From Starbucks to Sports Authority – find your favorite places, even in a new city!
Sometimes when you’re in a new city, it’s great to be able to find familiar places nearby. Now you can find the closest locations of your favorite go-to spots, right on the business’ foursquare page.
Love Starbucks? On Starbucks’ foursquare page you’ll see a map with all the locations nearby, so you can pick the closest one to visit. Plus, when you’re on a particular Starbucks venue page, we’ll show you the other closest options.
The nearby map is now on hundreds of business pages, with more to come soon. Here are some places to try out!
- Look for the closest Zipcar locations and get away for the weekend!
- Museum lovers, find all of MoMA’s locations in New York (if you’re in New York, zoom out to see them all!).
- Local business love! See The Beanery’s locations in Oregon.
- If your gym has multiple locations, you can find the closest place to work out, even when you’re travelling.
We’ve been rolling out a bunch of features to help make exploring easier, like photos on brand pages, menus, and Explore on the web. Stay tuned for even more improvements!
Merchants, find more information about linking your brand page to your locations here.
A police constable uses foursquare to check in with his community! #4sqFun
Toronto Police Constable Scott Mills, who’s also the Social Media Adviser for Crime Stoppers International, is encouraging officers everywhere to use foursquare to connect with their neighborhoods! Scott checks in when he’s giving community talks, to let people know when and where he’s on patrol, or to keep them posted on breaking crime scenes.
People love to comment on Scott’s check-ins, come say hi when he’s nearby, and even oust him as the Mayor of the police station headquarters! See one of his awesome presentations here.
Candidates and students check in to the Presidential Debate at USF! #CampusHighlight
On Monday, the University of South Florida hosted NBC’s Republican Presidential Candidates Debate. Students, visitors, and even Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney checked in on foursquare, with the first hundred people winning a free shirt!
Want to keep up with the primaries? You can follow Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and The White House on foursquare!
If you’re interested in promoting your campus event on foursquare (for free!), email campus@foursquare.com.
¡Qué guay! Madrid’s city badge is here!
Brush up on your flamenco skills, pick up your matador cape from the cleaners, and go explore!
Follow the Madrileño list at foursquare.com/4sqcities and check in to five places on it to unlock the badge. Eat a churro for us!
Tell us why your hometown deserves a foursquare badge! #visitUS
Been dreaming about a city badge for your town? Your dream is now within reach! All you have to do is create an amazing list of the best spots to go to, and a badge could be yours! (Yup, even you, Tuscaloosa!)
As part of President Obama’s announcement to boost tourism in the U.S., the White House called on folks around the country to share what makes their city or town a great place to visit. Well, we want to know too! Inspired by the #visitUS initiative, we’re putting out a call for foursquare lists with all the best spots in your city. We’ll pick the three most amazing ones and creating foursquare city badges for them!
How to make a list for your town!
1. Create a list at foursquare.com/lists, and make sure it has your town and the #visitUS hashtag in the name.
2. Add 20-30 of your town’s best places. Include a variety of spots, from restaurants and bars, to parks, monuments, and local businesses. Give your list some love by adding tips and photos!
3. The more the merrier! When you’re done, get your friends to follow the list (or even help you make it) by sharing it on foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook.
Share your list on twitter with the hashtags #4sq and #visitUS, or submit it using this form by next Friday, Feb 3. We’ll pick the three best lists based on the variety of places, quality of tips and photos, and number of followers (and a tweet from your mayor – or governor! or senator! – won’t hurt, either…).
Start creating your list today! In the meantime, check out all the places that already have city badges. Still need inspiration? Check out more great city lists!
Hey LA, now it’s your turn to save $5 on every Restaurant Week meal!
Last week, we kicked off our New York Restaurant Week partnership with American Express, saving Cardmembers $5 on every lunch and dinner they have at over 300 New York eateries. Today, we’re excited to extend the same deal to hungry explorers in Los Angeles:
Spend $21 hundreds of restaurants participating in dineLA’s Restaurant Week, and you’ll get a $5 credit back on your American Express statement.
Redeeming your free money is just as easy as with past American Express specials:
- Check in at a Restaurant Week restaurant.
- Go to the Special screen and tap the “Load to Card” button (you’ll also be able to sync your card if you haven’t yet).
- Pay with your American Express ® Card, and you’ll see the credit on your statement in a few days!
