Using Twitter to plan your travels

Not too long ago our family went to England and Scotland.

To prepare for the trip of course I pored over sites on the internet, flipped through travel guides and questioned anyone I knew who could offer insight on my trip. (This was my 6^th trip to Scotland and still wanted to do the research! I love the planning and anticipation!!)

Another thing I did was search through Twitter to find people and organizations to follow that might give me insight specifically for the trip.

So that I could gather information before and during the trip, I followed many United Kingdom-specific travel entities, hotels, restaurants, events and even a sports team I knew my husband would be going to see.

Since I have an interest in travel (and a travel blog), I will likely continue following these entities, but I suggested a different technique to a friend of mine who is planning a trip to Napa.

She is a bit apprehensive about getting too caught up in the Twitterverse, so I suggested she use Twitter in a very specific way to plan her trip: She is following potential wineries to visit as well as restaurants, spas and other places she may want to visit during the trip.

Through Twitter, she will have information sent directly to her about the trip she is planning. Once the trip is over, she will likely un-follow those people and organizations that she is unlikely to visit again and begin following entities pertaining to the next trip she plans.

By using Twitter in this way, she can keep the tweets she receives specific to the information she needs at the time and stop the information flow when she no longer needs it.

And, by using Twitter, she may receive special offers and “insider” information only offered to Twitter followers. Not long ago Jet Blue offered discount pricing on flights to its Twitter followers first… Who knows what other great deals you can score?

What about you? Do you use Twitter to help you plan trips? Or anything else?

And did I mention that you can follow MomsTravelTales on Twitter, too? (But don’t un-follow us… we’re always on the go with tips to share!)

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