http://martigny.ai.mit.edu/samantha/travels-with-samantha.html
This was one of the winners in the Best of Web 1994 awards, mainly due
to the 250 quality photographs of landscape, wildlife and young women, rather
than Philip Greenspun's North American travel writing.
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http://maghreb.net/morocco/
Maps, guides, museums, festivals, traditional handicrafts, wedding music
and even how to make a nice cup of mint tea - this has absolutely everything
you ever wanted to know about souk-sodden Morocco. Morrocan cinema does
not begin and end with moody shots of Casablanca and this site charts the
short history of indigenous cinema. Football is like religion but rallying,
sea angling, snow skiing and even surfing are all popular sports. Details
enclosed. Access providers, trade shows and Morrocan software are not left
out of the equation and all thrown into an extraordinarily vibrant mix.
There's also a picture gallery. Even found a camel and a bloke in a fez.
Top of Page |
http://www.cumbria.com/gbbb/home.htm
A far cry from boinky bedsprings, brown wallpaper and greasy fried eggs,
the Great British Bed and Breakfast guide is anything but y'average dirty
weekend. Thoroughly decent, clean and respectable properties - farmhouses,
original features, chintzy curtains and country settings - are described
in detail and sketched as an olde worlde pen and ink drawing, with the occasional
colour photo as well. Entries are enticingly written and confident and assured.
Well-worth consulting for a weekend away.
Top of Page |
http://www.istc.org/
Find out where to get an international student identity card and where
you can use it. Other information, like travellers' tales, is promised in
the future.
Top of Page |
http://www.seattleweb.com
The name alone conjures up an exciting community - graphics and technology
taken straight from Disclosure, a San Franciscan sensibility only harder,
more driven, more Microsoft. Uh-uh. Alas, this is a fairly standard sort
of local guide and for a site so dependent on having up-to-date information
a lot of lost links are encountered along the way. The initial categories
- scene, cities, business, dining, education, outdoors and maps - are a
little difficult to read. The information is there and you can search on
it, but all in all it's fairly uninspired.
Top of Page |
http://www.scotland.net
Hooked on Braveheart. Planning a trip to Edinburgh for New Year's Snogmanay
or just fancy a bit of Trainspotting? Either way, check this one out. With
details travel, accommodation, business and leisure information all presented
in a readable, informative format, it's a great away to plan a trip to visit
our Caledonian cousins. Even better though is the series of Top Tens which
range from the best Scottish films - Mel Gibson kilt frenzy - to the top
Scottish football managers and malt whiskies. With a cameo appearance from
Dennis The Menace in the Beano characters top ten, everything from chasing
Nessie to hurling cabers is right at your fingertips.
Top of Page |
http://www.powderbyrne.co.uk
Stop surfing and start skiing. Providing a classy service for holidaymakers
in search of more than Ski Sunday, Powder Byrne's individual approach to
winter travel translates very well onto the Web page. From Klosters to Courchevel,
the relevant ski resort facts are available, along with information on hotels,
prices, corporate and childcare perks. There are also have off-piste clinics
for the more experience skier. Book now.
Top of Page |
http://www.mapquest.com/
MapQuest site offers online interactive street guides. Catch is, it's
strictly American - so it's only great if you're planning to drive from
Peoria to Disneyland. Workman-like design offers TripQuest, JavaQuest (for
them as has it), special tours of cyber cafÚs. They also take on
special projects, producing interactive maps for business outlets, and you
can check out their client showcases here. But, do heed the ominous warning:
'Your use of this site is subject to our terms and conditions.î Or
else what? Indentured servitude?
Top of Page |
http://www.leisureplan.com/
Snappy name, just rolls off the tongue! Yes, it's yet another holiday
tour, tourist attraction, car rental and accommodation finder. A big thumbs
up for the sleep-over section - with successful searches for a condo in
San Francisco, chalet in Switzerland and small family run hotel in Shropshire.
