Nifty how to get from place to place travel site
May 18, 2013 1:00 PM   Subscribe

Rome2Rio is a handy travel search engine site where you put in the place you want to start and where you want to go. It shows you the map, the cost of the ticket (air, rail, coach, ferry and mass transit routes), duration of the journey, etc.
posted by nickyskye (16 comments total) 31 users marked this as a favorite
 
This would be better if they didn't make you feel guilty about the carbon footprint of your trip-of-a-lifetime dream.
posted by cgk at 1:08 PM on May 18, 2013


The prices seem to be incredibly off, unless I'm missing something. I'm scheduling to move to Milwaukee in July, and so I'm familiar with the train, bus, and plane costs, which were quite different from what were given here. In weird ways too. The plane ticket was quoted as the cheapest at a few hundred dollars cheaper than where it should, and the train and bus ticket more expensive than they should be.
posted by SollosQ at 1:25 PM on May 18, 2013


PDX -> Hana, HI, USA. Taxi from OGG to Hana, HI - $230.

There are some bugs to be worked out.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 1:31 PM on May 18, 2013


SollosQ: "The prices seem to be incredibly off, unless I'm missing something."

When I first did a search, it was set to Australian Dollars and I had to switch it to US currency. Maybe the same for you?
posted by bluecore at 2:30 PM on May 18, 2013


It's one way, as well, not round trip, so that would obviously affect the total. It seems pretty close for me for the places I've checked. It's cute, too.
posted by donnagirl at 2:37 PM on May 18, 2013


Yeah, I am not seeing huge differences in price here, either. I picked a route I know well, picked the 31 of May and set it to work. It gave me six options, and I checked half of them with the carriers' websites. In every case, R2R was within five bucks of what the other site said.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:52 PM on May 18, 2013


I use places like Anadyr (far east Siberia) as a test for how good a travel engine is.

On Rome2Rio:
Sorry, we are unable to find a route to Anadyr, Russia.
On Travelocity:

[here to Moscow, then]

Transaero Airlines
Flight 111
7:05pm Moscow, Russian Federation (DME)
11:25am - Mon, Jul 1 Next day arrival
Anadyr, Russian Federation
posted by crapmatic at 3:23 PM on May 18, 2013


I literally just booked a flight an hour ago, and this site is $6 off of what I paid.
posted by desjardins at 3:31 PM on May 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Huh, that actually worked pretty well at knowing all these small random charter buses around here to nearby major cities and airports that tend to be great deals but run only when the colleges are in session. Those local ones NEVER show up on travel engines so they're hard to find unless you already know about them.

Didn't seem more useful than other sites in terms of finding flights overseas, but for nearby travel it had a lot more options than I'm used to!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:20 PM on May 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


Well, it's comforting to know if I really just can't take it anymore, Kashgar is only 30 hours and a multi-stop Aeroflot flight away.
posted by pravit at 5:27 PM on May 18, 2013 [1 favorite]


This is perfect! Just this week my fiancée and I have been planning our honeymoon this November, trying to figure out the right combination of transportation to get us from Paris to Rome, hopefully via Grindelwald, Switzerland. And then you drop this site in my lap, designed for exactly that sort of thing. On behalf of both of us, thank you :)
posted by TheCowGod at 8:12 PM on May 18, 2013 [2 favorites]


Hey, something that i know about first-hand! My friends started Rome2Rio after one of them spent a year travelling around Europe and Asia, and noted that there wasn't a good way to explore options for travelling in Europe (trains, planes, etc). So they work hard on providing a way to search multiple forms of transportation, rather than just flights.

I'm not familiar enough with the site to comment on the issues above, but i'll definitely bring this thread to their attention.
posted by nml at 4:57 AM on May 19, 2013 [2 favorites]


NYC to Washington DC shows only one bus route and it doesn't go all the way to DC. There must be half a dozen bus companies serving that route...
posted by waciuma at 10:02 AM on May 19, 2013


Am I missing the part where you put in travel dates? Because if your wedding isn't happening right now, planning a honeymoon or any other vacation isn't going to work on this.

I'd use ITA Matrix to shop flights more accurately.
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:20 AM on May 19, 2013


One short 34 hour bus ride and I'm there!
posted by blue_beetle at 3:23 PM on May 19, 2013


Am I missing the part where you put in travel dates?

Apparently. When I open it I see "From: $BIGCITYNEARBY" and "To: ______." Once I fill these in, I get a page with a map, with conforms the "from" and "to" fields and adds a "date" field as well. Admittedly, that seems slightly counter-intuitive, but I guess this way is easier for an idle, "I wonder how much it would cost to go to Kathmandu" user.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 5:41 PM on May 19, 2013


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