Travel your own path
2012-07-05 17:05
There's a new new generation of travel-sharing Websites that are
matching travelers with knowledgeable locals for interesting, real and
mostly very inexpensive experiences all around the world, maybe even in
your town.
This is quite possibly the best way to go travelling in order to
experience exactly what you want. For instance when an Australian
businessmen (and amateur photographer), found that he had a morning of
leisure at his disposal in San-Francisco, he realized that he wanted to
see the less flashy side of the city. A simple internet search and he
landed on Vayable.com.
The site exposed him to a walking tour led by an author who spent
15-years documenting the city's street art scene. It was that easy, a
few clicks on the computer and he was able to snap photos he otherwise
would have missed out on.
What are your interests? Shouldn't you experience them abroad too?
Here are some other sites that could provide you with the information you require:
CanaryHop.com
One of the newest players in the field, CanaryHop started in March with a slick YouTube video
starring the "Saturday Night Live" star Andy Samberg, who is also a
founder of the site. In it, Mr Samberg awakens to find he's had an array
of surprising experiences that could have been scenes from the Todd
Phillips movie "The Hangover."
Gidsy.com
Berlin-based Gidsy, was founded by brothers from Amsterdam, Edial and
Floris Dekker, who came up with the idea when they wanted to pick wild
mushrooms for a risotto but didn't know how to distinguish edible from
poisonous varieties.
"Google-ing around," Edial wrote in an e-mail, "we found that it was
nearly impossible to find someone to schedule a mushroom picking tour."
Thanks to hgh-profile investment funds from the actor Ashton Kutcher
and others, the platform has grown in its first year to include
offerings in nine cities such as Istanbul, San Francisco and Hasselt,
Belgium. Gidsy charges its hosts and organizers a 10 percent fee and
withholds payment until after the activity to encourage accountability.
Are you ready to walk down a path that most haven't? Where would you
go and what would you do, tell us in the comments section below?
Read the full list of sites posted on the New York Times site.
