Value of Travel Forums

By Lee | April 22nd, 2009 | 1 Comment »

As many of you reading this site are avid travelers or at least wannabe avid travelers, you have most likely been on a travel forum from time to time. I don’t make a habit or going on them very often unless I need some immediate information and the best one I have come up with by far is Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Forum. I think it’s great and usually gives me some great advice. I know a lot about travel and about many places but when it comes to specifics and especially entry ordeals and onward travel info-I always post on Thorn Tree to get answers from people who have just been there or actually live there now. This is the real power of the Internet at work.

An example of a post I made yesterday was about entering Tibet from Nepal if you already have a Chinese visa and if it will be cancelled out when I obtain the new Tibet permit. I immediately had a few responses that were very helpful and I now know what the deal is. Additionally, I posted some Bhutan questions and that was quickly and accurately responded to as well.

I often use this site, both for great information from people in the know and also to market my own site a little bit but it has consistently given me great answers in a timely manner. Especially for remote places and countries like in West Africa or in Central Asia, etc. I always use it for posts on the road if I have questions. Guide books are good but nothing beats asking people who have just done what you are trying to do. I highly recommend this site and perhaps others like it. Nobody knows everything!