More Things- Nbr 33 Travel 2.0

I went ahead and started a new Dave's Travel Blog. See the following link in the sidebar. http://davecarlson-travels.blogspot.com/

In the sidebar to my Travel Blog, I provided three more links to professional travel journals published by local writers I actually know.

• Andrew Slade of Duluth self-publishes "There and Back" books, and has a blog by the same name.

• Beryl Singleton Bissell lives on the North Shore at Schroeder. Road Writer blog has months of posts of her trip to Italy, including a fresh entry today, April 15. It's creative writing at its best. Also link to her commercial website, and find her memoir, The Scent of God.
• Travis Novitsky lives at Grand Portage and has one of the most beautiful photo travel journals, plus a link to his commercial photography website.

Also in the sidebar is a link to the Little Marais Area map I created for Thing Nbr 32.

My first blog post is a copy of a series I started on Word Press, called 100 Places, with a few my own photos inserted.

From the reading list, "What is Travel 2.0?" is one I'll keep at hand.
http://pages.citebite.com/g1o3c9n4k2mur

My daughter in Chicago traveled to 29 cities in one year as part of her job a few years ago, and she became an expert in creating itineraries, using services such as Travelocity, and Orbitz. My other daughter is an attorney for a major Minneapolis law firm. Besides arranging their own business trips, she and her husband have traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East, where not only the creative itinerary is required, but cellphones, Blackberries, and internet cafes are necessary. The five of us have done well collaborating on family vacations.

My wife and I learned by experience, and with the help of a professional travel agent, to contact hotels and rental car agents directly, after doing the background with online services. Special promotions often are unpublished. Online reservation calendars are notoriously out of sync with actual availability.

As for the commercial travel services online journals, we've not found them helpful.
Travel with Gusto is better. http://www.gusto.com/

Also IgoUgo http://www.igougo.com/