5 Favorite Travel sites I visit

Radisson Blu Zurich Airport

Radisson Blu Malmö

When I travel I like to do a little bit of research of places to visit that I may be interested so I'm not overwhelmed. These are 5 of my favorite sites

Yelp <-- Add me on Yelp! :-)

I've been a fairly active Yelp-er for a number of years now (since November 2007) and I use this to review and find places to eat (and other businesses but mostly restaurants and bars have the most reviews). There are some drawbacks to this site though... Not all places have many ratings or active users especially if Yelp just launched in that city. That being said, Yelp is growing globally so there are active users of the site around the globe. 

Pinterest <-- Follow me on Pinterest

Pinterest boards are inspiration boards. Sometimes the pictures and linked blog posts about travel are so captivating that you can't help but click on the picture to find out more. I've been chasing the Northern Lights for a while now and Pinterest was where I first saw beautiful pictures of it. (I've finally managed to see a short fuzzy glimpse of Aurora Borealis briefly once on a trip to Northern Finland) I'm still hoping to catch a clearer view of the dancing green lights later this year. I am also a fan of the packing lists that show up on Pinterest frequently as it always fascinates me what people pack in their bags for a trip. 

Afar.com

Though I admit, I am not as active on the site as I am on the other two above but I do look at this site for more travel tips and things-to-do. You can save each Highlight onto a list and it can be a good inspiration to plan out your trip. That is what I tend to do with this website. The pictures and contributors are regular users of the site and journalists for the magazine as well as travel locals. So it is a good mix of people recommending different things. This site also has a lot of lists that will give you even more ideas on what to do.

TripAdvisor 

This website is very popular amongst travelers. I tend to use this to read up on hotel reviews because this is the most popular site for hotel reviews. I rarely use this to look up for things to do or restaurant reviews because the sites above already give me a more visuals. I prefer a website to have more user pictures and less advertisements so I can make an informed decision. Nevertheless, it is a popular site and there are a lot of reviews.

Instagram <--Follow me 

More visual travel inspiration. I follow quite a number of travel instagram accounts and foodie instagram accounts so my feed is always luring me with wanderlust ;-) I like pictures so a social media channel that is mostly visual really appeals to me. #travel #wanderlust

Some other sites that I use are Internations (I ask members for recommendations on the forum boards for specific locations), SANDEMAN's  (They give free walking tours in cities throughout Europe), Airbnb (If I stay in a location for longer than a week, I tend to prefer renting a studio).
I am also a Star Alliance frequent flyer member,  OneWorld member, AccorHotels member, Marriot rewards, Spg, First Hotels, the travel section of American Express, and CitizenM to book flights and hotels. I think being a member of a number of hotel and airline loyalty programs leads to upgrades, discounts, etc.