All accommodation comes with exterior photograph, pics of the bedroom, dining
area, reception and anything else worth mentioning. If nothing comes back
with your stated preferences then it automatically 'relaxes' them to show
you what else is on offer. Suck it and see. Car rental is okay, as long
as you're on the road in Namibia or Southern Africa.
Top of Page |
http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk
Who needs travel agents when you can surf to Internet Holiday Rentals
to 'choose a property and contact the owner direct.î A no-nonsense
site narrows down your choice by area: Europe, USA, the Caribbean, then
clicks you into details and tempting snapshots. Updates promise to add 20
new properties a week, but you'll probably need a holiday just to recover
from the prices. Handy currency converter. Top site for planning or merely
dreaming, it shows what the Net's best at - targeting specialist markets.
Top of Page |
http://www.greenwichuk.com
Hosting the millenium celebrations, the international date line and
now a celebratory site, Greenwich is attempting to fast forward itâs
image for the 21st Century. It offers an interactive chat programme for
like minded Greenwich buffs and a random picture generator offering digital
pictures of pub, club and scrubland but this is still a good guide for visitors
to the Greenwich area and for local residents. The site is still under some
heavy construction but with three years before millenium fever sweeps the
country, time is well and truly on Greenwichâs side.
Top of Page |
http://www.goplay.com
Updated weekly GoPlay is an impressive Time Out-like guide to what's
happening in the San Francisco Bay area. It's well designed with movie,
book and music reviews alongside guides to the best restaurants, clubs and
shops in the area. You can also throw in your twopennyworth and vote on
what you think of the clubs and restaurants.
Top of Page |
http://calligrafix.co.uk/focus
Wonderful gateway to all things tartan, this site welcomes you to search
an alphabetical list from Aberdeen to Yetholm or explore by category (a
much better bet). Sprinkled with gorgeous pics and even a slide show, and
written with pride, there's plenty of info on pubs, crafts, whisky tours,
local industry, trains, Gaelic language, history and heritage, environmental
matters and sustainable technology, plus some pure touristy spin-offs from
The Lonely Planet. Links to Rampant Scotland for national overview of high
and lowlands, or local John O'Groats community newsletter. Ooch aye!
Top of Page |
http://eurostar.com/eurostar/
A longtime resident of the infamous Internet shopping mall BarclaySquare,
Eurostar, though continuing to maintain a presence there, has also decided
to go it alone - perhaps because nobody could find it before. Anyway, potential
punters can access the site in a choice of five languages (English, French,
German, Dutch or Japanese) using a variety of different browsers. It's very
efficient, fast and extraordinarily simple to use, giving details of routes,
timetables, booking, prices, special offers and so on. If only everything
were this easy - a real pleasure to use.
Top of Page |
http://www.users.interport.net/~khittel
If you're flying off to New York and worried that since they banned
smoking in resturants and other public spaces you'll be reduced to having
a crafty fag on the street, then Dr Puff has sorted out a whole list of
places where you can sneak a nicotine hit and eat at the same time. (Don't
you just hate it when people do that?) Otherwise, if you're just looking
for a little noir-type ambience, either that or a smoking-related disease,
then the doctor's resturant reviews are also pretty relevant, spot on, and
he makes a great Martini.
Top of Page |
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/95fact/index.html
An encyclopaedic summary of every county's essential statistics and
details. Disputed zones such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are treated
as separate countries with their own data. It's not updated frequently enough,
though, as neither of these regions' recently won independence is mentioned.
The information provided includes geographical boundaries, international
disputes, climate, geography, economic indicators, population demographics,
government, communications and defence. This is excellent source material
for school, travel or business trivia but not enough for a military takeover.
