SOMEWHAT FRANK

If you had the chance to travel for a year, where would you go?

If I had a chance to travel for a year I would like to spend some time in Kauai and some of the other Hawaiian islands.

Although, I'd also be happy just spending one month in Kauai this year. Even as a digital nomad, it may be tough to break away from the grind as I am in the middle of building a media company in TECH cocktail and also working on building out some other Shiny Heart Ventures products.

Photo of the Kauai beach by Jen Consalvo.

Video: Bolt Bus Travel Experience To NYC

Traveling from Washington, DC to New York City this week I decided to give a new bus service a try called the Bolt Bus. The Bolt Bus offer a relatively inexpensive way to travel as it was about $40 roundtrip. The service caters to the Internet savvy (and personal technology adventures like myself) as tickets are sold in advance online at BoltBus.com and the bus has wifi and electricity at available to every passenger. This itself makes that four hour drive fly by!

Come along as I venture from DC to NYC about the blazing red Bolt Bus for episode 49 on SOMEWHAT FRANK and offer up some perspective and tips on making your Bolt Bus experience a good one.

Riding The Bolt Bus Roundtrip DC to NYC from Frank Gruber on Vimeo.

DOPPLR Profiles Make Sharing Travels Easy

If you are a constant traveler for either business or pleasure you might find DOPPLR to be helpful as it makes it easy to broadcast  your travel plans. DOPPLR, like radar for frequent travelers, finds intersections with your travel itineraries and your friends thus facilitating potential meetups while on the go. I have been using DOPPLR for awhile now and it appears the service has continued to improve. Today DOPPLR rolled out the ability to make your traveling profile public in a release (codenamed "Copenhagen").

DOPPLR Estimates Your Carbon Footprint

If you are a heavy traveler you might not realize it but every time you take an airplane flight you drastically negatively affect your carbon footprint on the environment. In an effort to make travels aware of this very fact, traveling social network Dopplr has teamed with AMEE to calculate your carbon footprint. By investigating past and current trips logged in Dopplr your CO2 emissions are posted on a seperate tab. Users can then contribute their number to the rest of the community or keep it private. I have included an example of the output carbon emissions below.

TripIt Takes Another $5.1 Million

TripIt, the social travel management site which I reviewed previously, has received $5.1 million in Series B funding. The funding was provided by Sabre Holdings, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures and European Founders Fund. The series B round will be used to expand development, marketing and support for TripIt users.

TripIt has been on a roll aggressively rolling out social and a mobile interface since launching at TechCrunch40 last year.

TripIt Mobile Version Launches

As a member of the frequent flyer club, I have used TripIt and previously reviewed when it first launched. Now TripIt has made traveling easier by adding some additional mobile support for users on the go with the TripIt Mobile release. With TripIt Mobile users can access what they need to know from their mobile phones including flight changes, and in my case cancellations, hotel addresses and phone numbers, and auto rental info. By adding additional integration components for your TripIt account, even restaurant reservations can be accessed.

Making TripIts applications available on mobile devices makes a lot of sense since when you are traveling you are most likely cannot as easily get on your computer.  TripIt offers applications to enable staying in touch with others in your social network, allowing you to schedule appointments if in the same area or at the same event. In checking out the mobile experience I snapped the photo shown here can be visited on your mobile device at: m.tripit.com.

TripIt Adds Location Based Traveler Alerts

TripIt, a travel planner, organizer and social networking site previously reviewed on Somewhat Frank when it launched at TechCrunch40, has added some more social stickiness to the product by exposing when your contacts might have similar travel plans. Since TripIt already offers an number of useful general travel organization and collaboration utilities the new location-based social “closeness” alerts are aimed at helping travels keep better connected with others by making it easier to keep track of when someone may be in your town or your paths cross while on the road by automatically sending out notifications.

Fly Clear To Breeze Through Airport Security

With the U.S. terrorist threat level at orange airport security lines can be time consuming. If you are a frequent traveler like I am you probably are not a big fan of waiting in lines while unexperienced travelers struggle to learn the ropes. Clear, a New York-based identity verification startup founded in 2003, looks to speed up airport security checkpoints by pre-screening travelers.

Apple Movie Rentals, American Content Producer Trend, Facebook Translations, Kayak Sidestep Analysis & 2007 Logo Design Trends

Photo of the Week: 'Tis the season for some holiday lights and this home with over 200,000 lights was quite the site. Thanks to Terren for snapping this photo and pointing out this tacky lights tour video on YouTube.

Somewhat Frank Weekly Tidbits: 12.30.2007

Driftr Unites Travelers To Share

Looking to share your latest trip with your family and friends? Or looking to find a new place to travel to?  You might want to check out Driftr. Driftr is a user-generated content site for travelers, by travelers. It allows you to keep track of your travels, share your trip photos, reviews, and blogs with friends and family, as well as research new travel destinations.

YowTrip When Traveling Alone But Never Solo

Do you often travel alone? This can happen to anyone so instead of rolling solo you can now connect with new people in your travel destination.  YowTrip offers a social network for travelers that are traveling alone to meet up with other travelers and locals in the same area at the same time.

Remember Your Travel Expenses With Xpenser

If you are a business traveler you know what it is like to have to come back and remember every expense you made on your trip. Credit card bills offer a good record and are a good place to start in trying to recall all your expenses but they do not always tell you the entire story as most companies require you to submit details about each expense. For example, remember who was at a company dinner, where you took a taxi to and from and why are all things that often elude us after the fact. Xpenser is here to help make remembering expenses easier.

Dopplr Radar For Frequent Travelers

Do you travel a lot? If you do you might be getting tired for having to keep all your friends and family up to speed with where you are headed next or where you have just been. In steps Dopplr, a Finland-based startup which aims to make it easy for frequent travelers to broadcast where their travel plans. Named appropriately after the Doppler radar system, Dopplr makes it easy to share your travel plans so people can follow your travel radar. 

TripIt Organizes Your Travel Plans

Are you tired of keeping track of several travel itineraries from your hotel, flight and car rental reservations? TripIt is here to help organize your trips for you. TripIt makes it as easy as forwarding your itineraries to [email protected] and it immediately starts organizing your trips.

Yapta Tracks Airline Fare Drop Savings

There are number of ways to save money on travel airfares. However, there is one that you may not be aware of.  Basically, airlines have a policy of refunding ticket holders the price of the difference if a fare drops. Yapta which stands for "Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant," has built its business around this policy as a place to find out if you are due any money back from a fare drop.