Local travel sites round-up

Another collection of local travel sites that have recently appeared or recently been discovered on the Web.  What began as a one-off article highlighting some recent Web start-ups in the local travel arena has become a regular update of all things local appearing. As our tendency to seek local products and services grows, so too do the number of websites catering to our needs.  The growth in this area over recent months has been huge and will no doubt continue.  Hyperlocal news sites seem to be appearing particularly quickly across the U.S. at the moment.

Travel guides

nextstop – Helps you discover new & interesting places near you and around the world.  The fact that it’s founded by Carl Sjogreen (one of the leaders of Google Calendar), Adrian Graham (product manager for Picasa), and Charles Lin makes it no surprise that the entire site is based around Google APIs.  Check out the Mashable ‘HOW TO: Read, Explore, and Build Simple Travel Guides‘

Hyperlocal news sites

• EveryBlock - A new way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city. The site is currently confined to a few major U.S. cities but supplies hyperlocal information on the areas that does serve.
• outside.in – A hyperlocal news and information service for U.S. cities and neighbourhoods.
• Placeblogger - A collection of blogs feed into this site describing the lived experience of various places. Founded by Lisa Willams in 2006. Interesting and relevant article on here titled ‘Eight Hyperlocal Startups Receive New Voices Grants‘ about hyperlocal community news sites across the U.S. that have received grants from New Voices.
• Patch - A hyperlocal news site for all things going on in the neighbourhoods it covers.  All current sites are located around Newark, NY, USA.

Further information:

• NY Times – ‘Hyperlocal’ Web Sites Deliver News Without Newspapers
• PBS – Your Guide to Hyper-Local News