Top of Page |
http://www.iflybritishmidland.com/upload_bm/index.html
Getting through to an airline by phone has always been a right pain
so forgive us for getting just a little excited about British Midland's
online scheduled flight booking system. Called Cyberseat, booking is a breeze
and checking routes or the timetable is equally simple. Hurrah for British
Midland - let's hope other airlines catch up
Top of Page |
http://www.travel2000.com
Occasionally some of these do-it-all travel services are too busy flogging
hotel rooms and fail to make any concessions in the 'travel broadens the
mind' department. Travel 2000 starts by offering information on your chosen
anywhere-in-the-world destination and even if it can't put its hands on
exactly what you need, it knows a page that can and that is usually listed
too (all right so it's probably the World Fact Book!). In addition it has
information on finding hotels, the States is the quite well served, as well
as plane or train details and where or how to hire a car. Once again America
is well covered but do try anyway if it's Guatamala or Greece you're travelling
to.
Top of Page |
http://www.arab.net
The floodgates, metaphorically speaking, must surely be about to burst
with a deluge of Internet business traffic from the Arab world. This makes
arab.net's arrival all the more apposite as a million commercial opportunists
scramble to bone up. Indexed by country and subdivided into click-on categories,
this is a bit like The World Fact Book only more discursive and enjoyable
to travel around. arab.net accords each country a general overview with
additional areas on history, geography, business, culture, transport, touring
and government. As well as making a great reference tool for business, travel
and pub quiz questions (where exactly is Qatar?) it publishes a number of
special features, for example the Saudi Top Business 100. Indispensible
if you're off to Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Yemen, United
Arab °mirates or Bahrain etc.
Top of Page |
http://www.infernet.com/
Leisure Hunt's snappy little database is designed to direct holiday
makers and daytrippers to the most convenient amenities at their chosen
destination. Not too hot on historic tourist attractions, better on places
to stay and eat out, but great on golf courses, Leisure Hunt covers the
UK and Ireland, though not as comprehensively as you might like. A couple
of key points - search criteria are sometimes too precise (AA stars? RAC
stars? English Tourist crowns?) but the results are not always detailed
enough (how many stars is that?). However, these quibbles are probably being
tweaked as we speak and it's definitely worth trying. Internet's sales manager
loved it - big time into golf!
Top of Page |
http://www.concorde-hotels.com/
Aiming at the upmarket business traveller (who must be an American judging
by the onsite currency converter), this has just about everything you'd
want from a hotel site except for a tour of the rooms. Using the frames
format it lists all its hotels (London, Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Lisbon
and some in Morrocco) and has a facility to check prices, book direct via
email or just request more information. There's an exterior shot of every
establishment with a brief description. Well worth a visit if you're visiting
the continent.
Top of Page |
http://woodstock.rmro.nps.gov/alcatraz/index.html
One of two entries this month for anyone planning a trip to the Bay
Area or San Francisco. The notorious Alcatraz is most noted for being the
home of a maximum security, minimum privilege federal penitentiary which
closed in 1963. These pages take a tour of it. It's now part of the Golden
Gate National Recreation Area and a big tourist attraction. The tour starts
with the military installations and then heads over to the prison. As you'd
imagine, it's a bit grim but it's fully illustrated, rather like a slide
slow in the village hall, and includes a fair amount of the island's rich
history. Average amusement factor - far from inescapably dull!
Top of Page |
http://www.freerun.com/napavalley/outdoor/nvwinetr/nvwinetr.html
'From the moment you enter the Wine Train's Station, you will begin
a threefold adventure... A return to the gracious era of elegant rail travel
and distinguished service... A deliciously crafted culinary and wine experience...champagne
brunch, gourmet lunch or exquisite full-course dinner... An enjoyable and
relaxing journey through California's historic and scenic wine country.î
Sounds tempting doesn't it? If you fancy an afternoon excursion in a 1917
Pullman - next time you're in Northern California that is - then this could
be for you.
Top of Page |
http://pathfinder.com/
As with most things in the Pathfinder domain, this has to be accessed
by searching the Pathfinder server or scrolling down the contents page.
Being a Web edition of a real magazine, it's well structured and well balanced,
with news and features, consumer reviews, bargains and discounts, maps,
weather forecasts, a currency converter and even a phrase book thrown in.
