It doesn't always need to be a big hotel / Photo by Stephen Chapman

One of the joys of independent travel is following your nose on the road – moving on when the mood takes you, finding little local gems by chance or on recommendation. It’s all part of the buzz of travelling.  Now, a new breed of web-sites are making it easier to find and book all this online.

Before these sites existed the only way of discovering such offerings was to wander along foreign streets and get lost in a labyrinth of passageways and the unfamiliar.  Some of us are happy to take our chances with travel agents before leaving home and accept that a large portion of our spend will be distributed between those involved, but many of us are happy making it up on the ground.

So is the development of these new websites that can combine planned and spontaneous travel a good or bad thing?  You could use any or all of the following on your next trip:

• Find a local fixer through Your Safe Planet, who will give you an insight into the destination and help you plan your visit by putting you in contact with their resident YSPerson in your destination.

• Book a local guesthouse on whl.travel through their online portal based in your destination and run by local operators.  Some of their listings can only be booked online through the local whl.travel site – part of their aim is to help the little guys without internet facilities get online.

• Find a local guide who knows your destination like the back of their hand and will show you places you might never reach on your own on Leap Local or Our Explorer.

• Find and book an experience such as a kayaking trip, market visit or a hot air balloon ride with a passionate local with us on Tourdust.

I think these are all fantastic resources for travellers but in no way spell the end for true independent, making-it-up-on-the-fly travel.  In fact they may even encourage it by affording independent minded travellers some structure and access to great locations where time is short, or in the early stages of arriving in a destination.  I advocate mixing it up – research online in advance, book a couple of these experiences or places to stay as a focal point of a trip but leave time too for unplanned spontaneous travel.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether you think that the web opening up these new possibilities is a good or bad thing for independent travel.

Further information:

• WHL: Making Travel A Little Fairer By Design

Tourdust.com

There’s a new (beta) travel site on the block, TourDust.com. According to the blurb, “It’s all about discovering and sharing authentic travel experiences offered by passionate locals.” They’ve got some interesting trips up there so far: from wine-tasting in the UK to photographing bears in Alaska. (The latter is possibly my dream trip. Although at US$750 a day, I’d better start saving now.)

The one thing I’m unsure about is the over-reliance on the word “authentic”, which is plastered across the site. They are asking people to post their “authentic travel experiences”. What exactly does that mean? Is it the same as striving to see the “real side” of a country? I’ve never been comfortable with that phrase either.

• Continue reading this article @ Going Local

• Read Tourdust: Are Local Collectives The Future For Authentic Travel? Written by Tourdust Co-Founder Ben Colclough.