roni

Hey all, when I was on aol they had wonderful sites for message boards. When I got married in Las Vegas I spent about 3 months on the Las Vegas Message Boards, and believe me, by the time I got to Vegas, it was as if I was there a dozen times already from the knowledge I got from those boards.
Now I'm going to San Diego, but am not on aol anymore (thank god), can anyone tell me where I can find a site just for San Diego. Thanks, Roni

GOL

Roni,
Can you tell me more about AOLs travel message boards, please. Where there many people on? Was it a message board and/or a chat? What other cities or area? Was there a National Parks board? I recently found Fodors, and am always looking for more and/or better travel places... Thanks. [By the way, I have AOL but don't ever admit that in public]

susan

AOL does indeed have good travel message boards. They're broken down by countries/states and interests. You can access them by using the keyword "travel." Some boards are more active and informative than others.

roni

Exactly... aol was great for that. But, Fodors is good, but its just not centralized enough like aol was. That's why I'm looking for a more detailed message board regarding specific places of travel. Anyone out there know where to go, besides AOL?

bj

For someone who is not an AOL user, is it possible to still access their travel boards? How?? TIA for any information!

sara

GREAT QUESTION! I'd love to know, also!

Christina

I have an AOL account but don't use their travel boards as they have board monitors and censors who engage in sometimes very heavy-handed manipulation and participation on the boards; they exercise a lot of authority with very little oversight from AOL. Some people like that though; I find it childish myself. Some boards are better than others, that is true--it's like on Fodors, popular places have lots of people writing posts(ie, California) and others don't. It is ironic that AOL segments their boards into very small categories (ie, countries, cities, states) which I thought most people on Fodors hated given the recent uproar (well, that's what it seemed to me, at least on the Europe board). Anyway, a lot of AOL services are now available to anyone on the internet; I guess they figured they got more ad revenue or business from that rather than whatever cachet they got from stuff solely for members--interesting marketing dilemma. AOL as a company is smart about some things but not so smart about others, and these travel boards are rather difficult to find (even within AOL, as I recall) and not publicized, but I found out by accident one day they they are accessible on the internet and maintained there. The URL is: //aolsvc.travel.aol.com/travel/misc/travopin.jsp
If that does not work (and it does on my computer here, but I haven't tried it on my work machine without AOL), I am pretty positive you can get there thru their WEB AOL site where you can sign up for their Instant Messenger software and use it even if you are not an AOL customer, to message AOL people. That web site is simply www.aol.com; as I said, it is hard to find the travel message board info, I think you must type travel message boards or something like that in the search box, but the list of ALL the AOL message boards available online (and there are a LOT of them) is at this subdirectory URL: www.aol.com/community/boards/welcom.adp

It claims you must download their AIM instant message software to use the message boards, but it is harmless it seems (I've had it on my nonAOL machine for over a year with no harm) and you might even like it, who knows.

THANKS!

THANK YOU SO MUCH, CHRISTINA! The first URL you listed works! How nice to have another alternative! THanks, again!

ellen g

Christina and all, I have tried unsuccessfully to find the sites, can you please help me? I can pull up the home page, but can't access any of the individual boards. It looks great - HELP! TIA!!!

karen

I got in using:

http://aolsvc.travel.aol.com/travel/misc/travopin.jsp

Karen

Should have double checked before listing the address. I get the following message when I click any link there:


Not Found

The requested object does not exist on this server. The link you followed is either outdated,
inaccurate, or the server has been instructed not to let you have it. Please inform the site
administrator of the referring page.

ellen g

Karen, that's what happens to me. Can anybody out there help?! Please??!!!

TIA!!!

Christina

hmmmm.... well, I am at work now and tried the URLs here just for kicks, and they came up fine on my machine (just a local ISP, nothing special). I finally figured out when thinking about it why you probably need to install AOL IM software, which is that on AOL's boards of any kind, I have never seen a post from anyone "outside" AOL (ie, a sn with some other service at the end); this makes sense, so participate on AOL's boards you need an "AOL" screenname, which is essentially what the AIM software gives you when you install it, even though you do not have a regular AOL account. I did have one glitch when trying to access these boards which is when I clicked on the board name (like Europe) my AOL software got called up and wanted to log me into AOL rather than let me post on those boards while on my regular ISP. However, AOL can be very sneaky sometimes trying to override your other software (which is why they've had a lot of complaints) so I thought maybe it just looked to see if you had AOL on your machine, and if so, would try to start that; but if you do not have anything but AIM on your machine, it says on that web page you are allowed to post on their boards. Therefore, to those who cannot access the boards, I suggest you first download and install the AIM software as it may be looking for that, and then try again. The second URL I gave gives you (the Community Boards site) describes AOL boards and policies and this AIM thing better, so suggest you start there if you are having problems.

Sheila

If you go to http://www.travelocity.com they have message boards that can be limited to state, city, etc.
To Roni: for San Diego, you can go to travelocity's board at http://dest.travelocity.com/Communit...1034_D,00.html
I went to San Diego a couple of years ago and thought it was fabulous! They have the San Diego Zoo, Seaworld, and I would also recommend going to Coronado Island and Balboa Park. Hope you have as good a time there as I did!