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Website of the Week
www.mydestinationinfo.com

By Fred Mawer
Updated: 12:58 EDT, 10 September 2010

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Guidebooks - the traditional sources of information on holiday destinations and cities - are increasingly under threat from online offerings.

One significant competitor is Mydestinationinfo.com, a 'franchise network' of experts who live in the destinations they write about - providing, or at least promising to provide, up-to-date reviews on hotels, restaurants, nightlife and much else besides.

At present, some 40 destinations are covered. Many are European resort areas - Tenerife, Ibiza, Majorca, the Algarve and so forth. But cities are also covered (fancy a break in Sarajevo?), along with long-haul places such as Hawaii and Kenya.

I had a look at Tenerife.

Dying breed?: mydestinationinfo.com is a competitor to the traditional guidebook

Strengths

Good, detailed coverage: resort summaries, thorough hotel and restaurant reviews, recommendations for spas, what to do if it rains - pretty much everything you'd find in a guidebook.

Everything is well presented, with maps and lots of photos, and it's easy to find your away around the site.

I like the interactive events calendar, which told me that if I was heading out to Tenerife in the next few weeks that I would coincide with a re-enactment of the harvesting of cochineal in Buzanada, and the Fiestas del Cristo in La Laguna, with beauty contests and 'flower battles'. (You don't get that in a guidebook).

Weaknesses

Annoyingly, many of the destinations highlighted on the world map don't yet have expert coverage - you're told it's 'coming soon'.

Sometimes, the material is too overtly commercial - hotel and restaurant reviews can read like PR guff, and, for example, the information on Tenerife airport transfers appears to plug just one company.