True, Tripadvisor, Frommer’s and the Lonely Planet are some of the best online travel communities going, but they’re far from the only ones amongst the greats. So go on, expand your travel community horizons and check out our 7 Best Off The Radar Travel Communities:

1. Travelistic

From YouTube to Hulu to Yahoo, were a video obsessed bunch. Travelistic has cleverly taken this to head and created a travel community wholly centred around video.

Log on and you’ll find over 10,000 user submitted travel videos, to view, comment on and inspire your future travels. Want to visit the Great Wall? Journey to the top of Everest? You can do it all on Travelistic, without ever leaving home.

2. Igougo

A masterful all in one travel community, where you can plan your trip, compare flights and hotels and share your travel experiences with the world.

Just type in a destination and you’ll be instantly connected to a plethora of photos, reviews and users who have traveled or reside there. When you’re ready to go, create your very own trip journal and give back to the community by sharing your own travel experiences.

3. Trip It

Less of a travel community and more a travel service, Trip It is perfect for the organization nut in all of us. Just enter your flights, hotel stays and destinations and let trip it create an optimized travel itinerary for you in seconds. Never miss another plane or train again.

For those who truly want it all, upgrade to the pro version and Trip It will automatically alert you if there are changes or delays in your travel plans. That means less time at the airport, and more time at the beach.

4. Dopplr

Create a map with the dates and location of your travels; share it with the Dopplr community, check out other’s maps, then meet up with those whose travel plans overlap with your own. If you’d like to keep your location a secret from some (mom, dad, a raging x), don’t worry, you can control who can and can’t see where you are.

Along the way you’ll get a wealth of location specific travel information, so you’ll always know where to stay, where to eat, and what to do. Taking the thinking out of traveling, we like that.

5. Travbuddy

Travbuddy’s got all the ingredients that make for a killer online travel community; helpful forums, honest reviews, stunning travel photos and a dedicated membership 1.5 million strong.

Travbuddy ups the ante by giving you your very trip blog, allowing you to easily post your stories, pictures and reviews as you go. There’s even a built in mapping feature that builds a map of your travels as you venture across the earth.

Wherever, you’re headed, this is one buddy you don’t want to leave behind.

6.Travellers Point

Besides being a great place to plan, book and share your next trip, Travellers Point has hands down one of the best travel resources on the web; wiki travel guides.

These 100% user created and edited travel guides, give you the collective wisdom and travel experiences of over 250,000 members, right at your finger tips. From country and city guides, to travel health and safety information, you’ll find everything you need to get in the know, before you go.

7. Travel DODO

Travel DODO takes travel reviews and puts them into a fun, easily digestible format, Travel Do’s, and Travel Don’ts.

Want to find out which restaurants, hotels and attractions are best avoided in France? Just click on the location on the interactive map, and you’ll be given a list of places to cross off your list (travel don’ts), so you spend your valuable vacation time wiser.

Travelling is a great opportunity for families and friends to bond and spend some time together. Some people find travelling as a learning experience so that next time when they travel, they would be more prepared. One of the things that people learn when travelling is that they should not forget tour insurance. Australians can be prepared when something unexpected comes their way.

Do not let your vacation get ruined by unexpected flight delays, lost baggage, or unanticipated medical needs. Online travel insurance can protect you from sudden expenditures while on your trip with the family. There are many companies that can offer trip insurance but with the large amount of number available, people can get confused. Here are a few things you should not do about touring insurance.

1. Buying vacation insurance from unknown companies. Be cautious when buying online trip insurance. You should only buy from reputable firms that have a history of providing reliable travel insurance. Do a background check on each company that you may find as a possible provider for you. There are many review sites wherein you can read comments and reviews from former customers of online insurance providers. This will give you a good sense of whether you can purchase insurance from them or not.

2. Going for the cheapest online insurance provider. In these times where money is hard to earn, you would always go for the cheapest of things. This is not always advisable because in the end, it might cost you even more. There are many online insurance Australian companies that are known for having economical yet reliable services. Look for those companies instead.

3. Not reading the terms and conditions of your insurance policy. Insurance policies contain a lot of clauses. You should read everything that is written in your contract to avoid any misunderstanding in the future. Apart from that, you should not hesitate to ask a representative from your chosen company to explain parts of your contract that you do not understand or needs further explanation. Tell your concerns to them to make sure they can accommodate all your needs.

4. Purchasing voyage insurance near the flight of your trip. Right after booking your trip, purchase travel insurance. There are travel insurance providers online that increase the price of the travel insurance policy when it is near the flight trip. By booking early, you avoid that risk and also you have the chance to receive promos or discounts for booking early.

5. Not notifying your travel insurance provider of any pre-existing condition. To avoid the inconvenience of not being covered for a medical expense because of a pre-existing condition, speak with your company about it. They can help you make a solution for your situation and this makes them aware of the possible assistance you may need in the future.

People can save a lot of money from travel insurance. Australians should be aware of at least these five commonly undone things by people to avoid any inconvenience while travelling. If you are lucky enough to read this before your trip, then share this with your friends so that you can all be informed of what you should do with travel insurance.

