Do you ask friends for travel advice?

I find that there are travelers who don't ask their friends for travel advice, and those who do. One isn't better than the other; they're just different.

Some travelers like to discover places on their own. They wander the streets of Paris and when they're hungry they step into the cafe that smells the best. Later they discover that it's owned by one of the city's top chefs and a starred recommendation in the Frommer's guidebook. These travelers get great satisfaction in sniffing out the best restaurants on their own.

These travelers will tell you about their upcoming trip to Australia and even though they know you visited the Land Down Under last summer, they won't ask you any questions about where you went, stayed, ate--or maybe they'll courteously ask for advice but then they never act on it.

These travelers feel burdened and bogged down by tips. They want to explore freely, without an agenda, a plan.

And then there are those travelers who actively seek recommendations. Their trips are based on the advice of others. They post "Going to Manhattan: Where should I eat?" on their Facebook pages and send out Tweets requesting lodging tips. They're hungry for information.

These travelers don't want to risk trying a place on their own--because what if the food is bad? The rooms dirty? The beach polluted? They fear wasting time and money.

These sorts of travelers also tend to pack more than one guidebook and waste lots of time on TripAdvisor and ChowHound. They're researchers.

I'm the later sort of traveler. Before I visit a destination, I email everyone I know who has been there and ask for recommendations. I'll court friends in hopes of getting insider advice, arranging dinner parties where they can put on slide shows, taking them to lunch so they can show me their photo albums and pass off guidebooks. Before these meetings, I do a lot of online research upfront, creating lists of the best that a place has to offer--and then I run my list by a friend in hopes of getting an endorsement. I leave for my trip with a folder full of scraps of paper, magazine clippings, printed out emails.

We recently went to Barcelona, and I had so many bits of paper that it was hard to keep track of everything. But nearly every night we ate at a restaurant that came recommended by a friend, and every night we were completely satisfied. On only one night, we stumbled upon a place owned by a comical Frenchman who seemed to know every person sitting in his restaurant. He walked around giving diners hugs and kisses. We ordered salads and fish, and enjoyed what may be our favorite bottle of wine ever. We brought home the cork so we could try to find the same vintage (El Perro Verde) at home. I can only hope that a friend who is going to Barcelona will ask me for restaurant recommendations so I can direct him to the same place.

Do you ask friends for travel advice or do you prefer to discover places on your own?