A Comparison of Major Travel WEBSITES
 

Let's give the Big Four some free focus group-style, marketing feedback. Seems that Lonely Planet, Fodors, Rick Steves and TripAdvisor are currently the top dogs. Can we plz try to fashion our feedback in ways that will benefit each other here?
YES: mentioning any other sites (specialty or otherwise) not listed above; your perceptions regarding the pros and cons of each of the Big Four; actual historical experiences on their 4 forums; ideas for improvement across the board, "I'd like to see...."
NO: personal attacks on Fodorites based on their opinion in this thread; your opinion of each of the above as a guidebook brand--lets keep this one as a constructive website/forum critique (nobody cares what you think about Rick Steves as an individual).
Have at it.
I am done. The end.

I really only use Fodo'r and TA - I don't think I'm a Lonely Planet type of traveler. I do like Rick Steve's books - if fact that is where I usually start my trip planning - it just seems it is easier to get the big picture with a book rather than clicking thru different websites and I have always liked the format of his books. I like how he "triangles" / rates the sights, the walks he maps out, and I really like how he includes the practical logistics / connections. But I think the topic is supposed to be websites?

So when I have done my homework, Fodors and TA are good for tweaking. Both have snarky posters but they don't bother me. I use TA most for hotels and restaurants. I used to try to get hotel ideas from TA, then book direct but lately it seems esp. booking.com can offer a better deal - for example, just finished booking a London trip - hotel websites were often higher than booking.com - for example sometimes the hotel website did not have the option of no breakfast (and they want to charge alot for those hotel breakfasts!) or I could not tell if I was prepaying. I hope I don't end up in the crappy rooms because I did not book direct - we'll see.

Like others, I will start trip planning using Rick Steves' books (if it's Europe) and like how he rates sites and gives estimates of what you can do in 1 day, 3 days, 5 days and if you have more time. That pace seems to match mine. I do sometimes disagree with him on how worthwhile some museums are, but I'll go to just about any museum over a lot of other things. His walks are excellent for orientation. I did both his Krakow and Munich walks on my first day in each city and it gave me a good lay of the land for the rest of my stay. His audio walks are better than following the book. I do not find his website terribly useful other than the updates he gives on closings, openings, changes to things on the ground where I'm headed that I may not already know about. I have little use for his forums as it's very elementary info.

I've never used Lonely Planet. No specific reason.

I never use Fodors for trip planning anymore. I seem to do better on my own or have found far better sources for reliable first-hand experience (Safaritalk for Africa) elsewhere.

I use Trip Advisor to read hotel reviews and find restaurants that mention vegetarian in their reviews as that's what interests me. I write reviews on all my hotels and tour/service providers as a way to give back. The forums are marginally useful. I find I'm offering help more than asking for it.

I'm adding a tangential fifth: For anyone traveling to Africa, the Safaritalk.net forum is an amazing resource. Only the Trip Report forum is viewable without a login, but the anecdotal logistics, itinerary and photos in that sub-forum is worth a look alone. It's a great place to get ideas for safari as well as ask questions of people who've been where you might be interested. The depth and breadth of detail is just incredible and for the most part the members are helpful without being condescending (just don't start a conservation or hunting debate!). The Trip Planning sub-forum (which requires a login) is a great place to run proposed itineraries by some very knowledgeable and experienced folks. There's no one here that has been on as many or as diverse number of safaris as the people there. I firmly believe that one safari does not an expert make, so I would take that opinion lightly, whereas on Safaritalk, if someone's been to Kenya dozens (literally) of times, they're more likely to actually know what they're talking about. Nothing on Fodors or Trip Advisor can compare to the wealth of information there. (I've never looked on Lonely Planet and Rick Steves only does Europe)

Agree about safaritalk.net. It was started by former Fodor's poster Matt_from_England years and years ago. It's really grown. I try to avoid the site because it gives me $$ideas$$.

For hotels, I start with booking dot com and then check the hotel's website. There is always a good chance of a better deal there.

For restos, I start with TA and change my mind when I arrive in that town.

