The Thorn Tree: A busy travel message board

Travel message boards are a very popular way to post questions and get answers fast. Probably the busiest travel message board in the world is Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree.

The Thorn Tree was named after an actual thorn tree outside a guest house in Kenya. When people wanted a shared ride or something else from another traveler, they would hang their note on the thorn tree. Nowadays LP’s Thorn Tree has thousands of registered members and often a question will be answered within 10 minutes. Not all the comments are appropriate and it has been known to be a bit of a slagging match. Still they do allow registered members to fill out a profile and contact each other via the site. Since I have been using the site it has grown in terms of categories. The Departure Lounge section features destination specific questions, the Lobby specialist type questions, the News Stand has info on the tsunami recovery and the Tree House is where the nuts hang out.

BootsnAll also has a message board which is worth a try.