We have created a Tour to get a quick insight in the features on Sparkx. This will give you hopefully a good idea about how to create your own Map, recommend spots, comment on spots and invite your friends.

The Sparkx Atlas is a guide where you can find all the places people have actively recommended and collect the best. We don’t have a bunch of editors at Sparkx, so all the reviews are coming from recommendations of people who have actually been to the place. You can search on country, city, category or name.

On the right side you can select:

• My Sparkx
• Where I’ve been
• Wishlist
• Albums (you will only see this if you have created an album)
• Sparkx of friends (see what your friends love)
• New in Sparkx Atlas

• invite your Facebook friends with one click. Go to ‘Invite your friends’ à select your Facebook friends and send them an invite;
• share your spotes with your international friends;
• you only have to remember your Facebook username and password to log in;
• If you have added a new spot we will ask you whether you want to share the spot on Facebook and if you agree you will see the spot on your Facebook wall so it will be shared automatically with your friends;
• If you are no longer a user of Facebook you can still log on with your Sparkx account;
• If you have questions or problems to connect your account to Facebook, please e-mail us on info@sparkx.com and we will help you out.

• Go to ‘Invite friends’ (in the right upper corner of the site);
• Type in the e-mail addresses of your friends;
• Or import your friends easily from Linkedin, Gmail, Yahoo, MSN Hotmail, Plaxo and Outlook or Outlook Express;
• See who of your friends is using Sparkx, select who you want to invite or invite new friends;
• Click on Send and they will receive an invitation to become a member. If they do you will see their favorite spots and they will see yours.

If you invite your friends to Sparkx you can:

• share your favorite spots
• receive newly added spots of your friends by e-mail
• check out the new spot of friends on your Sparkx homepage;
• select your friends favorite spots if your are looking in the Sparkx Atlas for a nice spot.

• A Map is like an interactive guide with all the great authentic places you have discovered/visited in your life. If you will visit the same place again in a couple of years you always want to visit the special spots you remembered but it’s always difficult to find again right? Now you have your Map as a reference.
• Add hotels, restaurants, shops, markets, activities, activities worthy sharing with your friends;
• You can save & share any spot, that special restaurant near Milan, which you discovered last year, or that little hideaway in the mountains or add your favorite local restaurants which will be nice for your friends to see if they are in your area. You can customize your Map with your own picture or logo and add some information about yourself or your Map;
• See what spot your friends have recommended; When a friend visits a city where you have been recently you only have to send them your Map url so he can visit the places you have discovered.

You can find your Map by clicking on Your Map in the main menu or you can go directly to your Map by typing the following url: www.sparkx.com/sparkx/username

So if you want to send your Map to someone who isn’t a Sparkx member you can do so by sending the url. Make sure your settings of your Map are set on ‘visible to everyone’.

• Go to ‘Add your Spots’ and start adding your first spot. You can add any spot. Hotels, restaurants, shops, musea, activities, b&b’s where you have been before and which you want to recommend.
• Now your first spot will show on your Map. Go to Your Map on the homepage and check it out.

• Go to ‘Settings’ and edit the settings of your Map. You can find your settings in the right upper corner of the website. Now go to the tab ‘Your Map’.
• Give your Map a name (‘Places I visited in the world, My favorite musea, Great Boutique hotels in the States, anything is possible)
• Add a picture to your Map (only if you don’t want your own picture)
• Add a description, about yourself or what your Map is about and where your based etc.
• Click on Save Changes and check your Map again to see the changes on your Map.

• Click on the button ‘Add your spots’
• Complete 3 easy steps to add a spot to your Map. We’ll help you to find the spot and a photo (if you want you can add your own).
• Click the ‘Save’ button and your spot is added to your Map.
• Do you have trouble adding a spot? Try another one in the meantime and e-mail us at info@sparkx.com and we will help you out.

• You can Edit a spot by going to the spot you added (search it in the Atlas)
• Click on Edit this Spot.
• You can change all the fields including the address details, add a url, picture etc.
• Click on Save and you will see that we have saved the new details.
• Note: you can only edit a spot if you added it yourself. If you see wrong address details, but you are not allowed to edit, please e-mail us at info@sparkx.com

• You can Edit your review by going to your review (which is listed under the spot you have added).
• Click on Edit in your review.
• Just change what you want to change and click on Save.

By default your Map is visible to everyone, but you can edit your settings in the Settings menu (in the right upper corner of the homepage).

• Go to the spot in the guide and see in the middle your options: ‘Hi, these are your options’;
• Just click on ‘Recommend this spot’

To log in you will need a username and a password.

Username:

• Check the e-mail address on which you have received your e-mail newsletters. Your e-mail address can function as your username. Or use the username which you have received from Sparkx.

Password:

• If you don’t remember your password, go to the homepage and click on the question mark next to the log in fields. The next screen will ask you to fill in your e-mail address (this is the address on which you receive newsletters of Sparkx).
• you will receive an e-mail with a link which will enable you to choose a new password.
• If you usually log in via your Facebook account and you forgot your Facebook password, then you should retrieve your password at Facebook.

With AddThis you can add your favourite spot to a social network like Facebook, LinkedIn or you can share it with one click on Twitter. You can also follow Sparkx on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

We started out as a Dutch network, but since Dutch people also wanted to share their spots with international friends we translated Sparkx. But since we highly respect the fact that reviews are personal, we didn’t want to translate their reviews. So that’s why you see a lot of Dutch reviews. We now recommend people to write their reviews in English, so we expect the English reviews to soon outnumber the Dutch reviews.

If something seems broken or doesn’t work the way you’d expect, or if you have an idea for a new killer feature, please e-mail us on info@sparkx.com