Quirky Wanderer

If you are a travel buff, this article is for you.

So which part of travel do you most cherish?
Reading travel blogs and being inspired to visit a place?
Planning?
Researching?
Connecting with people who have already traveled to that destination?
Finding the right deals?
Checking in on Facebook as you travel?
Coming back and documenting your travelogues?

What if all of it was at your disposal at one click?

The talk of the town (read : Travel community) is TraveLibro.
When I heard about it, I was intrigued to know what the buzz is about and decided to check the portal.

Bright travel illustrations welcomed me as I explored the site.

And when I signed up the Bucket list is what attracted me instantly, transporting me back to the geography class where the entire world was on my bucket list.
Yes, you can fill the countries you have been to and mark the countries you wish to go.

I am now using the portal since two months and it doesn’t fail to amaze me.
Here’s why:

1. Helps me document itineraries:

“Hey, I am planning a trip to Pondicherry, can you please help me with what to do, where to stay, etc?”

“Hello, I had read your travelogue on Italy, can you please help me with site seeing options?”

If you are a travel blogger, these queries will be quite common. It is quite a privilege to find people turning to you for help, but quite cumbersome to share.
No matter how kicked I am about travel, designing an itinerary for a friend can be err.. something I can procrastinate (eternally).
So I opt for a short cut: “Hey, you can check my blog, maybe?”
Pat comes the reply, ” But your blog has travelogues! I need itineraries.”

I roll eyes.
But then deep down I know they are right.

We don’t put itineraries on our blogs, do we?
No!
And nothing can be better than documenting an itinerary not just as excellent reference for friends and family but also as a memory for yourself.
The itinerary input tool on TraveLibro is fun, engaging and extremely easy. 4 easy steps and Voila! Your very own itinerary is part of the thousands on the site.

A great way to cherish what I did, where I ate, what I saw, all in one place! A virtual travel diary of sorts.

This video explains it all:

2. Helps me pre plan a trip:

Admit it: All of us have dreamt of traveling at work. Virtually traveled to destinations, making plans and getting excited about a trip not knowing when it will materialize.

TraveLibro’s pre plan feature helps to plan a trip and save it for future reference. It is a great way to note down all those travel inspirations you read online and the list them down in this virtual diary.

The best part is having so many ready itineraries to refer. Select a destination. Eg: Greece and get hundreds of itineraries depending on the type of trip you are looking at: Adventure, Luxury, backpacking and so on.

Most of these itineraries are ready reference and are real traveller itineraries. So you get to access to real time data of what travelers across the world did in a particular destination.

This makes me not open a million tabs on my laptop! (which I end up closing without reading after all ).

3. Creating On The Go journeys.

I have always found Facebook check-ins to be very blah. But if there is something like that on a travel social network, the purpose of check ins changes.

The TraveLibro App helps you to record your journeys in the present. So you need not come back and document it.

For travel bloggers, this is a boon. So I normally carry a diary with me and jot down everything in it when I travel.
This is to note down every single detail of the travel so it is easy to document it when I am back. An On-The Go feature is extremely useful so no detail of a trip is missed. One can upload status messages and pictures on their timeline.
Fancier than Check-ins, right?

4. Connect with agents:
The Book feature lets you directly connect with third party travel agents.

Haven’t explored this feature as yet, but there are a plethora of agents listed on TraveLibro for every destination.

The BEST part about the portal is that it, in itself isn’t a Travel Agency!
It is a travel social network that brings in globetrotters together.

5.Helps me to be a part of a travel community:
As an avid travel lover, I sometimes find my Facebook to be immensely cluttered. TraveLibro, being a community for Travelers, curates the content I would love to read, be it travel blogs of popular bloggers or On the go journeys of friends.
With travelers from across the world, this is a platform to share genuine, travel content and connect with like minded wanderers.

So just like any other social network, you can follow travelers and get their travel updates live on your travel feed.

6.The comprehensive Travel Scrapbook:
One of the prime reasons I love traveling is creating memories. As a kid, I did it with stamps, maps and pictures clicked with my film camera.

This is a digital version of the same scrapbook, where memories can be cherished and I can have my entire travel timeline at one place.

As their tagline goes: “Create, plan, book, explore, cherish”, TraveLibro is certainly my travel memory keeper and a great one at it.

If you like my travelogues and wish to read my itineraries and follow my travel tales, follow me on TraveLibro here. My Italy, Pondicherry, Rajasthan, Dubai itineraries are already up on the portal.

If you are already on the portal, let me know so I can connect there!

The App can be downloaded here:
Android – Play Store – http://bit.ly/1WDUiCN
iOS – App Store – http://apple.co/1TYeGs5

(P.s: The orange suitcase is delightfully adorable!)