Ditto for things to do.

((I))

I start with TA and Fodors when looking for lodging; I'll follow up on any specific lodging, restaurants, or tours mentioned by Fodorites. I cross-reference them with Booking.com and sometimes Hotels.com. I've used Hotels.com a few times because of the tenth night free, but am more interested in Booking and TA reviews.

I'll start restaurant searches on TA but as noted above, too often the #` is a sandwich shop or a gelateria--not usually why I'm browsing reviews.

Sometimes smaller books work on specific locations -- I'm reviewing Marco Polo books' Lake Garda, since we will be spending several days there in the fall and not all books give it much coverage.

If I know where I want to go, I usually start with Expedia. I will search for air/hotel packages. That will give me a pretty comprehensive list of hotels. On Expedia you can search by neighborhood or specific area. So if I am looking to travel to a city that I am not familiar with, I will take a look at the neighborhoods that Expedia lists and google each one to get a better idea of where I want to stay. Once I have narrowed it down, I will search the hotels in those neighborhoods usually by star rating. I take a look at the photos and reviews available on Expedia but then will google the hotel to get other sources of information, including the hotel's website, TA, etc.

For restaurants, I usually start with TA as I like the format. But I also check the restaurant's website and also google the name to see what pops up. I will also use Google maps to get a sense of where the restaurants are in relation to my hotel. I always choose my hotel before starting to research restaurants.

For things to do or places to see, I again usually would google "Things to do in ________" and see what comes up.

I intermittently have used Trivago, Booking.com, Fodors, among others.

Interesting to contemplate.
TA: Reviews are only as good as reviewers. Most are near useless ("Great food" tells me nothing about a restaurant.) and a few are very helpful. A little more useful for hotels and sights, but nothing earth-shaking. The forums are mix of questioners, with answers tending strongly to concrete and on point.

Never used Lonely Planet. Not my demographic.

Hardly use RS. Too middle of the road blah.

Fodors: Full of digressions and personality. None of the other sites will have established posters completely disagreeing. The only site that has humor and emotional sensitivity. Now, if only the uninformed idiots would stop disagreeing with me, . . .

Trip Advisor. I'm very active on several Destination Forums (similar to Fodors). I rarely post or use the Reviews section. But it's easy enough to sort out what's real or fake imo. Have made person-to-person connections there which hasn't happened anywhere else.

Fodor's. Just for fun. I'm not sure I've ever used it for actual trip planning myself.

Rick Steves. Helped me on initial trips to Europe. Don't use it now.

Lonely Planet. I've been off and on with this. I do like their forum section The Thorn Tree. And made several long-term online friends from posting on the Mexico branch back when I was first going there.

Pretty much now I know where I'm going, where I'm staying, what I'm doing on my vacation trips. Until I am retired and ready to try some new destinations, I really don't need any help.

Fodor's, Cruise Critic, TA and Flyertalk. All good in their own ways; quite different demographics it seems.

I enjoy the "omni" boards on FT (one for non-political/religious topics, another for just those things) and the Lounge on Fodor's. Both have a pretty limited group of regulars, but especially the Omni P/R board on FT includes some of the funniest, best informed, cynical, and often irritating "regulars" I've encountered. They make Fodor's Lounge look like a meeting of the Jam and Jerusalem crowd in England.

Of course, I love and use Fodors. I've been posting here for so long that I know many of the posters. I actively dislike TA - the format is such that I mostly see advertising, and the place is filled with trolls and fake reviews. I never go there. Lonely planet - I have used for remote, less traveled areas, especially in Asia. Often times LP is the only place that has any info on Sikkim or Nagaland or knows what to recommend in less traveled areas of Indonesia. I've never looked at Rick Steves, as I mostly travel in Asia.

