Geography - Travel Subject Guide
Overview
Article Databases
Hospitality & Tourism Complete This database indexes more than 600 travel and tourism journals relating to all areas of hospitality and tourism including the culinary arts, demographics & statistics, development & investment, food & beverage management, hospitality law, hotel management & administrative practices, leisure & business travel, market trends, technology and more. Includes full text for more than 400 journals. 1965 to present. Updated weekly.
Guides
IgoUgo Read travel journals, contribute reviews, and communicate with other contributors on this travel review site.
nextstop
Nextstop is a site where locals can put information on the places in their area that they like and want visitors to know about. You must register to put information on the site but not to view information about a place. For popular places a list of "keywords" help you to narrow your search.
RealTravel
Share travel experiences through blogs and reviews from real travelers on this travel review site.
ReidsGuides.com
Reid Bramblett, a travel author, has developed a site that attempts to help the user create a memorable travel experience. In the words of the site they provide alternatives to the traditional that take travel beyond vacations.
Tour Preparation from Big Five Tours & Expeditions The travel and tour provider Big Five has made available brief, informational guides to a number of countries and tourist destinations. The guides include information on weather conditions, clothing suggestions, a packing checklist, local customs and cuisine, driving conditions, and sometimes a suggested reading list.
Worldwide Travel Information Contact Book G 149 .W67 2nd 1993/94 (Ref) Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
This is a large directory of travel resources from throughout the world. It is arranged by country and includes tourist offices, travel associations, transportation and lodging information, recreational facilities, and publications. Details
Country Reports - Mintel International
G 155 .A1 I552 Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
This quarterly publication from Mintel International Group Ltd. contains reports on the tourism industry of individual countries. Rich in statistics and references to associations, government agencies and web sites, each article provides both introductory and in-depth information. An index in each issue indicates in which issue the latest article covering a country can be found.
A Dictionary of Travel and Tourism Terminology G 155 .A1 B38 2002 (Ref) Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
This is a large dictionary containing both terminology and many acronyms and abbreviations of terms and organizations. It is a British publication and the author has limited the scope of the book to the English-speaking world. Four appendixes include supplementary material such as the "World Tourism Organization Global code of Ethics for Tourism."
North American Trade and Travel Trends Statistics on travel from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Encyclopedia of Tourism G155.A1 E4295 2000 (Ref) Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
The Travel Channel
When you click on the "destination" tab you can find out useful information about countries and places that will help when planning a trip. Special sections on attractions and recommended reading are useful. While nowhere near as thorough as a good guidebook, this site can give you some ideas to explore further.
Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory A guide to official tourist information sources.
Traveler's Sourcebook : A Practical Guide to Information on Recreational and Business travel in the United States G 151 .T73 1997 (Ref) Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
Arranged by recreational activity and tourist interest, this book provides tips for travelers, directory information, and ideas for a successful trip.
Traveler's Reading Guide: Ready-made Reading Lists for the Armchair Traveler Z6004.T6 T73 1987 (Ref) Waldo Library, Western Michigan University
A comprehensive guide to the literature of places, this volume is arranged by continent and then by region, country, and in the case of Canada and the United States by state and province. The section on each area includes guide books, background reading, history, travelogues, and suggested fiction titles set in the place. For numerous places special sections cover unique aspects of the local area such as literary guides to England and background reading on the Vikings.
General Travel Sites
BiddingForTravel.com
Bidding on airfare and hotels is available here.
HomeAndAbroad
In partnership with Expedia, Home and Abroad offers a complete trip planning service.
Kayak.com Kayak is a meta-search engine that searches hundreds of other websites in real time for travel deals.
mobissimo A travel search engine that searches other travel sites. This site allows for concept searching based on "Activity Tags" like golf or surfing to build a vacation package.
SideStep
A metasearch service that includes the general travel sites, consolidators, and individual airlines, hotels and vehicle rental agencies.
TripIt TripIt uses information from your confirmation emails and information you add to organize your plane tickets, hotel reservations, and planned stops and create a complete itinerary of your trip.
Western Michigan University - Study Abroad Programs There are many opportunities for studying abroad offered by this office in the Diether H. Haenicke Institute for Global Education.
Away.com Tour packages
Expedia Travel A general travel site with flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc.
My Travel Guide
Tools for the independent traveler.