Actually the articles are rather classy, comparable to those in CondÚ
Nast's Traveler but without the disposable designer income. Recommendations
still hover around the upmarket end of travel, though, and destinations
are still pretty aspirational, but it's like flicking through a recipe book
and sometimes that's enough.
Top of Page |
http://www.thehamptons.com/
Taking my Internet head off for a moment, I'd just like to say I've
always fancied a house in the Hamptons...a cool looking beach residence,
a swanky yank social elite... This site is a just a taster of the stylish
lifestyle on offer - the architecture, the film festival, the horse race!
Totally tasteful but out of my league. I can still dream, though. Maybe
Martha's Vineyard?
Top of Page |
http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~aw148888/motel.html
The motel comes midway between the diner and the trailer park as a location
that sums up something quintessential about American culture. Jenny and
Andy Wood have attempted to capture the neon-signed secrets of these highway
home-from-homes before they are all torn down. An excellent site.
Top of Page |
http://www.demon.co.uk/citygate/4401733/4401733.html
Not since Roy Kinnear dressed up in a toga and told us how good it was,
has Peterborough been the subject of this much press. A highly comprehensive
guide to the city's commerce and leisure. Roman invasion included.
Top of Page |
http://www.demon.co.uk/sacred-site-tours
Explore the Lost Cities of the Ancient Maya. Climb the Pyramid Temples
of Mesoamerica. Visit the Ball-Courts where players literally competed for
their lives. Yup! Now booking, 18-day tours of the Ancient Mayan and Mesoamerican
sites. Prices start at $3098.
Top of Page |
http://www.thomascook.com
A travel agent's high street presence never normally gets past a shoddy
shop front, so it's interesting to see how these pages really do add another,
more glamourous dimension to Thomas Cook's services. This site includes
details of its offices around the world and information on travel insurance,
travellers cheques and foreign exchange. Bound to expand in the future,
so well worth keeping an eye on.
Top of Page |
http://silkroute.com
Essential travel and Internet information on Australia, Bangladesh,
Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau,
Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore,
South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tibet and even Vietnam. If you're
setting off overseas the whole continent is superbly covered, but is it
really acceptable 'irony' to mail your comments to coolie@asia-online.com?
Top of Page |
http://www.travelweb.com/
Presumably unless you are a jet-setter the excitement of these huge
travel sites soon begins to pall. This one will undoubtedly turn into a
mine of all round information but at the moment it's best for booking hotels,
in particular, those in the Hyatt chain. It's somewhat soul-less as it doesn't
really allude to the romance of catching planes, boats and trains, but nevertheless
it serves a function.
Top of Page |
http://www.gorp.com/abvclds/photogal.htm
Steve Conlon has been travelling to Nepal since 1972. The rich images
he has collected over the years will be a revelation for people who have
never been there, and a nostalgia trip for those who have.
Top of Page |
http://www.fleethouse.com/barbados/barb-hom.htm
Enormously enticing pages offering details about the island of Barbados.
The overall tone is rather like a government information film - travel,
accommodation, shopping and entertainment are all covered, alongside items
on the local culture, religion, flying fish, grapefruit and rum. It reads
in an incredibly welcoming way and Caribbean travel seems even more tempting
than you'd imagine. And did you know Barbados is also home to the head office
of Trivial Pursuit?
Top of Page |
http://www.demon.co.uk/caxton
It's hard to know whether this site is doing Hertfordshire any favours
or not. It includes lists of hotels, pubs, a What's On etc, but neither
the site (nor the county) starts with the best raw material. Still, one
section gives a mention to recently built housing estates. Who said the
home counties were boring?
Top of Page |
http://www.netxtra.co.uk/accom/
This neat and efficient 'niche' search engine is designed to find accommodation
worldwide. Pick a spot on a map and then a state search radius, price range
and the facilities you're looking for. It then finds a hotel to suit you.
Tops! The only real problem is that the way things stand now, most of the
hotels on the Internet are of the big-time tourist or corporate kind and
may lack a little character.
