Continuing my hunt for the ultimate Travel Inspiration Engine.
I just found Tripbase. It features a Destination Finder on the home page which makes recommendations based on 22 million traveller reviews and 3000 travel blogs and websites (if you believe what it says). I wonder if it queries the TripAdvisor database?
Anyway... you plug in your dates for travel, departure airport (in my case London Gatwick) and then you have five sliders - Nightlife, Dining, Shopping, Nature, Attractions. Which you set relative to the amount of each you want in your ideal holiday. Easy to use, but a tad meaningless.
I just pushed the sliders along in fairly random fashion, chose a week long trip in early January... and hit the button.
And the site returned a bunch of places in Australia. Hmmm. For a seven day trip from the UK leaving in three weeks.
According to the About page:
reassemble that data quickly and precisely, so that our visitors only
get the information that's valuable for them. We are able to do this
because our experts have developed cutting-edge artificial intelligence
technology. This technology analyzes the preferences a visitor selects
and gives unbiased recommendations for a personalized vacation,
including the most appropriate destinations, activities, flights,
hotels and more!
Cutting edge? Only information that's valuable to me? I don't think so.