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Travel review sites have become increasing popular in the last few years. You can now read Travel Reviews on not just restaurants and hotels, but also on nightlife, local buses, tourist traps, and others. There are also sites for Travel Blogs where you can read travel journals and view photos taken by other travelers. Travel Forums have also become much more active in recent years and are popular places for travelers to share experiences before or after their trips.

Forums are a great place to have your questions answered as well as to see what other common issues or questions other travelers have about your destination. Some Forums are staffed by local experts and are a good place to ask questions such as "Hotel X looks really nice in photos but are there restaurants and bars within walking distance?" It's also a good place to get ideas on where to go, such as "which of the Hawaiian islands are best for snorkeling?" Some travelers also post their trip reports on Forums which make for interesting reads.

Fodor's Forums is organized by topics such as Airlines, Cruises, Honeymoons & Weddings, Solo Traveler, Music, Movies, Books, Educational Travel, and others. As for destinations, the Forums are organized by broad geographic regions such as Latin America and Europe. The posts for a particular city are not grouped together. So, if you are interested in forums for a particular city, you need to do a keyword search to find the matching messages. It's not the best site if you have no particular keywords in mind and just want to read through recent posts about a city. But, if you have specific keywords in mind such as "Cancun food" or if you are interested in any of the listed topics, the site may work for you once you get used to the unusual interface.

Frommer's forums are well-organized. They are divided into topics and destinations. The destinations are divided into countries, and all the messages relating to a country are neatly presented in a list that's easy to browse through. The topics are divided into 3 major sections: Activities, Lifestyle, and Tips, Tools, and Deals. In the Tips, Tools, and Deals section, you'll find useful posts such as "how to keep comfortable on long flights," "should I go to Puerto Vallarta or Cancun," and other useful tips. The Frommer's Travel Talk is a great site if you have no search terms in mind and just want to browse.

Tripadvisor Forums are organized by interests and destinations. Some of the non-destination categories are Cruises, Airlines, and Family Travel. The destination forums are organized by country and major cities. The topics are organized with the most recent posts on top, as typical of most forums. The interface makes it very easy to browse through a large number of topics in a short period of time. If you have a specific query, you can also search for relevant topics in the search box. One added bonus is that a topic that is of interest to many people are made "sticky" and placed at the top. For example, one "sticky" topic for Puerto Vallarta is the Frequently Asked Questions on the Puerto Vallarta Forum.

Virtual Tourist Forums are organized by country and major cities. There is also a forum called miscellaneous for non-destination related topics.

Reading blogs can be a great way to select your next destination or to learn about your chosen destination. Rather than reading reviews by often unknown authors, readings blogs often gives you a personal connection to the authors. Reviews are often a compilation written by authors from different backgrounds. What one traveler considers a strenuous hike, another traveler may consider a short walk. With blogs, because you get to know the authors, you can choose to read blogs that suit your style of travel.

Travel Pod, like Travel Blog, has travel journals from travelers around the world. The layout of the blogs are more cluttered with ads, and the photos are smaller and not as attractively positioned. Nevertheless, it's a nice alternative to Travel Blog. You can create your travel journals on the site.

Travel Blog has a collection of travel diaries for destinations all over the world. The blogs contain some ads but are not overly-cluttered with them, making the site relatively pleasant to browse through. Many of the blogs have photos interspersed through out, instead of in the form of slideshows on a separate area. This format makes the blogs read like nicely-laid out newspaper articles. You can also create your own free travel journal on Travel Blog.

Search engine for finding blogs. The results also contain videos, message board posts, and news items so it may take some time to find what you are looking for. Nevertheless, it's an alternative if you don't find blogs on your destination on Travel Blog.

Search engine for finding blogs. An alternative if you don't find what you are looking for on Travel Blog.

There are a number of good general travel sites. You can get guidebook-like articles on a wide variety of topics written by users on Tripadvisor. On IGoUGo you can read journal entry type of reviews on nightlife, restaurants, or just "experiences.

IGoUGo is a review site organized in what IGoUGo calls a travel journal, which is a collection of reviews by an author during a trip. A journal may have reviews of hotels, restaurants, nightlife, ... etc. Because the travel journals are written in a diary format, you get a more personal connection with the authors. To get to a Journal, you first find your destination by using the search box or clicking on the map. Then, you click on Journals. After you select a Journal, you can then read all the restaurant, nightlife, and other reviews by that author on a particular trip. If you are interested in reviews of a particular type of business, for example, restaurants, then click on Restaurants instead of Journals, and you'll find a listing of restaurants. Although you'll likely find interesting reads on IGoUGo, the site is a bit cluttered with ads.

MyTravelGuide is a general review site with reviews on hotels, restaurants, and attractions. The information is neatly grouped under the headings of "Top Hotels," "Top Attractions," "Top Restaurants," and "Popular Neighborhoods." There are also sections on nearby cities, maps and articles. If you find a restaurant or attraction you like, you can choose "Add to My Places" so all the places you like are grouped in one place. The site is well-organized making it easy and fast to read through a city's top places at a glance.

Although Tripadvisor is mostly known for its hotel reviews, it's also become a great all-purpose travel resource. Once you find your destination, under the Overview tab, there are articles on a broad range of topics, such as Architecture, Neighborhoods, Arriving, Business Dining . . . etc. These articles are not reviews but are articles written in a wikipedia format by travelers. This format makes these pages more similar to guide book articles than reviews. Since the pages are written by different travelers, the quality varies, but in many instances, the pages are informative and easy to read. Unlike guide books, the pages some times go into more detail, such as listing great restaurants for breakfast. Under the Attractions tab for a destination, depending on the destination, there may also be a printable guide that attractively lays out the best picks for a destination.

The reviews on VirtualTourist are grouped into categories such as Hotels, Things To Do, Restaurants, Local Customs, Nightlife, Off the Beaten Path, Tourist Traps, Warning or Dangers, Transportation, and so on. The Travel Guides page for a destination is well-organized and gives a nice "at a glance" view of all these topics. There are also many photos posted by travelers. The reviews and photos by a particular traveler are grouped together on one page. Although full of useful information, the top part of the site on some pages is taken up by ads.

Yahoo! Travel Guides can be accessed on Yahoo! Travel under the Travel Guides tab. Once you find your destination, there is a top 10 list of Recommended Hotels, Things to Do, and Restaurants. Clicking on any of the places will take you to a page with an overview and user reviews. This part of Yahoo! Travel is easy to navigate and provides a good "cheat sheet" of your destination. Another very useful part of the site is the Today's Best Deals feature located near the top of your destination page, which unlike most Best Deals pages, is based on actual searches. It's a great place to find deals.