If your typical Friday night routine involves sitting in front of the television with a bowl full of popcorn, then Goby is a website that can help break you out of your shell. No matter where you live or what you like to do for fun, Goby can provide you with a list of activities to try out nearby. In addition to detailed descriptions and location information, Goby also posts high quality images of the activities right alongside the listings to give you an even better idea of what to expect.
Goby doesn’t require any signup or login process to begin. Just type in an activity you’d like to try—like wine tasting, biking, or gallery openings, for example—along with your current location and your preferred date. Within an instant, Goby will present you with a listing of activities that match your description, along with an interactive map that shows exactly where each activity takes place. If the organization sponsoring the event has a website, then that will be included in the Goby listing, along with a list of all the other activities to try nearby and restaurants within the same local vicinity.
In addition to helping you find out about things to do near your hometown, Goby can also be great resource to use while planning weekend trips and vacations. The site offers hotel, B&B, and vacation rental listings across the country, which can be sorted by price, star rating, or distance from a particular address or landmark. The website’s iPhone application makes it easy to find this information on the go, as well, giving you a way to discover what’s going on nearby even when you’re not near a desktop computer.
Practical Uses:
- Find something fun to do tomorrow night
- Meet new people by trying out group activities and sports
- Choose a hotel for your upcoming trip
- Decide on a restaurant to eat at that’s located near a specific point of interest
Insider Tips:
- Input a city, state, or region into the search bar when finding things to do
- Browse through Goby’s widget to get ideas for new activities to try
- Download the iPhone app to use Goby on the go
- Click to see additional photos that go along with most listings
What we liked:
- Exploring the site is fun and addictive
- Interactive maps make it easy to tell how far one point of interest is from another
- Easy to find out what activities are going on in your community
- Nearby restaurants feature helps find places to eat after a particular activity is done
What we didn’t like:
- Clicking on hotel names took us directly to Priceline, even when Priceline wasn’t necessarily the website offering the best deal
Alternatives:
- Activity Bookers – http://www.activitybookers.com
- Kijubi – http://www.kijubi.com
- UpTake – http://www.uptake.com
Company Info:
- Launched: September 2009
- Privately Held
- Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
- Founded by: Mark Watkins and Vince Russo
- Web site: http://www.goby.com
Costs:
- Free
All articles are curated and personally reviewed by Dave Onkels. Dave is tech addict and has a passion for rich web applications. He has cultivated several tech startups and runs