Orbitz Formed by five major airlines (American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United) to provide an online clearinghouse for tickets, ORBITZ is quickly becoming a full service travel site.
Travel Auctions It is important to read the small print when using these sites. You might be bidding on a flight only to find you have agreed to pay for premium hotel accommodations. Look for additional charges such as taxes and airport fees in the description of the item being offered.
Travelocity Another general travel site with flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc.
Travelzoo
For "sales, specials, and promotions from hundreds of travel companies."
AESU Online AESU Online specializes in travel for students aged 18 to 35.
Student Universe
Travel information for students.
lastminute.com  A total package discounter. At the bottom of this page are links to lastminute sites for foreign countries.
Sky Auction At Sky Auction you will find airline tickets, package vacations, cruises and accommodations.
LuxuryLink While not its primary business, this site does include auctions of some more expensive cruises, tour packages, hotel accommodations and first or business class airline tickets. LuxuryLink sets a mininum bid on all auctions.
Amazon Auctions Includes travel related offerings.
eBay Ebay includes travel-related offerings. Because of concerns about fraudulent offernings, Ebay now requires all sellers of travel-related services to register with SquareTrade.com, a seller verification and dispute resolution service.
Auto Travel
Road Construction Information
Most state departments of transportation or highways will provide you with road construction information. Rand McNally provides this information for all fifty states. To view maps of the construction areas you must be a Premium or Premium Plus member of the site, but you can view lists of the construction sites by going to the Road Construction section of Rand McNally's Plan a Road Trip site
Road Trips Visit ByWay.org for information on some of the United States' best road trips. This site is a guide to scenic and/or historic roads you can travel. Use its suggestions as a fun way to get some place or make the road the destination. Maps and lots of information about side trips and points of interest help make this a useful site.
Vehicle Rentals Note that experienced users find that the rental companies are more likely to provide you with a more accurate cost online than the general travel sites do. This is because the rental companies are better at figuring local taxes and added fees than the more general travel service sites. In comparison shopping, make sure you are comparing either daily rates or rental period rates. Always talk with your insurance agent to find out if your automobile insurance covers you in a rental car here and/or abroad. In Europe, expect to pay a premium for a car with an automatic transmission because most cars still have standard transmissions there. Everywhere there are numerous additional taxes and fees that make comparison shopping difficult.
AAA -American Automobile Association
Indicate your starting and ending locations and the system will provide you with a route and information on lodging, attractions and restaurants. AAA members get more services.
AccuTraffic This site links you to state and local web sites that report on weather and road conditions, construction areas, road closures and other real time travel conditions. Be aware that some of the sites that AccuTraffic links to are not as up-to-date as others.
Autoeurope for European vehicle rentals
GasBuddy.com
GasBuddy helps you find the price of fuel in your area. Prices are input by members of GasBuddy. They are subject to becoming quickly outdated.
Kayak Kayak is a travel metasearch site that includes vehicle rentals.Â
Rand McNally Under the "Get Directions" feature you can get directions and other information drawn from Rand McNally guidebooks.
Kemwel is a European discount vehicle rental service
Hotwire This site sells discounted airline tickets. Designed for vacationers, this service stresses the cost of the ticket, not the time of the travel. The user needs to be flexible. Hotwire can be used to find the lowest cost for vehicle rental. However, you will not know what company you are dealing with until you have agreed to rent the vehicle. The agency will most likely be at an airport. Hotwire does direct you to the individual rental agencies for non-airport pickup, frequently with a discount. You have a set length of time to accept an offer from Hotwire so you can investigate other options.
Priceline.com Priceline also returns vehicles usually available at airport rental agencies. If you bid too low on Priceline, you have to wait a set length of time before you can bid on that car again. Use the time Hotwire gives you to make up your mind to make a slightly lower bid on a similar vehicle at Priceline. Just be sure you are bidding on the same or similar package. Travelocity, Expedia and Orbitz all include vehicle rental options.
Lodging
AllStays.com AllStays is a gateway to all kinds of lodging for the traveler.
Casamundo Casamundo lists over 50,000 vacation properties for rent. Most of these are in Europe but there are a few in the United States.
Discount Hotels
Discount Hotels is a search tool for finding accommodations worldwide. Search results can be displayed in a number of languages and charges can be shown in a number of currencies.
