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FEDERICA DEL PROPOSTO
THE ACE TRAVEL AGENT
Lola
For many, the real headache in planning a trip is winnowing down that flood of options to those that satisfy your often idiosyncratic needs. Lola uses artificial intelligence to generate custom flight and hotel options, based on past bookings and information you give it during setup (e.g. favorite hotels, airlines and even flight times). Lodging recommendations come with stated rationales, like “Somewhat similar to the NoMad, a hotel you have stayed at before.” Since the app is geared toward business travelers, you can (for now) only book one seat at a time, unless you use Lola’s other terrific feature—actual human beings, always available via message, phone and email. lola.com
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FEDERICA DEL PROPOSTO
THE KNOW-IT-ALL
Cool Cousin
Most everybody’s got one. That cousin in a far-off city, who, when you visit, brings you to impossibly hip galleries, restaurants and shops that you’d never have discovered on your own. Imagine then, having not just one, but 900 cousins in 65 cities, from Tel Aviv to Taipei. That’s the conceit of this rapidly expanding new app and website for which locally savvy “Cousins” create personal, map-based guides to their cities and neighborhoods. You can also message with those Cousins for deeper on-the-ground insights, and filter by age, in case you prefer food and museum tips in Rome from a 46-year-old architect rather than a 26-year-old-musician. coolcousin.com
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FEDERICA DEL PROPOSTO
THE (PLATONIC) MATCHMAKER
Tourlina
One of the great, paradoxical pleasures of solo travel is meeting people on the road. For women exploring by themselves, this is, unfortunately, not without risks. Tourlina has cultivated a globe-spanning, female-only community (users are verified via their
profiles) that lets women swipe through fellow voyagers and friendly locals for advice and platonic companionship. The interface is Tinder-like, but instead of romance, users find buddies for that train ride from Ho Chi Minh City to Hanoi, or the lowdown on good, safe bathhouses in Tbilisi or hostels in Prague. tourlina.com
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