A Social Networking Site for Travelers

When it comes to taking a journey, half the fun can often be planning the trip: daydreaming about where you'll stay, the people, foods, and culture you'll encounter, and getting recommendations from everyone you know about the inside secrets.

That's why we're glad to have found Travbuddy, a new social networking site based exclusively around travel. As the name suggests, Travbuddy aims to put you in touch with fellow globetrotters to swap stories through photographs, forums, blogs, and interactive maps.

A simple buddy search for Cordoba, Spain found eight members who live there and six who will be traveling there soon. That, along with dozens of hotel reviews, photos, and 28 Cordoba-related travel blogs. This is a neat way to connect with other travelers and really enables you to zero in on destinations and people with similar interests. You can also learn a lot about how other people plan trips and where they get their information.

Among the most popular blogs is ulysses' jaunt round the world. And this savvy traveler created a hostel and travel info search page using a little known Google function. With the click of the mouse, it searches eight sites from BootsnAll to Wikitravel.

Travbuddy has 1.25 million registered members and about 50,000 blog entries. Hundreds of people have met through the site, says Eric Bjorndahl, who founded the site in late 2005 with his brother, David. "Many of the features we have today are a direct result of community feedback....Everyone on the site is a passionate and committed traveler, which lends [the site] a very unique and positive feel."

If this sounds up your alley, sign up for a free account or travel blog today. IT can't wait to have friends from all over the world. 

Image: TravBuddy