travel
guides
Guides are
an indispensable guide to travel, particularly for the more
far-flung places. Useful for recommendations on transport, local
customs and places to stay. Many sites also have forums to quiz
fellow travellers for up-to-date info. Ideal for the independent
and weekend traveller alike.
Fodors
www.fodors.com
- Series of guide books for more ’comfortable’ travellers.
Frommers
www.frommers.com - More guide
books, online forums and listings of almost 200 global cities
and candid personal articles from the modern Mr Fogg, alias
Arthur Frommer himself.
Holiday
Net www.holidaynet.com
- Covers many holiday destinations and also features video clips.
Lonely Planet www.lonelyplanet.com
- Is there anywhere left in the world that you can go to be
lonely? Probably the best and most popular global guide. Very
useful forum to find out the best places to visit in outer Mongolia.
Rough
Guides www.roughguides.com
- To smooth your travels. American orientated, but a useable
alternative to Lonely Planet.
World
Travel Guide www.travel-guides.com
– Run by Columbus Guides you can now access the same info that
many travel agents use behind the counter. Provides country
specific information such as public holidays, social profile,
government info and much more.
What’s
on when www.whatsonwhen.com
- World roundup for unusual events and activities. Find out
what’s on before you book that trip.
The
Planet www.the-planet.co.uk
- Thousands of articles and travelogues taken from the pages
of the Guardian newspaper. Useful to research your destination
and for creating itineraries.
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maps
and route finding
Use the
net to check out the shortest way to reach that wedding on time
(would your wife-to-be forgive you?) or locate that B&B
in the Dales. Locate places using grid references, place names,
telephone code or their postcode. Download and print maps and
directions. Many map sites also allow you to find event information
and book a restaurant based on it's 'what's nearby' functionality.
Aerial shots available as well.
Encarta
http://mappoint.msn.com
- Providing a world
atlas, traffic maps, city guides as well as driving directions.
Expedia
Maps www.maps.expedia.co.uk
– Road maps for the UK or North America.
Green
Flag www.greenflag.co.uk
– European coverage as far as Turkey.
Get
Mapping www.getmapping.com
– Help the Queen boost the share price of this dotcom biz in
which she has a stake in by purchasing an aerial photo of your
home! Getmapping has created the most comprehensive and detailed
aerial photographic record covering the UK, known as the Millennium
Map. They now offer a range of unique products using photography
from the Millennium Map, including hardcopy prints and digital
aerial images sent by e-mail.
The
Rambler's Association www.ramblers.org.uk Ramblers
tend to go on, and on, and this site does too, but at least
it's of interest. There are hundreds of long distance walking
routes in the British Isles, and many more shorter local waymarked
routes, covering every corner of the land and varying in length
from short health walks up to lengthy trails of 1000km/600 miles
or more. This site lists many of these routes so get your boots
on.
Street
Map www.streetmap.co.uk
– This site provides address searching
and street map facilities for the UK. Search by telephone code,
postcode, street name or OS grid reference! Zoom in or out
to your hearts content.
Maporama
www.maporama.com – Possibly
the European market leader in online mapping. Offering door-to-door
itineraries for French towns of over 30,000 inhabitants and
50,000 in the UK.
Mappy
www.mappy.com
- Traffic info, European driving directions.
Map
Quest www.mapquest.com – Driving
directions, live traffic conditions and of course – maps!
Maps Worldwide www.mapsworldwide.com
– After a map or the latest route-planning CD-ROM? This site
should be able to help and gives you up to 20% off on Ordnance
Survey maps.
Michelin www.viamichelin.com
– European road directions available
in English, German, French, Spanish and Italian. Also
calculates cost of petrol which is very nice.
Multimap
www.multimap.com – Aerial photos,
traffic info, London Tube map and worldwide maps. – Recently
revised and possibly the number one map site for the UK. Search
with place names or postcodes.
Ordnance
Survey www.ordsvy.gov.uk
- Packed with information on OS maps, guides and CDROMs. Good
source for digital data for your GIS or positioning system.
Old
Maps www.old-maps.co.uk – Very
interesting site giving access to over 85,000 historical maps
of the UK. See what your area was like 200 years ago!
RAC
www.rac.co.uk
– Prone to crashing, but useful.
Includes European coverage and very clear directions. Label
your own map, zoom around and measure Europe. Beat the M25's
jams by finding alternative routes. You can even receive warnings
of hold-ups by email – useful in the unlikely event that they
happen before you leave the office!
Traffic Master www.trafficmaster.net
- Check the state of traffic congestion before you set out.
Indicates speed and direction of congestion. Check out the year
round Christmas lights around London...
Walking World www.walkingworld.com
- Contains fantastic detailed photographic guides to over 1700
walks in the UK. Thers an interactive map - just click in the
area of your choice or use the advanced search option.
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