{this post is a sponsored post written from a rep at Localfu.com}
There’s a complete disconnect between travel planning and actually traveling. Planning your next trip is a long and arduous task. Relaxing on a beach, hiking a secluded trail or devouring your new favorite burger are experiences to remember and (all too often) never last long enough. You want the best information for your next vacation, but if you’ve never lived there or know anyone who has, that information is ridiculously hard to find.
When I head back to Vermont, I already know everything I need to know for the trip. I know that the door tucked inside the Farmhouse Tap & Grill that most people walk by leads to a basement speakeasy one of the best places in town to spend a weekend night. I know that when I’m getting breakfast in town you can find me at Henry’s Diner. It’s not a onesizefitsall restaurant and it’s not on main street, so most visitors never notice it if they’re not pointed to it. I know to get a bear claw at La Brioche in Montpelier, I know which trails I’ll ski at Stowe, when it’s best to ski them and how the conditions affect each trail, and I know that the 2 hour drive up to Lake WIlloughby is worth it for the view alone a view like no other in the country.
Like myself, you probably consider yourself a local in one or two maybe three places. So what do we do when we travel anywhere else? How do we figure out what to do in an unfamiliar city? We spend hours on review websites like Yelp and TripAdvisor and it’s terrible. Just awful. Downright painful. TripAdvisor lists over 11,000 restaurants in New York City, with more than 400,000 total reviews on those listings. Over 2,500 “things to do” and 300,000 reviews on them.

It’s easy to see how Americans spend 5 hours planning a single trip. Going through those reviews to find a restaurant that I would like is a chore I don’t care what Joe from Louisville thought about the sandwiches, because I know nothing about Joe and we’re probably not alike. The top rated sites are crowd pleasers; that’s how they rise to the top! Localfu is here to solve the problem.
Take the story of one of our recent customers, Jessica. Jessica vented to the Twitterverse that she was planning a short trip to Chicago and it was stressing her out. “Shouldn’t a vacation make you happy??” she asked. It should, and so should planning a vacation. Jessica landed on our site and chose Chicago as her destination, where we have 6 handpicked locals ready to help her plan her trip. In 5 minutes she had picked her destination, picked a local with similar interests, and sent a message about what she was in town for, who she’d be with and what they were looking to do. That was it! Jessica’s planning time was cut from five hours to five minutes but what did she get back? That’s the important part, and that’s the best part of the story.
Later that day, Kari gave her a plan built around Jessica’s first message. Parks, restaurants and entertainment within a 20 minute drive from where Jessica would be topped off with context about why Kari likes the places she’s recommending and what Jessica would need to know before visiting. The final plan also included contact info for the recommendations, maps, and pictures of everything. What would have taken Jessica hours to figure out took Kari minutes to put together. You get rid of the stress that comes with planning a trip, and your local experience starts before you even arrive! So the next time you travel, plan your trip with a local and don’t be a tourist.
Use the promo code “MEGHAN” to get a plan on us.
Whether you’re planning a trip or not, give it a shot and see just how helpful it can be for your next vacation. For more info, head to www.localfu.com or find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Leave a Reply