The Trip.com App: A Smart Travel Buddy

Each time I visit New York, I try to embed myself in a different part of the city. Every neighborhood has a different personality, and getting to know more of them has given me a broader appreciation of the greatest city in the world.

For my latest jaunt, I selected the Lower East Side as my base. Two days would never be enough to wander the whole neighborhood and find the best spots to feed my interests in local history and food, so I turned to a newly revamped app to guide me.

Trip.com was my best buddy that weekend, providing personalized recommendations I could have only figured out through hours of advance research — time I didn’t have. At Trip.com’s recommendation, I took a 90-minute Lower East Side walking tour via the Tenement Museum that brought my fuzzy high school memory of U.S. immigrant history back to life. I wandered through the floor-to-ceiling aisles of Economy Candy, a sweets shop in business since 1937. I gorged on fresh arepas at a tiny Venezuelan restaurant and sampled Swedish breakfast pastries for the first time. And I took in an $11, hourlong improv comedy show.

How did Trip.com know these spots were right up my alley? When you download the free app and set up your account, you select from among 20 “tribes” that describe your personality and travel style. I selected “arty,” “foodies” and “local.” Other tribes include “luxury,” “adventure,” “families” and “spiritual.”

Recommendations pop up based on your location and the reviews of others with your same travel interests. For example, 98 percent of other app-using foodies and 87 percent of other travelers who like local spots enjoyed the Essex Street Market, so I popped in there to have lunch one day. Eight-six percent of other arty people liked a gift shop called Alphabets.

I added my own reviews and also created “postcards” (though it wasn’t exactly clear to me what the difference was between the two). With each review or postcard you add, you gain points and badges, if you’re competitive about tracking that sort of thing.

Trip.com has incorporated technologies that also make recommendations based on the local weather. If it’s raining one day, the app won’t give you outdoor suggestions. And in 15 cities, the app provides a calendar of special events. I plan to use this in my own home city too — it sounds quite useful.