On the road, nothing really beats a good tip from a local on where to get the best ribs, catch a jazz show or how to score tickets at a popular venue.
The PocketSherpa app could be a good travel companion. It’s tied to the Web site Localyte, www.localyte.com, which connects travelers with local people who want to share their knowledge.
The app’s description promises to connect users with more than more than 40,000 “Localytes” in 7,000-plus locations.
Spin a nifty globe with your fingers to find a country you’d like to visit. Once pick a country, a menu bar at the top lets you see newspaper links, travel services and Wikitravel entries. You can peruse a list of Localytes or see a recent Q-and-A about the country. There’s a search option to narrow to a specific city.
Under the Localyte heading, you can post a question for the experts. Each Localyte posts a profile so you can see who your expert is. Many of them offer guide, transportation or other services and you can make direct contact with them.
The direct connection raises some red flags, since you are essentially linking up with a stranger. The Web site, which does not vet its citizen experts, even warns: “Travelers and tourists can be targets of crime or scams.”
To help you judge, the Localytes’ answers are rated by the Web site’s community through an e-Bay-style reputation system.
Unfortunately you can’t access all that information through the app, but the app presents the Localytes in order of their ranking and if they are one of the best, you’ll see a badge next to their name.
Since it’s free, it’s not too hard to give PocketSherpa a test drive. Or just check out the Q-and-A section for your destination to get a few ideas.
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