Meet Mapstr, a hybrid map and note taking app that lets you easily bookmark your favorite restaurants, bars and more. It reminds me of the old Del.icio.us, but this time it’s for places.

There are already many ways to keep track of places. You can create address book entries, add bookmarks into Google Maps or just create a new note on your phone. But these options are all clunky in some way.

Google Maps bookmarks are just stars on a map — they don’t tell you much. It’s hard to know if you bookmarked a place because a friend lives there, because you liked this coffee shop or because you want to try it. As far as I know, you can’t add notes to your bookmarks in Google Maps.

And of course, notes are hard to search and make you switch back and forth between your favorite note taking app and Google Maps. Chances are it will be quicker to do a quick Google search rather than scroll through your notes.

Mapstr takes a different approach. When you open the app, you are presented with a full screen map. After that, nearly everything happens here, because the best way to bookmark your favorite places is on a map.

Then, you can tag your places with descriptive keywords (restaurant, sushi, cocktails, etc.) and personal keywords (favorite, to try, etc.). And of course, you can add notes to remember what cocktail to order. The true power behind Mapstr is that the more places you add, the more relevant it becomes. You can filter by keyword and find the perfect place in very little time.

Contrarily to Foursquare or Yelp, Mapstr isn’t a social app. You won’t find any comments by other users, you won’t share your location with others. Using Mapstr simply feels like annotating an old-fashioned paper map.

Another option that I like is: http://www.travellerspoint.com/

Travellerspoint offers users a diverse travel resource that covers many destinations all over the globe. The website links too many travel blogs as well as travel guides and other resources.

Users can browse a list of exotic and intriguing destinations, ranging from locations in Africa and Asia to South America, the Middle East and the Caribbean.

A built in website search allows the user to seek out information on a specific region or city as well.

Along with text content, the site also maintains a vast library of color images taken at various locations.

Interactive tools allow the user to build a map of their next trip that includes blog entries and photos attached to various destinations. Other features include hotel and airfare listings, travel insurance, packing lists, trip planning guides, wiki travel guide and the ability to start a travel blog.

Via: techcrunch, travellerspoint