Ideas for a Travelogue

June 25, 2008 11:32 AM

A pal of mine is planning on setting up a website for a road trip, and in addition to integrating a blog, he'd like to track simple bits of data & information. Here's what he's thought of so far:

— Miles driven
— Hours driven
— Gas pumped
— Cost breakdowns: gas, hotels, food
— Travel Scrabble record/scores
— The license plate game
— Amusing townspeople

He'd love to integrate a few more. Ideas? Are there other inspiring road trip sites out there?

While we're on the roadtrip topic: any tips on getting online from the road? Hotel and cafe wifi is OK, but what about tethering a cell phone? He's on TMobile (but might switch to AT&T in anticipation of getting a new iPhone).

posted by aladfar to travel & transportation (8 comments total)

My idea is presentation, not data collection:

That list of data reminded me of the "Stats" screen in Grand Theft Auto, with its "miles driven" and "missions completed" right next to "longest faceplant" and "pigeons killed". I strongly recommend emulating that layout and presentation.
posted by rokusan at 12:40 PM on June 25, 2008

— Number of tourist traps passed.
— Track the cost of gas by locality.
— Slug Bug.
posted by jabberjaw at 1:00 PM on June 25, 2008

How about an annotated GMap? Log GPS coordinates do an overlay?
posted by brennen at 1:20 PM on June 25, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

yahoo has a travel site that i found somewhat useful. it gave a place to put photos, make journal entries, and put all the places that you stop at on a map. I think this is it. It's oriented towards planning your trip out in advance, but should work for updating as you travel.
posted by ArgentCorvid at 1:27 PM on June 25, 2008

If he's got a data plan, how about creating a Twitter account to track that stuff?
posted by JaredSeth at 1:48 PM on June 25, 2008

Twitter is a must. Make sure to also set up twitpic.
posted by doorsfan at 2:13 PM on June 25, 2008

Where is he roadtripping?

When we drove the American South, we counted the number of Waffle Houses we saw. When our friends came to visit us in Seattle, they enjoyed counting the number of coffeehouses they saw.
posted by GaelFC at 5:16 PM on June 25, 2008

I counted the number of roadside crosses I saw. Kinda morbid though.
posted by hootch at 9:25 PM on June 26, 2008