Need vacation inspiration? Check out TravelMuse

Although most of you probably have a pretty good idea of where you like to go on vacation, you may occasionally run out of ideas. One reader recently did: He asked, "We're a family of two plus two teenagers; we live in San Diego, and we have $2,000 to spend. Where should we go for an outing?" Normally, I throw up my hands at a request that vague. I have no idea, for example, whether this family would prefer bright lights in Vegas, relaxing on a beach on Baja, or museums in San Francisco.

Fortunately, if you're in that boat, a new website can help. The basic idea of TravelMuse is to bring together information on vacation themes and activities and combine that with information on travel and accommodations prices. If you have no idea what you really want to do, you can let the site help.

• Log on, then click on the "Find Inspiration" menu, where you enter your home airport, family composition, season you want to travel, desired trip duration, the class of accommodations you prefer, and your target budget per person.
• You then select from a long list of vacation themes, ranging from "amusement parks" and "baseball" to "whale watching" and "wine tasting." You can combine categories if you wish.
• Next, you enter a maximum flight time you prefer, then hit "inspire me."

The site returns with one or more pages of suggestions. Each page displays four suggested destinations, and, for each, the budget range of packages it found, the estimated flight time, the ability to match your theme(s), links to destination information archived on the site, and specific packages and their prices. If you see something you like, you can buy it: TravelMuse links the results directly to Travelocity for actual purchase.

If you already know where you want to go or what to do, you can bypass the "inspire" menu and instead enter more specific trip particulars and limitations. Here, too, the site returns a lot of detailed information. Typical destination findings include a list of possible accommodations—in some cases, a dozen or more—with the all-up price for each.

How well does it work? I tested my reader's question. He wanted to start in San Diego, with two adults and two teenagers, a total budget of $2,000 (or $500 per person), travel in the fall, budget level accommodations, three days (I guessed), and a maximum travel time of four hours. Since the reader gave no clue about the family's interests, I chose "family vacation" as the theme.

• The site returned suggestions for Branson, Houston, Banff, and Vancouver. Only one of the four destinations actually offered any packages that met the budget ceiling of $500 a person (Houston); the others ranged from $509 (Branson) to $570 (Banff). And all of the destinations returned some options well above the budget target.
• I then decided to recheck, but with a reduced maximum travel time of two hours. This time, all four of the suggestions met the budget under $500 per person, ranging from $232 per person in Tucson to $480 for Flagstaff, with San Francisco and Monterey between them.
• I next checked a more extensive trip: six days, a budget of $1,000 per person, and a maximum flight time of six hours. This time, six of the eight options TravelMuse returned met the budget limit: Key West, Montreal, Myrtle Beach, Ottawa, Philadelphia, and Washington. Only Bahamas Out Islands and New York City missed that target.

Overall, I'd say that TravelMuse is off to a decent start. The main drawbacks, as I see them, are almost all the answers involve airfare-and-hotel packages, and when you specify a maximum flying time, the site tends to return only the most distant options and overlooks anything closer. Still, it's an innovative approach to travel planning. If you're unsure of where you want to go next—or of all the possible options available within your target budget—give it a try.