Eurobookings
Find and book rooms in hotels in Europe. At this time it appears that only the larger cities are covered by this service.
HomeAway.Com
Vacation rental properties available around the world.
HomeLink International
Established in 1953, HomeLink International is one of the more establised of these services. You must be a member to use this site.
Hostel Trail This sites specializes in hostels in South America.
Hostelz.com A worldwide directory of hostels. This site also includes reviews of hostels added by travelers.
HotelChatter
A blog that covers the world of small hotels.
Hotels by City This is an online travel company focused primarily on hotels. The site also has over 500 short travel guides to cities and blogs on many cities that would be of interest to travelers.
HouseCarers Listing a property to be cared for is free. There is a fee for registering as a house sitter.
Housesit World An international directory where property owners list their houses for free. There is a fee for a house sitter to place a profile and contact owners.
LaCure Upscale properties in exotic localities.
Michigan campground and horborreservations
This is
Pronto Hotel Pronto Hotel searches a number of sites and returns results that you can then refine. In larger cities you can limit by the distance from an attraction or neighborhood. You can limit by a cost range. You can even limit by available amenities such as pets or shuttle to airport. Â
Recreation.gov
This site consolidates information about federal and state parks. However, not all parks are covered here.
Sabbatical Homes
A special service for academics. There is a charge for listing properties while housesitters list their profiles for free.
The Caretaker Gazette The Caretaker Gazette is a bi-monthly newsletter that lists international housesitting opportunities. There is a fee to list a property and to subscribe to the Gazette.
Timeshare Rentals The Timeshare User's Group offers a site where members can list properties for rent. While most parts of the site are available to members only this part is open to the public. Just scroll down to "Rentals Offered."
Tip Top Villas International weekly rental properties are available through this site.
Travelaxe "Travelaxe is a free (for leisure and business travelers) downloadable Windows program that searches multiple travel websites at that same time for hotel rates in over 600 cities from 38 different countries." You have to install an applet on your computer to use this service.
TravelPost.com Provides reviews of all types of hotels. Each review includes an overall score, a ratings chart covering six broad subjects and written comments.
TripAdvisor.com This site helps you find reviews of hotels, inns, resorts, and travel packages.
Vamoose.com Vamoose crawls the web to find listings from numerous web sites. This means that there is a lot of duplication in the results and some dead links. Due diligence is always advised before making any arrangements.
Baglioni Hotels for Italian luxury
Barclayweb.com Specialty alternatives to hotels in Europe
Bed and Breakfast.com A worldwide listing of over 27,000 of these popular alternatives to hotels.
Come to Ramada Limiteds, Inns, Plaza Hotels
Hotel Guide, The - An International Hotel Directory and Guide
HotelsTravel This complete travel site has a good search engine you can use to find hotels by typing in the name of the place you are visiting.
Ian Schrager Hotels This is known for posh and stylish accommodations.
Luxury Travel.com Needless to say, this is for the high end tourist.
Places to Stay International independent (not chains) lodgings.
Priceline.com Priceline also returns vehicles usually available at airport rental agencies. If you bid too low on Priceline, you have to wait a set length of time before you can bid on that car again. Use the time Hotwire gives you to make up your mind to make a slightly lower bid on a similar vehicle at Priceline. Just be sure you are bidding on the same or similar package.
Quickbook Limited cities, US only. Displays customer's feedback on the hotel.
Rosewood luxury hotels and resorts
Secret Places in Spain and Portugal
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts - Rates, reservations, meetings
Tablet Hotels This site represents hundreds of independent smaller hotels and provides a wide range of choices both as to price (but not inexpensive) and location.
TravelNow.com Global Reservations
TravelWeb Travelweb is a service provided by a consortium of hotel chains. Over 10,000 hotels are included. Travelweb interacts with the reservation systems of the hotels and actually makes the reservation.
W The hotels listed here offer prestige just beginning to extend beyond the United States.
Hostels
Hostels provide friendly, basic, inexpensive overnight accommodations for travelers. You will probably stay in a group room, sleep in a bunk and share bath facilities. Some hostels require that you bring your own bedding. They are very popular with students and others traveling on a small budget. Think about backpacking through Europe.