Top of Page |
http://www.demon.co.uk/atlantic/
Flying with Virgin is always done with a flourish and this site, as
well as addressing you personally in top customer service style, offers
easily accessible flight information, though it neglects to mention the
price.
Top of Page |
http://www.aether.com/Monk/
Kind of like an American mag road movie, each excellent issue of Monk
is the culmination of a couple of months that Jim and Mike and their Fleetwood
Bounder motorhome spend in the midst of a major urban experience. With a
turn of phrase straight out of Tales Of The City, they trawl the bars, tracking
down the stars and characters who populate these places. If you read the
Portland issue, look out for the best Gus Van Sant interview ever.
Top of Page |
http://www.romagna.com
Planning a holiday in Romagna from home? As well as being a business
server, this also has a map, itineraries and tourist information on the
region. Helps if you speak Italian?
Top of Page |
http://www.hubcom.com/interpg/
Aiming to be a leading provider of holiday properties, houses for sale
and related services right across Europe is all very well, but it's a good
idea to announce it on your home page. Not knowing what this site is for
is one problem, but once you realise it houses advertisements for properties
in a rather dull, one-dimensional way, you'll know to go elsewhere.
Top of Page |
http://www.nando.net/AT/ATmain.html
Five journalists hike the Appalachian Trail, some 2,158 miles from Katahdin,
Maine to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and weave some of the most wonderful
tales, as they wind their way amongst a host of real-life characters and
some breathtakingly beautiful scenery. Rewarding reading for anyone who
dreams of getting away from it all.
Top of Page |
http://www.cntraveler.com
Very classy, easy-to-use, cosmopolitan pages, featuring up-to-the-minute
deals and the latest news on the world's tourist hotspots. There's also
a forum area where the world's adventurers can exchange travel tips. CondÚ
Nast seems committed to supplying a service which offers a bit more than
the magazine of the same name.
Top of Page |
http://www.enterprise.net/ccs/iom/index.htm
Home to the world's oldest parliamentary body and some pretty nice beaches,
this site offers a good taster to the joys of the Isle of Man. Of course,
motor bike races, cats with no tails and tax concessions all get a look
in. Strangely no guide to the island's gay scene!
Top of Page |
http://assist.cs.bham.ac.uk:8080/
Set up by Birmingham City Council and the university's school of computer
science, this is a useful guide to what's happening in and around Brum.
Now you can bore people with loads of interesting facts about the Venice
of the Midlands (apparently it has more canals than Venice !).
Top of Page |
http://www.seanet.com/Bazar/Aeroflot/Aeroflot.html
Check the schedules, inspect the aircraft and bask in the ambiance of
the world's largest international airline. The effort that has gone into
designing this service could only be compared to that of Aeroflot's staff
in ensuring you have a pleasant flight.
Top of Page |
http://aztec.co.za/biz/africa
It's a big place, Africa, and while purporting to represent the whole
continent, in truth most of this site's content is, instead, about South
Africa. If you're interested in business opportunities in the new SA, there's
some good stuff here, and you can discuss the issues in the chat rooms.
A feature called the Mystical Launchpad has a slightly different emphasis,
throwing up weird if not wonderful facts.
Top of Page |
http://www.euro.net/5thworld/mooncity/moon.html
If it's possible to have an alternative guide to Amsterdam, this is
it. The sophisticated scrolling graphics ocasionally get in the way but
basically it's a grungey guide to clubs, parties and cannabis culture. Nice
try but nowhere near as good as Time Out.
Top of Page |
http://www.vch.co.uk/villas/
Sample the delights of twin luxury packages from the Greek Islands Club
and British Virgin Islands Club. Blissed out holiday fantasies, bookable
over the Net. Using an enquiry form customers can fill in destinations and
dates and the company will mail back possible properties to look at. Pretty
upmarket as prices start at £1,200.
Top of Page |
http://www.mig29.com/mig29/
Find out how much it costs to joyride in a Russian fighter plane once
you've made it to Moscow.
