8 lesser known Rome2Rio features

Whilst rome2rio is well known for its ability to show you how to get from A to B by searching various modes of transport, we have implemented several features that are not immediately obvious to users.

Here is a summary of 8 useful rome2rio features you may have missed:

1. Explore mode

If you input an origin, but leave the destination blank rome2rio will display a list of nearby airports and train stations on the left-hand side of the screen. Click on one of these, and you’ll be shown all possible direct trains and flights from that airport or station. We call this explore mode, and it is quite useful for “where can I go?” type of exploration. For flight routes, you can click on each destination and view airlines and flight times to that destination. 

2. Deeplinks

Rome2Rio supports deeplinks in the format http://www.rome2rio.com?[origin]/[destination] – for example http://www.rome2rio.com?new+york/grand+canyon will show results from New York to the Grand Canyon. The deeplink can also include outbound and return (optional) travel dates, triggering the display of airfares. For example, http://www.rome2rio.com/?new+york/grand+canyon/2011-12-18/2011-12-31.

You can also omit an origin from your deeplink. When a user clicks the link, they will be shown directions from their automatically-detected current town to that destination:
http://www.rome2rio.com/?/den+haag

A deeplink without a destination is also valid. This is especially useful to link to explore mode for a particular airport. This link shows all direct flights from San Jose airport: 
http://www.rome2rio.com/?sjc 

Users of the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox and Safari (but sadly not IE) will now notice that the URL dynamically changes when performing searches on rome2rio, thanks to support for this in HTML5. Users can also use the browser back and forward buttons to move between searches. For older browsers, we have kept the Link button in the top-left corner which displays a deeplink URL for the current search.

3. Country and state destinations

As described in this earlier blog post, you can type the name of a country or a state as your destination into rome2rio. For example, you can view all routes from Belfast to France or Boston to Florida. 

4. Multiple airline itineraries

Most travel search sites are shopping engines that display only combinations of flights that can be sold with a single ticket through codeshare and interlining agreements. Rome2Rio is a route search engine, which lists any combination of flights available to reach your destination. This includes combinations of flights offered by completely separate airlines that can be purchased individually, known as split ticketing.

For example for a search from Melbourne to New Orleans, rome2rio displays a split ticket option of flying with V Australia to LAX, then with Southwest Airlines to New Orleans. These multiple airline options are display separately, usually at the bottom of the itineraries window, with a pair of broken dots indicating the split.

5. Missing airfare schedules

Rome2Rio searches flight schedules licensed from Innovata which covers over 670 airlines. When the user clicks the show airfares button, rome2rio displays airfares for the itineraries. We chose to partner with Kayak.com to provide these airfares because Kayak are a meta-search engine and have better airfare coverage than other travel search sites.

However, there are some airlines that don’t provide their airfares to search engines such as Kayak. These range from obscure, small carriers to more popular airlines such as Southwest and Ryanair. The rome2rio interface displays scheduled flights for these airlines with a link to the carrier website alongside other priced itineraries.

6. Different date schedules

Some airlines, especially budget carriers in Europe, only fly routes on certain days of the week. Rome2Rio displays the days of operation beside each flight. If you choose to show airfares for a weekday that the flight does not operate on, this is highlighted by the interface.

7. Specific destinations

Rome2Rio is designed for finding routes from one side of the globe to the other, and users typically input a city, town or entire country/state as their destination. However, you can be as specific as you want and input an exact address or landmark. If you input an exact address which is accessibly by rail or bus, rome2rio may display on the map a grey line leading you to your destination from the nearby train station or bus stop.

For example, www.rome2rio.com/?/10+downing+st,+london.

8. Antarctica

Rome2Rio will even give you directions to Antarctica.

Give it a go now! http://www.rome2rio.com/?/antarctica