Washington - The holidays (and perhaps your most recent vacation) are a distant memory, and unbroken weeks of work and late-winter weather stretch before you.
Now's the time to pep yourself up by planning your next escape, and here are a couple of new apps to help you do that. Their newness means they cover a limited number of destinations, but their coverage should grow with time. For a review of a third app, UTrip, visit washingtonpost.com/magazine.
Facet
Facet features video snippets from travellers. Users can search by city, activity (museum-going, shopping, etc.), food and drink (among them, wine, seafood and breakfast). Each video can bring you visitors' info and links to other facets (or videos). The app is attractive and easy to navigate. Don't expect thoroughness (the creators put it this way: “You won't find everything on Facet, just the stuff that matters”). For example, several videos of the outside of Los Angeles's Griffith Observatory show tips for hiking, but nothing of the inside, which includes a planetarium, a telescope and a Tesla coil. But it's fun to scroll through and you're almost certain to find something that strikes your fancy (next time I'm in L.A., I plan to visit the Rain Room at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).
Free, iOS.
Indie Guides
Indie Guides also are not all-encompassing. They pride themselves on highlighting the “cultural, artistic and alternative scene.” Guides are available for a few European cities, as well as Istanbul, Tokyo, San Francisco and Montreal. I downloaded the free-for-a-limited-time Paris version to check it out. Users can sort by category (Culture, Drink, Going Out, etc.) or by distance, which could be helpful in Paris. The map also offers a cool “open now” feature for spontaneous travelers. Browsing through the items, I saw intriguing options such as La Boutique du livre animé (“Secret bookstore that feels like a museum”) and riverboats in the 13th arrondissement (“Concerts with your feet in the water”). Although each entry included thorough visitors' information, there seemed to be no way to save the suggestions I found interesting.
$1.99 (about R20) per city, iOS and Android.
UTrip
UTrip says it uses artificial intelligence to create personalised itineraries based on users' interests, budgets and timeframes. Users plug those variables into a database of places and activities, curated by local experts in each city - (currently pretty concentrated on the West Coast and Europe - not surprising for a Seattle start-up). Up will pop a few recommended hotels (you can book through the app or on your own) and a suggested itinerary.
The itinerary is adjustable: You can remove an item and replace it with one of your own, or ask for another suggestion. (Note: The trip planning takes place on the company's Web site, users then download their itineraries to their phones through the UTrip app.) You can put suggestions on your wish list, note that you've already been to a place or stick recommendations on a Pinterest board. Each itinerary can be opened to display details and visitors' info and tips. There are also featured trips, including the expected (“An Introduction to Paris,” which, strangely, did not include the major sights), and the different (“The geek outdoors of San Jose”). Once you are there, the app is supposed to help with directions and transit options, but I couldn't test that, because Washington, D.C., is not yet on the list of cities. I also could not figure out how to adjust the timeframes. But this was so much fun to play with I didn't really mind.
Free, Web, iOS and Android.
The Washington Post