Going to Australia anytime soon? Any backpacker planning a trip down under needs to use this site. BePacked.com is a very well designed & useful site dedicated to backpacking in Australia. Some of the site features: Create a MyBepacked travel blog, map of Australia, Forum, Essential’s List, and all the rest you’d expect.
All serious backpackers have known about this site for a while, 2camels.com is the only place you need to go to find out about festivals and events. Find out what’s going on and when, you can search by Country, Type, or Month. They have been around for as long as I can remember and they are still making updates. A pleasant rarity for the travel industry.
Like any good thing, the name of Itchy Feet Magazine pretty much describes the product. They write articles for those in need of travel inspiration. ItchyFeetMagazine.com does numerous things to make it worth your time. They cover all places, not just hot spots or cities. The articles are well informed from backpackers travels, all with self-taken photography…you will find photos that only those who have been there have seen. Overall, a great true, rustic magazine for travellers. Plus, they publish their 4 most current magazines online.
RoughGuides.com came out with this one late in 2007. The “Make the Most of Your Time on Earth” is really well designed and has a fun layout. It has 1000 different adventures. Plus some pages will talk about good books and movies from or about a specific region, which is a nice surprise. But don’t get it thinking you can plan an adventure using only this book. It is an “idea” book, not a detailed guide by any means. Travellers and backpackers would find it too big to pack anyway. So, if you need some inspiration, and want to hear of some good adventures you’ve most likely never heard of, it’s a good travel book.
I found this site wayfaring.com on a list by msnbc.com. It’s sort of a guide to the city by pointing out specific spots on google maps. Can’t really say it’s all that creative, although I do enjoy biking and eating out, so it comes in really handy for that. If I was travelling to a new city and wanted to see where locals favorite spots are, then I’d take a look for sure.
Initially I suspected this site to be very informative and interesting. I was a tad disapointed. AdventureCollection.com is a combination of 10 travel companies (tour operators) that pooled information into an interesting “find a trip that’s right for you” search site. It does have a few highlights. The design is solid, plenty of ideas if you don’t know exactly what you want, and a nice recipe section. It’s worth a look. However I, like many I know, pretty much despise tour operators. I’m a budget do it yourself backpacker.
Wallpaper City Guides are a bit different from the standard list as many places as you can fit in a book guides. They focus on one city, and they focus on the most fashionable, best designed in that city. If you’re not familiar with *Wallpaer, their whole site is about design. They just transfered that to their very attractive guidebooks.
You’ll probably here find a lot of these companies in the future, but this one is the pop one right now. Soundwalk provides walking audio tours of cities (mainly different parts of New York) for your mp3 device. By the way mp3 device just sounds so funny now post iPod age. The best thing about this company is that they are the most professional when it comes to providing a good walking tour. They don’t just sell you a link to download, they provide you with a city map of the area the tour is about. The downside…the cost - $19.95 from amazon seems high.
Perhaps my favorite guidebook provider has released a runoff travel book. Rough Guides 25 Ultimate Experience Books. In their own promo language it’s 25 years, 25 books, 25 experiences. I was able to check some out at the local college store and they were diversely entertaining. Full of great photography, they cover everything from specific countries to Food and Activities. The pocket sized guides are not so much about guiding as they are in great ideas and experiences. Many of those experiences are on our encounters list actually. They sell for $5.99 on their website.