Comments on: 5 Reasons Wiki Travel Guides Are Better Than Guidebooks

By: Emma

Emma — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 07:26:52 +0000

Hi everyone,

If you’re interested in newcomers on the travel 2.0 scene please do check out iloho – http://www.iloho.com/ which launched last month.

It’s a travel-centric online community focusing on user-generated news stories, social networking and route reviews. Iloho’s content is generated wholly by the users; they choose, create and rate every single story and review.

It’d be great to hear what you think of it!

Thanks

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By: Peter Daams

Peter Daams — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 03:07:47 +0000

Hi Harry, I’ve also put some effort into the Solomons article on Travellerspoint.. Having lived there when I was younger, it is a topic of interest to me. I had trouble finding much information either. I’ll have a closer look at the guide you created to glean some extra information

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By: Harry Greenwell

Harry Greenwell — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 05:36:14 +0000

Interesting stuff – some friends and I recently created a wiki travel guide for Solomons Islands (www.exploringsolomons.wikispaces.com) out of frustration with the extremely limited coverage in Lonely Planet and other guidebooks. Our aim was to fill a niche that guidebooks would be unlikely to cover for some yet – information about adventuring in a remote but beautiful part of the world.

Naively, I hadn’t realised there were already more sophisticated wikis dedicated to the same goal. If I get time, I’ll check them out and consider trying to integrate our with theirs. If, by chance, any of your readers would like to assist, my contact details etc are all available on the Wiki.

Thanks for your article.

Cheers,
Harry Greenwell
(Canberra, Australia)

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By: Evan Prodromou

Evan Prodromou — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 20:20:02 +0000

Hey, Eric. Great list of pluses about Wikitravel!

One that I noticed that you forgot to mention is that it’s Free Content — available under a Creative Commons license, so it can be freely copied to other Web sites, to printouts for wedding planners or B&B owners, or even for printed guidebooks. I think Open Content is what makes Wikitravel important.

The Slate article’s complaints about Wikitravel’s lack of accommodation listings was based on the author’s mistake in navigating our site. He was reading our “summary” page on Bangkok and thought we had no listings for Bangkok; we actually have hundreds of Bangkok hotel listings in the different neighborhood pages.

There are plenty of hotel listings on Wikitravel, as a cursory review will show. Some were added by Tim Wu, the Slate author, who updated Wikitravel when he got home from his trip!

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By: nomad4ever

nomad4ever — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 17:05:45 +0000

I must admit that after all those years I’m still a fan of Lonely Planet’s. Plenty of information in a compact format. If you happen to be first time in a country, nothing beats that LP feeling. Haha!

Of course, Google is your friend as well, Travel Sites are popping up left and right and the best last minute information you can only find online…

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By: Enrico

Enrico — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:18:09 +0000

Yes i agree with you but for wikitravel has a terrible lack…i live in Sicily (i’m a local) and i’ve found that most of the contents written about Sicily are incorrect…

It’s beautiful to share user knowledge but…

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By: Jacqueline

Jacqueline — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:18:14 +0000

I find that wikis are good for research and paper guidebooks are good for the actual trip – you can’t always find an internet connection and a workable power source even if you do bring a laptop with you!

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By: ian mackenzie

ian mackenzie — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:16:42 +0000

hey everyone – good points all around! it appears the big loss for most people is the ability to curl up with a good guidebook without the need of a computer. perhaps someday soon, when they introduce nano-paper or something similarly futurisitic, we’ll be able to curl with a wiki…

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By: Gene

Gene — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:11:59 +0000

Some really good points you make. Personal experiences do count and yes there are as many opinions as there are people. Perhaps there is room for all and more.

Thanks!

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By: robmeyer

robmeyer — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 18:10:53 +0000

Wiki’s are great, but I have to defend the convenience of a Guidebook. I understand that many travelers think it takes away from the adventure, don’t agree with the reviews, etc… But for me, I like being able to get off a 12 hour bus or train ride, and be able to pull out my guidebook and know exactly where to find a clean hostel to leave my stuff, and a nice cafe where I can get something to eat. Just me though!

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