International Youth Hostel Federation
Air Travel
Air Travel Consumer Reports (DOT)
The Department of Transportation's Aviation Consumer Protection Division provides monthly Air Travel Consumer Reports. These reports contain information of flight delays, misplaced bagage, and consumer complaints filed against airlines and airports.
Air Travel Price Index The Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the United States Department of Transportation, provides this measure of the change over time in the prices paid by air travelers.
Airline Abbreviations Look up the abbreviation of an airline by abbreviation or by the name of the airline.
AppleFares.com Compare the fares offered by 14 European airlines.
dohop dohop claims to search "more than 660 airlines around the world for the best flights and connections."
Farecast.com Find fares from over 75 airports and get predictions on if you should purchase tickets now or wait.Â
FareCompare.com
A "Getaway Maps" interface helps make finding sample fare prices easy. You can also search for fare prices in the past to see how current fares compare.
Flight Aware
A flight tracking service that includes both public and private flight air traffic. Also provides location maps of flights in the air. (Planes must have a transponder)
Flight Explorer A flight tracking service. For some flights you do not need to know the flight number.
Flight Stats This site provides flight status reports, monthly performance reports on the arrivals of various airlines and other services.
Flight View FlightView is a flight tracking service.
FlyerTalk An online community for people interested in getting the most of their frequent-flier benefits.
IFly In addition to flight tracking, IFly also provides airport information, the ability to reserve parking at larger airports and flight booking through Expedia and Hotwire.Â
Kayak.com Kayak is a meta-search engine that searches hundreds of other websites in real time for travel deals.
LowFares.com Lowfares allows you to search a number of the air fare search engines at one time. Be prepared for pop-up windows. LowFares also provides searching for auto rental, lodging, and vacation packages across a number of services.
Skytrax Skytrax offers ratings for airlines, airports, airline seats, and Airline lounges.Â
Tarmac Times Tarmac Times records the times that commercial airline flights spend more than three house on the tarmac between departure from the terminal and "wheels-up." Information is available for individual flights, airport, and carrier.
WhichBudget.com Identify low cost airlines in Europe and also those flying to and from the United States.
Yahoo FareChase Yahoo provides an easy to use fare search engine that looks at numberous sources and presents an easy to read list of options. FareChase also suggests different travel days if lower fares are found. There is no email notification of lower fares that could appear later.Â
Yapta Some airlines offer credits if a ticket price falls below what you paid. Yapta helps you track this. You must download Yapta to your machine.
Best Fares Discount Travel Magazine - Online Last minute fare bargains.
Cheap Tickets Ticket consolidator.
Digital City Travel Just click on the city closest to you and then click on the "Travel Bargains" link for a list of current "best" fares. You can also rent a car and make hotel reservations here.
FareChase Type in your destination and where you are starting from and FareChase searches numerous sites for airfares, hotels and rental cars.
Hotwire This site sells discounted airline tickets. Designed for vacationers, this service stresses the cost of the ticket, not the time of the travel. The user needs to be flexible.
LowestFare Ticket consolidator.
Orbitz Formed by five major airlines (American, Continental, Delta, Northwest and United) to provide an online clearinghouse for tickets, ORBITZ is quickly becoming a full service travel site.
Priceline.com Priceline also returns vehicles usually available at airport rental agencies. If you bid too low on Priceline, you have to wait a set length of time before you can bid on that car again. Use the time Hotwire gives you to make up your mind to make a slightly lower bid on a similar vehicle at Priceline. Just be sure you are bidding on the same or similar package.
Qixo Compare airfares from more than 10 major travel sites, including Travelocity, Expedia, and Cheaptickets. You can have QIXO alert you when the fare drops to your buying price.
Sidestep A plug-in for Microsoft Internet Explorer. (At this time a Netscape version does not exist.) After you fill in your flight requirements, Sidestep searches numerous web sites and reports back the best prices for airfares, car rentals, and lodging.
Smarter Living
Last-minute fare bargains.
TravelNow.com Global Reservations
Travelocity Another general travel site with flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc.
1travel.com OneTravel offers travelers flights, hotels, cruises, travel packages and vehicle rentals.
Airline Links Directory of airline web sites from Travel-Watch.com.
Independent Traveler Directory Directory of airline web sites and 800 numbers both domestic and foreign from Independent Traveler .
Independent Traveler Directory of Discount Airlines Directory of discount airlines both foreign and domestic from Independent Traveler .
