Nov 15, 2007
Along comes a website for the selection of live guides to show you around a foreign city
The web is clogged with travel sites that purport to introduce travelers with like-minded individuals willing and ready to host them on their vacations. As of this month, there's yet another entrant, this one dedicated to matchmaking guides with travelers.
The site is called VIAmigo (www.viamigo.com), and it's designed to be a place where tourists can find guides in the cities they're about to visit. Currently, it lists about 1,500 such people. Probably because the website has no method for vetting the quality or experience of the guides who post upon it, it advertises itself, rather murkily, more as a place to meet locals than as a way to connect with guaranteed top-notch guides. In fact, its rubric is "Be local."
Still, one might assume that anyone who goes through the effort of creating and posting a guiding profile online will be serious about providing a quality experience to anyone who happens to contact them. There is also a rating system by which those who have used a guide can come back to the site and review and rate them, although at this early point, the system is little-used.
Some of the guides require payment, and some simply want to meet interesting foreigners and show them what's so great about their hometowns.
If anyone has used VIAmigo and has feedback about its services, I'd be eager to receive and reprint your reports.
Write and read comments about this post.
The site is called VIAmigo (www.viamigo.com), and it's designed to be a place where tourists can find guides in the cities they're about to visit. Currently, it lists about 1,500 such people. Probably because the website has no method for vetting the quality or experience of the guides who post upon it, it advertises itself, rather murkily, more as a place to meet locals than as a way to connect with guaranteed top-notch guides. In fact, its rubric is "Be local."
Still, one might assume that anyone who goes through the effort of creating and posting a guiding profile online will be serious about providing a quality experience to anyone who happens to contact them. There is also a rating system by which those who have used a guide can come back to the site and review and rate them, although at this early point, the system is little-used.
Some of the guides require payment, and some simply want to meet interesting foreigners and show them what's so great about their hometowns.
If anyone has used VIAmigo and has feedback about its services, I'd be eager to receive and reprint your reports.
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: travel guides, websites
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