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Scroll down or click to
jump to each section
Accommodation
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All-hotels.com |
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Nice
interface, 60,000 hotels worldwide. Lots of hotel location maps. |
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Bed and Bed
Directory (UK) |
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Large
listing of many different B&Bs spread throughout Britain. |
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Findmyroom.com |
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Good
selection of hotels worldwide. But, annoying, a search for
available hotels presents a list of hotels allegedly with room
availability, but when you go to then book a hotel, after a long wait
you're told there are no rooms available! |
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Hotelnet.co.uk |
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Nice
interface, good selection of hotels worldwide. |
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Lastminute.com |
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Great rates
on hotels and packages, especially for Britain, if you're booking in the
last three weeks or so before arrival. |
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Laterooms.com |
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Another good
site for booking accommodation in the last three weeks before arrival. |
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Leading Hotels of the World |
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A group of very high
quality hotels - if you want to be assured of a deluxe experience,
choose one of these hotels. |
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Professional Travel
Guide |
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Billing
itself as 'the world's most comprehensive online travel planning
resource', this is a helpful service with lots of information (and
reviews) about hotels, destinations, and other travel related topics. |
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QuikBook |
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A well regarded (eg
won Yahoo's 'Best Hotel Discounter' Gold Star award two years in a row)
site with good prices on carefully selected hotels, but offers hotels
only in the US. |
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Utell |
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A well known
leading hotel booking service, but they don't provide location maps for
where the hotels are! Poor interface with lots of clicks needed to
get limited hotel information. |
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Wotif.com |
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A primarily
Australian site, but now expanding to the rest of the world as well,
with excellent rates for stays at hotels in the next two weeks. |
Airlines and Aviation
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Airline Links |
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Over 150
different links to airline websites |
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AirDisaster.com |
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Everything
you always wanted to know about airplane crashes (assuming that this is
a topic you really want to know much about, especially immediately prior
to your next flight!). |
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Airline Pilot's Pay
Rates |
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An
interesting site that sets out rates of pay for pilots at most US
airlines and air freight companies. |
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AirSafe.Com |
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This has
both information about air crashes and also interesting information
about fear of flying and air security. |
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Aviation History |
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A useful
site with a lot of information about early planes. Covers planes
that were first built prior to the 1960s. |
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Aviation Safety
Network |
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A database
of airline accident information going back to 1943. Easy to find
the information you want, and very helpful. |
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Customers First |
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Want a
laugh? Visit this site, created in 1999 (I think) by the airlines'
lobbying group, the ATA, to head off the threat of Congressional
legislation creating a Passenger Bill of Rights (whatever that would
have been).
Although the site triumphantly trumpets its apparent 'success' the
reality is that the drop in air travel de-stressed the system, and now
that air travel is back up to its highest levels ever, the system is
stressed once more - you'll see they don't show any 2003 or 2004
statistics in their charts that 'prove' they have solved their problems. |
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FareAware Bargain Fare
Tools |
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A compendium
of tools to help you research and find the lowest airfares. |
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FlightStats |
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Perhaps the
best source of data about flights - are they on time, etc. Can be
better than the airline sites directly because it also uses FAA and
other data. |
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FlightView |
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Type in an
airline and flight number and it will tell you when it is expected to
take off and land, and, if in the air, will show you where the plane is,
how high, and how fast it is traveling. |
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History of Commercial
Aviation |
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Contains
information on 650 different airlines and countless planes to the
present day, plus features on London's airports, flying boats and
supersonic flight. |
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ICAO Airplane Type
Designators |
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Gives
standard designators/abbreviations for most common current airplane
types |
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Kayak.com |
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Great
website for comparing airfares from many different carriers. Works
for both domestic and international travel, and roundtrip, multiple
city, and open jaw itineraries. |
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Plane Crash Info |
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Another site
with rather gruesome but fascinating information. Find out how
safe the airline you'll next fly is. |
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SeatGuru.com |
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A very nice
site with extensive information and very well laid out seat maps with
recommendations about where better and worse than normal seats can be
found on planes operated by AA, CO, DL, UA and US. Caution, not
all information is necessarily exactly correct, but it gives you a good
feel for these seating type issues. (Also view
our own page on airline types and
seating layouts). |
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SkyTrax Airline &
Airport Quality Rankings |
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An
interesting site with lots of information and opinions about things
related to airplanes and airports. |
Cars
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Car Rental
Express |
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A site which
accesses smaller rental car companies that often have better rates than
the major national companies. |
Cruise
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CDC Vessel Sanitation Program |
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All cruise
ships that carry more than 12 passengers and visit US ports with foreign
itineraries are given unannounced inspections twice a year by the CDC
and given a rating for their hygiene/sanitation standards. Read
reviews of which ships pass and which fail. |
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Cruisemates |
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An extensive
website with ship reviews and an excellent newsletter. |
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The Shipboard
Cruiser |
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Well established and
comprehensive site with links to just about everything you're likely to
want to know about cruising. |
Government
Departments and Services
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CDC Travelers' Health |
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An
encyclopedic reference to travel related health matters. Perhaps a
bit overly conservative in some areas, but still a great source for
information for things like if you should get vaccinations prior to
visiting somewhere. |
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National Transportation Safety Board |
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These are
the people that, amongst other things, get to investigate airplane
crashes. Sadly, their safety recommendations are just that -
recommendations rather than legally binding regulations, and by the time
the FAA ever gets to implement them in a legally binding form (if it
ever does) years and years have passed. |
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Passport
Information and Applications |
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All you ever wanted
to know about how to get a US Passport.
