Leading Hands Through Technology

OK, all you world travelers, I have been following you on Tripit! If you are not using this social media travel tool, then consider signing-up. I've had this post sitting in draft mode for a while and I finally decided to publish it. The bottom line is that I have been using Tripit and it does a great job consolidating your itinerary easily in one place. If you are a frequent traveler, you should consider using Tripit. I personally do not have it connected to my social networks, I prefer to manually update my whereabouts.

Tripit will:

• Build your itinerary from airline, hotel, and other email confirmations
• Organize all in once place – plans to share and access
• Share your travels – connect to Twitter, LinkedIn, etc…

http://www.tripit.com/

The other day I was booking a trip and I stumbled upon this cool little application on Travelocity called Experience Finder. I would describe this online gadget as an interactive travel guide to the most popular global destinations.

First you choose your destination, then you choose from most the popular activities to experience in that area. You can further narrow down what you want to do by genre, like romance or family. I also like that you can see an interactive map and a proximity of your activities that are closest to your hotel.

http://www.travelocity.com/experiencefinder

Are you heading to the big inauguration this upcoming Tuesday in Washington D.C.? If you are and you’re an iPhone user, you must download the free 2009 Inauguration iPhone App.

What will this app do?

• How much time is left until the inauguration
• How far you are away from the inauguration
• Transit service and locations
• Parking garage locations

http://appshopper.com/navigation/2009-presidential-inauguration-guide

The website says, “Kayak is a travel search engine. We search hundreds of travel sites from all over the world, provide the information in an easy-to-use display and send customers directly to the source to make their purchase.”

If you are looking for the right flight, hotel, cruise, or rental car, then look no further than Kayak. Once you make your choice, Kayak will link you to the travel sites to make your purchase. From what I can see, the website gets info from Orbitz, Travelocity and Priceline. You can also sign-up for alerts when prices or specials occur.

1. Search 140+ travel sites at once
2. Compare results from all sites together
3. Buy direct from airlines or agencies
4. Kayak is free!

http://www.kayak.com