It is thru Trip Advisor forums that I now have "insider" connections for renting apartments in Puerto Vallarta direct from owners. Nothing like that has ever happened for me here on Fodor's that's for sure. There are no "fake reviews" when you're in the Destination Forums. Seems a lot of people only know the Reviews or booking portion of that website. They have incredibly active individual forums as well. Kind folks there talked me thru a 1st trip to Cabo. The Negril Jamaica forum helped with all kinds of info I couldn't have found elsewhere (certainly not here) let's say how route taxis work. If I asked a west coast Mexico question here on Fodor's, I'd likely have to answer it myself -lol.

I disagree with you 100% about Trip Advisor.

TA's tone can be bloodless, humourless and impersonal

When you are actually in the various Destination FORUMS there is no "tone" from "TA"... it's like here... just regular people talking to each other.

I've also posted this exact same-same thread over on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree forum's General Chat section. You might find the contrast with responses to be interesting.
I am done. I was supposed to be done.

Interesting thread. I used to use TA but don't care for it as much these days. I disagree that there is no "tone". I have asked innocent questions and gotten lambasted by the "experts" over there. I do find it can be helpful for nitty gritty stuff sometimes. It really depends on the destination forum you are on. Food reviews on TA are totally not in step with my eating preferences. I just have to look at my hometown to see how off it can be.

Rick Steves has good basic info and is very helpful in first organizing a trip.

Haven't looked at Thorntree in eons, but it used to be useful despite not being my style either.

For food Yelp can be helpful and I like Eater for major destinations. Not so helpful in smaller out of the way places.

I still find Fodors helpful. After so many years, I have learned the style of various travelers and that makes it easy to figure out what might work for me.

Lonely Planet: I don't use it and have never posted on it. I tried looking at it a few times and found it hard to use and not particularly informative for the things I sought.

Fodors: Fodors ROCKS! :)

Rick Steves. Intense dislike. Will NOT use.

Trip Advisor: I use TA for some info on hotels beyond that available on booking.com, for some limited info on restaurants, and occasionally for estimates of how long to spend at various site. I approach all info there with skepticism.

P.S. Thanks zebec!

I don't ask questions that often on any forum because of snark but the TA people have been the most helpful for locations where I really needed help and thanked them over and over for the research a local-only could do for my most recent trip. We are retired military and have some good forums for travel. If you give a snarky answer you are out. It is a brotherhood of sorts and people bend over backwards to help each other with travel. It is so great because people stationed all over the world will help you out with logistics, places to stay and where to get a deal. No question is stupid. The internet has opened up travel and love it. I do review places on TA but also read other reviews the poster has left. I don't blindly trust a review. Rick Steves is good but his posters are not super helpful. I just met a couple in Galway and they were from our area but she could not tell me where they had been or where they were going on a three week tour. They had already been to Scotland but had just spent the night outside of Dublin but couldn't remember. where. Her husband was a little better but it was like they just signed up and were on a tour. I love planning as much as the trip. There are so many types of travellers.

Normally when threads are moved from one forum to another the moderator leaves the thread title in the original posting forum with Moved next to it so it's easy to find. Any particular reason that didn't occur in this case?

I use booking.com and TA for hotels, TA more for the photos than the reviews. Some of the destination forums are helpful there--a mixed bag, really.

For dining, I still look at chowhound, even though it's a ghost of what it used to be. It's a starting place for me and then I'll scour the internet for more info.

Have never used Rick Steves. A long, long time ago I lurked on Thorn Tree Africa Forum, but even when I was young it was a little too backpacker-y for me.

TA is more like 1000 different forums. Ranging from sickly sweet to more acidic than sulfuric acid. There are things that will get you hounded if you ask in some forums. Other forums you will get kind words. Some of the smaller forums have no traffic or close enough. Some of the forums make a high school clique seem open.

There are fake reviews in the destination forums. Often one post wonders just show up to post a gushing review. There are long threads with nothing but one post persons thrilled with a product. I'm talking hundreds of posts. A new one every two or three weeks.

The new thread deletion policy on TA means these threads no longer get deleted.

I start trip planning with the glossy guidebooks like DK and Insight, and then move on for logistics to Lonely Planet and Rough Guide, sometimes Bradt or Odyssey and occasionally Footprint, it really depends on where I'm going. I used to use Rick Steves' guides back in the 90s and early 00s, and might still use one of his walks, or his recommended hotels, but the coverage is too limited.