Includes printable application forms. |
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State Department Foreign
Per Diem Rates |
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A huge list of
countries and cities around the world, along with official daily
allowances for hotels and meals costs. Rates range from enormously
higher than reality (which would allow you to live in five star luxury
and indulge in gourmet dining) to fairly realistic, with usually the
meal rates being further above reality than the accommodation rates.
I understand that the IRS will allow
these levels of claims as being fair (if you don't have receipts) but
don't know this for sure. |
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State Department Travel Warnings and Consular Information Sheets |
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A useful service with
excellent summary fact sheets for all countries in the world, plus
warnings on those countries which warrant them. |
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Transportation Research Board |
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Part of the
National Academies; has some useful research and reports on all types of
transportation issues |
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Transportation Security Administration |
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Yes, the new TSA
might not have achieved much in the airports, but they already have a
website up and running! |
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United States Code |
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The federal
laws of the US. Note that this does not include the
Code
of Federal Regulations or the
Federal
Register. It also does not include state or local law, |
Phone and Fax Services
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GetHuman.com |
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This website
tells you how to get through automated phone systems and directly to a
real live human being.
A sad commentary on modern
business practices that it is necessary to visit a website to find out
how to actually contact a real person, isn't it! |
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K7.net Free Fax and Voicemail |
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Don't ask me
how these people make money, because their service is totally free!
I've used it for over a year and it is flawless.
They give you a phone number
which people can use to send you faxes and voicemails, and you can then
have the faxes and voicemails forwarded to your email account.
Once you've started getting electronic faxes, you'll never want a paper
one again! |
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Kall8 |
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A low cost
(800) service that will give you an (800) number for as little as
$2/month. You can forward the (800) number to anywhere in the
country or anywhere in the world, making it into a true and convenient
'follow me' number so that people can always reach you. Offered by
the same company that provides the K7.net service. |
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Packet 8 VoIP Service |
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A low cost
alternative to regular phone service, offering unlimited long distance
service too. Reviewed here. |
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Teleflip |
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A free
service. Send SMS messages to any cell phone in the US or Canada
by sending an email to their phone number in this format
206-555-1212@teleflip.com |
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Telestial |
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An excellent
range of cell phone products for international travelers. Global
roaming prepaid accounts, international multi-band cellphones, satellite
phones (great for cruise ships) and more. Discussed in this
series of
three columns |
Rail
Singles Travel Resources
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All Singles Travel |
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Well established
operator that operates a variety of tours for singles each year.
Reportedly slightly more women than men participate, general age range
from 30-55 but with some older and some younger. Free newsletter. |
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Connecting Solo Travel Network |
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A public website with
lots of information about single travel plus additional services for
members. |
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Cruise Mates |
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A cruising website
that has an excellent and extensive section for singles. Has a
great newsletter, too. |
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Journeywoman |
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An excellent and
slightly quirky site for women travelers. Includes a newsletter
and lots of content and resources.
Has an associated site,
HERmail.net, that enables women to
match up with other women as travel partners. Both sites are
excellent examples of the tremendous benefits and empowerment of the
internet. |
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O Solo Mio Singles Tours |
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A singles specialist
offering tours either for the 30+ age group or for the 18-35 age group. |
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Singles Cruises |
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This company seems to
be focused more on the social aspects of helping people meet other
people on the cruises that it blocks group space on. |
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Singles Travel International |
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A company with a good
range of tours and related resources for single travelers. |
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Travel Alone and Love It |
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A website extension
of a book of the same name, all about empowering people to travel alone.
