Website of the Week: wikitravel.org
You may be familiar with Wikipedia, the addictive, online encyclopaedia whose entries are collaborative creations submitted by the website's users. But did you know there is a travel version?
Wikitravel - whose immodest aim is to create a "complete, up-to-date, and reliable worldwide travel guide" - was inspired by Wikipedia, and works in much the same way, with anyone able to post up whatever they like about places they know(or profess to know), and edit existing entries.
The website currently holds over 20,000 destination guides and other articles.
Strengths
The information can be as good as you'll find in a first-class guidebook - and free. For example, the coverage of Bath (a city I know well - I live there) is excellent - with insightful history, moans and advice about parking, good summaries of the main sights, judgmental and pretty accurate reviews of restaurants and pubs, and intelligent hotel recommendations. I've also found Wikitravel helpful where guidebook information has been scant - most recently, on a trip to Saariselka in Finnish Lapland.
Weaknesses
Though Wikitravel's guidelines for writers state that blatant advertising isn't welcome and that the website's aim is to be honest and fair, you don't know who has written what. So hotel and restaurant recommendations may be biased, and you'd be mad to rely exclusively on Wikitravel for advice. And, naturally, the website's coverage is uneven. Some places (such as Barcelona) are written up at great length, while others currently have just a brief outline (Calais, for example), or, in the case of Boulogne, no coverage at all. Ratings
Inspiring 4/5
Useful 4/5
Easy to use 4/5
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