Internet "Guides"

Now, back to the internet! Turns out it needs it's own entry, because it got too be too big.

TripAdvisor will get you reviews of hotels, hostels and guest houses that you will never find in a travel guide. (Not even Lonely Planet, which used to be renowned for this.) I found all three of our hotels for under $90 a night. In downtown Tokyo/Kyoto/Narita. In some rather good neighborhoods. It will help you find flights, car rentals and restaurants as well. When I went to Chicago in 2011, it helped me find a reasonable hotel for myself and three others, blocks from the Magnificent Mile . It also highly recommended the City Pass, which lead to checking more review sites, which in turn got us a wonderful deal. We got to visit all of the touristy things cheaply and cut lines! TripAdvisor also helped identify the best Giordonos. This trip went much better than the other times that I've just driven up and wandered around in a daze.

User reviews offer a broad range of POVs; you can read reviews from natives, citizens of other countries and people from your homeland. (The Google Chrome translation option can be very helpful here.) The user-age range is also rather broad. One such review helped me decide not to go to a certain gimmick restaurant because, without children along, it was actually rather over-priced and cheesy. (i.e. It's worth it when you have kids to entertain.) Another review, in Japanese, steered me away from a certain tourist trap in Kyoto where they dress you up to look like a Geiko/Maiko. A few natives were very disappointed in this studio and many tourists, as well. I also learned that on a certain long hike there are drink machines. The machines slowly increase in price as you climb the mountain! Good to know.

TripAdvisor also has forums where you can ask about restaurants, places of interest, travel dates and almost anything else and get feedback from real people who are likely not shilling for their place of business. Of course, there are many such forums - some are even for travelers with specific vacation goals, such as culinary tourism. ChowHound is a good example of this.

I've used Wikitravel for a variety of trips and it can be really hit-or-miss. Some of the entries don't flow well and display clumsy writing. However, you can find some good tips here too. Many of the entries for U.S. cities seem to be written by locals, which is nice.

Amazon is a great resource for getting guidebook reviews. Sometimes, based on these reviews, you can glean other information. Say a review says, "Guidebook did not include this awesome thing", you will now know about that awesome thing!

I have also, for the Japan trip, used Hyperdia. This site allows the user to view train schedules and plan routes. A friend recommended it and it seems indispensable.

Links:
http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page
http://www.tripadvisor.com/
http://www.hyperdia.com/en/
http://chowhound.chow.com/boards
http://www.japan-guide.com/


So you have something to look at, I will end this with a picture of myself and the husband on the scary, scary Sears Willis Tower SkyDeck. CityPass allowed us to skip a 2 hour line and go to the top after only 30 minutes! This is also another example of my philosophy to face fears for certain experiences. We were both absolutely terrified.

Sears Willis SkyDeck

*Vanity Note: That's my normal hair color. In the Costa Rica pictures I have the remnants of a dye job gone terribly wrong. <_>