Has a free monthly newsletter. |
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Travel Chums |
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A site with over
15,000 people listed, all looking for travel partners. You can
specify the type of person you're looking for, then read personal
profiles and contact the people if you're interested. |
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Travel Companion
Exchange |
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A website that, at
the current time, is heavily under construction, but their 'traditional'
non-web based travel companion finding service has been operating
successfully for 20 + years. |
Tour
Operators and Travel Agents
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Abel Tasman Tours |
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My former company.
Reputable, honest, industry leader, good values and good customer
service. |
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A-Prague.com |
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A nice
website with good prices and comprehensive information about visiting
Prague. |
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Tripology.com |
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This site
provides a free service, helping you, the traveler, to find a good
travel agent who specializes in travel to the destination you've
visiting. A great idea and a nice site, with, ahem, some of the
content on the site written by me (but I have no interest in the company
beyond having given them some articles). |
Miscellaneous
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Airline Meals |
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What will they think
of next! Here's a website dedicated to pictures of airline meals -
a mix of airline promotional pictures (that never look anything like the
food on my plate, no matter if I'm in First class or Coach) and real
pictures taken by travelers of the food in front of them.
No real practical value, but if
you're wanting to do a bit of semi-random surfing, it is a nicely
presented site. |
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The Bathroom Diaries |
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This site answers my largely
rhetorical question 'what will the think of next'. A fun site that
claims to list and evaluate 6000+ bathrooms in 100+ countries.
Also has 'The Golden
Plunger' awards (for good bathrooms) and an amusing section of bathroom
horror stories. |
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Concealed Weapons Permits -
State by State Reciprocity |
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If you're an ardent
supporter of the 2nd Amendment, and wish to travel with a personal
concealed firearm, this site gives you what seems to be accurate and up
to date information on the laws, state by state.
Remember that your home state carry
permit only entitles you to carry in-state. Check on this site to
see which other states will recognise your home-state carry permit. |
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Dine.com |
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Information
on over 150,000 restaurants in the US, including user reviews. Put
in a city or zip code and then choose from different restaurant types.
Even offers maps so you can find the restaurant.
Information is sometimes
more than five years out of date, and even with 150,000 restaurants
listed, there is vastly more data missing than included. So, use
with caution - at the very least, phone restaurants before visiting to
confirm they still exist! But, shortcomings aside, it is a useful
tool. |
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FlightHumor.Org |
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A collection
of humorous articles and jokes to do with flying. |
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Mayer Nudell - Specialized
Consulting Services |
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Mayer Nudell
is a former US diplomat, published author, and expert in the field of
aviation, international and travel security. He provides a range
of services probably aimed primarily at larger corporations. |
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OzEmergency.com |
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An interesting site
with an interesting concept, applicable to people in all countries, not
just Australia. Provides laminated emergency details cards -
helpful when you're traveling and even when you're not! |
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Privacy
International |
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An
organization that is trying to combat the merciless increase of invasive
anti-privacy measures that are offered in the name of increasing our
security but which in truth do nothing of the sort. |
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Terra Fly |
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This is an
amazing site. Type in an address and you get a satellite picture
of the location. It includes amazing data for the area if you
click on a data point, including even homes for sale.
Satellite photos may be some
years out of date (I estimate the satellite picture of my house is 5+
years out of date). Image resolution is 1 meter on the free site,
but 6" resolution photos can be ordered. |
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Wayback Machine |
| |
Wow.
Who said that web pages don't last for ever! This site has an
archive of many pages of many websites dating back to 1996, so here is
your chance to look at the websites of now defunct airlines, or just
about anything else! |
Other Travel
Informative/Consumer themed Web Sites
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Bidding For Travel |
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This
excellent site helps you understand the type of rates that you can
successfully bid at on Priceline.com.
If you plan on buying travel
through Priceline, you should visit this site first to check what the
best going rates are. |
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Bob's Internet Travel Tips |
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An interesting pot
pourri of topics and tips from a 'million miler' traveler.
Well worth a browse through. He
publishes a free monthly newsletter too. |
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Europe for Visitors |
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A massively
comprehensive website with almost 3500 pages of information about
Europe. |
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Gemutlichkeit Travel Letter |
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A monthly
newsletter focused on travel to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Reviewed in my article
here. |
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Johnny Jet |
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This site
bills itself as 'the ultimate travel portal' and its claim seems
reasonably accurate. Whatever you're likely to want in terms of
travel websites, you're likely to be able to find it here.
