Essential Travel Websites

This post is an attempt to list those sites that are genuinely and really useful to the independent traveller. Spammers please note that this topic will be heavily moderated.

Ali

Ali Watters
Post Count: 2735

Msg: #1 333 days ago, August 28th 2007

This topic is basically a list of the essential websites for travellers; We'll be comprehensive and fair. This post will contain links and one line descriptions in categories. Once a link is placed here after someone has made a suggestion the post will be deleted by the moderators. So to get started:

Utilities
XE.com - provides market currency exchange rates
worldtimezone.com - world time zones - represented graphically
timeanddate.com - time zones, international dialing codes, meeting planner and distance calculator
onebag.com - Light Packing Suggestions - get it all in one bag - watch your liquids!
Wikipedia.org - every thing you ever wanted to know edited by big brother.
projectvisa.com - Lists visa information for most countries - lots of ads.
travelindependent.info - Independent packing and backpacking information
travelocity.com - search engine for flights, accomodation and transport.
freetranslation.com - free translation site
Babel Fish Translation - free translation site
studentjetpacks.co.uk - general travel advice, plus more detailed information for some countries
webflyer.com - information site for members of frequent flyer networks
thedirtyload.com - worldwide laundry search

Airline Tickets
Amadeus.net - Look straight into the database used by most travel agents and airlines. An excellent planning tool as you don't have to visit every airline in existence to find out if they fly on a particular destination or not. This of course excludes chartered services and low cost carriers which are not booked through Amadeus. Tickets not Available

Checkmytrip.com - Use your name and Amadeus booking number to keep an eye on the status of your scheduled flights. Extra useful in that your friends/family/relatives/favourite pet can keep up to date with your itinerary down to the last minute. Again, this does not work for low cost carriers.

Attitude Travel - lists low cost/budget airlines world wide.
Kayak.com, Expedia, Ebookers - online air-travel and usually a lot more.
Airtreks.com - round the world tickets and planning application.
www.skyscanner.net , www.airtkt.com , www.trabber.co.uk , www.fly.co.uk , sidestep.com , farecast.com - search engines for flights
travel.indiatimes.com - caters mainly for travel between the US and India

Non-air travel
Seat61 - worldwide train and ferry information.Tickets not available through site
www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo , freighterworld.com , freighter-cruises.com , freightertravel.co.nz (suggested contact Hamish Jamieson), lowcarbontravel.com , thetravelersnotebook.com , 50plus.com , strandtravel.co.uk , cruisepeople.co.uk - information on freighter travel

News Sources
IRIN (irinnews.org) - news from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Helps you avoid conflict zones in exotic places.
BBC News - British Broadcasting Corporation - for the broad overview.

Guides
LonelyPlanet.com, RoughGuides.com - Two of the most well known print travel guides.
wikitravel.org - online wiki based travel guide.
worldreviewer.com - travel guide with destination reviews by experts

Forums and travellers' articles
backpackers.com , travel-rants.com - travel articles, forums and information

Trip Planners
www.tripadvisor.com , www.airtreks.com
www.globalbasecamps.com - sustainable tour options
findoutwheretogo.com - preview destinations by viewing other travellers' photos

Hostels and Hotels
Hostelbookers.com, hostelworld.com, hostelz.com - Hostel and cheap hotel booking... would prefer more distinction.
www.wotif.com - accomodation search engine.
www.booking.com - online international hotel reservations

Hospitality Clubs
Hospitality Club, Couchsurfing - Members offer to host travelers, meet for coffee or show people around town. "Hospitality Club" has more European members, while "Couchsurfing" more USA based.

Mapping
Google Earth - Fly around the globe, navigate cities, measure distances, and just generally allow yourself to be amazed by the blue planet. Inspiration and education free of charge. Beware though, GE requires a good internet connection and a fairly powerful computer to show off at its best.
ViaMichelin - roadmapping site for the UK, USA and Europe
Whereis - roadmapping site for Australia
Wises - roadmapping site for New Zealand

Ok - over to you :) Suggest changes and moderators - edit edit away :) - the intention is that this is a genuinely useful topic and guide to the major travel related websites sites out there.

I will bring up suggestions from the posts below to build up this list.

[Edited: 13:57 - Jo Trouble ]

Dudes

Amy and Chris
Post Count: 24

Msg: #2 287 days ago, October 13th 2007

Just wanted to offer a quick comment about couchsurfing--the site is really growing and I would classify it more as primarily Western countries. But it is definitely growing and we have met several fellow cs'ers who used it through Eastern Europe as well South America. One person who had recently been through South America said that you could roughly depend on being able to couchsurf about 1 in 5 days in SA versus a 1:1 ratio in USA and Western Europe. Hopefully the culture will grow outside of generally wealthier, English speaking travelers. Even with that limitation however, it is a great experience.
We are working on the rest of our blogs to post that include the CS experiences, and have met another travelblogger ChristopherL while couchsurfing.

Ali

Ali Watters
Post Count: 2735

Msg: #3 276 days ago, October 24th 2007

These will be moved to country/region specific posts later.
Country-specific sites
cairnsunlimited.com - general info site for North Queensland, Australia
needitnow.com - last minute accomodation deals (includes New Zealand options)
indiamike.com - online community for travellers to India
exploringmacedonia.com - Macedonia tourism portal with information on transport, accomodation and attractions.
bangkokairportonline.com , Bangkok Mass Transport Authority - airport and transport information for Bangkok, Thailand

[Edited: 09:43 - Jo Trouble - added needitnow.com]

Jo Trouble

Jo McCarthy
Post Count: 994

Msg: #4 263 days ago, November 6th 2007

For the country/region post;

travelfish.org - travel guides, forums, and flight search engine for Asia region.
tigerairways.com , airasia.com - flight search engines for Asia.
www.cafespots.de - overview (in German) of cafes with WLAN access in Germany
tripcart.com - online travel guide and road trip planner for the United States
city-data.com - comprehensive information on US cities
reidontravel.com - travel guide for Vietnam

[Edited: 10:33 - Jo Trouble ]

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