TourWrist Brings New Views Of Old Places

by Chris Owen on

TourWrist has one of the world’s largest collections of geo-located virtual tours, acquired from consumers and panoramic photographers. Different than two-dimensional photos and static-shot video, TourWrist real world panoramic images can greatly enhance travel-planning efforts by offering a different, more detailed view of places we might visit.

A free service, TourWrist delivers a 360-degree view of places we might travel with over 30,000 panoramic images. Using the TourWrist smartphone app to view, shoot, publish and share panoramas is easy too. TourWrist comes loaded with panoramic photography tools, back-end infrastructure and tour viewers.

“If you’ve ever played with Google Earth, you zoom in and get this sensation of being able to go anywhere – but eventually you stop going back because it doesn’t let you do anything,” explained on CoDesign. Tour Wrist CEO Charles Armstrong. “Our goal is to give you the opportunity to actually explore these places.”

Visiting the TourWrist website, we can choose to see the best/everything in categories such as hotels and resorts; arts and entertainment; dining and more. A panorama of a luxury yacht caught our attention and provides a good example of just what TourWrist is capable of. Clicking our way around the yacht took us from one panorama to another, giving about as complete of a tour as possible without really being there.

In that yacht tour, we were able to view in different directions and move forward and backward into the scene, much like Google Street View, something we would not have been able to do not long ago. “Our interface is always in a constant state of improvement,” says Armstrong.



[Photos Credit: Flickr user drocpso]

Over The River And Around The Detour With Road Travel Info Sources

by Chris Owen on

“Over The River and Through the Wood” is a Thanksgiving song that many travelers will be humming if not singing in a couple weeks as they hit the road for holiday events. To keep the holiday mood light, many will turn to a variety of online and smartphone tools designed to make life on the road easier.

Sigalert takes the California Highway Patrol definition of “any unplanned event that causes the closing of one lane of traffic for 30 minutes or more,” and turns it into data drivers can use to plan their trip. Complete with personalized routing and traffic alerts via email or text, a subscription version ($2.95/month) gives rich data, but just stopping by the Sigalert website reveals a quick, detailed snapshot of traffic right now.

Frixo.com specializes in giving traffic reports for UK motorways, updated every three to five minutes using sensors placed on motorways and common roads. Speed limits, traffic incidents, information motorists will see on electronic road displays, road work information and weather conditions that might affect a trip are also listed.At Traffic.com, U.S. drivers can check their drive time in a side-by-side comparison with delay time and average speed for a road trip from home to grandmother’s house. Traffic.com also invites visitors to visit NavteqMaps24.com where the future of mapping is happening right now.

At the top of the list of road trip guidance helpers is Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive, now part of mapping solutions company Navteq. Making revolutionary new maps that are as detailed and current as possible, this is the one we want along for the holiday ride or anytime, as we see in this video:




[Photo credit- Flickr user epSos.de]

Hotel News We Noted: November 2, 2012

by McLean Robbins on

We’d like to begin this week’s column by sending out our thoughts to all of those who have been without power or homes since Sandy tore through the East Coast earlier this week. While we escaped the worst of the storm in D.C., we know that many of our friends and colleagues in the Northeast were not so lucky. We’ll be reporting on ways travelers can help throughout the coming weeks.

The hotel news, however, must go on. So, without further ado, here is this week’s issue of “Hotel News We Noted.”

If you’re interested in sending us newsy tidbits or comments, please do so via email. We welcome reader mail! We’re also seeking hotels and travel companies offering Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials for an upcoming special edition.

Storm Loss: $700 Million In Business Lost
A new Wall Street Journal article estimates that the one-day loss totals from Hurricane Sandy equaled 600,000 business trips lost and $700 million in associated spending loss. Significant, sure, but not compared to the $50 billion plus expected to clean up the damage as a result of the storm. Still, for the tens of thousands of travelers still stranded in airport hotels waiting to get home and those who are currently staycationing because their buldings lack power, we hope you get home soon.

Hotel Openings: In North Korea?
We all knew those crazy North Koreans were on a power trip. Now the AP is reporting (see the full story over on our friends at HuffPo) that the “world’s tallest hotel,” Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel, will likely open next year. The 105-story hotel will partially open more than two decades after initial construction began, via a management contract with European hotel chain Kempinski.New Hotel Partnership: Gaylord Joins Marriott
Marriott now has a 14th brand. As of early 2013, Gaylord Hotels’ four resorts in the D.C., Orlando, Dallas and Nashville areas will be part of the Marriott Rewards program. Members earn 10 points per dollar spent at Gaylord Hotels on room rate only or two airline miles per dollar spent on room rate only. That’s a good deal for business travelers, many of who find themselves at these massive conference centers for events.