Amazingly, this site is the
work of a single individual ('Johnny Jet') and done on a part time
basis. |
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JoeSentMe.com |
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My own site would not
have been possible if it were not for Joe Brancatelli's support and
encouragement. You
definitely should go visit his site, and sign up for his excellent
weekly newsletter. |
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Manatee Press |
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Travel
guides to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, and Barbados.
Travel tips, information, mailing list, and photos. |
Reference
|
Airline
Dispatcher's Federation Weather Resources |
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Dispatchers
are people that work with a flight's pilot to determine the necessary
fuel loads, routing, flight permissions, weather and other safety
issues.
This page on their website
gives you access to more weather type resources than you're probably
ever going to want! |
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Airport,
Airline and City Codes |
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There are over 9000
airport codes around the world, and while some are known to everyone
(LAX) and some are obvious (LHR for London Heathrow) others are less
obvious (MSY for New Orleans)!
This is a helpful site with lots of
information on airport codes, airline codes, a wonderful 'time and
distance calculator' between airports |
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Area Code Lookup (North America
only) |
| |
I used to have all
the area codes pretty much committed to memory, so as to recognize the
state and sometimes the city that an area code related to. But
with the explosion of area codes over the last ten years, that has
become impossible, and this site is a convenient way to find out what
state an area code belongs to.
The interesting thing about this
listing is to see how few remaining area codes there are. What
will happen when they are all used up? (The answer to this
pressing problem is complicated and, of course, very expensive!) |
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Distance Calculator
between Cities |
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Enter two
cities - any two cities in the world, and this calculates the distance
between them and tells you each city's latitude and longitude. |
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EmbassyWorld.com |
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Wow - a massive list
of foreign embassies and consulates plus some other international themed
services and resources (eg some maps, power/voltage info by country,
etc). |
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Holidays for All Countries |
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This site
gives details of national holidays for most countries in the world.
It seems both complete and accurate. |
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The Lonely Planet |
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Companion
website for the excellent travel books. Lots of good information. |
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Maps - Mapquest |
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Excellent
maps and driving directions for the US, also has good maps for many
international countries too. |
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MSN Maps |
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Has a very
useful world atlas that enables you to find where just about any town or
city is in the world. |
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Phone and Power Plugs |
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This is an
encyclopedic site with all you couple possibly want to know about
different voltages, power plugs and phone plugs. |
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Professional Travel
Guide |
| |
Billing
itself as 'the world's most comprehensive online travel planning
resource', this is a helpful service with lots of information (and
reviews) about hotels, destinations, and other travel related topics. |
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Sunrise and
sunset times |
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A very
helpful site that will tell you, for any date, and for any place,
anywhere in the world, when the sun will (or did!) rise and when it will
(or did) set. |
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Sunrise and
sunset times - another site |
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A possibly
simpler site that gives similar information to the site above. |
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Time Zones for World Cities |
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This is invaluable.
Not only tells you the current time, the time zone the city is in, but
also has information like when daylight savings starts and finishes,
sunrise/sunset times for both the present day and future dates, and lots
more. |
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Visa
Information (Timatic) |
| |
This is the
ultimate source of answers to the question 'do I need a visa if I am
traveling to ---'. It is used by the airlines and is as close to
100% reliable as it gets.
Also has health related
information. |
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Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory |
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A listing of
1288 different country and regional tourist offices.
A great place to start
planning your next trip. |
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Weather |
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This
excellent site offers information on today's weather, the forecast for
the next several days, and, best of all for people planning a trip, also
gives historical average daily and monthly high and low temperatures.
Has data for most US
locations and also a huge number of international cities, too. |
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White Pages |
| |
This site,
calling itself 'The Ultimate White Pages' gives you immediate access
into six leading white pages sites. |
|
WorldClimate.com |
| |
This very
helpful site enables you to specify any location in the world and then
get month by month average temperature data. Very helpful for
planning a trip. |
|
World Fact Book |
| |
This CIA
publication gives you excellent general information and country maps for
just about everywhere in the world. Great for general reference. |
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World Telephone Directories |
| |
A website
that links you to phone directories for 184 different countries around
the world. |
Services to Help your Travel
Booking and Management
|
Farecast.com |
| |
This is an
amazing website that predicts if airfares are likely to go up or down
for a particular itinerary and travel date. It answers the key
question - 'should I buy now or wait'. |
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Kayak.com |
| |
My favorite
service for shopping automatically across dozens of different websites
to find the lowest airfares. Not perfect, but a good start to
understanding the best fare to where you want to go. |
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YAPTA |
| |
This is a
wonderful service. Put in an itinerary and it will monitor the
fare for your flights. If the fare drops, it tells you and helps
you to claim a refund from the airline. |
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