Errtravel.com

Review by Adrian Mann, owner of Adrian Mann Design, providing independent reviews and analysis of travel web sites in the UK.

In a departure from the usual serious corporate fare, here’s a site that aims to inject a little humour into the subject of travel. The purpose of Errtravel.com is to highlight some of the inconvenient, exasperating or dangerous aspects of travel, so we can all learn the lessons without having to make the same mistakes. It’s mainly aimed at the business traveller, but there’s plenty of advice and stories of interest to everyone.

Overall
Nice looking home page – I especially like the logo! It loads in about 40 seconds on a 56kb modem, which is a bit slow – some of the graphics could be trimmed a little to speed things up. If you’re like me, you probably want to go straight to the “horror” stories, but there’s no obvious link to them. Instead, content is organised into columns, which you can reach via a link on the left (index of past Err Travel Columns), or you can search the archive for specific items, or alternatively go straight to the site map and find what you’re after from there.

Content
Although the site adopts a humorous tone of voice, there are a lot of serious messages contained in the stories and articles. The columns are organised into categories – Advice, Warnings, Destinations, Transportation, Lodging and Products. Each category has plenty of articles, although they are very much U.S. based. Articles date back to March 1999, and even if you’re not looking for anything specific, the titles just invite you to read on – how about “Psychology of Terror – Skewing perception”, or “Travelphobia – Don’t leave home. Period.”, or even “Rats! – Restaurant inspection records”.
Much of the information is focused on how to not become a victim of crime. There’s an article on what to do with your valuables, which goes through the safest places in a hotel, best hiding places, the safest way to carry things while out and about, but the best advice is to just leave them at home. There are also articles on crime figures, how to interpret them, and why they don’t tell the full story. But some of the facts that are supposed to make us feel safer seem like a double-edged sword – how much more comfortable do you feel about flying when you know that between 20 and 25 thousand people are murdered in the US every year? Not much I’ll bet.
There’s also information on subjects you may not have considered – how about home security while you’re away? Most of it should be obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded. There are also some travel movie reviews, which includes a pithy and succinct review of “Titanic” – it’s long and wet!
Aside from the articles, there are some good links to other travel resources, and while they are pitched towards the US audience, they still have relevant advice and information. There’s also an e-mail newsletter to subscribe to, Travel Alerts and contact information, and you can also submit your own tales of travel trauma.

Summary
After reading this site for a while, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that it’s actually much safer to stay at home. Muggings, dead passengers on flights, kidnapping, robbery – it’s a good thing that they include a selection of lighter items! There’s even an article on why it’s actually not safer to stay at home, so no comfort there either.
Aside from the hair-raising stories, there’s plenty of practical advice that applies to anyone who’s travelling, and not just the business traveller. Even given the strong US flavour, there are plenty of worrying, entertaining, or just plain bizarre articles that will either keep you amused, or keep you awake at night. It can be a little difficult to navigate, and some of the articles are a bit short and light on detail, but overall it’s an entertaining and thought-provoking site.

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