Staying connected while on vacation is now a favorite part of online users vacation adventures. Whether you are lounging on a beach, participating in some extreme sports, walking, driving, eating, or chilling, social media does not take a vacation when you are!
Top 7 sites that you will want to stay connected to on vacation
With the ease of video, photo and text sharing, top social media travel sites must have the ability to share all media, videos, photos, and text. There may come a time when you can share smells that identify a vacation destination, like the grilled BBQ chicken in Tulum or a camp fire on the beach or the smell of the salt air when walking along the ocean. That company would rock if they could share smells across social media, but in the mean time the sites we have picked share only videos, photos and text. Alas…
Autoslash.com -find the best price for your car rental anywhere in the world. This site reserves your car through any car company and when the price drops for any reason, you are guaranteed that price break. So cool and will save you money. Get the best price no matter when you reserve your rental car.
Wanderfly.com – This company has just been purchased by Tripadvisor so if you are a Tripadvisor user already you will soon see the benefits of Wanderfly integrated into Tripadvisor. Wanderfly is a Pinterest type site but focuses solely on travel so you don’t have to search through thousands of boards looking for travel photos. Wanderfly acts like Pinterest, shares like Pinterest it is just more specific to travel. Find other people’s recomendations and see before you arrive. Share your photos and reco’s (as wanderlust calls them) and become a travel expert!
Momondo.com – Now this is smart. A bunch of young techies have put together an all in one travel search engine that will find you the deals on flights and car rentals. Keep in mind they do not have all options so if you don’t find the option that you are looking for go to Kayak.com for more deals.
Tripit.com – consolidate your travel information and get driving directions, flight gates, instructions, everything that a travel agent would provide for you but you drive it. The final product is a one page itinerary sheet with all your trip information in one spot
Tripadvisor – The go to site for any traveler that wants to plan their trip around guest recommendations. Tripadvisor has broken away from it parent company Expedia and is coming into its own with more social media integration, more photo and video upload options and yes more review options. They are savvy and they are smart and so are the people who use Tripadvisor.
Irrive.com – Scrap-booking has always been a favorite travelers pastime but there is so little time to actually put it together. Irrive does it for you, taking all of your social media posts and creating your own trip scrapbook. We have seen it in the works and it is pretty impressive! The kicker is, you still have to post on your other social media sites so Irrive can grab the content and make your scrap-book. When will someone make a social media site that takes your thoughts and just posts, oh maybe not…that may not be a great idea…
Virutaltourist.com – this is one of the oldest social media sites that act like a Facebook page and Tripadvisor. There is information posted by local residents and visitors so you get the entire experience. This is not as well populated as Tripadvisor but that means that you become an expert faster and easier than other social media sites.
Tripwolf.com – another fun social media travel site owned by the travel guide books Footprints, that is much like a Yelp site, with votes and reviews. Footprint guides were good in book form so check this out and see if it works for you. Integrates with other social media sites as well so you post on one site and share with others.
Vacation first, post second or you may miss your vacation
Your priority on your vacation should be, your vacation. There is nothing worse than being on a tour, walking around, driving in the car or just sitting on the beach and feel like you have been working all day….take a break from your social media during the day and upload your photos, comments and posts at the end of the day. Stay connected to your destination first, your travelling companion second and then your smartphone. If it is that you do not have wifi where you are traveling, take your photos and videos and then upload when you get back, and journal after the fact. It is not imperative that you upload your photos to social media that second, no one will really know the difference. But it is great to have a log of your travels at some point that easily be shared with all of your friends in one post. This is the greatest benefit of social media by far. No longer do you have to create slide shows, invites and a dinner or snacks to show your vacation photos….those days are over..and no longer do you need to receive phone calls from people asking about your opinion of X place or X place. If you post on social media, all you need to do is refer people to your Tripadvisor profile or your Tripwolf profile and they have all the information.
How are you planning you next vacation and is Tulum on your list? Check out Tulum, Mexico on all of these platforms and see what Tulum is all about. Then let us know where your next vacation will be.