Southwest Airlines Specials are at the "click 'n save" button.
United Airlines Has a "special deals" button.
US Airways For specials click on "Promotions" .
Air Canada Find specials at the "websavers" button especially on Wednesday mornings.
BMI Baby British Midlands Airlines offers cheap flights to England and discounted Dublin flights and also flights to the continent. Links to car rentals and hotel bookings also available.
Cathay Pacific A Hong Kong based airlines that flies to destinations throughout the world.
EasyJet EasyJet is a discount European airline.
Go Go is a budget European airline with six hubs in Great Britain.
Ryanair
Ryanair is the largest of the budget European airlines.
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration, formed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has a number of hints for travelers (did you know you should carry on all of the film you will be taking on your trip because the machines used to examine checked baggage will ruin it!!) and a list of prohibited and permitted items you can carry onto a plane.
Rail and Bus Travel
Deutsche Bahn AG A rail site that covers all of Europe. Made available by the german national railway this site provides timetable information for most of Europe. It is possible to purchase tickets for some trains through this site.
Tranz Scenic New Zealand
Amtrak The official site for schedules, rates, and tickets.
Amtrak Unlimited Amtrak Unlimited is a discussion group for train travelers.
Trainweb.com Follow the links to rail travel information, tourist rail lines and other features for the railroad enthusiast.
Online Travel Includes European airline and car rental information as well as Eurorail access. And you can watch your travel agent on a web cam!
Rail Europe A total travel site for those choosing to travel Europe by train. Good for trips that cross borders in Europe. The individual national railway sites do not do this as well.
European Railway Server You can find the homepages and timetables for European railways at the European Railway Server.
Brit Rail For rail service in Britain and Northern Ireland.
NI Railways Strictly Northern Ireland
ScotRail Scottish rail service
Scandinavian Rail Scandinavia
Rail New Zealand New Zealand
Travelocity Another general travel site with flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises, etc. Travelocity provides access to Canadian and European rail service.
Trenitalia Italy
Cruises
Barge Travel Points.com
France luxury river cruises, European barge rentals, and European river cruises
Cruise Diva
An online guide to cruise travel. Tips and links to many cruise lines and destinations. The packing list section is useful for all travelers.
Cruise-addicts.com Cruise news you can use.
Cruise-Reviews.com
Read what others think about particular cruises, ships, and destinations.
cruisecritic.com News and reviews
cruisemates.com A complete cruise community
Majestic America Provides steamboat river cruises in the continental United States and Alaska.
Cruise.com
Claims to be the largest cruise site on the web.
Cruise Critic Cruise Critic is a general guide to cruises that includes reviews and lots of helpful hints.
Cruise Direct Online
Cruise Direct Online is another clearing house for cruise information including tips for the traveler and well as cruise finding aids. This site provides cruise reviews from customers and has an area called Cruise Report where cruise reviews from staff and other experts are posted.
ExpeditionTrips.com
Search the offerings of 28 cruise lines.
Sanitation Inspections of International Cruise Ships
Lists only ships docking in U.S. ports.
INDIVIDUAL CRUISE LINES
American Canadian Caribbean Line, Inc
Hurtigruten Hurtigruten specializes in Norwegian cruises but also offers Antarctica vacations and World Cruises.
Cruise Lines International Association
Imperial Majesty Cruise Line Cruises from Fort Lauderdale to Nassau/Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
Lindblad Special Expeditions Lindblad Expeditions in conjunction with National Geographic provides small ship excursions to Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands and other sites known for their natural beauty.
Mediterranean Shipping Cruises
Melanesian Tourist Services - Papua New Guinea
Peter Deilmann EuropAmerica Cruises
Windjammer Barefoot Cruises, Ltd
RIVER CRUISES
Abercrombie & Kent Abercrombie & Kent specializes in river and canal trips in France and Great Britain.
Barging in Europe Barging in Europe is a company that provides hosted charters and "self-drive charters" for those who want to do it themselves.
Black-Prince Black Prince offers narrowboats for hire in the Midlands of England
Connoisseur Connoisseur offers boat rentals in Europe.
Crown Blue Lines Crown Blue Lines offers boat rentals in Europe.
4Winds Specialty Tours 4 Winds offers barge and bike tours from Ireland to Austria.
