Schmap.com - Travel Guides Grow Up

Schmap isn’t just another online travel guide. With enthusiastic reviews from the IHT, Time and The Washington Post, this guide’s got kick. You can download the application for any city you’re planning to visit (they’ve got desktop guides for over 200 worldwide destinations) and Schmap will present you with a veritable treasure chest of info-- maps galore, comprehensive guides, tour suggestions, descriptions, history and photos. Guides can be selected for individual cities/destinations, or World, Europe and America Megapacks. You can take offline virtual tours and they’ve got colored travel guides that you can take with you sans desktop on the road. Users can also create their own Schmapplets to be embedded in their blogs. Best of all, Schmap comes at the cool price of $0.

“Schmap Guides are brought to life offline by Schmap 2.0, a powerful desktop application that gives you a world of additional trip planning convenience, including options to take virtual tours and custom print full-color guides.”

Schmap has already passed the review gauntlet and it’s come out with flying colors. This is really one neat and practical travel app. If you’re planning a trip, Schmap is the way to go. Not only do you get integrated Google like maps, you’ll get info on places to stay, to eat, to walk around, to shop, to kill time. They also incorporate Flickr photos and give full credit to the photographers. This site is not to be missed.

How up to date is Schmap? If it contains old info, users aren’t going to find it too handy. How is info vetted?