Trip Advisor is an app that is designed to assist people with their travel plans. This site features reviews, comments, images, and ratings of all elements of travel. From hotels to restaurants, to experiences, Trip Advisor allows travelers to plan your next vacation all in one place. In 2018 Trip Advisor took their platform to a new level, they allowed users to follow friends, companies, or influencers that they trust in getting all their travel advice and reviews. Through Trip Advisor you can create your own account in order to access these functions in planning your travels.
According to the Trip Advisor website, as of 2017, their average for monthly visitors was just shy of 400 million. With this, they had accumulated 435 million reviews and opinions of close to 7 million different hotels, restaurants, experiences, cruises, and more. They claim that nearly 300 new reviews are posted every minute, making this platform one of the top in travel planning. With the rapid growth that they were experiencing at that time and the addition to a social media aspect to their platform, I’d imagine that they have seen continual growth in the use of the site.
I have never considered myself an expert in travel planning. Prior to studying abroad, I had heard of Trip Advisor, yet I did not have an account or the app downloaded on my phone. In my first few days exploring Barcelona, I realized that Yelp, the app that I so frequently use while researching restaurants or just deciding what I want for dinner, is close to obsolete here. At first, this confused me, but I quickly found that Trip Advisor is where most of the reviews are here.
After creating my account I quickly realized why this platform holds its popularity. It was extremely simple to create an account all I had to do was sign in with my google email. From there, Trip Advisor asked where I’m from, where I’m going, the dates of my trip, who I’m going with, and what types of things I’m looking to do. At the push of a button, Trip Advisor laid out every aspect of my trip from hotels, to flights, to activities, and so much more. Along with this Trip Advisor provided me with an abundance of information about the city that I was (hypothetically) traveling to. When researching a trip to Barcelona for example, Trip Advisor provided me with hotels, top things to see, and videos of travelers on the platform about the city.
In my opinion, I feel as though I have wasted my time prior to today because I have no used Trip Advisor in my trip planning habits. As I now have the app on my iPhone I am excited to explore with it and use it to my advantage in the future. This weekend I am traveling to Munich and Prague and will definitely be using Trip Advisor as a guide in these new cities while I explore.
Update: This past weekend I tried I gave Trip Advisor a go in real-time. This trip was the first time that I really struggled with the language barrier, especially when it came to restaurants. I often found myself getting frustrated and just settling for the closest option. On our first day in Munich, I found that this method led to me getting sucked into a “tourist trap” restaurant. The following day, I thought of Trip Advisor and used it as a tool to find a restaurant of my liking and at a good price. I found that sometimes all you need to do is walk around the corner to get a better quality restaurant at a much better price. Throughout the rest of the weekend, I constantly found myself pulling up the app to find things to do and other places to eat. Overall, Trip Advisor will definitely be an essential part of my travels going forward.
The Yellow Brick Road 