Trip Advisor Pill

After booking our fall vacation, DD#2 and I spent some of our wonderful evening on the deck scrolling some of the on-line tours of a few attractions and historical places in Washington DC.  I also did a "best of"search to see what would come up outside my own memory.  We have a few more ideas to fit in that might not have originally been front of mine.  This particular site we looked at was Trip Advisor. I've used them before to get input on prioritizing activities or deciding if a tourist attraction or hotel is worth the money. If I read a particular good review, but the overall rating is mediocre, I usually can see why experiences might have differed. We were looking at a couple of the Smithsonian museum sites, and started seeing a couple reviewers who had nothing but 1 or 2 (out of 5) to give out. Now I admit I am a little bit of a mid western bumpkin, and am naturally awe struck by big cities, and particularly big city museums, but these reviewers were down right cranky, particularly about the Air and Space Museum, one of my favorites. I clicked on one of the reviewers profiles, as apparently you can create a whole trip advisor persona and earn badges for your reviews, and found he had many other reviewed trips.  I didn't look further to find what a badge actually did for you.

This particularly blogger, I'll call him Patrick P, that is P as in pill, must have a hard time on his  travels because he has a disdain for just about anything found in big cities.  DD and I started making a game to find out what place he hated the most. We learned Patrick P really hates museums of any kind. While there were some valid statements and points on ethics, pretty much each review contained the words "uninspiring", "dreary setting",  and "bleak and depressing".  In his profile narrative, he stated he lived in London, a city he finds a true cultural wasteland.  He has given reviews in 22 countries, and so fortunate for us, he had equally insightful bashing throughout the world. He wasn't a fan of most European cities. The Piazza Navono in Rome was a tourist trap. The cable car up to the mountain peak in Lucerne was slow. The Eiffel Tower was nothing more than an ugly mass of steel and porta- potty's. I can't even begin to describe his loathing of East Coast American cities, though he did have good things to say about New Orleans, even though he needed to preach at whoever was reading about the appalling timeline for bringing the city back  to health after hurricane Katrina. Londoners will be happy to know Patrick P Pill has moved to South Africa now.

Travel sites can be useful to guide a vacation but have limitations. As in all forms of social and interactive media, the forums give a platform for anyone wishing to rant about their experience. I like to sort by date to ensure I get more current feedback, but seasonal variations should be consdered as well. It is also to good to read a couple bad reviews, even if the overall rating is high, to understand what red flags that reviewer might be raising. For example, one of the rants was because there was no proper food in the areas where the museum was located. If you know that in advance and you have kids that get cranky when hungry or a medical need to eat at certain times, pack a snack or plan to visit that particular venue  after a meal. Trip Advisor only does date or rating, but many hotel sites will let you search by location, family, business travel or leisure, to better gauge your experience. I would be interested to know if there are other sites that do ratings of attractions and events besides Trip Advisor as I haven't come across any others. There are guides to help start your planning such as Frommers and Travel and Leisure.  If I can find people I know who have gone to my travel destination, I like to pick their brain. What about you?  How do you  make the most of travel sites or reviews in planning your vacation or other special events? Do you too roll an eye at the people who can't seem to find anything worthy in a place?

 

 

I stumbled upon a real life travel site kimbriggs.com, with pictures he has taken from his travels. I was surprised to see my own travel hub, the Minneapolis-St Paul Airport, featured in his pictures. Well, I guess we do have the Mall of America. I think I would rather take my recommendations from Kim rather than Patrick.  Source: kimbriggs.com