Top of Page |
http://planet-hawaii.com/~planet/ct.html
Aloha...this is the definitive dope on the one-time 51st state. Not
just the kitsch, garlanded, faux Waikikki Elvis film Hawaii but information
about its political history, access to cultural archives, links to festivals,
environmental campaigns, Hawaiian affairs generally and the whole tourist
bit as well.
Top of Page |
http://mosaic.echonyc.com/~voice/nighttit.htm
Okay all meet at Mona's, then have a couple of drinks at 2A, graduate
to cocktails at the Royalton so you forget it's in midtown, a midnight movie,
a spot of shopping and then cab it to Canal Street for late night noodles
at Hong Fat. Given that this guide is put out by the people behind Village
Voice, it's quite cool, pretty trustworthy and, hey, it's a helluva town.
Top of Page |
http://www.cityscape.co.uk/users/eb19/
Reading a brochure or a guidebook often gives an overall feel of 'place'.
These hotel, B&B and cottage rental recommendations, come out of the
ether with no illustrations which makes evaluting them with confidence quite
hard. There's information and lots of it, although searching is a bit primitive,
and there's also a section listing hotels with facilities for people with
disabilities, plus a list of London hostels for those out on the streets.
Top of Page |
http://www.dungeon.com/~ip7pg/london/
For sure, all the extra useful material contained in this pocket guide
is great, especially London For Free and For Kids. But bear in mind it's
pretty labourious looking it all up and then printing bits out - the virtue
of a pocket guide is that it fits in the pocket and can be carried round.
Top of Page |
http://www.pavilion.co.uk
Fancy a day at the seaside? Why not seek out these pages from Brighton-based
service provider, Pavilion. Pubs, clubs, shops, events and local business
listings proffer everything needed for a day beside the sea.
Top of Page |
http://www.holiday-inn.com
Highly efficient, user-friendly access to every Holiday Inn worldwide.
Couched in the form of questions you might need to ask when making, say,
a phone enquiry, it's all there at the touch of a button. Select destination,
any tourist attractions you might wish to visit and it comes up with its
own reliable accommodation. It tells you how close to the airport and the
city centre your hotel is and a bit about the facilities on offer. Invaluable
for booking business travel but bound to be a firm favourite with families
too.
Top of Page |
http://www.scotborders.co.uk/
More fish are 'caught on fly' from the River Tweed than any other river
in Britain. Fact. This site provides information on salmon fishing, the
arts, industries and people of the Borderlands of Scotland.
Top of Page |
http://www.travelmag.co.uk/travelmag
The only problem with this site is, once you've visited it, you'll be
overwhelmed with thoughts of where to go on your hols. The core articles
in this excellent travelling companion are extremely entertaining and well-informed
personal travelogues, strong on long haul destinations as well as those
a little closer to home. Rather more discriminating than the cut-price deals
on Teletext, cheap flights and bargain destinations cater for more than
three weeks on the Costa Del Dull. A round up of health scares and warnings
includes the unmissable disease of the week.
Top of Page |
http://www.demon.co.uk/webguides/info/info/info/index.html
From hotels to hillwalking, factory shopping to golf, this giveaway
guide book covers Lancashire, Cumbria and the Lake District. It won't fit
in the glove compartment but it has some good stuff on Wordsworth, Beatrix
Potter and Arthur Ransome. Swallows Forever!
Top of Page |
http://www.u-net.com/hotelnet/
Going on a business trip or thinking of taking a bargain break? This
site supplies details of hotels all over the UK. Indexed either by region
or the type of accomodation, eg 'seaside', 'golfing' or 'conference', all
entries include full descriptions, colour pictures and price lists as well.
Top of Page |
http://www.hk.super.net/~webzone/hongkong.html
Full tourist facts and figures for one of the most densely populated
places on the planet. Top ten recommended Chinese resturants and where to
buy your fake Tag Heuer.
