Vayablog

by Lauren Jow, Vayable Intern

This May, Vayable is honoring National Bike Month with some international bike love. Pedaling through a city is the perfect way to explore it, and your quads will thank you for it too (well, maybe not the next day). Cover more distance than you could on foot without missing out on the sights and smells that define the city you’re visiting.

Worldwide, there twice as many bicycles as cars in existence (one billion, if anyone’s counting). Many people rely on them as a primary mode of transportation, and others ride recreationally, for exercise, or in an effort to conserve the air. Motivations aside, biking has had an immeasurable impact on cultures around the world. Here are some of our favorite bike experiences (search “bike” on Vayable.com for more amazing options).

Bike the Heart of the City, San Francisco, CA, USA

San Francisco may seem daunting to the bike-curious and inexperienced visitor, but don’t be deterred. Dan and Tim will help you test out the wheels while avoiding the hills and traffic that make the city tricky to maneuver. Check out a few must-see areas, but truly make your time count by learning their secret spots and city trivia. Golden Gate Park, street art, historic architecture and good eats are all mapped out.

Ice Cream Tour of SF by Bike, San Francisco, CA, USA

The weather is warming up, making this the perfect time to cool off with an ice cream bike tour of San Francisco. While biking between three creameries, visit trendy and scenic neighborhoods, learn a little history, talk about the economic ups and downs of communities and independent businesses and break for some serious hipster-spotting and sun bathing. This may be the most quintessential afternoon you could have away from a beach.

Berlin Nightlife by Bike, Berlin, Germany

Ah, a city that celebrates cyclers day in and day out. Less than half the residents here own a car and motorized traffic yields to bikers (like a Portland, Oregon dream come true). Stay out of the red and you should be golden. If the daytime critical mass is too much to handle, give biking a shot in the dark. Pedaling through a historic city by the light of the moon and lampposts is as romantic as it sounds. Even better, your night’s mission is to check out amazing bars, clubs and cafés around town.

London on Two Wheels, London, England

The upside to all that rain is the expansive green space London offers. And what could be more quaint than a ride that winds through old English neighborhoods and lush parks? Throw in a charming journalist with a smart accent and you should be set. The city’s bike sharing system will seem like a breeze once you learn the ins and out of it.

Easy Bike and Photography Tour, Catania, Italy

The best things come with time and effort and this 8-day bike tour of Sicily will be a vacation to remember. It’s history, architecture, ocean, fresh food, wine and more. Imagine yourself biking through dramatic landscapes, visiting unforgettable places and sitting down to the best meal you ever had every night for a week. We’ve yet to hear of a more satisfying week in Italy.

Here’s a guest post we wrote for DIWYY, a girl’s guide to travel.

In making the most out of our time abroad, it’s often important to reflect on the reasons why we travel. We travel to take in different cultures, to immerse ourselves in a world entirely foreign to us, and to reclaim that childhood wonder of discovering something we never knew existed. Sometimes the most transformative and memorable experiences come with a certain amount of risk – getting out of your comfort zone and taking a leap of faith in a person or place.

“When I was twenty years old, I went to Morocco. One afternoon I walked into a carpet shop with my bulky guidebook in tow, telling the shopkeeper that I wanted to visit the Sahara Desert but couldn’t afford to go. Before I’d finished my cup of mint tea, I was in the back seat of the shopkeeper’s Honda Accord, tearing through the windy roads of the Atlas mountains for fifteen hours until we reached the desert where his cousin, Ali, was the chief of a caravan tribe.

After five nights traveling on camel back, subsisting on bread our guide baked in the sand, and sleeping under the stars tucked in wool blankets, I returned to the caravan camp, just as the sun went down to mark the first night of Passover. Atop a sand dune, my new friends and I drew the Seder plate in the sand and together sang ‘Let my people go.’ Gazing up at the brilliant stars, Ali says to me, ‘The only real difference between us is that my tribe reads one more book than yours.’

The modest amount of money I spent had given Ali and his cousin enough to live on for a month. And my newly gained understanding of the world, and of myself, instigated a decade of exploration that has aimed to positively impact the world, not least of which, was founding Vayable.” – Jamie, founder and CEO of Vayable

It was purely serendipitous that Jamie met this shopkeeper who knew a caravan tribe leader, and it was fortunate that she was able to safely put her well-being in a stranger’s hands. We started Vayable to provide a safer way to take these leaps of faith. Vayable connects travelers with local experts around the world whom we have personally met and vetted.

When looking for things to do, off-the-beaten path experiences are often hard to find. Some of the most memorable and sought after experiences on Vayable take you to places you wouldn’t necessarily be comfortable going to by yourself. A favela in Rio de Janeiro, the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Queens at midnight. Walking along the streets of San Francisco on the homeless tour with Milton, a homeless man himself, and listening to personal anecdotes about the neighborhood makes you gain a deeper understanding of issues both unique to San Francisco and prevalent amongst the rest of the world.

