Whl.Travel - local voices about local travel

The Whl Travel Network bills itself as one of the largest collections of locally run travel websites, where your information and transactions are handled at the local level rather than by massive consolidators like Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, etc.

I'm not clear how much of the network is truly the voice of locals but this is a great idea and a good source for potentially "less biased" information than you will tend to find on the large sites or even local destination promotion websites.

One of the great challenges of planning trips online is that there is a huge incentive for many sites to showcase their areas very favorably. This is likely true at Whl.Travel as well, but at least you are less likely to be led only to the hotels and attractions that have the best ROI ratios for marketing agencies.

Ten Twitter Travel Tips

Rob at St Cristopher's Inn's blog has a nice post about Twitter and Travel where he gives some tips on how to use Twitter - the explosively popular "microblogging" service now used by almost 8 million worldwide - to make your travel easier and cheaper.

Here is the story

My favorite tip was to use the Twitter version of Britain's Rail Service to find great deals on train routes:

The tip offs about when super cheap advance ticket are going to go live online are a thing of beauty too! Did you know for example that you can travel from London to Newcastle and back for as little as £28, just by cruising nationalexpresseastcoast.com and chatting with their discount reps at any staffed station? Crazy good times. Check out twitter.com/nationalexpress

As Travel and History / Online Highways expands to include socializing and social media we'll be talking a lot more about using social media during your travels.

Got Rocks?

If you like Rock Climbing you'll enjoy Rachel's "Crag Baby" blog where she's documenting her travels all over the world, finding great places to climb.

I'm not sure how she manages to work 2 / climb 5 days per week but it seems to be working out well for her!

Around the World in 8 Days with Richard Branson

Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson always seems to be having a grand time, and March was no exception as he video blogged his circumnavigation-in-style on Virgin Atlantic.

Google Street Views for UK

The BBC reports that Google is launching their amazing "street view" mapping service for the UK. Google's maps and street view offer an amazing way to visualize cities and travel routes on your computer screen as if you were actually in a car in the distant location:

From the BBC:

Street scenes in 25 UK cities from Aberdeen to Southampton can be viewed using the service.

The Netherlands version of the service also launched on Thursday, bringing the number of countries covered to nine.

The imagery available comprises video taken along 22,369 miles of UK streets by customised camera cars.

Google Maps users can zoom in to a given location and then drag the "Pegman" icon above the zoom bar on to a given street.

Google UK Street View

Google Maps

Nantucket History Photos Online

Arline Wilma Preston
Originally uploaded by nha.library

The Nantucket Historical Association has joined Flickr's History group, providing some great historical photos at their Flickr collections.

Northwest Travel Guide and Oregon Coast Travel

Two of the many travel sites associated with our Online Highways / US History travel project are Northwest Magazines and Oregon Coast Travel. The Northwest Travel website and printed magazine offer detailed insider information about the attractions, history, and the people of the Pacific Northwest where the sand, sea, mountains and people have carved out many lives with thousands of stories you'll find interesting beautiful, and inspiring.

Oregon Coast Travel. is based on the printed Mile by Mile Guide to Highway 101, one of Oregon's most popular travel publications with stories and detailed directions to hundreds of coastal points of interest, hotels, restaurants, and much more.