With so many travel review sites available, it’s often overwhelming to sort through published material about a property or destination. We’ve recently discovered Wanderfly.com, launched out of beta earlier this week. The site promises to provide travel recommendations targeted to budget, date and interest in as few as five clicks.
“On average, travelers spend 7 weeks visiting 25 sites* before they know exactly what they want, yet there’s no easy way for them to get inspired online,” said Evan Schneyer, CEO and co-founder. “Travel itself is such an inspiration, and we believe the fun should start from the very moment you decide to go.”
Wanderfly’s interface begins just how a person would when planning a trip: how much can I spend, when can I go, and what do I like to do? The site offers themes, from food and culture to eco-friendly and nightlife.
Wanderfly searches over 20+ sites, including Expedia, Foursquare, Yelp and Lonely Planet, to recommend a destination, flight, hotel and activities. Travelers may customize these options and book, or flip to the next suggested trip. They may also connect through Facebook to locate friends in any of the destinations.
One of our favorite features of the site is that specifiying a destination isn’t required – one can search within a specific region and use the type of trip they’d like to take to narrow down a location. The site is relatively easy to use, and the functionality of searching through trusted brands like Lonely Planet makes us feel more comfortable with the booking process.
The site has launched with information abou1,200 global destinations and taps into social networking through Facebook to further increase usablity. The site is currently at work on an iPad app and plans to soon offer concierge packages, restaurant reservations, travel products and event tickets. In addition, Wanderfly plans to add more user-generated content, group-planning tools and a widget for outside travel parties to integrate into their sites.