You can redeem this Special as many times as you want before February 3rd, though only once per restaurant… Restaurant Week is for trying new things! (Restaurant Week takes a day off on January 28th.)
Check out the list of restaurants to plan your culinary outings! And, if you haven’t synced your Amex and foursquare accounts yet, do that here. Happy eating!
Hit the slopes! foursquare Follow Friday, winter edition! #4sqFF
Whether you live for slaying the pow on a double black diamond or prefer the sane-person option of sledding and hot cocoa, there’s always plenty of fun to be had on a winter vacation. For this week’s Follow Friday, we’ve got a bunch of lists to help you plan your trip to the mountains. Start perfecting those snowball-making techniques!
- Up for anything? Check out the Best Skiing in the World!
- In Vermont? This is your list.
- Aloha Ski and Snowboard Rentals in Park City, Utah has great recommendations, including where to stay and store your gear.
- Aspen/Snowmass in Aspen, Colorado has great tips and lists on where to eat, hiking spots, and more.
- Exclusive Resorts has a list of great US ski spots.
- Or, perhaps Dolce&Gabbana’s list of cozy, glamorous snow spots around the world is more your style.
We’ve also partnered with a bunch of ski resorts – check out their lists below, and check in when you visit to unlock their badges!
- Mount Snow in Vermont has tips on how to beat the crowds, food and rental recommendations, and more.
- Whistler Blackcomb in Whistler, British Columbia has tons of tips and lists, like off-mountain adventures.
- Sun Valley in Idaho has tips at over a hundred places in the Sun Valley area, from skating rinks to breakfast spots.
- Jackson Hole in Wyoming has tips about gondolas, spicy margaritas, and oh yeah – all that snow.
- Heavenly at Lake Tahoe in California has a list of their best hidden stashes.
- Sunday River in Maine has a list of all eight peaks, plus tips on food, parking, stashes and more.
Bonus: Want insider tips from the US Ski Team? Follow Audi on foursquare to get the scoop, unlock the Audi Winter Ride badge, and get 20% off anything in the Audi collection!
Got a list of great snow spots for the winter? Post it in the comments!
Where my friends at? #APIHighlight
This week we have three apps (two came out of our September Hackathon!) that show off fun things that can be done with your friends’ check-ins, like sending you around the globe (or Hogwarts), all while sitting at your desk. If you’re working with two monitors, they’re a perfect add-on to your second screen.
Arrivals is a beautifully simple and visual app that displays your friends’ check-ins like an old-fashioned arrivals board.
Fousquare Notifications is a chrome extension that will alert you with desktop notifications when your friends check in. You can click through to add comments, and also tailor the notifications to certain friends, nearby areas, times when you’re at the computer, and more.
And for the Harry Potter fans out there, the Magic Muggle Clock is a fun app that displays where your friends are by category. Test out how it changes on evenings or weekends!
Of course, foursquare is about a lot more than just sharing your location – the 1,500,000,000 check-ins, tens of millions of tips, and over half a million lists on foursquare power personalized Explore recommendations, which means you’ll always be able to find something interesting to try wherever you are.
Sometimes though, it’s just fun to see which of your friends are at home. Or in mortal peril.
Frappuccinos, flannel, floating bridges – the Seattle city badge is here!
Follow the Seattleite Badge list at foursquare.com/4sq cities and check in to five spots to unlock the badge!
Find what you’re craving, and check out the menu too!
Last week we launched foursquare.com/explore, which uses the 1.5 billion foursquare check-ins from you, your friends, and the foursquare community to deliver personalized results for whatever you’re craving, from burritos to bacon.
Now, you can find exactly what you want, because we’re bringing menus to foursquare. We’ve partnered with the awesome start-up SinglePlatform to share over 13,000,000 menu items at almost 250,000 restaurants in major U.S. cities, with more on the way.
Starting today, you’ll be able to click through to menus on the right hand side of venue pages that have menu information. At a lot of these restaurants, we’ve also added a pricing icon to give you a quick sense of how fancy a night you’re in for. (You’ll see pricing information on your Explore results, too!)
Menus are currently available at foursquare.com and m.foursquare.com (and, developers, you can also get them through our API), and will be coming soon to all our apps.
Try it out! Find a new restaurant to try for dinner using Explore, and don’t forget to leave a tip about your favorite item on the menu!
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