As a large consumer of the travel sections of newspapers,I frequently come across features about the 'best' travel boards (ie Sunday Times 15.3.08 on travel networking). I never read this Forum recommended, and yet the ones listed seem poor in comparison. Am I being too biased and are there travel sites that other people enjoy as much?

Nope.

Steve lives in Britain, and therefore presumably reads mostly British papers.

And that's the simple explanation. To British newspaper columnists, Fodors is about as uncool as it's possible to imagine. It ticks practically every box for uncool you can think of.

I don't think anything a journalist writes in those kinds of articles is unbiased or comprehensive. Often, they are really referring to different kind of sites, also, not just forums. I don't know what paper you are referring to as there are so many Times newspapers, but sometimes the articles really isn't about the "best" travel board but something else. LIke when you said that article was really about "travel networking", I don't even know what that means. It sounds like ways to find people in other countries when you travel or finding people who work in travel.

I don't find them mentioning Frommers website much in articles, and I think it is a very good one, and some of the forums I've occasionally seen mentioned were not really that good. I think it is often just happenstance as to which ones the journalist knows about and/or which ones have been promoted to him recently, etc.

I frist learnt about it several years ago when rehabbing a severed quad tendon and bed bound - i read it in the New York Times travel section and the NYT staffer said she even participates from time to time in the threads.

I've never really investigated other sites because i'm hooked on this one.

We told the proprietors of our Cotswolds B&B about Fodor's last fall...showed them a post about their place. They had never heard of it and were amazed! They are planning a trip to Australia and said they really liked the site.

Flanner!!!!

You are being entirely TOO modest.

I have always thought you were cool and I still do so your buds in Brit papers obviously need to get into the modern era.

A number of small hotels and guides in several countries that I have "discovered" here were very interested to find out where I discovered them !!

In Britain Fodors is perceived as being for old Americans. So it's not going to get name checked in our press.

But you old Brits seem pretty attached to it. Why doesn't it get a mention at least for that?

Old Brits? How cruel can you be!

Personally, I barely associate this discussion board with Fodor's, and the name of Fodor's conjures up for me those 1960s guide books which listed all the "must see" places for Americans. I haven't looked at a Fodor's guide book in years. Are they still sold in the U.K.?

These days, we use Rough Guides and Lonely Planet guides, and we all go - together - to the places that only the local know.

Gosh. How exciting for you. I'm ever so impressed that you know all those 'secret' places filled with locals and hordes of Brits in socks and sandals. What a funny picture!

And yet here you still are, on Fodors.

goddestogo wrote: "And yet here you still are, on Fodors."

Missionaries are found in the strangest places.

"you old Brits seem pretty attached to it"

There are at most a dozen of us (OK, maybe 20) who, in our purely altruistic attempts on this site to help the stranger on his or her way while we're waiting for a complicated download to finish, share our views with the benighted colonials.

At a guess, I'd say that of the remaining 60 million Britons, 99.9% have never heard of Fodors, and that CW and chartley pretty well sum up the views of the other 0.1%.

"These days, we use Rough Guides and Lonely Planet guides, and we all go - together - to the places that only the local know."

Definition of self-delusion: British tourists using top-selling British guides think they're going to places ONLY the "locals" know about.

Just like Rick Steves' Through the Back Door takes you to places no Americans ever visit.

It's irony again. Gets you every time.

Yeah shurrrrrrr. Whatever you say.

Oh. I see. So what you're saying is that you Fodor's Brits are the teensy-weensy 0.1% who are the old Fodor's fogies. Well, that explains it then.

don't tell betty, but some of us do have trouble with irony...

On the risk of being run off these boards...

The Fodor's boards are highly democratic, accordingly there are highly edcuated, insightful, and well developed information and opinions and those are just plain wrong.

There are many generous people who live in the countries that are to be visited who share information on a daily basis. Additionally there are experienced travelers who also provide opinions upsparingly.

On the other hand there are those who make one visit into a career. They take their limited vision and offer advice.

There are others who recommend hotels, restaurants, and sites that have not personally visited, while some who simply enumerate websites that also have uneven advice.

When I go TripAdvisor for example, I read between the lines and try to understand why there are likes and dislikes and hope my intrepreation are correct. And I have often heard that some opinions are plants. That I firmly believe is not an issue on Fodor's.

On these boards, I refrain from commenting on places I have not visited in more than a year so have breifly visited. Also we visited Switzerland a few years ago, and although we enjoyed the trip it was way down on our list to recommend. There too I refraim from offering my negative opinion because I do not want to ruin another's enthusiasm. Is that honest, probably not.

We have been traveling independently for almost 40 years but I do not advertise my credentials unless the occasion calls for it. So my opinion about a country which I visited numerous times, is worth the same as someone who took a tour. That is the price of democracy.