Haute Hotel Package: Holiday Prep at the White Barn Inn
Learn how to be the “Hostess with the Mostess” this holiday season. On November 10, The White Barn Inn, the boutique Relais & Chateaux property in Kennebunkport, ME, is offering guests a Holiday Workshop, complete with a baking class in the new bakery (with champagne, of course), lunch at the famed White Barn Inn restaurant where guests can try their baked creations, and a cocktail class by White Barn Inn expert mixologists to learn to make the hottest holiday cocktails of the season. Rates start at $760 for an overnight plus breakfast for two. Pricey, but if it gets you any closer to Martha Stewart-like fame for your domestic skills, the investment might be worth it.

Hotel Deals of the Week
It seems like even hotels are getting in the holiday spirit early this year. Arizona’s Biltmore is offering an incredible $89 holiday rate for stays booked between Nov. 2 and 9 for stays between Nov. 18 and Dec. 1 or between Dec. 14 and Jan. 1.

[Image Credit: Arizona Biltmore]

Trouble Booking Post-Sandy Air Travel? Try Using Twitter

by Jessica Marati on

The other day, a friend spent 40 minutes on the phone trying to rebook a trip from Orange County to New York City, only to have his request denied. But when we tried reaching out to the airline on Twitter, it took only 10 minutes for a response. After a few 140-character direct messages back and forth, we successfully switched flights within the hour.

Twitter can be a fast, easy and efficient way to get airline customer service, particularly in the aftermath of disasters like Superstorm Sandy. But not all Tweets are created equal. Here are a few factors that can help your message get noticed.

Using hashtags

Hashtags allow Twitter users to participate in larger conversations on topics and events. For example, a search on the hashtag #Sandy will bring up all Tweets related to the storm. Other useful hashtags include: #frankenstorm, #travel, #airlines, cities like #nyc or #boston and airport codes like #jfk and #ewr. If you include a hashtag in your Tweet, chances are your message will surface beyond your immediate network – which can be harmful to airlines if the sentiment is negative.Mentioning other airlines

It sometimes helps to stir up a little healthy competition. In this particular situation, we mentioned American Airlines in our Tweet to JetBlue, stating that American’s change policy included flights on October 28, while JetBlue’s policy started on October 29. We concluded:

@jetblue first time I’ve ever wished I flew @americanair instead. No way to change flights w/ fee waiver for a 10/29 redeye? #frankenstorm

Within a few minutes, we received a response from JetBlue asking us to send the confirmation code by direct message so they could see if we qualified for a change fee waiver, which we did. To boot, American Airlines sent us a cheeky Tweet asking why we had “cheated on them” and wishing us well.

Your follower count

The higher your follower count, the wider the network your angry Twitter messages will reach. As a result, Twitter users with more followers may well have their messages bumped to the top of the customer service queue. The same goes for users with high scores on Klout, an engine that attempts to measure a person’s social media influence. Airlines already use Klout to issue perks like airport lounge stays and even free flights; it’s not out of the question that they use Klout scores in their social media customer service platforms too.

Perfecting your message

Set aside the impulse to be rude and aggressive, and feel free to shelve the emoticons while you’re at it. Twitter’s 140-character message limit forces you to pare down your request to the bare essentials, and it helps to be direct and concise about your needs. Try to avoid messages like this:

@airline i am so bummmmmmed that i can’t change my flight!!! ur customer service sux. :(

Instead try something like this:

@airline trying to change #LAX-#JFK fl 204 fr 10/31 to 11/3 bec #sandy. phone agent says no flights on 11/3 but i see flights online. help?

[Photo Credit: Flickr user Shawn Campbell]

See All 50 States In America, Legitimately, With A Twist Of Politics

by Chris Owen on

Visiting the 50 states in America can be a life-long quest for some travelers. Others fall into it through frequent business travel. Many just realize that they have only a few states left and they will have visited all 50. But the criteria used to determine if a visit “counts” and gives one “I was there” rights is another matter.

The All Fifty Club is about as close as we can find to a governing, official organization charged with validating traveler claims of visiting all the states in America. They have some rules for scoring a win, requiring “that one should breathe the air and set foot on the ground. Thus driving through the state counts if you get out once, but airport layovers do not,” club founder Alicia Rovey said in an Associated Press report.

But many members have their own standards that include specific requirements for state visits to count. “Some do not count it unless they spend the night in that state or visit the state capital,” says Rovey. “More unique ones are sighting native birds of that state, playing a round of golf, donating blood in each state.”Not sure how many states you have visited? All Fifty Club has a fun interactive map on their website where visitors can quickly click on each state, adding each one visited to their total.

Not a politically oriented website, the All Fifty Club interactive map starts with all the states colored blue. Clicking on a state turns it red. Take a look and tell me you don’t think the Presidential candidates have a map like this that they play with on the road.

Struggling with the names and locations of all 50 states in America? This short video may help:



[Photo Credit: Flickr user Bugsy Sailor]