France Passion Plaisance FPP offers boat rental in Belgium, France, Ireland, Portugal and Spain.
GoBarging GoBarging offers escorted barge cruises in Europe.
H2olidays S.A.R.L H2olidays offers hosted barge cruises and rentals in France.
Viking River Cruises Provides river cruises in Europe, Russia and Ukraine, and China.Â
Le Boat Le Boat offers barge cruises of Europe including charters and self-drive.
Locaboat Locaboat offers European boat rentals.
Nabila Tours and Cruises
Nabila offers ruises on the River Nile.
River Barge Excursion Lines
River Barge Excursions offers cruises on the lower Mississippi and the Gulf Coast.
Travcotels Travcotels offers Nile River cruises.
Victoria Cruises
Victoria Cruises offers cruises on the Yangtze River in China.
Eco Tourism, Adventure, Special Interest, Special Population & Cultural
Global Volunteer Network Based in Wellington, New Zealand, the Global Volunteer Network places volunteers with local community organizations in around ten countries.
Golf Schools
Golf Schools offers a wide array of information about golf schools, golf instruction and equipment.
Golf.com
In the section called "Courses and Travel" you will find a search engine. The site even tries to find courses similar to ones you are familiar with. A "Find a Course" option is also available.
GolfDigest.com
This site is run by the famous golfing magazine. It provides instruction on playing the game. A link to "Courses" leads to a search engine for finding courses.
nextdaygolf.com This site acts as a broker for unsold tee times at golf courses in the Southeast that are usually available at a discount.
ShawGuides
"Established in 1988 as a publisher of comprehensive worldwide guides to educational travel and creative career programs, ShawGuides has offered free online access to the unabridged, continually updated content of each guide since 1995." (from web site)
Sustainable Tourism Resource Database The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation has developed this database as a way of gathering together a number of certification schemes relevant to sustainable tourism.
Trails From Rails Lists many of the bicycle touring trails available to the cyclist. Currently limited to the United States.
TravelGolf.com This is a gateway to numerous golf sites. State links help you narrow your search.
Specialty Travel Index This is a gateway to hundreds of specialty tour operators.
Adventure Travel Adventure Travel is a general travel package site.
adventuretravelbusiness.com This is the official web site of the Adventure Travel Society and the Adventure Travel Trade Association. While primarily a site for these trade associations there is a directory of travel service providers you can search.
Elderhostel
Provides travel and educational opportunities for adults over 55 years of age.
GoAbroad
Provides a comprehensive directory of study abroad programs and also much in the way of general travel information. Very useful to the college student.
The Institute of International Education
Compiles information on thousands of study abroad programs.
StudyAbroad.com
This is a comprehensive site geared to the college student wishing to spend a semester aboard.
Skiing Most ski resorts have web sites that provide current snow conditions and lists of ammenities. I will not attempt to list them here. A good web search engine should turn up the one you are interested in.
myskitrip.com A good gateway to over 500 resorts is myskitrip.com which is run by AOL Time Warner. You can usually get to the resorts web site from here.
Skicentral
Skicentral is a portal to all things related to skiing.
Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz (under "see deals for") all have areas at their sites dedicated to skiing.
Trailsource.com
Cross-country skiers and snowboarders can find information at Trailsource.com.
Avalanche Center Skiers can find out about avalanche conditions at the Avalanche Center.
AARP The American Association of Retired Persons or AARP offers tours and discounted travel opportunities.
Elder Treks
Provides adventure travel for small groups over 50 years of age.
Grand Circle Tours This is one of the first and one of the largest provider of travel services to seniors.
Senior Cycling
Provides bike tours througout the United States and around Washington DC where the business is located.
Walking the World
Provides worldwide outdoor adventures that are rated as to difficulty and is geared to people over 50 years of age.
Travel Tips for Older Americans
The Department of State has a series of Travel Tips for Older Americans at their useful travel page.
Cross-Cultural Solutions
Organizes humanitarian opportunities in eight countries.
Earthwatch Institute
Works to conserve natural resources and cultural heritage, and organizes learning by doing expeditions.
Global Village program
This is a Habitat for Humanity program that provides for short-term, cross-cultural experiences centered around home building.
GlobalVolunteers
Provides access to volunteer opportunities in 19 countries. Provides good descriptions of the programs.
