Why build another Travel App?

A quick scan of your favorite social media site will immediately illustrate the vast amount of sites and articles dedicated to travel planning. I’ve visited more of those sites than I care to reveal, and over the years I’ve accumulated a lot of discrete references. I always enjoy reading about places I’ve never considered visiting or renewing my interest in certain bucket list spots, but the information has never really helped much with DECIDING WHERE TO GO. Whenever I’d attempt to narrow down trip ideas, I’d tried to remember ALL THE THINGS. Which, unless you have the working memory of a computer, is kind of impossible.

I don’t have an endless supply of time or money, and I want to make informed decisions about my vacations – but the information I had wasn’t helping me. I wanted to have a snapshot of all this research; I wanted to condense all the details into a digestible summary; and I wanted it in one place.

After attempting to create an excel spreadsheet with the information, I realized the material was much better suited for a rails app.

What is a Travel Almanac?

When I’m thinking about travel, I usually focus on either a time of year or destination(s). I structured the program to do the same.

The month section allows you to see which destinations are good options for specific months. The location section tells you when to visit certain destinations.

In addition to simply listing this information, the app also includes summary information (e.g. when is the ‘best time to travel’) and notable details (e.g. ‘January is one of the few times a year you can visit Torres del Paine’).

Audience

This app was built specifically as a tool for my personal travel planning; as such, the list of destinations are those that interest me – not a general survey of popular destinations.