This week’s SkiftSeedlings each started growing on a different digital medium — a website, Facebook page, iPad app, and email chain — but all aim to help travelers discover something early in the travel process whether it be a back alley cafe or fellow flyer sitting a few rows back.

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For all of our SkiftSeedlings collection, check out our archives here.

Great Little Place - SkiftSeedlings

Great Little Place defines its niche approach to travel right in its company name. The website highlights hidden gems including bars, parks, restaurants, and markets in London. The startup is unique in that both its content and its funding have been crowd-sourced from users that have followed GLP from its humble beginnings as a Facebook page in 2010. The company, driven by a mission to support the little guys in a corporate heavy world, is actively expanding the number of cities it operates in.

SkiftTake: GLP’s start as a popular Facebook gives it the validation that many travel startups lack and the user base that many desperately seek.

JetZet is a travel management tool that organizes trip itineraries including hotel bookings, rental cars, and flight schedules in one smooth UI. Travelers can follow one another for real-time updates on friends’ trips, share trips via Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, and sync their itineraries to Outlook, Gmail, or iCal. JetZet will also find which of your connections on social media are in the places you’re traveling to so you can message them for an impromptu or planned meeting directly via JetZet.

SkiftTake: Outside of itinerary organization, the site’s unique value proposition is connecting strangers that are sharing a flight or train; however, both users have to be a part of JetZet meaning that the site will have to overcome its biggest battle – user acquisition – before this is really a feature at all.

JetFreely is a trip-planning iPad app that wants the search process to be as aesthetically pleasing as a travel magazine, but as actionable as a mobile app. Users enter their budget and mood (active, spiritual) and are given a list of trips curated from the startup’s global travel partners. Bookings are made directly through the tour operators. The app will be available by the end of the month.

SkiftTake: Launching solely on mobile isn’t a bad place to start these days, and regardless of the platform, JetFreely’s largest hurdle will be capturing a share of the trip planning market, which many startups that came before it have tried and failed to do.

Every DayDream Holiday - SkiftSeedlings

Every Daydream Holiday is a daily weekday newsletter that launched in December 2012. The emails feature stories, photos, and travel trips are meant to serve as an escape for daydreaming employees who will link back to longer, fleshed-out posts on the startup’s website.

SkiftTake: The startup’s growth is hinged on its newsletter methodology that could either flop or take off, but runs the danger of becoming something that followers quickly glance at without visiting the site or engaging in the startup’s fledgling community. Great content and branding will determine which way readers fall.

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Tags: apps, skiftseedlings, social media, trip planning

Photo credit: Great Little Place started out as a Facebook page and turned into a full-fledged startup sharing city's hidden gems. Great Little Place

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