Travel recommendations are important

How important are recommendations whenever you travel? Would you rather hear one from a travel expert or from someone you know? Or are you interested in hearing a recommendation from someone with your same profile? Is there a compatibility index that you can actually rely on? Ever since I started traveling I have always been interested in hearing an opinion or suggestion about a dish, hotel or restaurant... I am one of those people that will almost always ask for the specials and let the waiter "sell" me something I was not thinking of eating. When I am traveling, I also like to hear what local people find to be a good choice to do.

I will never forget my first trip to Colorado where on the way from Denver Airport to Vail we stopped at a restaurant, and we asked for "typical" food and they served us nachos with cheese and guacamole. I guess that since we where a group of people talking in Spanish that is what they considered "typical" and I would like! My point is that a recommendation is always subjective to the person giving it, and to their perception of what they believe you will like. So when www.facebook.com and www.amazon.com recently started to incorporate an application that lets me see what books my friends like, what they bought or read I was quite happy, because there I saw a potential opportunity for travel information. If I could see or choose from a smaller set of options, that a simple sorting based on the characteristics of my "small world" would offer, I could probably avoid going to places my friends already considered "not interesting".

Clearly if you tell me NOT TO GO TO, or PLEASE AVOID THAT PLACE, I will surely consider it, but if you positively recommend, I might decide to go or NOT. So this situation leaves a great deal of pressure on the delivery side, as if more than 5 people "trash" your restaurant you will probably loose business, and guess what most companies are hiring freelancers to write positive reviews at sites such as tripadvisor.com , so that the negative ones, which sometimes are written by the competition loose weight.... So is this the end of the web 2.0 ? I like to see the positive side of things, so for me this is the beginning of the social web. If I see pictures of my friend enjoying himself in a hotel in Barcelona on facebook, I somehow want to join him, I don´t care about his reviews, I AM SEEING HIS REVIEW!!

At www.mondoexplorer.com we are working on this and many other interesting things because we like to travel and we like to have great experiences. So here comes my personal recommendation: Cas Gasi, in Ibiza this summer, a great small Bed and Breakfast or "Agroturismo", it is run by Margaret and I guarantee you will enjoy this part of Ibiza in August; you will be close to the action of summer madness and far away enough so you can actually relax and enjoy the last Grisham novel. Enjoy your summer!
Nicolás Visiers Würth, Editor.

Summer Travel, but the MondoExplorer way

July is here and most of us already know where we are going to spend the summer at. While summer travel is probably where we spend the most money, we tend to want to minimize the risk of having a disaster vacation by going to places we already visited, or even choosing a location that is what we call "a safe bet" so that the little time we get to relax and spend quality time is just that, JOYFUL. Ever since we started this www.mondoexplorer.com it was our intent to help travelers with their decisions, by giving them local advice that would allow them to have a rewarding experience, by letting them know in advance what to do, where to go, where to stay in cities we have collaborators at so that they get first hand information.

Spending time in Argentina, I always found that being there was a completely different experience when I knew someone local that gave me recommendations, and I am extremely happy to see the great work of our collaborators in Mendoza, who have put a great deal of information in our city guide www.mondoexplorer.com/mendoza that I am sure will bring value to anyone wanting to go there. We have local advice, but even more than that, we have people that are extremely happy to help you if you are traveling there, giving you tips, advice and information that will definitively help make your time there unforgettable. Check out their latest suggestions and start planing your trip to one of the most fascinating places Argentina has to offer, where you can ski at this time of the year and experience some of the best sights in all Latin America. When you go there don't forget to visit one of the many famous wine makers of the region to taste the best Malbec wines !!!

Enjoy your Summer ! Nicolás Visiers Würth, Mondoexplorer.