This App Is For Anyone Who Would Rather Plan Their Own Trips Than Join Tour Groups
In this week's Tech Tuesday, we take a look Touristly, a web-based service that helps you create and curate your own personalised travel itinerary so that you can travel like a local!
By John Lim — 13 Oct 2015, 02:35 PM
The Internet has helped made travelling more accessible than ever before, with great deals for flights and hotels. However, planning out the holiday itself still remains a tedious process.
If you opt for a travel agency, chances are you'll be having the same experience identical to other tourists, and that can get pretty boring at times
Alternatively, you could do things your way - create a personalised travel itinerary that caters to your needs. But that could be a time-consuming process as it requires you to scour through the Internet hours on end for fun things to do.
This is where Touristly comes in. The web-based service aims to help you plan your stay, by providing a list of interesting activities that you could keep yourself occupied with.
A central feature on Touristly is its trip planner that allows travellers to organize their holiday in their own customised trip itinerary by taking advantage of the thousands of curated experiences available on the platform. Touristly's trip planner serves as a personal concierge that gives travellers the power to effectively become their own travel agent and create unique itineraries that they can book immediately on the platform.
telegraphindia.comTouristly does not sell any travel packages, rather, it acts as a curator by helping you search through different restaurants, spas or other places of attraction in a particular country of region
The service is currently available in Asia and Australia.
To test out the service, we've created a dummy holiday trip in Singapore, our friendly neighbours across the causeway
Like any other web service, you are required to register for an account. Pretty straightforward there.
Once you've selected the country of your choice, you can put in the duration of your trip. As Touristly has its own community, you're encouraged to share your trip with other users.
You could check the 'Private' box if you're not that keen on sharing.
You'll be taken to the main page where a map of Singapore will be shown to you with your itinerary box on the left
We like how the background changes with the chosen destination. In this case, the gorgeous Marina Bay Sands shines through!
Scroll down and you'll see a variety of activities, ranging from restaurant hopping to a fun day at the zoo
Prices are all in RM, so you don't have worry about the crazy 2.8 conversion rate.
Click into any of the activities to check out more information
We really appreciate the vast amount of info here, but it could do with more photos.
Once you've added your preferred activities, proceed to check out
You could opt to pay with credit or debit card or through local bank transfer. Once in a while, Touristly will have promo codes that offers up to 30% discount.
That's about it! The site is pretty straightforward and easy to use.
Not much complications compared to many travel planners, considering the two-step checkout process. However, we felt that the info section of each activity could do away with the long descriptions, as a traveller on-the-go, visual appeal definitely strikes a more lasting impression.
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