Lonely Planet blog

Hi,

I’m the Online Director at Lonely Planet based in Melbourne, Australia.

This the first of what I hope will be many entries about all matters digital at Lonely Planet.

As you’ll know by now, we’ve relaunched our website.  The focus on this first release are the basics:

• We’ve increased our coverage of destinations.   You’ll find a wealth of material taken from our guidebooks covering more than 8,500 destinations.   (Our old site covered barely 2,000).    Try these destinations – St Louis, Cameroon and Melbourne’s Yarra Valley.
  
• Make sure you also try our new maps whilst you are exploring a destination.    You can either click on the red pin marked ‘Show on map’ or pull down the map tab that you’ll find above the destination’s name.
  
• We are launching a new series of videos, all the work of Lonely Planet TV.   You’ll find them peppering our site.  Tony Wheeler, the co-founder of Lonely Planet, presents many of them including this one about Shiraz, Iran.
• Our new media gallery presents thousands of hand-picked images which I hope will provide you with an even richer sense of a destination.    Look at these beautiful images from Istanbul to see what I mean.
  
• And finally, we have a nifty new Trip Planner application.   It is a simple but powerful.   It lets you save your favourite places from around the site and package them into your very own trip which you can print out.

This new site is just the beginning.   In the next few months you will see find new features and content released on a regular basis.    The reason we’re keeping this first release low-key is that we are keen to make sure it beds down properly.    As we update the website and mobile services, I’ll involve others from Lonely Planet’s global team on this blog.

Until then, thank you for trying out our new site and for taking the time to read this.    If you find any problems with the site please let us know immediately.

I hope you enjoy the new site.

Andy

Hide 18 comments

1. November 12, 2008 goldbird Report this comment

   I’m planning a trip! Looks great guys – well done!

   But where are the travel stories?

   And call it Thorn Tree Forum!

   Look forward to the next release.

   All the best

2. November 12, 2008 heatherpodruchny Report this comment

   Andy It looks great, don’t forget all the people who worked so hard and those who offered moral support!!!
   Heather
   PS why is Selkirk Manitoba Canada NOT on the map?

3. November 12, 2008 pstar1 Report this comment

   Congrats AJConroy and your whole team! The new LP does look shiny. I’m looking forward to all the new stuff that you are planning. Now off to try the Trip Planner…

4. November 12, 2008 bowerman Report this comment

   Fantastic! The trip planner in particular is great. Plans are very much afoot. Look forward to seeing the new stuff.

5. November 12, 2008 jackviner Report this comment

   Andy and all the Lonely Planet digital team,

   LOVE the latest release of the LP site, awesome effort. The design is slick, the information is organised, and the user experience is joyful. The new functionality rocks, the navigation just flows – loving the maps, media gallery and trip planner – all good. Keep it up – I’m sure it’s appreciated by all.

6. November 13, 2008 lonerunner Report this comment

   Not bad ! I’ll give the trip planner a try now…

7. November 13, 2008 helenlw19 Report this comment

   Howdy from Dallas! Great new website! Congratulations to the whole team, Andy and Rebecca in particular :)

8. November 13, 2008 cptempleton Report this comment

   Love the changes! Very useful.

9. November 13, 2008 voy Report this comment

   sorry – but did you pay those guys?
   the trip planner is hopeless.
   sorry.
   and what happened to the Thorn Tree ? please can we have it back?

10. November 13, 2008 hols_girlfriend Report this comment

    Thorn Tree = Forum
    And trip planner is good!

11. November 13, 2008 milton_s Report this comment

    Wow – I can’t believe it’s finally arrived. Congrats on a fantastic job to the whole team – the blood, sweat and tears that went into this were all worth it. Andy, Rebecca, Vivek, ChrisB, Katie, Brig, NickT, Mark, Nige(s), Jerome, Justin, Zed, Ads, Vic-tor, Miriam, The caddy shacks, Doug, Cam (if he’s sobered up from the Hawks win yet), Diarmuid, JaneP, Duncan and Chief, Nik and Peter, Janet, and everyone else who lost sleep over this baby, take a bow.

12. November 13, 2008 bquinn Report this comment

    Nice job Andy and everybody, I look forward to trying out the trip planner. I hope there’s a button for “what to do for a month between Beijing and London at three weeks notice”…!

    See you in a couple of months,

    Brendan.

13. November 13, 2008 spore1024 Report this comment

    What is going to happen to the Bluelists? Are they staying on the site? I like them!

14. November 13, 2008 ravenheart Report this comment

    Am sorry guys I didn’t even get over losing the one before the last… and there it comes again. This site looks a bit primitive. Maybe the you guys should look a bit into moo tools. And for the love of God, whats with thorntree?

    ~Disappointed.

15. November 14, 2008 danielfont Report this comment

    Congratulations Lonely Planet! The site looks great!
    I love the trip planner app.

16. November 15, 2008 keppiezbt Report this comment

    Why are you running google ads? By doing so, you are given tacit approval of all those tour companies and hotel.

    Also, the featured item bar on your homepage clutters the page and is out of place. I’d delete it. Better than before but not that great!

17. November 25, 2008 irene2008 Report this comment

    Great design. I love it very much

18. November 29, 2008 lubee Report this comment

    Miss the old map format!!! Simple but beautiful. Really dislike the new version(s). Messy. Cluttered. Unfriendly. Can we have the old one back…even as an option?