I used to check Thorn Tree for things like how much to bribe the border guards for Transnistria, but haven't been on it in ages. I do use the site for specific info for destinations.

I was active at one time on the RS forums, but quit after I was censored for chatting instead of just answering the question.

I only visit TA for the reviews. I add my own, for places that are particularly good, particularly bad, or have few other reviews. I read reviews with care and discount any place with too many one-post wonder reviews.

I have been active on Fodors since 2006, and while avoiding the Lounge have always enjoyed the chat on the destination boards. especially on my TRs when traveling.

My first site way back in the '90's was Frommer's and I used to post there quite a lot. Haven't been on it in more than 15 years and don't even know if they still have forums, etc.

Found Fodors by accident in about 1998 and have posted regularly here ever since. I use Fodors Guide books occasionally (especially when they used to snd me 3 or 4 free ones every year ;) ). Some of the boards here are so knowledgable and helpful and people go waaaaaay out of their way to help. The few people who complain about 'snark' are most often those who post really out there/next to impossible itineraries and simply don't like reading their plans are ill conceived. (There is another very small group of 'complainers' who think it is rude to try to get newbies to improve their plans). Since the new format I have read more of the travel articles since there is a teaser up front when one logs in.

Trip advisor is pretty hard to avoid since most google searches -- TA is always near the top of the results. But I totally avoid their hotel reviews. I rely more on Booking because only bonafide visitors can post reviews. I've posted maybe 20 hotel reviews on Booking - none on TA. I used to check TA restaurant reviews but their lists of the best such and such in a city are weird - some really casual cafes must have run campaigns to get reviews posts - or how can a hot dog shack in some major city be the 4th best place to eat??? The forums are good mostly if there is some obscure detail you are looking for - the DE's may argue a lot but they do know the minutia. I've never posted on TA

Lonely Planet/Thorntree I mostly access if I'm trying to help a young back packing friend or something like that where they are needing info about couch surfing or really low budget ideas.

My favorite guidebooks are the DK Eyewitness and some of the Michelin green guides, and lots of specialized books about gardens, or walking guides, or histories.

I've been on Frommers fairly recently. The forums are basically dead last time I swung by.

I post on Trip Advisor a lot more than I post here.

I started with travel forums while living in Moscow and I had 8 weeks of vacation/local leave time that the boss said I would take. I started with Rick Steves only because I watched him film on Rue Cler when I was temporarily living in Paris, but his methodology/philosophy did not work so good for someone already living in Europe. I looked at several an settled here because the info suited my needs better. I 'fess that until the last few years, I rarely posted but read a lot.

If I post a question on TA/PV about 3-star hotels or specific condo rentals in Old Town Puerto Vallarta I'll get dozens of replies from people who have actually stayed at them recently. Posters on that forum are long-time PV-lovers and dedicated to the destination. That would never happen here on Fodors. It is not only about "obscure details".

I'm not "bashing" just saying different websites are more helpful for some places than others. Like you wouldn't use Rick Steves for Mexico or Thailand though you might for Europe.

I also believe Fodor's is a more cohesive forum because there are only a few branches. I don't know how many individual city Destination Forums there are on Trip Advisor but must be thousands of sub-forums. No two are alike in personality or quality of information.

I love to chat and read like-minded travel experiences on the Fodors site. I do not use any other travel sites. Basically, I myself plan my travels, but I have been reading the experience of travelers and planning my trip.

I appreciate the diversity of opinions. It helps me decide where to go and how long to stay in various places.

I read different travel stories. I use, besides Fodors, also tripadvisor. Before going on a trip I collect information and analyze all hotels.

Suze, you make some very good points about TA's various sub-forums and their distinct tones. We travellers are all lucky to have several different sites to compare and contrast info from. No need to just stick with one site, if cross-referencing matters to you. It matters a great deal to us.
I am done. The end.

