destinations, so my friends never recommend any to me, whereas they know my love for historical sites, so they tend to inform me of their favourites.
Reply to this Hi,
Thanks for your replies Jo and Shane! Can you tell me how i should use these reviews? I mean, should i book holidays with sites that have reviews on their own sites> -are they more reliable? Should i look for specific company advice (on airlines or hotels that have been good)or just get general information (things to do)?
How should i use the advice i find to actually go ahead and book?
Thanks 😊
Sarah
Reply to this I'm sceptical of reviews on a business' own site - they are usually heavily censored.
I'd do the homework, then you can always book directly on the site of the business(es) you've chosen.
If you're looking for advice/suggestions on a particular location, try posting questions in the relevant forum here on TB.
Reply to this I think it all depends on what you are looking for. Travel agents are good for package deals, charter flights and these kind of things, but they are not that good for independent travels.
There are of course also the agents who are specialised in adventure tours and all that, kind of a mix between the package deal and independent traveling...
Anyway, I would suggest to look around the different sights for information about your intended destination, ask questions on forums and perhaps buy a guide book or so about the destination. After that you can always go to a travel agent, but you will know a lot more and be able to ask the right questions and find out if they actually know what they are talking about. Also I would suggest looking at the blogs of the people who have been to the destination you want to go to and perhaps send them a private message if you have any questions. I have got quite a few private messages from people asking about somewhere I have been or just general advice and I always try to help as best I can.
I'd look for general advice first then you can always get more specific afterwards...
Reply to this travel agents are probably more helpful with the logistical matters. reviews from friends or whoever has been there are more useful in helping you decide whether a particular destination or sight is 'worth' going or seeing. then again, you've got to take them with a pinch (or fistful) of salt. after all, one man's meat is another man's poison.
Reply to this Hi guys,
Thanks for your tips! So i will use your advice and look for destination and activity info here. Where do you find recommedations for where to actually book flights, accom, activities etc?
Cheers 😊
Reply to this A good place to start is the relevant forum for your destination(s). Have you decided where you're going yet?
Reply to this If you are looking for flights, you can just Google, cheap tickets or something and hundreds of sites will pop up... Much used sites for tickets are expedia, kayak, orbitz, kelkoo... But there are many more... Many of them also have accomodation booking services and possibly reviews...
The Lonely Planet website is also a good place for up to date information. It has reviews on hostels/hotels, you can book accomodation, look at reviews, they have a booking service for adventure, flights, holiday packages, activities etc... etc...
Then you have the Thorntree Forum where people can ask questions, much like this one... Though I am no fan of their Thorntree forum because there are too many people who just seem to use the forum to bitch about other peoples questions, it is still a good place for information, if you can sift through the bullshit. It's not a very good place for asking questions though as you have a big chance of somebody telling you how stupid you are for asking that question instead of actually answering it...
Other places with reviews on hostels/hotels are sites like hostelworld.com or hostels.com, where you can also book rooms, they are more specific for hostels though and limited in the amount of countries they have on the system...
That should help you along a little bit... Have fun looking around!
Reply to this I agree that whether you should use a travel agent depends on what type of holiday or flight you want to book. In my opinion a good independent travel agent is great for most trips but the trick is finding a good travel agent who knows something about the area you want to go to. Travel agents go on educational trips to many destinations, they look at various hotels and they also get to see the area and are given knowledge by experts on that area. All this knowledge comes in very useful when a customer makes an enquiry about that area. I find that review sites can be very confusing because you ofton get conflicting reviews because very few hotels are 100% bad. Review sites need to be used alongside traditional information like brochures, travel agents and professionally written travel material.
Some online travel agents have customer reviews on their sites which can be useful if its a niche area. I am looking for a holiday to Goa at the moment and I came across www.discovergoa.co.uk which is a site that sells holidays and also features reviews of Goa hotels. This site had a mixture of reviews some poor and some good on the hotels featured on the site so it's not true that all travel sites only show good reviews. The Thomson holiday site also features reviews from I think Trip advisor so a lot of the information our there is now being featured on travel sites as they attempt to become unbiased travel portals. Having said that there are also a lot of sites that just want to sell you a holiday regardless !
Reply to this 
