Helping the users preparing the trip and staying up to date about Traveling.

With summer and subsequently vacations fast approaching, the need for vacation websites with information for tourist destinations is on the rise. While this vacation craze is seasonal, the websites and information they provide must be well prepared to attract repeat visitors the next vacation season.

www.travelguidesfree.com is more akin to a vacation planning tool than an actual information website. It provides brochures, planning kits, and maps of all 50 states and Canada for free. While it hard to say exactly how it generates revenue, the website is a service website. After choosing a destination, all available brochures are pulled up and can be added to a cart. Fill out the form with your name and address and your brochures will be sent. The fact that you do not have to enter any payment method or information lends credence to the fact that this is a service website.

The content of site consists of various regions of America, the Caribbean, and Canada. That’s it. It simply has a map, and a break of regions in tab form to simplify the search process. A list of all 50 states can also be found. Concerning content; this website possesses a good content that is capable of serving the needs of all the users; professional writing style revealed. The content is well organized with no grammar mistakes; content is very direct it goes directly to the “point” that is helping the users planning a good trip by providing useful tips and travel brochures and vacation maps.

With regards to the quality of information available, there is no real information provided. It simply gives you the ability to download brochures or have them shipped to you. It’s not clear why anyone would pick shipping when they can have the information they need immediately. The brochures the site provides are quite helpful and often times, there are two or more brochures per travel destination with different information and sights to see. Although the brochure provides useful information, it is not a reflection of the usefulness of the site, as these brochures can be picked up at local stores and hotels.

Visually, the website a little drab. The predominant color is brown with the words and brochure appearing on a white background. It does not appear to have taken a lot of time or effort to put the visual aspect together. There are no real graphics to speak about as the site is set up more for efficiency and ease of use than for the sake of being flashy. Despite its less than vacation oriented look, the site still manages to look rather professional, albeit, a lackluster one.

The organization of the site is easy to follow and navigate. It’s got tabs on top to help narrow the search by region and all 50 states on the side for an even narrower search. It would appear that the designers of www.travelguidesfree.com put some thought into the websites navigation ease. Then again, when all you’re doing is browsing through brochures, you would hope that the process would be easy.

Its best feature by far is the download option. It is really the only reason We can see the point of a service website that offers only brochures. Although We are curious about why the information on the brochure was not simply put on the site, We can’t really complain because either way, We get to read up on places without leaving our home.

The idea is good and definitely provides a service to people by giving brochures which are packed with all the fun information and non of the dreary historical facts. That said, the color scheme of the site needs to be revamped to match the concept. While downloading the brochures is definitely a nice touch, it would be great if you did not have to put in your information, like you would for shipping, before being able to download.

Overall, www.travelguidesfree.com is a decent website but cannot truly compare with other vacation oriented sites. Its need to know our address even when we are simply downloading the information leads us to believe that our mailbox and email will be spammed.

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