Wikipedia has a sister site called Wikivoyage for travelers. The more I use Wikivoyage to investigate and plan travel destinations, the more I realize my old faithful paper travel guides, like Lonely Planet, Frommer’s Guide, etc. are now obsolete! The whole world is at your fingertips. It’s better than TripAdvisor because it is not trying to sell you a hotel or restaurant.
Their crowdsourced approach is envisioned as a single one page summary of what you need to know to visit a given travel destination, that you can print out and put in your backpack (or PDF). Plus it is generally very up to date for prices and other information, because everyone can add and update the information there ! Its a great way for budding travel authors to build their skills, because its collaborative content, where your contributions can live on forever.
For a given destination it includes consistent information including:
- Understand – key things to understand about that location when visiting it. May include orientation, history, climate considerations, and visitor information
- Get In – by plane, train, car, bus, boat
- Get Around – Map with stick pins, by foot, by car, by public transport
- Things to See and Do – Top 10, Including notable events
- Buy – Shopping information with links
- Eat – Top 10, Information with links
- Drink – with links
- Sleep – Hotels, campgrounds, etc.
- Go Next – Other nearby places you may want to visit
They even have a section for other travel related topics. which includes topics like
- Travelling with Children
- Health
- Work while traveling
- Preparation
Conclusion
Here is a link to Halifax which is the city that we live in. Start there then search for the place that you live. Maybe you can even add more good local information while you are there, like maybe your favorite restaurant if its not already there. Note you can also start at a much broader level like for our province of Nova Scotia, and it will then let you zoom down deeper.