After our first two trips, I've been spending a lot of time thinking about the resources available for information while traveling and am curious to hear from those of you who have been doing this for a while.On our trips, we tended to default to Yelp for some things like places to eat and shop, but I realized that I ended up going off recommendations from the locals we talked to more often than by what I read on reviews.For other things, like activities, I found the resources pretty limited, or difficult to find unless you already knew where to look...So this brings me to my question:What resources do you use to find information about a place you are visiting, and if there was a service (or app) that allowed you to connect to locals and ask questions based on food interests or activities (hiking, biking, fishing, photography, for example), would you be inclined to use it over the more traditional resources (review sites, forums/discussion boards), or is there a similar service already out there that I just haven't come across?Thanks for your input, I'm interested for future trip planning, as well as gauging interest level in something like this within the traveling community.

We our very low tech folks.....didn't even have a computer or cell phones until we went FTDestinations....."That a way"Stay a week and then move onAfter setting up we would go find a local 'watering hole' and strike up a conversation with the locals.They would give us tips/info on where to go, what to see, where to eat and MORE importantly what was a big waste of time/moniesFor 7 yrs it worked GREAT for us.......Plain ole face to face conversations!

I use books and the Great and Powerful Google! Check out various publications from the Church's.Google has a local guide program where folks from the area are encouraged to describe and document local attractions and restaurants. Problem I've found it's still in it's infancy. High traffic areas have an overwhelming amount of reviews making it hard to separate wheat from chaff. While less popular areas have very little information.

Thanks for your reply, you've said exactly what I was thinking, and that's often what I prefer to do.Being of the generation that is never without my phone, though, I of course started to look for an app that could emulate this experience and help find the locals that were best suited to give the advice we were looking for...what if the best tip just walked out the bar 5 minutes before you got there?I missed my chance to be literate enough with computers to build something like this myself, but I've been thinking a lot about whether or not something like this would be a feasible project, and wanted to get some feedback first.I appreciate you taking the time to reply,-RyanOld-Biscuit wrote:We our very low tech folks.....didn't even have a computer or cell phones until we went FTDestinations....."That a way"Stay a week and then move onAfter setting up we would go find a local 'watering hole' and strike up a conversation with the locals.They would give us tips/info on where to go, what to see, where to eat and MORE importantly what was a big waste of time/moniesFor 7 yrs it worked GREAT for us.......Plain ole face to face conversations!

Thanks for your input.I have the same issues with the standard review sites...just because there's 10,000 reviews for a place doesn't mean a whole lot to me, there's no way to tell who's reviewing and what their motivation might have been.And when it comes to anything besides just food or shopping, there's often little to no info and/or what info is there may or may not be accurate and up to date.GordonThree wrote:I use books and the Great and Powerful Google! Check out various publications from the Church's.Google has a local guide program where folks from the area are encouraged to describe and document local attractions and restaurants. Problem I've found it's still in it's infancy. High traffic areas have an overwhelming amount of reviews making it hard to separate wheat from chaff. While less popular areas have very little information.

Right here is also a good resource.Further in this forum are sub-forums."RV Parks, Campgrounds, and Attractions" is a good place to ask questions or, if you know an answer to a question, to post it. Lots of folks do this. As one of the "locals", if someone has a question about my neck of the woods, or further afield for that matter, I try to offer whatever answers I can provide. There's also "Roads and Routes" here as well. Same thing as above. Detailed information on the best way(s) to get from point A to point B and maybe some deviations as well. In addition to exchanges of information and insider details, I've received PMs from folks asking even more details questions, and again, as a "local" I try to give the query as much detailed response as I can. I'm not alone in this. There's lots of really good folks here with a lot of really good information. I have yet to see any location in these United States that someone on here has NOT been to, or knows something about. So...go there. Ask questions! I assure you, you'll get informed responses from "locals".

Where do get your destination information? | Good Sam Community

Veebyes
Explorer II
Dec 09, 2017
Travelling must have been a real adventure before Al Gore gave us the internet. Now if we get out of cell phone coverage we panic.
bikendan
Explorer
Dec 09, 2017
I still have AAA state books and campground books, along with their maps.
clikrf8
Explorer
Dec 11, 2017
I have a loose itinerary in mind know that serendipity can lead us in a different direction. First, I study my Benchmark atlases of each state for POIs, BLM, USFS and State campgrounds and roads. Then, I look to a few books based on our interests like Rockhounding and photography like Laurent Martre’s series on photographing the western states. I also check out scenic places on Flickr and professional photogs websites along with photo tours.

I probably have every Campground app, gps and Topo map apps and other travel apps there are. They help to plan our trips, too. On the Avenza app, I download the state map then add a waymark, info and a photo. On the road, I add my own comments and photos.

And, ask the locals, rangers, ranchers, hunters, fishers, other folks out there. And, we stop at every historic marker and info kiosk.
jplante4
Explorer II
Dec 11, 2017
Veebyes wrote:
Travelling must have been a real adventure before Al Gore gave us the internet. Now if we get out of cell phone coverage we panic.

I was always a "winging it" type. I think that's part of the fun.

I also like to have my lifelong traveling companion with me, and she follows along with her finger on the map and watching TomTom for time to go after planning the route for 2 days prior to leaving.
Rock_Wells
Explorer
Dec 11, 2017
We use a loose combination of Tha AAA guides, this forum, and the internet.

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