Travel Links| Home | About Me | My Itinerary | Planning | Travel Links |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| |
|
|
|
|
Before the trip I spent heaps of time with my nose buried in travel books and surfing the net for good travel web sites. I always find it quite exciting to find out about all the places we are going to - the culture, the people, the weather, the language, hotels/hostels to stay in, places to visit and how much it's all going to cost. I've listed some links which I hope you will find useful and included short descriptions of them as well.
The Rec.Travel Library - this
has lots of interesting and useful info on lots of different countries
as well as links to tourist office sites, other travelogues and accomodation.
Lonely Planet Online - this
site allows you to click on the country of your choice and view
some general information on it. It's a good place to start your
research. It also contains information on health, propaganda, travel
news and of course how to buy their books ! There are also reader's
letters (under postcards).
Rough Guides -
extracts from all the Rough Guide books and information about further
reading. You can also look at readers updates - providing valuable
updates on public transport, hotels, costs, visa information, attractions
and more.
Preview Travel - I quite like
this site. You can choose a city, answer a few questions about what
information you are interested in and it creates you a
Custom Mini Guide.
Handy if you're going to a city for only a couple of days and you don't
want to buy a guide book.
City Knowledge World Page
- Facts about different countries, info about the Economy, transport,
Military, government, geography, climate, cities and links to other
info. A useful collection of information.
Take a free trip on Autopilot - this site only works for the U.S.
You type in your starting point and destination, preferences
for routes e.g avoid scenic routes/prefer scenic routes and
hotels and restaurants to visit on the way. It then provides
you with a distance in miles or kilometers and your itinerary
including directions and places to stop on route with an
estimate of how long the journey will take. Pretty cool.
How far is it - this
site finds the distance between two places as the Crow flies.
It didn't seem to have some of the small towns in Scotland in
its database though !
MapQuest - this site
is full of useful info about planning your trip - mainly in
the U.S but also some major international cities. It
provides driving instructions from A to B, helps you find
restaurants, hotels, weather info and City Information. All
the information comes with a map of its location (maybe that's
why it's called MapQuest :-) The only annoying thing was that it
didn't have a link back to the start for starting over again
once finished with one city.
Airline Information - Try
British Airways,
KLM,
British Midland,
Lufthansa,
Virgin Atlantic,
Northwest,
Air France,
Qantas,
United Airlines or
American Airlines.
Guide
to Sleeping in Airports -
If you're really strapped for cash you can always sleep at the airport !
This guide contains sleeping tips for airports, the best and worst
airports to sleep in and a list of international airports together
with a ranking and description. You can also add an airport (just in
case your favourite one isn't there !) Quite amusing.
All hotels on the Web - This
has quite an extensive list of hotels and seems to reference other
accommodation directory sites as well. From browsing through it the
majority of the hotels are tourist class up to first class/luxury
standards. It's worth a look even if you are on a budget -
for example a lot of the hotels in South-East Asia are much lower in
price due to the exchange rate. I came across a few for around $10 per
night.
Asia Travel
- This web site contains listings of hotels in Asia with photographs and special internet prices of up to 65% off the rack
rate. Pretty good if you want to spend a few nights in a good
hotel. You'll probably get a better price using the online
booking form than you will walking in.
The Hotel Guide - this has a
really good search form where you can enter the country/city/area and
optionally your preferred location (e.g on the beach), the class
(standard to deluxe), facilities required, credit cards accepted and
maximum daily rate ($25 - $400 and up). You then hit search and your
hotels are displayed along with their prices. Some have only short
descriptions whereas others have detailed descriptions, photos and on-line
booking. Worth a look !
TravelWeb Hotel Search - this is a similar search form to the
one described above - Enter your destination and required facilities
and hit search. The list is displayed and you can view a photo, hotel
information and book online. Price Range is less than $75 up to greater
than $250.
Travel Health Information
Service - This is an excellent site giving information
on all the immunisations you need for going travelling, info
on food and water precautions, sun protection, insect avoidance,
what to put in your first aid kit, travel illness case studies,
the latest travel health news and much much more.
Universal Packing
List - This has lists of things to do before you
leave on a trip and what to pack in terms of clothes, money,
health, hygiene, electrical stuff
Net Cafe Guide - at
this site you can search for internet cafes worldwide. Plenty
graphics on these pages - but hey, it does the job !
The Timezone Page -
Select your city and country from the list and get the Time !
Oanda Currency
Converter - Lets you convert from one currency to another
by selecting from the lists. It also lets you enter the date
so you can look at the exchange rate for last year. Has more
currencies than I've ever heard of !
Database of Travel Helpers - This is a database of people
from all parts of the world who are willing to answer your
travel related questions. I've tried it and it worked !
Please email me if you come across any out of date links. Thanks !
Get your own Free Home Page