Travel Resources: Pinterest

Pinterest is an online pin-board: it allows for visual collections of information and links. Lots of people use Pinterest to find recipes, fashion, and humor. It also makes a great resource for travel. I use Pinterest for travel in three ways:

    * to keep a visual list of places I want to visit.
    * to research the places I'm planning travel to.
    * for general tips and tricks to make traveling easier.

A Visual List

This is a quick screenshot of places I want to visit- a large number of which I found by browsing Pinterest, but some of which I added through the "Pin It" button you can download from the program. I like this as a reference when I think "I'd really like to go somewhere with beautiful rivers/buildings/beaches." It can help to trigger places that I've forgotten I was interested in, or where I've forgotten that they have a river/building/beach I wanted to see.

Location-Specific Travel Tips

Any time I'm researching a location, Pinterest is a great place to start for "Top 10 Things to do in XX," "Best Places to Run in XX," "Best Food in XX," or "Don't Miss XX in XX" advice. These links contain information someone else has already evaluated, and are generally a little more helpful than a basic internet search on the same topic. I usually look for "XX travel tips" "XX food advice" and other searches along those lines.

General Travel Tips

 

One of my favorite (not-so) guilty pleasures is browsing Pinterest for "tips" of almost any sort. Travel tips are my favorite kind. I love seeing people's packing tips, money saving tips, and lists/tricks, and am constantly working on the goal of packing more efficiently and minimally. There are endless variations on ways to save money/time/effort, and I love seeing what people do. This is also a great way to find travel blogs- I like to browse the posts of bloggers who have helpful tips and tricks.

An Important Caveat

Pinterest is wonderful, but as far as I know, does not monitor the quality of the pins. This means that there are aggregator sites that repin lists to force traffic through their website. Once you click on a pin, it will list the URL that it links to below it. I recommend reading this URL to make sure it sounds legitimate before you click through. I haven't gotten any mal- or spyware that I know of, but it is a risk with untested links. Use basic internet safety protocols and your common sense.