ABOUT WANDERFLY

What is Wanderfly?
Wanderfly is a travel inspiration site that answers the simple question: “Where can I go?” Using your budget, interests, and several other criteria, Wanderfly recommends an ideal destination, as well as things to do on your trip. We help you find, organize, book, and share travel – all in one place – so that your travel planning experience is as fun as travel itself.

How does Wanderfly work?
Wanderfly is a recommendation engine that suggests destinations based on a variety of criteria, including your budget and interests. Using our proprietary algorithm, we match these criteria against the identities of 1,300+ destinations, suggesting trips that are most relevant to your tastes. We also recommend thousands of activities from dozens of partners, including Aol Travel, Not For Tourists, Rough Guides, Jauntsetter, Oh, Ranger, Find. Eat. Drink, Foursquare, Eventful and Yelp.

Wanderfly also allows you to create personal trip plans that you can share with your friends. Once you’ve found the perfect place to go, you can then book your flight and hotel directly through our partnerships with Orbitz and Hotels.com, respectively.

How is it different than other travel websites?
The vast majority of travel sites ask you exactly where you want to go on your next trip. The problem is that many of us don’t know the answer to this question right away. So rather than making this assumption, Wanderfly solves your problem, helping you find the perfect place to go. By doing this, we hope to save you countless hours of research and stress associated with your trip planning.

How many destinations does Wanderfly recommend?
There are currently more than 1,300 destinations in Wanderfly’s database, representing 140 countries in every continent except Antarctica. We add new places to this list all the time, after carefully vetting them to ensure they meet our criteria. Most destinations come with many different activity suggestions, giving users a great overall picture of their trip.

Where does Wanderfly get its content?
We source our content from a variety of best-in-class brands, all of whom are experts in their respective fields. Our activities come from providers like Aol Travel, Not For Tourists and Rough Guides. Our photos are sourced from Flickr. Our social functionality comes from Facebook. Our expert Wanderlists are curated by HISTORY, Mashable, Cool Hunting, Mint.com, Urban Daddy and many others. Together, we have dozens of different content providers, with many more on the way. It all comes together to form a clean, customized, and beautiful package.

If you’re interested in becoming our partner, email partners@wanderfly.com.

What can I book on Wanderfly?
Currently, you can book flights through our partnership with Orbitz and hotel rooms through our partnership with Hotels.com. Having access to the same inventory as Orbitz and Hotels.com, we can offer you a great selection of trips and deals.

Is Wanderfly free?
Yes, Wanderfly is completely free to use! You can find, organize, share, and book your trip, without paying a single penny. Of course, flights and hotels are not free, but you already knew that.

Where did the idea come from?
Wanderfly was conceived in January 2009 by its founders. All avid travelers, they noticed a big problem in online travel planning: almost every booking site required them to pick a destination, even if they don’t know where to go. They were frustrated by this problem, and quickly found that many others felt the same way. So they set out to create a new site that would help travelers discover where to go, based on what they liked to do and how much they had to spend. They envisioned an experience that would be fun, simple and beautiful. It would guide users effortlessly from inspiration all the way through to booking, without the stress associated with travel planning.

Who works at Wanderfly?
Wanderfly is a venture-backed company based in New York. We’re a small, tight-knit group of programmers, designers and marketers who love to travel, and who believe in the power of a brilliant user experience to enhance online travel inspiration. Learn more about our team.

How can I connect with Wanderfly?
There are several ways you can connect with Wanderfly. Our blog is a good place to start to learn about the team and what we do. You can also follow us on Twitter and like on us Facebook, to get the latest updates about our progress. If you’d like to get more involved and help us make Wanderfly better, you can leave feedback and report bugs through GetSatisfaction.

SEARCHING & GETTING RECOMMENDATIONS

How does Wanderfly decide which flights and hotels are best for me?
Our recommendations are largely based on what’s the best value for you. We try to do the hard work for you and look at a number of factors, against your total desired budget. For hotels, we take into account details such as star ratings and proximity to the city center. So, we might recommend a three star hotel that is close to the life of the city over a two and a half star hotel that is on the outskirts. For flights, we examine factors like departure time, number of transfers and number of airlines. We might recommend a flight that is $10 more than another to avoid an annoying red-eye and multiple layovers.

What if I already know where I want to go?
Our “Explore Anywhere In The World” feature on the homepage allows you to explore destinations anywhere that fit your budget and interests. If you have a specific destination in mind, however, you can search by city, country, or continent. Simply type the destination name into the box underneath “Explore Anywhere In” and select it from the drop-down.

How can I see more recommended trips?

Look out for the strip of photo thumbnails on the top bar of your search results page. Click on any of these photos to explore and inspiration around a new destination.

BOOKING & MANAGING YOUR TRIP

Who are Wanderfly’s booking partners?
Our booking partners are Orbitz and Hotels.com. Through these partnerships, we are able to give you access to thousands of different flights and over 130,000 hotel properties worldwide.

How do I indicate that more than one person is traveling?
The budget on the homepage is for one person by default, but you can easily add more travelers. Once you have chosen a destination, you can select how many flight tickets and hotel rooms you would like to book by navigating to the flight and hotel sections, respectively. Your trip price will be adjusted accordingly.

How can I share my trip or Wanderlist with friends?
Once you have selected a destination or created a Wanderlist, you can share it with your friends in three different ways. To share a specific destination on your Facebook wall, click “like” under the destination name. To share your Wanderlist, click “like” under the Wanderlist. You can also click “send” to send a personal Facebook message with your destination or Wanderlist. Finally, you can copy and paste a direct link of your destination or Wanderlist to Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Digg or to your email.

How do I change or cancel my flight?
Wanderfly partners with Orbitz to bring you the best deals on flights. Many tickets can be canceled or exchanged online. To change or cancel an airline ticket go to Orbitz’s My Trips feature. If you would like to contact Orbitz directly, you can call them at 888.656.4546.

How do I change or cancel my hotel?
Wanderfly partners with Hotels.com to feature over 130,000 hotel properties. You can cancel your hotel reservation online through Hotel.com’s View Reservations feature or call their customer support number at 800.246.8357.

TROUBLESHOOTING

How do I link my Facebook account to Wanderfly?
You can link your Facebook account to Wanderfly to see where your friends live, where they have been and where they are planning to go. Click on any of the “Connect With Facebook” buttons on our sign in screen, home page or destination pages, and follow the instructions on the pop-up window.

How can I make a suggestion or report a problem with the site?
We definitely welcome any and all suggestions that improve Wanderfly! To submit your suggestion or report your problem, just click on the “Feedback” link on the bottom of our home page. Submit your thoughts, concerns, complaints, or ideas to the community, or vote on existing topics that are already in the system. You can also shoot us a note directly at discuss@wanderfly.com.