Service Civil International Service Civil International has short and long term opportunities in over 50 countries.
State Travel Information
Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel (1-800-ALABAMA)
Welcome to the State of Arkansas
FLA USA - Visit Florida - The Official Travel Web Site of Florida
Georgia Department of Industry, Trade and Tourism
Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau
Idaho Travel and Tourism Guide
Kansas Department of Commerce & Housing Homepage
Official Kentucky Vacation Guide
Visitmaine.com and The Maine Office of Tourism Welcome You
Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism
Genuine Nebraska @ VisitNebraska.Org
New Hampshire Office of Travel & Tourism Development
New Mexico Department of Tourism - Enchantment USA
I Love NY - Tourism in New York State
The Official North Carolina Travel Guide
Ohio Division of Travel and Tourism
Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department
Official Oregon Tourism Web Site: Planning An Oregon Vacation
Tripcheck.com helps travelers in Oregon with mileage calculators, road condition information and other travel information
Welcome to www.travelsc.com! An on-line travel guide to South Carolina
TravelTex: Texas it's Like a Whole Other Country
Washington State Tourism Home Page
West Virginia Tourism Main Page
Wisconsin Department of Tourism
Aids for Travelers
Aniki.com Embassy and Consulate Finder
Aneki.com is a web site that provides lists of world rankings of all types of things. One of the services Aneki.com provides is a searchable list of U.S. embassies and Consulates. You type in the name of a country or city and the site returns a list of these government offices that are close.
Babelfish Translates a block of text or a web page.
Consular Information Sheets Country specific travel information from the United States Department of State.
Federal Avaition Administration - Travel Tips
This page is designed for passengers and provides numerous travel tips including: traveling with children, pets and persons with disabilities, baggage size limits, and links to airlines.
Go Currency.com This is a currency converter that also provides a graph that shows the trend of the strength of the currencies.
Great Britain's Foreign & Commonwealth Office Britain's Foreign & Commonwealth Office provides travel advise by country. Sometimes the information is very specific.
Healthy Travel Tips from AllStays.com This general travel site has many guides including this one on the health aspects of international travel.
NOAA's Weather Page The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the source for much of the weather information in the United States.
OneBag.com This site provides lots of hints on how to travel light. For the person who wants to travel - even for extended periods of time - with just one bag. Also provides general hints on packing your luggage.
OpenJet.com Compare the fares offered by seven European airlines and book tickets. Also provides information on car rental and lodging.
Passport Information The Department of State provides information on how to obtain, replace or renew your passport at this page.
The Universal Packing List When the User types in some criteria for their trip, this site provides a custom list of things to do in preparation for a trip. The list can then serve as a checklist for the traveler.
Thorntree at LonelyPlanet.com The Lonely Planet travel guide people bring you this "travel forum."
Time Zone Converters
Links to time zone converters from the Library of Congress.
Translation Resources on the Web: A Guide to Accurate, Free Sites
This as an article that appeared in the June 2009 issue of C&RL News. It lists online dictionaries and translation services. It also lists a few translation blogs.
Transportation Security Administration
The Transportation Security Administration, formed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, has a number of hints for travelers (did you know you should carry on all of the film you will be taking on your trip because the machines used to examine checked baggage will ruin it!!) and a list of prohibited and permitted items you can carry onto a plane.
TravelBlog.org
A collection of travel journals. You can browse by region or search the site. You can even contribute your own blog.
TravelPod
This is a compendium of travel blogs.
TripIt TripIt uses information from your confirmation emails and information you add to organize your plane tickets, hotel reservations, and planned stops and create a complete itinerary of your trip.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection The "Know Before You Go" section provides information on the rules for briging items back to the United States from foreign counties.
Whats On When
What’s On When provides a keyword search of all types of
cultural events. You can limit your search by place. This is a
wonderful aid in planning activities while traveling. You can also choose to search by category. When you do, you get a chronological list of events and a Google map that locates them so you can select the ones near your location.
World Tourism News This site provides interesting articles, and case studies on travel marketing, hotel marketing, the travel industry, and the airline industry. There is s scrolling list of travel related conferences scheduled throughout the world.
Background Notes
From the United States Department of State, this site provides brief introductions to most of the countries of the world.
Travel Warnings & Consular Information Sheets From the US Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs, this information is arranged alphabetically for ease of use.
