WEB BUZZ

TripBase.com aims to match you with the best travel plans

By Jen Leo
07:05 PM PST, November 25, 2008

Every other new travel website claims to make your trip-planning experience easier and more efficient. TripBase.com, even though it's still in beta, actually makes it more fun.

What's hot: TripBase is the Match.com of travel planning. You input what you find desirable in a destination (night life, dining, nature, attractions and shopping) and it returns destinations that you're likely to be infatuated with. Like online dating results, these outcomes may disgust you. Or you may find that you're excited about a destination you never dreamed you'd want to visit. You can also control how much you want to spend on your trip or whether you want to fly or drive. Once you have your matches, view them by map or list, select a destination, then click on the tabs "Things to Do" and "Articles" to get even more information about your NBD (new best destination).

What's not: You have to take the results with a grain of salt. Some of the destinations that got returned for my trip personality choices weren't exactly safe or plausible (Rosarito, Mexico, and Havana). Also, TripBase derives its results from search methods that consider 22 million traveler reviews and more than 3,000 travel blogs and websites -- but it doesn't tell you which ones. I'm looking forward to more transparency when it's out of beta.

Leo is a freelance writer.


For more websites to check out, visit our Web Buzz page.

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