Friday, October 26, 2007

Planning trips online: Yahoo! Travel FTW

Last year Continental over-booked the flight my sister and I were taking to Cancun. They offered $300 and a first-class seat to anyone who'd wait for the next flight. We bargained for $400 (and first class) and took the deal. So now I get to take two really fun trips this December, to Mexico City and surrounding areas, and to Puerto Rico.Balneario Flamenco
by azure elixir.
My sister and I spent the better part of 48 sleepless hours in Houston Bush (retch) International Airport. We earned $800 of travel.

When I travel, I'm a huge fan of itineraries. I can stray from the plan without any foot-stomping or hair-pulling, but I like to think carefully about my options ahead of time. I don't want to miss anything. My nightmare scenario would be something like going to Peru, getting back, and being dumbfounded when someone asks, "So... what'd you think of Machu Picchu?" (Actually, my nightmare scenario is my baby sister getting her leg eaten by a shark, but the location of Puerto Rican hospitals is not very blog-worthy, is it?)

For trip planning, Lonely Planet's Facebook app had long intrigued me, so right after I booked the trip to Puerto Rico, I loaded the Lonely Planet app up with Puerto Rican destinations, on the assumption that I'd just rearrange it all into a reasonable schedule later. Not so. It rearranges, all right -- at its own leisure and using its own impenetrable logic. For all I know, it's still deciding I should surf in Rincon twenty minutes after I hit the bioluminescent bay in Vieques -- no wait! -- make that an hour after El Morro -- no wait...

In short, Lonely Planet's trip planner isn't good enough (yet?). I decided to see how it compares to some other online trip-planning programs. In addition to planning Puerto Rico, I also drive through prime Northwest wine country several times a year, so I checked how the programs fared in planning a wine tasting tour. As when I tested online calendars and Eventful destroyed the competition the instant I tried it, Yahoo! Travel has taken the trip planning prize with no real competitors.

Yahoo! Travel Trip Planner
Easily re-arranged? Yes!!!
Dates? Yes
Friends can edit? Yes
Share on Facebook? No
Makes KML file? No
Bloggable? No
Embeddable? No
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 88 in San Juan alone
Finds wineries? No
Can add destinations that aren't there? Yes
Directions between points? Yes
Open to development? Maybe, through Pipes
Notes: If I could share it on Facebook and make a KML, it'd be perfect. And I suspect that once I learn Yahoo! Pipes, I may be able to do those things.

Google My Maps
Easily re-arranged? No
Dates? No
Share on Facebook? No
Makes KML file (for Google Earth)? Yes
Bloggable? No
Embeddable: Yes:

View Larger Map
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 411
Finds wineries? Yes
Can add destinations that aren't there? Yes
Directions between points? Yes
Open to development? No
Notes: Google Maps was good for putting all my destinations on one map, but there's no temporal aspect, so it isn't really a trip planner so much as a spatial list of everything ever. You can plan your route pretty neatly with the draggable driving directions, but it's just not the same as an itinerary. Also, integrating My Maps and Driving Directions sure would be nice. As it is, my driving directions have no names on any of the destinations.

eTripBuilder
Easily re-arranged? Yes
Dates? Yes
Share on Facebook? No
Makes KML file? No
Easily add destinations it doesn't have? No
Bloggable? No
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 46
Finds wineries? No
Can add destinations that aren't there? Supposedly
Notes: Looked really promising, but gave me a whole string of error messages when I moused over my departure date at one point. And then I tried to add a really basic attraction in Puerto Rico (El Morro), and it just didn't take.

Journey Miles
Easily re-arranged? No
Dates? Yes
Share on Facebook? Yes
Makes KML file? No
Bloggable? No
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 0
Finds wineries? No
Open to development? No
Notes: You have to build the whole trip at once. Better not make a mistake!

Lonely Planet
Easily re-arranged? No
Dates? Yes, but they change at random
Friends can edit? No
Share on Facebook? Yes
Makes KML file? No
Bloggable? No
Embeddable? Yes
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 0
Finds wineries? No
Open to development? Yes
Notes: Spent two days dragging, dropping and correcting dates after Lonely Planet rearranged my trips with no discernible rhyme or reason before this blog post was born of frustration.

Trip Advisor Cities I've Visited
Makes KML file? No
Share on Facebook? Yes
How many hotels found in San Juan, Puerto Rico? 0
Directions between points? No
Open to development? No
Notes: Not for trip planning; just for bragging.

Where I've Been
Makes KML file? No
Easily rearranged? No
Dates? No
Share on Facebook? Yes
Bloggable? No
How many hotels found in San Juan, Puerto Rico? 0
Directions between points? No
Open to development? No
Notes: Not for trip planning, and not as specific as Cities I've Visited.

Trips
Makes KML file? No
Easily rearranged? No
Dates? Yes
Friends can edit?
Share on Facebook? Yes
Bloggable? No
How many hotels found in San Juan, Puerto Rico?
Directions between points? No
Open to development? No
Notes: Destinations don't resolve beyond city level.

TripWiser Trip Match
Friends can edit? Yes
Share on Facebook? Yes
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 0
Notes: Puerto Rico is not an option.

TripCart
How many hotels found in Puerto Rico? 0
Notes: Puerto Rico is not an option.

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