IJet Travel Intelligence There is a fee for this personalized travel information and alerts. Individuals and organizations can subscribe to this service. A travel agency may also provide this service.
time and date.com Helps you find the time and time zones anywhere in the world. The calendars available for many countries also list holidays.
Events and Activity Calendars In addition to the sites listed here, the traveler will always want to check sites that specialize in a specific interest or a site for the city and/or country one is traveling to. A site that lists symphony schedules or small, specialized museums might be a better choice than the following. The sites listed here specialize in only the largest cities.
Citysearch.com
This is a nice site if the city you are traveling to is covered. Currently, only the largest cities in the United States and about 50 foreign cities in a limited number of countries are covered. There is a nice arrangement of information when you click on a city including lots of "best of" information. This site is owned by Ticketmaster so you can frequently link through to purchasing tickets.
City Guide
This is a service of AOL. It is good for locating links to local sites that may help you plan your trip.
Operabase.com
This is an example of a specialized interest site. There are many others like it.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention
This site contains valuable health information from the CDC. If you click on Reference Materials you can get to the CDC's Health Information for International Travel, Summary of Health Information for International Travel, and cruise ship health inspection reports.
Chinook Medical Gear Travel medical/first aid kits
International Society of Travel Medicine (locate a clinic in many countries)
International Travel and Health
This is a WHO publication that offers guidance on the full range of health risks likely to be encountered at specific destinations and associated with different types of travel.
SOS International global health assistance insurance
Great Circle Calculator (You need to know latitude and longitude)
Great Circle Mapper
Great Circle Mapper displays the great circle between
locations and computes the distance along that path. It can also
display the area which is within a given range of a location.
You need to know the codes for airports at either end of the great circle.
How Far Is It? Simply type in two locations and the computer reports back distance as the crow flies. This site also provides links to sites that provide directions and maps.
Dictionary.com provides the standard bilingual translation service between European languages but also has a web page translation service.
Free Translation offers translation of most European languages.
Freedict.com offers bilingual dictionaries that translate back and forth between English and sixteen other languages.
Foreign Languages for Travelers allows you to hear how a word or phrase sounds in a foreign language. The number of words is limited. You end up with a lot of open windows that you have to close. The number of languages covered is impressive.
iLoveLanguages http://www.ilovelanguages.com/ This website is an index to language resources arranged by topic. For instance, you can choose language and literature resources, schools and institutions, linguistics resources, dictionaries, or language lessons, and then narrow your search to specific resources in a language that interests you. Updated frequently.
Weather.com Weather.com from the Weather channel is the most popular web site for conditions and forecasts.
accuweather.com
is very useful for weather conditions for locations worldwide.
Universal Currency ConverterTM
Travel Companion Services
Traveling alone is more expensive than traveling as a couple or part of a group. Supplemental charges, known as the single supplement, are frequently added to cruise, package tour, and hotel charges for the person traveling alone. Services have been developed that aid solo travelers in meeting others wishing to share or reduce expenses. Some tour operators work with solo customers to make travel for the individual more affordable. Caution should be exercised when using the matchmaker services. Most of these services charge a fee. Most of the sites require members to fill out extensive questionnaires which are then used to make a match. Users of these services should thoroughly investigate any potential travel partner.
Singles Travel International offers guaranteed shares programs that will find you a travel partner or pay the single supplement.
Solo Travel Network A fee for service site that looks for specials for the solo traveler. Not a travel partner finder.
Travel Chums Travel Chums is a free site with a large number of members. Message boards help you meet others with similar interests and travel plans.
Travel Writing People who like to travel invariably like to read about the adventures of other travelers.
World Hum
WorldHum is a travelzine that also has a nice directory of other travel writing available on the web. Links to other net zines, magazine, newspaper travel sections, specialty publishers and bookstores, television and radio shows, and "offbeat" web sites make this a nice gateway to travel literature on the web.
The Society of American Travel Writers recognized the best travel writing each year with the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards.
Statistical Sources
National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) This joint effort of the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and the Federal Highway Administration collects data on long distance and local travel by Americans. Mode of transportation, duration of trip, and purpose, as well as demographic and economic information is included.Â
Ask A Librarian
Michael McDonnell
michael.mcdonnell@wmich.edu
269-387-5187
Last updated: July 2009