As travelers, we want to have access to amazing things while also preserving the integrity of local culture and staying safe. We want to get out of our day-to-day, respect the culture that exists, and experience it for ourselves. We live for those moments of connecting with someone from around the globe and stepping into their world. That is why we travel, and that is why Vayable exists.

The month of April marks the Titanic’s centennial. In April 10, 1912, the Titanic set out for her maiden voyage westward from Queenstown, Ireland to New York City. Over time, this tragedy led to new standards and improvements in maritime safety and has played a prominent role in popular culture. This year, there are centinnial cruises that are following the original path, the 1997 feature film Titanic was re-released in 3D, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performed The Titanic Requiem to commemorate.

If you can’t make time for a cross-Atlantic voyage, why not set sail and appreciate the blue seas in your own way? Whether you’re looking to go on your next great adventure or are just looking for an afternoon out on the ocean, we got you covered.

Sailing on the San Francisco Bay. Set your sails to the wind and cast of on a grand afternoon adventure with Captain Marco around the glistening San Francisco bay on a nice day.

Sail the Virgin Islands. Sail to an uninhabited island, going to a local joint for lunch and swimming with the fish.

Maui Sail and Snorkel. Whether it’s Maui or one of the other islands in Hawaii, you’ll always find Keao at sea, and you might even be lucky enough to join him on a great adventure.

Sailing Weekend Cinque Terre. Get in touch with the Italian Riviera as you visit small cities in islands around the Mediterranean.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Tour. Sometimes maritime adventures are not all about sunbathing and drinking wine. Get exclusive access to Brooklyn’s naval yard to see some of America’s finest fighting ships and colorful stories of turbulent nights at sea past.

We’ve created a lot of great offline connections between local guides and curious explorers, resulting in lasting friendships, dinner party partners, and across-the-pond neighbors. Since you love meeting one another and have been asking for a way to meet other fellow travelers, we’re introducing public experiences on Vayable.

All bookings now default to public unless you choose to make it private. Others can join in on existing bookings and get instantly confirmed, perfect for those times when you’re in a pinch looking for that last-minute getaway (or staycation). Current public experiences can be found here.

Public bookings will be listed on the experience page under “book it” ribbon for the time being. And of course if a date doesn’t work for you, you can always still request a custom time.

So what are you waiting for? Get off that laptop and on to your next great adventure!

There have already been some great recaps of this Tuesday’s sharing economy panel by Taskrabbit and Shareable, but here’s yet another one. We’re stoked to be part of the working group that will help shape public policy around this new economy that will enable greener lifestyles, bring people closer together, and make living in the city more affordable.

“As goes San Francisco, as goes the rest of the country, as goes the rest of the world.” – David Chiu

Sharable’s Neal Gorenflo kicked it off with a touching overview of the entire movement. The sharing economy was partly driven by the economic crisis and is a new way to live more fully. “Access better supports the pursuit of happiness than ownership.” In a world where people are starting to trust one another over large institutions, we are transitioning from a top-down factory model of society to a bottom up peer-to-peer model.

The panelists, Jessica Scorpio of Getaround, Molly Turner of Airbnb, Leah Busque or TaskRabbit, Jamie Wong of Vayable, and Jay Nath of the City of San Francisco all had great, unique insights to add to the discussion. Consumption through peer-to-peer models has the ability to touch everyone across the socioeconomic spectrum, from a homeless man living in the Tenderloin to stay-at-home moms looking to earn income while maintaining flexible hours to that new graduate who is barely making rent while juggling student loans.

There are also positive externalities: cleaner air and less congestion due to fewer cars, less construction and idle spaces due to hospitality exchange, and preserved local culture due to a more authentic way to explore. A common thread was that it’s important for cities to make regulations explicit and specific around new use cases that this movement creates.

“We are in many ways a cutting edge city in terms of tech, food, transportation, all sorts of things we’re really ahead of the curve. We attract a lot of forward-thinking people who want to do things in a different and more innovative way. We’re also a really old-school city, change here is very challenging. We get a lot of reflexive push back when we’re trying to do things differently. So much of this is really about educating the city as a whole.” – Scott Wiener, San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

As this the sharing economy grows, San Francisco will lead the world in implementing public policy around it. After all, as Turner said near the end of the night, “cities exist because it’s more efficient to collaborate and share resources.”

If you have thoughts that you’d like us to relay to the working group, we’d love to do so. Please contact us at community@vayable.com.

As a hub of technological development and innovation, San Francisco is oftentimes the breeding ground for entirely new industries and economies. As these new economies grow, the city inevitably becomes involved in issues that other local governments have never before had to experience. Just last week, there was a hearing at City Hall to discuss a proposal to charge residents who rent rooms out on Airbnb the same taxes that commercial hotels have to pay.

This week, representatives from the city as well as the founders from select companies in the space will discuss the social, economic, and environmental impact of the sharing economy. Jamie Wong, the CEO of Vayable will be on the panel along with TaskRabbit, Getaround, Airbnb, and Jay Nath (chief innovation officer of the City of San Francisco).

