Wanderfly: Spark Your Wanderful Journey

I haven’t gone on vacation in what seems like forever (Wait! It’s been more than 2 years, so it has been forever!) so when I saw Wanderfly via CoolHunting, I went ooh.

A simple interface greets you when you land, that makes it feels less of travel-planning, more of “show me what’s out there” based on your interests. The pretty vacation spot photo in the background also helps push the right “I want to be there right now” spot in my brain.

You choose your departing city, time frame and budget, and pick your heart’s desire. Mine: Five days in November, on a beach with food, spa and culture. From 1,200+ destinations in their database, Wanderfly told me that there are 22 spots I’d like best, including Fes, Morocco and  Half Moon Bay, California. To narrow down the results, you can click on the ones you’re interested in and then compare them in a simple next-n-previous-arrows browsing mode.

Wanderfly also offers rich, personalized content for each location, utilizing its partnership with the likes of Lonely Planet, Expedia, FourSquare, Not For Tourists, etc. to provide brief city guides with suggestion for accommodations and flights. Connect to Facebook and it scans Facebook to show you which of your friends are in each city you’re exploring. There are News via Twitter, Weather and coming soon, Destination Reviews, Travel Tips and Currency Conversion. And, for each of the activities you selected, there are recommendations from Yelp, Eventful and, just recently, Find. Eat. Drink.

Seems like this newbie—officially launched yesterday—is doing things right. Everything seems so simple and intuitive. Wanderfly motto is to help you discover new experiences. It wants to Spark Your Journey and I believe it did.

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.”

—Miriam Beard

So go ahead. Be adventurous. I’m so ready!

p.s. I found that quote at Wanderfly, while it was searching for my fabulous journey. How appropriate.

Via CoolHunting