There is no shortage of traditional travel guides, but for many of us it feels easier with a digital guidebook. Unfortunately, travel sites and apps are often quite predictable, but there are some options with slightly more initiated tips. Here are some sites and apps you can’t miss.
Personal tips from Google
If you have enabled the Events from Google feature in the settings of your Google Calendar so flight and hotel bookings end up automatically in your calendar, but also on the Google Travel site. Here you will find more information about the destinations you will visit. If you press the Activities button, you can also get tips about other places.
Travellers’ Wikipedia
Wikitravel is created by users, just like the encyclopedia Wikipedia. Everyone can therefore contribute with knowledge about different travel destinations. In the Swedish section, there are roughly 1,600 articles, but if you speak English, there are more than 120,000 guides to choose from.
A billion tips and reviews
Tripadvisor is best known for its hotel and restaurant ratings, and here there are around a billion reviews. You can also click on Things to do to get tips on shopping, museums and other activities on the trip.
Travel guide with ratings
American Trip.com is one of the world’s largest sites for booking hotels, flights and rental cars. On the English-language site there is also a comprehensive travel guide. With the help of reviews from other users, you get help to find the gems of the destination.
Best travel guide is digital
Culture Trip started as a British startup where local freelancers suggested their favorite places..
Here we find headlines such as Melbourne’s Best Kept Secrets, 7 Instagram Accounts to Follow Before You Visit Barcelona and How Estonia Became A Technology Powerhouse. In other words, it is about both concrete tips and more in-depth articles.
Nowadays, the site also sells tailor-made trips, and it can be a bit difficult to find the well-written articles.
Locals’ best tips
The best tips come from a “local”, i.e. a person who lives in a certain city. On Like a local, there are guides of this kind to around 150 cities.
Like a local is available both as a website and an IOS app, but unfortunately not for Android.
Tips on mobile
Spotted by Locals is based on the same basic idea as Like a local. You can read the texts on the site or download an app for your mobile phone. In the free version there are only short summaries, while those who want to read everything must buy the beta app for around SEK 40.
Best in the East
For anyone who likes to travel in Eastern and Central Europe, In Your Pocket is a great source of knowledge and inspiration. Here are guides to odd destinations such as Minsk, Kaliningrad and Tirana – but also to cities such as Tallinn, Riga and Prague.
In recent years, the geographical area has expanded, so now there are also guides to Western European cities such as Amsterdam and Belfast
You can read the texts directly in the browser or download them as pdf files – and print them on paper. There are also apps for both Android and IOS.
Find places you haven’t heard of
Missile hangars, meteorite craters and nuclear power plants. The world is full of surprises, and the Atlas Obscura site will help you find them.
Tips in Swedish
All the tips above are unfortunately in English, and if there is a problem, you can download free Swedish guides at Arrivalguides. Arrivalguides has been part of the travel book publisher Lonely Planet for some time, and the site today offers a mixture of Swedish and English text.