My favorite was Lonely Planet’s forums. Unfortunately, they stopped supporting it, but it’s still available for searching to get some general information.

It's too much clicking for me to do this. I go to used bookstores and buy travel guides for a buck or two and read them. If they are printed within the last decade the general info is still relevant.

Culture trip website has a lot cool ideas

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will never use Rick Steeve again due to his outspoken support for marijuana industry.

I like Culture Trip.

I imagine the Rick Steve's tour bus is full of retirees vaping their medical marijuana. Suck it, PP.

But did they have a good trip?

Anonymous wrote:I will never use Rick Steeve again due to his outspoken support for marijuana industry.

I like Culture Trip.

I imagine the Rick Steve's tour bus is full of retirees vaping their medical marijuana. Suck it, PP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fodors Travel Talk plus TripAdvisor Forums as previously mentioned for broad coverage. You can ask ChatGPT for suggestions based on your criteria and then more in depth information is available through links with travel agent sites/travel & tourism sites in particular areas/YouTube.

Not OP, but I'm planning a trip to London and beyond this fall and ChatGPT gave me a LOT of bad information. Including several historic hotels that don't exist. Wasn't worth the time.

I find the best advice comes from people who live there and are solely dedicated to giving advice for that one location.

Love and London seems to give good advice.
I'm planning a trip to Rome and using Romewise.

The points guy actually has some decent reviews and I like how he classifies different hotels.

Cruise critic forums for specific ports can have some great recommendations for things to do in that area (not just for cruisers). Those people seem to spend their whole lives on vacation.

I also really like to check the Tauck tours and Disney Adventure tours detailed itineraries for a specific trip — it can give some really good ideas and also a vague sense of what’s reasonable to do in a day (keeping in mind the tours have people paid to do the mundane stuff like get your luggage so they can probably do more).

I will also just use my iPhone map a lot to figure out distances and drive times and then see what is near to what — it’s so handy. For instance, for the trip I am thinking about for this summer, I noticed there was a midsized city right between two other places I wanted to go. So I googled a bit and it seems like a great destination with lots of architecture and museums and the fanciest hotel there is a fraction of the price of the hotel in the capital city. It’s like discovering Pittsburgh.

I have also still checked Fodor’s, because I’m old.

I would like more blogs I would trust but it’s hard to find ones that aren’t just paid promoters. This is one that has lots of low key relatively affordable family trips:
https://www.inthebigpicture.com/

Tauck tours

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m currently reading through Rick Steves’ site for travel ideas but would like to explore other sites and books and going beyond Europe.

Currently, I would love more in depth Ireland, Scotland and England beyond London. Neolithic sites are a fav.

But also looking at a possible friend visiting tour that would take us from Frankfort, Berlin and Hannover in Germany, then to Prague and Budapest.
Provence is another love romp. - I liked ‘A Year in Provence’ as well as Carol Drinkwater’s books of buying and bringing back a house and olive grove.

Another trip is to Peru/Bolvia/Chili, but with a cousin who is an archeologist with a focus there and who will guide us around.

A little later, a New Zealand / Australia trip is planned. I’d love to find a trove of info on that trip too.

Google is crappy now
There is travel stuff literally everywhere on the internet, where have you been? Travel blogs, youtube channels, facebook groups, pinterest. I've never been to Rick Steeve's site and I have no trouble finding this stuff. Google is your friend.

I like to use Pinterest to find travel blogs. Also, adding "Blog" or "Review" after your google search term helps a ton.

Not OP, but every time I click on a travel blog from a Pinterest post I'm struck by how it feels like the post was written based on other internet blog posts -- and the person was probably not even really there.

NP.

I have a travel blog and I know exactly what you’re talking about. They’re all the same, they list out thing to do that they never did, they list out the “best” restaurants and places to stay - when you know they never stayed at all of them or ate at all of them and it drives me nuts. I don’t do this on my blog, but I know why they do it - affiliate links. I also am not afraid to say something negative about something I’m writing about. You just don’t see that on blogs anymore.

Pinterest is good for traffic for blogs because google wiped us off the face of the earth in favor of AI summaries, sponsored links, Reddit threads and Quora results

Naughty Nomad for a different take on things:
http://naughtynomad.com/

Anonymous wrote:I will never use Rick Steeve again due to his outspoken support for marijuana industry.

I like Culture Trip.

Oh for heaven's sake.

Anonymous wrote:Fodors Travel Talk plus TripAdvisor Forums as previously mentioned for broad coverage. You can ask ChatGPT for suggestions based on your criteria and then more in depth information is available through links with travel agent sites/travel & tourism sites in particular areas/YouTube.

Not OP, but I'm planning a trip to London and beyond this fall and ChatGPT gave me a LOT of bad information. Including several historic hotels that don't exist. Wasn't worth the time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m currently reading through Rick Steves’ site for travel ideas but would like to explore other sites and books and going beyond Europe.

Currently, I would love more in depth Ireland, Scotland and England beyond London. Neolithic sites are a fav.

But also looking at a possible friend visiting tour that would take us from Frankfort, Berlin and Hannover in Germany, then to Prague and Budapest.
Provence is another love romp. - I liked ‘A Year in Provence’ as well as Carol Drinkwater’s books of buying and bringing back a house and olive grove.

Another trip is to Peru/Bolvia/Chili, but with a cousin who is an archeologist with a focus there and who will guide us around.

A little later, a New Zealand / Australia trip is planned. I’d love to find a trove of info on that trip too.

Google is crappy now
There is travel stuff literally everywhere on the internet, where have you been? Travel blogs, youtube channels, facebook groups, pinterest. I've never been to Rick Steeve's site and I have no trouble finding this stuff. Google is your friend.

I like to use Pinterest to find travel blogs. Also, adding "Blog" or "Review" after your google search term helps a ton.

Not OP, but every time I click on a travel blog from a Pinterest post I'm struck by how it feels like the post was written based on other internet blog posts -- and the person was probably not even really there.

Fodors Travel Talk plus TripAdvisor Forums as previously mentioned for broad coverage. You can ask ChatGPT for suggestions based on your criteria and then more in depth information is available through links with travel agent sites/travel & tourism sites in particular areas/YouTube.

I will never use Rick Steeve again due to his outspoken support for marijuana industry.

I like Culture Trip.