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It’s Been a Busy Month In Your Pocket

July 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Two brand new In Your Pocket guides were published: in Lviv, Ukraine, and in Brasov, Romania. Portoroz, in Slovenia, got an upgrade from Mini-Guide to full guide. It also includes Piran, Koper and Izola.

In June, Prague remained the most popular download from inyourpocket.com/downloads, narrowly beating out Krakow and Riga. It brings the number of cities we now cover in print to 57, and the number of In Your Pocket-branded guides printed each year to over four million.

The Riga team made some new videos, which you can see here, while we at HQ got up early with everybody else to claim our Facebook vanity url (www.facebook.com/inyourpocket).

Summer will not see us resting, though we wish we could.

We plan to make a few little improvements to our website, which you will hear about first if you follow us on Twitter or if you become a fan on Facebook.

Then, come September, we may get a day or two off.

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What In Your Pocket Did Next: Glasgow, Sarajevo, Venice…

June 3, 2009 · 2 Comments

With half of 2009 (almost) gone, time for a bit of a recap of what’s been rather a hectic but incredibly productive year so far, and a look forward to what we might be doing next…

There have already been a number of new In Your Pocket guides published this year. Busiest of all have been our team in Slovenia, who have written, researched and published no fewer than four new guides this year: Maribor, Bled, Koper (including Piran and Izola) and a mini-guide to Portoroz. They join the Slovenian anchor guide, Ljubljana, published every two months. Given that Slovenia is a tiny little place, it is now rather difficult to go anywhere in that country without finding an In Your Pocket guide.

The same team also looks after In Your Pocket’s interests in Bosnia & Herzegovina, where they have so far published a mini-guide to Banja Luka, which will be joined later this year by a full In Your Pocket guide to Sarajevo.

Next on the Slovenian team’s list is Venice, in Italy. A team of research monkeys is already prowling the canals and streets of that Italian city, and will be joined soon by our writers. If you have favourite places in Venice that you are eager for us not to miss out on, send us your suggestions at venice@inyourpocket.com.

Expect to see the first Venice In Your Pocket guide early in 2010.

Not a million miles away, in Croatia, guides to all your favourite coastal resorts are in preparation, with publication imminent. Watch this space.

Elsewhere, the Ukrainian In Your Pocket office has been boosting its coverage beyond the capital Kyiv with the publication of new guides. Following a successful mini-guide last year, the Black Sea resort of Odesa now has its own full In Your Pocket guide, and has recently been joined by a mini-guide to the city of Lviv. In Your Pocket is ready for Euro 2012. Will Ukraine be?

The co-host of Euro 2012, Poland, has long been covered exceedingly well by In Your Pocket. So far this year more than 600,000 guides and mini-guides have been printed there, in eight cities.

Both Glasgow In Your Pocket and Vienna In Your Pocket remain works in progress. Glasgow should see its first Pocket guide before the summer is out. Vienna In Your Pocket will appear next Spring.

Remember: if you want to join us, publishing your own In Your Pocket guide in your city, all you need to do is get in touch with us and convince us that you are well enough qualified to handle the day to day trials and tribulations that go with owing and operating an In Your Pocket guide. Send us an email at pocketmycity@inyourpocket.com.

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From the Slovenian Press

May 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment

The Editor-in-chief went to Slovenia and all he brought back was this interview.

http://www.inyourpocket.com/data/download/Slovenijajeposrecenazmes.pdf</

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US Vice President Joseph Biden uses Pristina In Your Pocket city guide

May 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment

Hailed as a hero on his short trip to Kosovo today, we’re delighted that US Vice President Joseph Biden will be using the Pristina In Your Pocket city guide to find his way around the city.

The US embassy in Pristina previously requested 100 copies of the Pristina In Your Pocket city guide, which were given to Biden’s delegation today.

We recommend he has a coffee at Cafe e Vogel before a tour of the Ethnographic Museum and dinner at the glam new Rings restaurant. All in time for a short stroll to the airport bus stop for his trip back to Washington.

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Downloads pass the 300,000 mark

May 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment

In March 2007 we took what was then a radical step and began making a small selection of our guides available for free download, in PDF. These are the full guides, exactly as they printed, complete with ads, photos, maps and typos.

We now offer 46 guides available for download, all for free, and – unlike Rupert Murdoch – have no plans to ever start charging our website users for the privilege.

Last month saw a new record of 32,987 downloads, of which the most popular were:

1. Zagreb
2. Moscow
3. Prague
4. Riga
5. Krakow

Go get yours…

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Why In Your Pocket is not on Kindle

April 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment

We are delighted for Dave Sifry and his Offbeat Guides, who today launched a version on Kindle, Amazon’s digital book reader.

In Your Pocket has long wanted to make our own guides available on Kindle, and we intend to as soon as possible. What stops us is not technology, but Amazon’s refusal to stock books and magazines from non-US publishers. (Indeed, you cannot even buy a Kindle outside of the US).

Infuriating madness!

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In Your Pocket Writers in The Guardian

April 23, 2009 · 1 Comment

The writing of Richard Schofield, Alex Webber and Frank Jelincic featured in a Guardian article on travel in Europe (but outside of the Eurozone) on Monday.

Read it here.

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Localyte.com (Update 1)

April 16, 2009 · Leave a Comment

24 hours after asking the question ‘I have 24hrs free in Warsaw next week. How should I best spend my time?‘ here are the (two) replies I’ve got from ‘locals’ at new wave UGC site Localyte.com:

Response 1:
Basia is quite good at giving the places. I would suggest just roaming around, having a nice coffee and a donought at Blikle have a go to the Old Town, eat at some nice restaurant at the Old Market Square and feel the city. Visiting thw Warsaw Uprising Museum is said to be one of the best in the world.

