YowTRIP's goal is to promote cultural exchange by connecting world travelers and enabling them to share their travel experiences on this online community.

What does Yow mean?

Well, when it came time to find a name for this travel social network, it was very hard to find a URL or name that was available. Yow was accidentally chosen because, with English being my second language, I thought it was pronounced "Yoh" and I thought "Yoh"TRIP would convey the idea of "Your"TRIP(s). Then my friend Ben read it correctly as "Yow (as in How) TRIP"... and I said, "Oh...". Long story short, it became what it is today ... with no specific meaning until I told my friend Jason about the site and his first question was, "What does Yow mean?" Once again I said, "Oh...". He suggested a few meanings and I liked "Your Own World TRIP".

So, join us in this community and plan, dream and share Your Own World TRIP with us!

YowTRIP Pitch	YowTRIP Demo

Who is behind YowTRIP?
And how did YowTRIP get started?

I'm Felipe Coimbra, CEO/founder, web developer, designer, tester, marketing manager, sales person, editor and user of YowTRIP. Just a quick background about me: I'm a native of the beautiful city of Salvador, Brazil and I speak Portuguese, English and French. I'm a software engineering graduate of Auburn University and, in addition to YowTRIP, I own a web design company, eWeb Productions, and a web analytics online service, I-stats.

I have always loved traveling. From a young age I planned all of my family vacations, choosing where and when to go, what to do, and I knew travel would be a part of my life. Last year I had the opportunity to spend time in Canada and Europe, both traveling and studying French.

It was in Canada that I felt the need for something like YowTRIP. I joined a French school in Quebec in mid-semester, so everyone I met in the course had already been in Canada for a while and done most of their traveling. Canada was a country I'd wanted to visit for a long time, but I had never traveled alone before (I'd moved by myself many times, but never traveled) and I knew there had to be other people wanting to travel solo and maybe going to the places I wanted to visit. So I got online but couldn't find any good site that allowed me to get in touch with these people.

I went by myself anyway, and I was right, there were many people traveling by themselves — as a matter of fact about 40 percent of world travelers travel alone — and this became even clearer when I went to Europe. I met many interesting people and this was one of the best experiences of my life. As I toured Europe, most people I met had a facebook account, which is a great social network (excuse me - platform) site, but not really suitable for or geared toward travelers.

Since that trip two things were in my mind for several months: (1) the need for solo travelers to meet other solo travelers; and (2) the power of a social network to allow people to keep in touch and follow other adventurers.

So, (1) + (2) = YowTRIP!

YowTRIP is the result of four months of hard work, long nights and weekends. I’m very excited about it and look forward to hearing your opinion and maybe meeting you on the road someday.

I invite you to check out our demo, visit my YowTRIP page, join YowTRIP and don't forget to tell your friends about YowTRIP!

For up-the-minute information about YowTRIP, please be sure to check our news sections below:

Yow Blog

• June 22, 2008: YowTRIP mentioned at the Guardian.UK

Y Newsletter

• July 2: It's July and we have a new site!

Press Release

• May 21, 2008: Travel Site Partnership Puts Convenience in Adventure