travel forums
 

Just wondering if there are any other travel forums or message boards out there! AOL has a good one but you can't access that without AOL.

Whats the AOL one? Is there an address I type in? Thanks.

For the AOL message boards, use keyword "travel" then double-click on the lower left side...

I found the AOL one to be one of the most "user unfriendly" sites of all. You have to keep going back and forth to get additional posts to questions. You can wait a week, come back and still not find any additional comments to the former questions. And I rarely see any really helpful in depth discussion or commentary. I must say, Fodors has the best format of any I've seen, and is very user friendly (although, admittedly not always so poster friendly).

I also find the AOL board really helpful. I use it everytime I travel.

You can also use the www.independenttraveler.com message boards on the world wide web.

While the AOL Travel Board does get some good information, it is not, as Patrick states, user friendly. Takes to much repetative manipulation to get information. I do find the information (once you can find it) very straightforward and there are far fewer nasties on the board. While you have to wade through the trolls and the nasties on this Board, there is certainly a much broader population of participants and repsoitory of information.

Lonely Planet, Frommer's, Rick Steves'

My experience with the AOL boards has been mixed. Some geographic areas, notably the boards for Great Britain, are very active and helpful; others are very quiet. <BR><BR>I think it's no trouble at all to check for new messages, though -- just bookmark the board on "favorites" and one click will report whether there's anything new.

For the AOL board re-set your preferences to read either threaded or unthreaded. Bookmark the boards you like to read. Lots of knowledgeable people post all the time with info asked for at least where I read.

Lonely Planet is kind of a socialist's travel forum. Questions and answers seem limited to camping and "roughing it" (that was great when in college, but I'm all grown up and ready for regular hotels now!). I wouldn't dare ask about a resort on that one!

Are there really no other message boards besides Fodors and AOL

There is also Tripsmarter but it doesn't seem to get a lot of posts.

For nnn:<BR><BR>Um .. as previously suggested up there, try Lonely Planet Thorn Tree, Frommer's, and Rick Steves' forums.

There is Concierge, Independent Traveler & Frommers besides Tripsmater! Have any of you tried Epinions!

I like the forums at Eurotrip.com. Mainly geared toward budget-travellers and backpackers, Eurotrip has forums about hostels, cheap flights, transport (train, bus, ferries, intra-Europe flights), destinations, etc.

There is www.virtualtourist.com which has some good forums, but not as easy to use as Fodors

dine.com is good to look at for any city you might visit.

TTTTT