It's completely broken for me as of now. Does not pick up any of my travel mails, I can't create a trip, and it does not show any places for cities that I manually enter...
Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
81–90 of 92 posts
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#82While this app obviously has a few incredibly useful-looking features, am I the only one who feels travel is best done talking with locals ? Asking your hotel manager for recommendations - THAT'S how to travel well. See a slice of pizza that looks good? Go ASK the guy where he got it. Do we really believe we can Google/Yelp our way to a genuinely local experience? Or do we think that local experiences start with loca…
Locals are commonly a poor source of good information. I definitely wouldn't use them as an exclusive source. I make it a habit when going to the other side of town when running an errand to ask the teller where's a good place to grab lunch. More often than not they'll point to something like a Subway or KFC across the street. Their priorities are generally something quick and cheap. It's just too easy to live some p…
I don't think "ask the locals" resolves to "ask one local and listen to his opinion even if it is plainly bad."
Just like your app can offer a decent list, a single local will be able to as well. Ask 5 locals and you'll often find all of them name at least 1 or 2 of the same places.
Also, asking questions in order to receive helpful answers is a skill that takes practice. Other factors can also seriously affect the response you get, such as asking the question in English versus at least attempting to ask in the native tongue.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#83Going to try this out, but like a commentator on the Verge already mentioned, they should really have released it or beta-tested earlier-mid year since a lot of people backpack / travel during the summer.
Who cares about when they launch, I'm excited to find out when they shut it down!
This winter? Spring? I doubt it'll make it to next travel season.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#84You can't have a travel guide without an editorial voice. There's a huge gap in travel for tooling, and this is a really good addition, but that's not enough by itself. Lonely Planet et al haven't changed meaningfully since the internet was invented , but compare the amount of time people spend looking at a travel guide vs anything with advertising on it. The Priceline Group spent over 5B in 2015 marketing while all…
I think if this were true TripAdvisor would already have won. In my global travels TA has easily been the best resource for mountains of decent reviews and meaningful "top lists" from people like me. It's not even close, IMO. (Although country/ city specific subreddits can be pretty good too). I also don't actually book through TA and see no need to. I just hop on Kayak, whose interface, filters, map, best prices, ea…
TripAdvisor has awesome coverage, but their strength is their weakness. Filtering through user reviews for a dozen sights in a major city is a shit process. And like you mention, they don't bridge the gap from exciting destination to the steps getting there.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think if this were true TripAdvisor would already have won. In my global travels TA has easily been the best resource for mountains of decent reviews and meaningful "top lists" from people like me. It's not even close, IMO. (Although country/ city specific subreddits can be pretty good too). I also don't actually book through TA and see no need to. I just hop on Kayak, whose interface, filters, map, best prices, ea…
This. This is why travel is an insanely hard business. I've been an engineer in the travel business for almost 6 years now and this is a behavior I see constantly (and I am not saying it's bad, don't get me wrong). Often people think that if you create just the right product you will win both the usage and the booking funnels but it's almost impossible to change the behavior of people and the psychology behind the bo…
> This is why travel is an insanely hard business.
Ha, yes, it seems like there's always a travel start up failing.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#86Just another useless app limited to google+ users.
Foursquare and TripAdvisor have much wider audience
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#87this solves only 1 part of the problem. at least based on the video, it seems like you'd need to have the hotel and places pre-selected. that's not how it usually works for me. I find having to plan a trip with all the restaurants/hotels/bars to visit beforehand incredibly painful so prefer to just choose the major cities/towns, and explore them after getting there. I also prefer the advice of locals vs tourists that…
I travel similarly to you and solve that by going there, watching people and traffic flow, wandering aimlessly, and having a data plan. (I recently moved cell service to Google Fi and love it.)
some countries (like Japan) will also have a cheap wifi internet device you can rent. in Tokyo this was a few bucks a day
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#88While this app obviously has a few incredibly useful-looking features, am I the only one who feels travel is best done talking with locals ? Asking your hotel manager for recommendations - THAT'S how to travel well. See a slice of pizza that looks good? Go ASK the guy where he got it. Do we really believe we can Google/Yelp our way to a genuinely local experience? Or do we think that local experiences start with loca…
>>> Do we really believe we can Google/Yelp our way to a genuinely local experience?
Why not? I mean, the content is built by locals and tourists who visited the same places as you.
That said, there is some truth in what you're saying about talking to the locals, it's just that it's not always convenient or even accessible.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#89You can't have a travel guide without an editorial voice. There's a huge gap in travel for tooling, and this is a really good addition, but that's not enough by itself. Lonely Planet et al haven't changed meaningfully since the internet was invented , but compare the amount of time people spend looking at a travel guide vs anything with advertising on it. The Priceline Group spent over 5B in 2015 marketing while all…
I really like the superfuture guides ( http://superfuture.com/supershop ). They lean heavily towards shopping (and clothing in particular), but having read the ones for NY and Tokyo, they also have a whole heap of genuinely interesting places that something like a Lonely Planet doesn't have. With that said, their app experience is kind of fragmented and not that strong IMO. But worth a look if you're travelling to on…
I've not come across them before. Thanks. I'm a big fan of travelfish in SE Asia. Good to see another small guide company out there.
Re: Google Trips is a killer travel app for the modern tourist
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems like an allusion to seasonal hours and whatnot to me. AFAIK none of the travel POI apps account for aspects like that today. Aside: I got frustrated that none of them offer tracking brunch hours, so I made a one-page site for my city that has just that ( http://www.qcbrunch.com ). I'd like to do the same for kitchen hours at bars.
I like seeing local enthusiast pages like this. It would be nice to see a clear last updated date somewhere since most pages of this kind stop getting updated. I was able to see from the Github link that it is indeed being updated like your page says, but I'm not sure if everyone would understand the Github interface. Might just feel overwhelmed immediately? I could be wrong though! Thanks for reminding me that I'd l…
Yeah, you're totally right, that's what I really want.
Currently I just git push to GitHub Pages (without a local build process). I haven't figured out how to do get the deployment timestamp from that yet.