Starting a travel writing career is now much easier than it has ever been. Why? Because of the Internet. It levels the playing field. You can start an online travel writing business from you kitchen table with a laptop, a digital camera, solid expressive skills, and a motivated work ethic.

Say goodbye to: writing query letters, rejection slips from magazines, getting your ideas stolen, photos that do not get returned, impossible deadlines, late payments, and editors that cannot be reached.

You can start your own website on the area where you live right now, or to provide detailed information on trips you take throughout the year. YOU get to decide the content, YOU get to decide what pictures to include, YOU get to choose where you visit…and YOU get to write off your business expenses.

The only limitations you have are your own creativity and attitude toward hard work.

If You Cannot Join Them…Beat Them

Becoming a published travel writer for one of the magazines you thumb through at the local bookstore is a valid goal, but in reality, breaking into print is extremely difficult because it seems like the elite club of travel writers is permanently closed.

I was once discouraged just like you, until I decided to start my own website about the beautiful Florida Gulf Beaches where I live. It was the best decision I could have made. I write about whatever interests ME here in Paradise, I make money from affiliate products and advertisements on my site, and I save $1000′s of dollars on my taxes because of the tax write offs for my expenses.

Now, I could care less about being published in a travel magazine. I wake up everyday thinking, “How can I make even more money,” instead of “I hope my query letter gets accepted.” Having my own online travel writing business has changed my thinking 180 degrees…to the positive.

Website vs Blog

Blogging has become the instant means of self-expression. It seems like everybody has one and a whole online industry has been born to take your money with promises of riches. Do not buy into it. Blogs are easy to start, but they DO NOT make you money.

* Creating a website takes much more learning. It will be much more frustrating when you first start because you will be on information overload. But…I did it. So can you.

* Websites get indexed in the big search engines far easier than blogs. You make money by generating more traffic to your site.

* Learn all you can about finding the most profitable keywords for your travel niche. Learn all you can about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). You will be writing for two audiences…the search engine spiders and your human audience. You cannot be lax toward either of them.

Grow Your Travel Writing Career With An Online Home Business

You establish a travel writing career with regular and consistent pieces. In order to run a solid home business, you must commit to creating one new page each day on your website. It will be difficult at first. Building one page every couple of days will be taxing, but after six months you will start getting the hang of it.

Here are some easy tips:

* Write only positive reviews on the motels, restaurants, or sites you visit. Readers want honesty, but they DO NOT want negativity. If you cannot write a positive piece about some aspect of your visit, do not include it.

* Give your reviews personality, just do not get too personal. Nobody wants to read about digestive problems, how you had to “straighten out” the desk clerk, or that you only packed two pair of underwear.

* Take pictures of everything. Edit them tightly. Provide a one-sentence synopsis for each.

Your dreams of starting a travel writing career can be reached online. There are thousands of people just like us who want solid information on beautiful out-of-the way places, unique little cafes, romantic inexpensive restaurants, and cheap accommodations. You can provide for them with your own online home business.

Making use of an online travel agency has its benefits. For one, you don’t have to go through the hassle of visiting a booking office in person. And two, you can often save money if you book your travels online. And of course, there’s the fact that you can have several choices to pick from. You can easily navigate from travel website to another, comparing prices and services. This way, you will be able to find the most appropriate deals with the best prices. Booking online is also quick and easy. It’s just a matter of making a few clicks and you are done.

Now, just because booking your travels using an online travel agency is easy doesn’t mean you are not susceptible to making mistakes. If you are not careful, you might end up choosing the worst possible offer for you. One thing you should always remember is that you should not believe in everything that you hear from travel agencies especially with regards to promos and discounted offers. Sometimes, a promo may look like a great deal in the surface but if you look closer into it, it really won’t benefit you the way you expect it to. That said, always weigh things before making any decisions. Don’t be blinded by discounts or promos nor allow them to cloud your judgments.

Here are a few practical tips on how you should go about in booking your travels on the internet.

1. Ask around. You could ask a friend, a family member or a co-worker who has experience booking his or her travels online. Ask for their recommendations. A recommendation from someone you personally know is much better than the reviews you will find online. Don’t rely too much from recommendations though.

2. Always make sure that you are dealing with a legit travel website. You will be transacting online so there will be people out there planning to scam your money away. So as much as possible, stay away from shady and suspicious travel websites.

3. Try requesting information from a travel website. You can gauge the quality of the services of a travel agency based on its response time to your inquiries. If the agency takes forever to reply to your simple inquiries, then it’s probably not worth your time. But if it quickly responds and assists you if you ask more questions, then the agency is probably worthy of your investment.

4. Ask for recommendations from the agency itself. Let’s say for instance that you are planning to tour Canada. You can try asking the agency which of their packages should you purchase. If the agency really cares about their clients, they will recommend to you the most appropriate travel package for you.

5. Compare prices. This is why you should look around for several travel agencies so that you have choices to compare. Again, this is easy to do because most travel agencies these days maintain their own websites.