When I visit somewhere new, I always ask for recommendations from friends and family on where to eat, hang out, and what attractions are worth my time, but I don’t always know which of my friends to ask. Facebook’s City Guides let’s you tap into everyone in your social circle, giving you a larger pool of recommendations to pull from.
Facebook did previously launch Places, pages where you could find information likes reviews from your friends, but City Guides go a step beyond that by:
- Showing you places your friends have checked in, not just their reviews.
- Including what spots are popular with locals, and what they think of the place. Facebook highlights words to make it easier to skim the reviews for info like what to order.
- Listing attractions that are generally popular, if you want to go the touristy route.
- Letting you save places to reference later when trip planning.
Facebook City Guides also have a slight advantage over other options, like connecting your Facebook to travel planning sites like TripAdvisor, because you get the recommendations you want without having to use another platform or additional service.
You can find City Guides in the Facebook app in the left-hand menu. I’m visiting London later this year, so I gave the London City Guide a try. It was pretty smart and showed my friends who live or have lived in London first, since they had the most experience and places I could check out. The section with highlighted words gathered from locals’ reviews did have an issue where sometimes the words were conflicting (like “attentive service” and “poor service”), so you’d need to actually dive into the reviews to get more information. I saved a couple of spots I’m interested in and when I get closer to my trip, I’ll message the friends who’ve been to the places I want to see and ask for tips.
Let Facebook Friends Plan Your Next Trip [Travel+Leisure]
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