We invite you to join us on Tuesday, April 3 at 6 PM for this evening forum.

654 Mission Street,
San Francisco, CA 94105-4015

Obviously we’re huge fans of sharing, and we are honored to be part of decisions that can change the future of San Francisco and also the world! We hope to see you all there! In the meantime, feel free to write us with your thoughts.

Our homeless tour inspired a student documentary from a first time visitor to San Francisco’s perspective. Check it out!

We’re stoked to be covered by Forbes as part of a new way to travel on the cheap!

According to a recent report, fifty-three percent of consumers plan to travel more in 2012 than 2011—an 18 percentage point increase from 2011— despite a lack of confidence in the economy. Additionally, two-thirds of travel-bound consumers plan to increase their travel budgets. However you don’t have to spend more to make your vacation worthwhile; this year, it’s all about alternative destinations and cool search tools to save more money.

These tips for scoring travel deals will get you from office cubicle to beachside cabana without waiting on that tax return. Get ready to choose-your-own-adventure at choose-your-own-budget prices!

1)      Weekend Trip: Create a trip around a cool experience. If relaxing poolside isn’t your idea of a vacation, what about a one-of-a-kind experience led by a local? New site Vayable offers unique activities you can easily build a vacation or staycation around. Created and hosted by people from all over the world, you can explore experiences in categories like Food & Wine, Social Good, and Going Up & Down Things. Here’s a glimpse of your future brag-worthy moments: make a lovo with local Fijians, take a tour of an eco-farm in Costa Rica, take a nightlife tour of Berlin’s decadent underground, or venture into your own backyard and ride a Tesla Roadster in San Francisco or take a tour of New York with a celebrity. Beats Googling “fun stuff to do in ____.”

Cool deal: Most experiences are around the $30-$60 range and as low as $3. More pricey excursions are are in the hundreds of dollars, like $500 for a daylong white water rafting trip in Uganda.

Read more >>

We had a blast in Austin with all of you at our party co-hosted with Airbnb and Getaround! We were able to meet many of you and would like to thank everyone who came out despite the rain to meet us! If we didn’t get a chance to meet you, please always feel free to contact us at community@vayable.com to say hi or to ask for a t-shirt .

We had special guest appearances by DJ Kidhack, the Getaround Tesla, and a Delorean! Thanks so much for celebrating the future of travel with us, where we share our resources and expertise. Back to the Future was an ode to old school travel because that was the way things were done in the past before a time of chain hotels and rental car agencies. Enjoy the pictures!

Also, a special thanks to our sponsors that helped to make the party a smashing success: TaskRabbit, Moonshine Whiskey, Pecan Street Rum, Famous Vodka, PretzelCrisps, and Tracks!

by Melissa Brightwell, Vayable Intern

“Keep Austin Weird” is a slogan that can be seen on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and hats displayed by proud locals around the city. The slogan, originally used to promote small, local businesses, encompasses the vibrant and eclectic culture of the live music capital.

At first glance, Austin may seem as normal as the next city: big buildings, traffic, construction. But look a little closer out your window as you’re arriving and you may notice some subtle oddities: a man riding his unicycle in the traffic, a street sign that says “Caution Zombies Ahead!”, or maybe you’re lucky enough to be in town during a city festival or race in which case you may see hordes of people running around in all sorts of crazy outfits (or lack thereof)!

To experience a full day of “weirdness” in Austin, start off in South Congress browsing some of the funky thrift stores,  unique food trailers, coffee shops, and colorful artwork that give this part of the city a quirky and fun vibe. While in this area, be sure to stop by the Cathedral of Junk! This “cathedral” was started by a local Austinite in his backyard over 20 years ago and is made completely of recycled garbage (toys, appliances, pipes, etc.).

Cool off at the Alamo Drafthouse with a beer and a show. This is by far our favorite place to go for movies, and on “Weird Wednesday” they show bizarre cult classics. They  also always have various sing-a-longs, quote-a-longs, and other performances in addition to the current movies in theater.

Be sure to hit up Lady Bird Lake and Barton Springs afterward to go for a run, swim, or kayaking trip on the lake. If you time this activity around sunset, you may get to witness hundreds of bats emerging from their home under the Congress bridge. If there happens to be a full moon that night, head to Barton Springs after watching the bats and be prepared to howl and dance with the circle of drummers paying homage to the moon.

Grab a few drinks to end the night right at one of the “weird” local bars around the city. If it is a Sunday, stop by Ginny’s Little Longhorn for Chicken Shit Bingo (yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like; if the Chicken shits on your number, you win!). If you feel like celebrating Christmas, hit up Lala’s Little Nugget, where you can celebrate Christmas everyday of the year. To experience a lot of different bars, spend some time around the infamous 6th street, where the street closes on weekends for people to roam freely from bar to bar.

So it has come to it – come rain, come shine. SXSW starts tomorrow, and we’re throwing an epic party with Airbnb and Getaround. So remember to let loose, have fun, and keep it weird!