I am Esme Vos, editor of Mapplr, the online service for finding the best restaurants, hotels, cafes, boutiques and other special places around the world. Arnon Kohavi and I started Mapplr because we realized that the best recommendations come from people - usually friends - who share the same tastes, not from strangers posting reviews on large database sites.

We are developing an application that will allow you to store and organize your favorite spots (and places we’re still dying to try), and to share those with our friends. Think about it: when you read about a cool new hotel in Paris or a great Italian restaurant in your city, where do you keep that information and how do you share it with your friends?

But for now, we are putting together lists and reviews of the best places around the world. We call it Mapplr because the name popped up in one of my dreams and I couldn’t think of anything else later.

If you have a hotel, restaurant, cafe, bar, boutique or other special places you’d like to share with us, feel free to post a comment or email me directly.