Well. After a lot of sleepless nights, passionate debates, hard-core coding, light bulb moments, moments of despair, fiddling and tweaking and on a serious shoe-string budget, we have taken our first step out of the shadows. We are happy to announce the beta launch of ’here or there?’

We could focus on telling you who we are or get excited about sharing the nifty new technologies we used to build the website (Ruby on the Rails, Ajax and all that stuff). No doubt those are gripping topics that have you on the edge of your seat but instead we’d like to tell you what drives us.

Just over a year ago we had a cunning idea and passionate dream, to try to solve the conundrum of good travel inspiration.

Here was the original dilema that got us going….

For travel inspiration you could ask a friend where to travel next (research says most of us do). However, they may have limited travel experiences, a different budget and totally different taste (a prediliction for train spotting?). You could read a book or an article, but does the writer have the same interests or passions as you do? You could watch a great TV programme on a destination and think, hmmm, I should go there. Not bad but just not as good as it could be. We believe the internet can offer a better, more personal and richer way in finding true travel inspiration. Project Twitter (don’t ask) was born, re-named Project X or Y, and has since become the beta website www.hereorthere.com.

We have been quietly opening up the website and begging our friends and family to help us get things started.

There are already some really inspirational and fun travel experiences on the website, here are a selection:

Polar Bears & the Northern Lights, Churchill, Canada

Shipwrecked on Motorakau (a real contestants inside view of the Channel 4 reality TV show)

Relax on Disney Island, Bahamas

Visit Dali’s surreal house in Figueres, Spain

Swimming with Sharks in Cape Town, South Africa

Visit the Nebraska Druids, USA

Hang-gliding over Rio, Brazil

What we would really appreciate is for you to try out the website and let us know what you think.

If you love travel and have some experiences to share then join-in and share travel experience. Help others to make better and more exciting travel decisions. This is your website, so don’t be shy, let us know what can be better, what you would like to see and, of course, if you like something then do give us some encouragement.

We feel strongly about nurturing a travel community where we can share amazing, everyday and (sometimes) blooming awful travel experiences.

Well, that is the mission and you have a flavour for what we are upto.

We are a small team with a diverse background but all have a common passion for travel and photography.

By way of introduction here is a photo of us all: clockwise from top-left: Hugo, Tom, Dillon and James

The photo actually informs you more than you may think. It tells you that we are London based, are brave enough to stand in a smelly phone box for more than 30 seconds, don’t have our own office, have good design taste, are lean and mean (can you spot who took the photo?) and the telepone box is not completely random (one of us has a family connection with the designer of the famous K2 Telephone Booth - luckily it is our Chief Designer and Product man, Tom).

If you are nosey and want to know more about us then have a read on the website (actually not sure that is live yet but will be coming soon).

So. To recap. Our mission: Share travel experience. Help inspire others for more amazing travels!

This is just the start and we look forward to sharing more news soon. Don’t expect a glitzy launch or massive PR campaign. We don’t have the money for that and besides we don’t want everyone to come to us on day one. We think we have a lot more to improve and add.

Happy travels!

Hugo, Tom, James and Dillon (Thriller)