Where do you dream to go? A remote mountaintop? An urban adventure, perhaps?  If you’re like me, you’d say a palm-lined exotic beach, and if you were one of the 1,000 cool New Yorkers who turned out on a sweltering Thursday night to the Gogobot NYC launch party, your dreams came true.

Well, ok, as close as you can get on a Thursday night in Chelsea.  To celebrate its New York state of mind, Gogobot brought its local fans together at the Dream Hotel’s poolside “beach” (which does have sand, mind you), along with tropically inspired, “wet dream,” cocktails to keep them happy and copious amounts of ZICO coconut water to keep them hydrated. Bikini-clad cocktail servers in captain’s hats and branded T-shirts completed the mini-transport to Miami.

It’s only appropriate that the party should have such a transportive effect—after all, it’s probably the most exciting travel planning website/traveler’s community out there.  Fans of our own Beyond NYC section should be sure to check it out, set up a profile and start filling up their Gogobot passports and wish lists with destinations far and wide (as the head travel writer for the section, you can keep track of my personal Beyond NYC travels here). A Facebook meets Yelp for globetrotters, Gogobot combines the insight of real life experience with the trust of people you actually know (thinking of going to Bangkok? Find out which contacts have been there and get their advice directly!)  Gogobot encourages day dreaming and replaces the usual tedium of travel planning with delightful, interactive networking.

Rewind back to last Thursday and Gogobot NYC was definitely stepping it up some delightful, real life networking.  They certainly arrived to the big apple with a big splash (and at the Dream Hotel’s pool, we can say that with a wink).

– Ava

Photographs by Wendy Ploger courtesy of Guest of a Guest