Top of Page |
http://www.nectec.or.th/rec-travel/index.html
The Usenet rec.travel hierachy, is the best place to find fellow traveller's
experiences, off the road itself. This archive collates travel advice, warnings,
recollections and resources gleaned from the newsgroups for central access.
Top of Page |
http://microship.ucsd.edu/
Steven Roberts hated landlords so much he got on his bike 11 years ago,
and has lived as a technomad ever since, thanks to the support of many gadgetry
sponsors. He's now given up pedalling for his latest seafaring Microship
project. Order his books here and find out how you too can join the ranks
of the cyberhomeless.
Top of Page |
http://198.238.212.10/regions/northwest/NWFLOW/
To check on traffic in downtown Seattle, just chime in to receive five-minute
updates from the roadway traffic sensors. If this local government service
proves too popular, maybe it will become overloaded with traffic itself.
Top of Page |
http://www.freenet.ufl.edu/~skydive/np.html
Ever had the urge to leap out of an aeroplane above the North Pole?
Here's a pictorial travelogue showing how to do it.
Top of Page |
http://ellesmere.ccm.emr.ca/wnaismap/naismap.html
Interactive resources on the Net don't come any better than this DIY
Canadian map builder. You can specify all sorts of multiple constraints,
layers and relief projections, like political boundaries, geological provinces
and even the grizzly bear range.
Top of Page |
http://none.coolware.com/entmt/cambodia/cambodia.html
Cambodia has recently been reopened to tourists, only to find itself
listed as a no-go area by nearly every foreign consulate. This site presents
a gallery of photographs taken from a forthcoming CD-Rom on the country.
Drop in and see what you're missing.
Top of Page |
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/travel/air/handbook/top.html
This downloadable FAQ-style travel cookbook will help you beat the system,
stay alive and save money on your next adventure.
Top of Page |
http://www.istc.org
Find out where to get an international student identity card and where
you can use it. Other information, like travellers' tales, is promised in
the future.
Top of Page |
http://www.intmed.mcw.edu/ITC/Health.html
There is token information here on the most prevalent diseases travellers
are likely to encounter, symptoms and possible cures. However, with a little
more effort this could be a great deal more useful. It gives little in the
way of zonal advice, drug contra-indications or outbreak alerts and there's
not even mention of dysentery.
Top of Page |
http://www.paris.org/
Thinking of a trip to Paris? This one provides a virtual tour in English
of popular museums, cafÚs, monuments, shops, rail systems, educational
institutions and many other attractions. Or if you really want to punish
yourself there's also a version in French. You can do it all through interactive
maps or speed things up with text only.
Top of Page |
http://www.kbt.com/gc/
This private guide to the Grand Canyon is a work of great dedication
and beauty. There are no half measures taken in providing trail and locator
maps, track descriptions, images, service details, book lists, history and
advice on other local attractions.
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http://www.odci.gov/94fact/fb94toc/fb94toc.html
An encyclopaedic summary of every county's essential statistics and
details. Disputed zones such as the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are treated
as separate countries with their own data. It's not updated frequently enough,
though, as neither of these regions' recently won independence is mentioned.
The information provided includes geographical boundaries, international
disputes, climate, geography, economic indicators, population demographics,
government, communications and defence. This is excellent source material
for school, travel or business trivia but not enough for a military takeover.
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http://gnn.com/cgi-bin/imagemap/HOME?457,190
There are a few commercial sites featured here, including the conservative
travel publishing giant Fodor's and Mountain Travel. Apart from that there
are collections of traveller's tales, albums, book reviews and virtual travel
guides from almost every country.
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http://wings.buffalo.edu/world/
Click on the atlas interface to zoom into the region of your choice.
Once you're down to country level, you can choose between a resource map,
resource list or general country information. This could ultimately link
you with any server within the region.
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http://www.efr.hw.ac.uk/EDC/Edinburgh.html
Economic facts, figures, city and suburban maps, tour guides, history,
famous inhabitants and photos of Edinburgh, the second most popular tourist
destination in the UK.