Rick Steves has no offerings, guide books or otherwise, for anywhere but Europe. So no, you wouldn't. He's done shows in Iran and the Holy Land but does not have any guidebooks or tours for those destinations.

In addition to travel sites, I still read blogs. I use travel tips and experiences for my travels. It’s more convenient for me to make a route and so I’m more confident about traveling.

Some of the Fodor's forums are helpful, others are filled with people who think they "own" them and don't take well to those who disagree. I do like to read the Fodor's trip reports, but rarely post a question.

Tripadvisor mostly for hotel reviews, especially the photos by users. I find that booking and Expedia, etc, tend to edit reviews and you may not get the full picture, so I usually "vet" hotels on TA by looking at the bottom range of reviews. Not a fan of TA forums, although on occasion you can find one with a few people who give even-handed advice. Most are dominated by cliques who have business interests or feel like they have to defend their territory against any negative advice. Sometimes you'll get a recent traveler that posts for a few months after their trip and then they go away. I review postings before a trip to learn about current issues (even if the answers can tend toward the BS end of the spectrum). Things like strikes, safety issues are often highlighted on TA long before they are ever mentioned on Fodors. I find TA to be better for some of the nuts and bolts answers like airport transportation, is Uber available, etc.

I haven't looked at Lonely Planet in donkey's years.

I dunno Zebec. Here's some various & sundry little bits. Do you want us to comment on social psychology, dynamics, hierarchies, pecking orders and like that too? No?

I find LP's 'search' function to be the most consistent. The tone on their forum seems the most international of the Big Four. I'm guessing that males may outnumber females in their demographic(??). Lonely Planet is now onto their fourth owners. One now detects a certain slippage on LP, membership seems down and it'd not be surprising to learn that their team are currently in crisis mode about the Thorn Tree forum and the overall site. The visible increase in advertising rubs some the wrong way. Once, after my recent post about an Italian enoteca, up popped an ad for wine cellars (?!) on my next visit to the site. Trust me when I tell you that LP had a great many championship-level nutters about a decade ago, just prior to their shutting down their old 'Your Choice' forum for an overdue 'time-out' year. There was a lot of mental illness posed as traveller (you don't say, Zebec----editor).

I find TA to be somewhat cold, crass and commercial. But it can sometimes be useful for cross-referencing and also vacation rentals. Their cringe-worthy 'badge-earning system' is downright insulting to the intelligence of any reasonable traveller, as though we're all 12 yr old boy scouts/girl guides--epic fail by their management team. Kinda' odd to see posters try to ramp up their totals by giving star ratings to local Turismo offices! IMHO, TA's tone can be bloodless, humourless and impersonal BUT love their idea of subdividing countries into numerous regions for purposes of directing forum Q&A (e.g. 7 different areas for Provence alone). Nonetheless, Mrs Z and I are using TA less and less often.

Fodors. The demo here may be more females than males---am I right? And posters here sure like their acronyms--Jaysus! Fodors is an older demographic. Their 'Threads I Am On' feature often shows redundant doubling up--could the tech department please fix that? Fodors moderators allow more salty language than the other major sites. Of all the Big Four, there just now feels a healthier forum @Fodors, one that seems to promise many more years of usefulness on several levels.

The Rick Steves site has a nifty 'Jump to Bottom' feature for immediate forum scrolling. Like Fodors, its feel is very American--how could it not be? Gotta admit that I was taken aback around Xmas past when the RS Queen Bee moderator actually accused me right there mid-thread of lying! It was astonishing coz what I'd earlier commented on (an exchange a year ago of friendly emails with some of her colleagues about an unrelated and unserious matter) was 100% true. We had the emails to prove it. Tres etrange. And to think that I'd included positive coverage about RS back in my '80-'90s travel articles about the various guidebooks. Geez, you're welcome. RS has but a scant section on non-European locations on their forum, one so tiny that it begs the question 'Why Bother?'

Another shout-out for wikitravel and fingers crossed that Rome2Rio keeps getting better.

I am done. The humble opinion.