Response 2:
Hi!
There are many nice places to see in Warsaw it depends on what you kind of activities you prefer. I recommend to visit:
Old Town (Stare Miasto)
Mermaid Statue (Syrena Staromiejska)
Barbikan (Barbakan)
Castle Square (Plac Zamkowy)
Lazienki Park
Chopin Monument
Palace of Culture and Science (Palac Kultury i Nauki)
Wilanow Palace Museum (Palac Wilanow)
Saxon Gardens (Ogrod Saski)
Historical Museum of Warsaw (Muzeum Historyczne Warszawy)
Praga
Botanical Gardens (Ogrod Botaniczny)
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Grob Nieznanego Zolnierza).

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attractions-g274856-Activities-Warsaw_Central_Poland.html

By metro it will be easy get from one place to other. Spring is a good time to visit Warsaw. Of course you can find here many nice, high quality, wide range pubs restaurants. Have a great time in Poland.
Kind regards!

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User Generated Content. Is it any good?

April 15, 2009 · 6 Comments

User Generated Content. Is it any good? Is it useful?

Well, ahead of a trip to Warsaw next week we thought we’d see what UGC there is out there…

Typing ‘Warsaw guide’ into Google we were unsurprised to see Warsaw In Your Pocket appear in first place, but as we’re trying to travel with the help of UGC only, we had to resist the temptation to click on the link and download the latest Warsaw PDF.

So instead we headed off to Warsaw Travel Guide by Wiki Travel, the first UGC guide to Warsaw on the list.

It isn’t very good.

Though, according to the history of the article it was last updated in April, it rattles on at great length about the Etiuda terminal at Warsaw airport which serves low-cost carriers. As regular visitors to Warsaw (and readers of Warsaw In Your Pocket) will know, the Etiuda terminal closed last year. No hotels and only a handful of restaurants and nightlife venues are listed, while the list of sights – though relatively comprehensive – comes with no addresses, directions or such like.

The vast majority of practical information is woefully out of date.

So is it any good as a guide to Warsaw? No.

Next we hopped over to Virtual Tourist.

Now, visually a complete mess, you want to run away as quickly as possible. But I persisted, and clicked on the hotel reviews, ordered with the most recent – for the Le Meridien – showing first. It was written on February 12th, 2006. What’s more, the reviews were under ads for booking engines, and surrounded by links to discount hotel bookers. I could stand it no more and fled to the Things To Do section.

The first ‘tip’ (about Old Town) was written by a user called polishchick way back in 2004:

The charming Stare Miasto (Old Town), the oldest part of Warsaw, dates back to the XIII century and has been included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites Its Ghotic churches and Renaissance and Baroque churches have all been reconstructed following to their destruction by the Germans in WWII. It is surrounded by Barbakan (the old fortifications), and at its center lies the Old Town Market Square, lined with brightly colored facades and always filled with artists selling their wares, horse-drawn carriages and sightseers. It`s an awesome place to go for walks to and a very popular dating spot! You will see a lot of tourist, couples and families. Don`t miss it- it`s simply beautiful!

Hmmm. I have to admit that the tip is reasonably good, and she even gives directions and bus routes at the end. Indeed, like many Virtual Tourist sightseeing tips it is followed up with loads of comments from other users, and in general I have to say that Virtual Tourist is OK… for sights.

But only for sights.

When it comes to practical information it is worse than useless. It is very difficult to tell the difference between paid/sponsored and user links, and there is of course nothing to stop hotel owners etc pasting their own ‘tips’.

Worst of all though is the layout. It is not user friendly at all and putting together anything remotely resembling an easy to use guide to a city would take days. I do not have days.

I then went to something called Travellr. It asked me to login/sign up before proceeding.

No thanks.

Next port of call was Spotted by Locals. They have no Warsaw guide but they do have a Ljubljana guide, and I am off to Ljubljana next.

So I took a look. No hotels are listed, but the layout is simple and attractive and made me want to read more. That was until I actually did start reading.

I started off with the bios of the Ljubljana locals.

In years my taste has changed and now I have to say that I enjoy much more the cozy leisure time in some park or back yard restaurant garden. I also like to take a walk on the cobbled streets in the old part. But what I love the most today in Ljubljana is how it changes every year.

It’s English Jim, but not as we know it.

I took a look at the restaurant listings. While the standard of English was poor, and did not always appear to be objective, there was a photo of every place (though there are only 16 places currently listed) which at least proves the writers have been there: not always the case in the guide book business. So marks here.

Spotted by Locals is not entirely UGC: locals have to be approved before they start posting, and so carry more credibility than the everymen on Virtual Tourist et al. Given that it is (so far) non-commercial it’s certainly our favourite of this new breed. A deeper breadth of listings and regular updates would be nice, and the standard of English is poor. That aside, it isn’t bad.

The last site I tried was Localyte. Here you select your destination, ask a question, and sit back and wait for travel tips.

I asked “I have 24 hours free in Warsaw next week. How should I best spend my time?”

I will post the answers as they come in.

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Athens travel guides reviewed

April 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment

At a meeting of In Your Pocket’s supervisory council last month, one of its members, the publisher of In Your Pocket in Athens, came up with an intriguing idea: let’s show people just how out of date the opposition really is (and, by impication, how up to date we are).

The results are published in the latest edition of our Athens guide, and online right here.

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