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http://www.city.net/
An excellent guide for browsing community and tourist information from
all around the globe.
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http://www1.huji.ac.il/jeru/jerusalem.html
This pretty but slow site offers a virtual tour through the old city
of Jerusalem, including faces, maps, views, paintings and a view from the
sky. There's historical information, travel details and links to other Hebrew
university information servers via a sensitive map of Israel.
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http://www.infi.net/vegas/online
This tourist service by local CBS affiliate KLAS-TV includes a live
online version of their news, weather and sports service. There's business
information, shopping, maps, hotel guides and the like, but the virtual
tour of Las Vegas is the showpiece. The guide to gaming might be handy,
but you can't access the tables online.
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http://www.hea.ie/
Irish news, a dating service, free research information service and
international and Irish active maps.
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http://international.com/III/nct.html
This scheme allows you to act as a travel agent, receiving discounted
fares and tax perks. You can earn commission if you introduce friends and
then they too can enjoy identical benefits. Sounds familiar? What's the
catch? Oh, it does have a small registration fee.
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http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/misc/uk/intro.html
You'll probably find copies of this on quite a few sites around the
UK, particularly the universities. There's no real limitation to the amount
of regional data which can or could be retrieved by this sensible, friendly,
point and click interface. There's news, weather, statistics, entertainment,
broadcast listings, transport routes and travel times, interactive rail
and city maps, guided tours, Web servers and more. It can only grow from
here, maybe with your help.
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http://www.echo.com/index.html
If you're in Santa Cruz the 'Geeks party and entertainment' guide might
stave off boredom.
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http://www.lonelyplanet.com.au
Lonely Planet, the worlds largest travel publisher's revamped site is
certainly improving. There's enough here to give you a taste of its titles,
and may even enough to persuade you to discover a world of adventure away
from your monitor. Check out the Postcards from abroad, for proof that it's
all possible.
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http://www.stolaf.edu/network/travel-advisories.html
This provides essential information if you're planning to visit a potential
hot spot, but it's not a definitive guide to safety. Potential war zones
tend to bubble for years before they attract foriegn media and consular
attention, usually after an insurgent group takes responsibility for killing
tourists, but after it's died down they may not bother to retract this warning.
In other words, don't ignore these bulletins, but seek other advice before
postponing your adventure.
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http://metro.jussieu.fr:10001/
Pick from a selection of major cities, choose a starting and finishing
destination and the algorithm will estimate the travelling time. A fun idea
but a joke in practice, due to assumptions such as immediate connections
and homogenous flow. 'What about signal failure?î I hear you ask.
Regrettably, this is one of those sites that's often ignorantly used as
an example of the vital information jet-setters can currently glean from
the Internet.
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Telnet://pctravel.com
The first publicly available free airline reservation and ticketing
service - you can access the Apollo Reservation System to book from a choice
of over 500 airlines and, once booked, your ticket can be Fedexed to you
from the US. Feedback on this service please.
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http://www.ouka.fi/cityinfo_e.html
Sunny Oulu, northern Finland's largest city with a population of just
over 100,000, falls somewhat short of a trading metropolis. But, the hotel,
local government, enterprise, and municipal information provided here may
interest the potential business traveller. No need to bring your own snow.
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http://pubweb.parc.xerox.com:80/
Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) brought the world GUIs (Graphical
User Interfaces) and Ethernet. Its public Web site provides, among other
things, a graphical world-wide map browser. You can obtain maps showing
rivers, borders, and other information, by specifying a location on the
globe.
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http://nsa.bt.co.uk/nsa.html
Compiled by staff at some BT outpost who presumably have little else
to do, this promo for the Highlands and Islands initially seems rather arcane.
There are sections on leisure and culture, sporting activities and the Gaelic
language, but the pages about business activity and distance working in
the region are actually very interesting. In fact, there's a lot of good
information here and the pictures and graphics, although they take about
as long as the boat trip to the mainland to load, are high quality.
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