Since we launched rome2rio last year, support for multi-hop trips has been the single most requested feature. Our users wanted to be able to construct a complex journey, visiting several destinations by combining various modes of transport, and save that trip so they could share it with their friends.
I also found myself pining for such a feature, so that I could record trips I had done in the past. I could also encourage friends who were planning jaunts throughout Europe to share their plans with me via rome2rio.
We’re excited to announce that we’ve now launched a first version of multi-hop search. To try it out, click the Multi-hop button next to the to / from inputs, and start entering a sequence of destinations.
Rome2Rio displays an overview of your trip on the left panel, with the entire journey plotted out on the main map. You can select each leg of the journey and change the mode of transport or route for that leg as desired.
Once you’ve built a trip, you can then name it, select a privacy level (currently either public or unlisted) and save it on our servers. Facebook login is currently required for saving and sharing trips. Once the trip is saved, a trip URL is provided for you to share with friends and family via Facebook, Twitter and email. For example, you can check out the trip from Quebec to Washington DC I created here: http://www.rome2rio.com/?tripid=ApntLe
When you post a trip on your Facebook wall, Rome2Rio creates a nice little preview including a miniature trip map:
Multi-hop is still very much in development. With time, we plan to make it a more prominent part of the site by adding multi-hop input to the welcome screen, and displaying lists of user generated trips for everyone to browse. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy this new feature and find it useful for planning your next epic air – train – bus – ferry – car journey.