Taking off Travel blog

Old movies, novels and biographies often showcase the adventure of travel – the sense of mystery and exploring the unknown that used to be a part of every trip. Way back when, boarding a plane or a ship was something extraordinary, something that only a small percentage of the population did. These days the mechanics of travel can be more mundane, but that’s no reason that it has to be boring. Try these tips to inject some zest into your next trip.

A Chance Destination

Instead of planning your trip a year or two ahead (which admittedly, you might need to do sometimes), try picking a random destination with a pin in a map or a flip of a coin. If that’s a bit too random, then go to a last minute travel site and see where you can go from your local airport. The only rule is, it has to be somewhere that you haven’t visited before.

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Today, I’m reviewing trip planning site, Duffel, testing it with a planned trip to Las Vegas next year. Here’s what its creators say:

Duffel is not only a place where you can collaboratively store, organize and archive all these travel ideas and trips, but you can also use them to compile your own itineraries that go hand-in-hand with your favorite travel guidebook.

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GoPlanit offers instant trip planning. Just type in your destination and you get a selection of activities, dining, lodging and flight options that you  can choose from and add to your itinerary. It’s a great way to get a snapshot of what’s available in a particular area, though some areas are better represented than others. For example, I plugged in Hollywood, Florida as a destination and got a handful of activity suggestions, a couple of dining options and not much else.

Creating An Itinerary

Create an itinerary for a major city (San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta or San Diego) and GoPlanit really comes into its own. Start by putting in the start and end dates for your trip, hit the Plan It button and you get an instant itinerary with a range of well spaced activities for each day. You can fill in the gaps if you wish with other activities you want to do. Read more »