Travelintelligence.net

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

This week, it’s another ‘Webby Awards’ nominee, Travelintelligence.net. The site was founded by some notable names, for instance, AA Gill – Sunday Times Magazine Columnist of the Year, award-winning travel writer Philip Marsden, and many others. The objective of the site is not just to provide information or recommendations, but to inspire the reader with the quality of the writing and the thoughtful opinions.

Overall
You tell from the start that it’s been designed by someone who knows what their doing. The homepage downloads in less than 10 seconds using a 56k modem, and most of the pages further into the site are even quicker. You might expect this from a site that’s mainly text, but even so, a great deal of care and attention has been paid to the use of graphics, the overall design and construction. It’s easy and intuitive to navigate, doesn’t rely on technical tricks of dubious merit, but instead it sticks to old-fashioned HTML and is much the better for it.

Content
Content is king, and this site is all about content. If you want to read about package deals or clubbing in Ibiza, look elsewhere. This is a site for the experienced traveller, who’s looking for something with depth and integrity. Have a look at the subject list – amongst others you’ll find pieces on military history, disaster travel, solitude, deserts, exploration, mountaineering, tribes, as well as the more usual subjects such as beaches, skiing or children. Take ‘Islands’ for example. Madagascar, Tasmania, Caribbean gardens, The Falklands – not your average package holiday fare.
The ‘Destinations’ section is logically divided into geographical areas, and it seems almost surprising to find something as technical as a drop down menu! From Mongolia to Antarctica, you’ll find features written by experienced and intelligent authors. All have a strong and sometimes quite personal voice, which makes them an engaging and authentic read. The coverage is fairly complete, although there are a few blanks. If you’ve ever been to Belize or Uganda, and fancy your hand at travel writing, you may like to submit a piece to them.

All the features are well served by copious links to other relevant articles, such as ecology, history, hotels, or other destinations in a similar category – for instance, the ‘Wilderness’ category features destinations such as Patagonia, the Australian outback and Finland.
The Hotels section is self explanatory, although this section relies more heavily on the hotels’ own descriptions, although other more personal reviews can be found elsewhere.

The intriguingly-named ‘Before You Die’ section has short, one or two line recommendations for ‘must see’ destinations, and not just the obvious ones either. Yes, you’ll find the Namibian desert, Galapagos Islands, the Great Wall of China, but you may be surprised to find salt marshes in Norfolk, or the Gulags of Uzbekistan.
But it’s the writing that really stands out. For instance, John Borthwick describes Tasmania as being a ‘Bonsai Great Southern Land sampler’, and goes on to describe a lost world of mythical landscapes, convict history, black swans and saucer-sized oysters. Once you start reading, you may find it hard to stop. But I guarantee your appetite for travel will be greatly increased.

‘Practicalities’ deals with how to actually get to these places, and is basically a page of links to airlines, car hire companies, insurers, and other travel-related sites.

Summary
As you might expect, it’s the quality of the content that makes the site great, but it’s also due to the design, which allows the user to access the features quickly and easily. There are a couple of very minor inconsistencies, and a search facility would be nice, but that’s just being picky. A joy to review, and naturally highly recommended.