TOP FIVE: BEST ONLINE TRAVEL GUIDES While researching for travel, I came across plenty of travel guide sites… or should I say, bombardments of advertisement for travel agencies, travel deals, air fare, etc? Not what I consider a “helpful” guide for my vacation or travel. Travel agencies have their place, and offer a valuable service. However, once I’ve decided I want to visit a place, I’m looking for something a little more comprehensive than simple flight and hotel schedules. Thankfully, I did happen upon a handful of sites that actually provide helpful information to cities, regions, and countries, including restaurant reviews, current events, family activities, lifestyle activities, and the like. Here are my pick for Top Five, based on navigability, comprehensive information, and tasteful advertisement display. I hope you find these sites as informative and helpful to narrowing your trip’s agenda to a fun-filled experience. 5 – www.LetsGo.com This site is a handy reference for quick cultural and historical review of cities, regions and countries. However, I was unable to find any local itinerary. There are advertisements on the site, but displayed as an option, not a bombardment of pop-ups that you have to “x”-out to read desired materials. For your reading pleasure and glean-what-you-may, are blogs from travelers, sharing their experiences, great finds, and warnings. 4 – www.World66.com Let’s start with their credo, “We believe that travelers are the best source of travel information. They offer Day Trip ideas, history links, family travel ideas, budget travel ideas, 7-day itinerary ideas, and more. 3 – www.VirtualTourist.com While there are links for flights, deals, and reservations on this site, the links are tastefully located in a menu in the top left of the page. There is not a barrage of flashing “deals” hiding the treasure of a lonely tip. What is on this site are at-your-fingertips links to the world’s most traveled cities. Once you click on the city, a menu to your left offers links to guides for restaurants, maps, night life, and more. Not my absolute favorite site, but still a gem amongst the thousands of travel sites. While you can peruse the site sans-membership, the free-membership offers opportunity to post questions to other travelers, as well as offer your experience and knowledge to fellow trekkers. 2 – www.Concierge.com Offers what you would hope to find on a travel guide site for cities around the world: restaurants, hotels, night life, maps, deals, etc. Noticeably absent was local current events. What they did have that I especially liked was “What to Avoid”, pointing you away from tourist traps; currency converter, up to the date exchange rates of global currencies; and current time posting. I especially liked the on-the-page current weather conditions. In other words, you did not have to navigate away from the page or open a new window to learn the weather forecast. Nice touch. is an overall informative, comprehensive resource for international travel. 1 - www.TimeOut.com – “Your guide to what's happening in the most exciting cities on the planet,“ It earns top position because of its comprehensive approach to city life: family, night life, kids, coffee shops, hotels, restaurants, freebies, current and upcoming events and more. Time Out also offers “getting there” directions, fast facts, and when to go advice – all written by locals. Also, if there is a “button” promising information, there will be information at the end of your “click”. (Many sites I reviewed, that did not make this Top Five, had either “parking pages” or “error: page not found” at the end of a “click”.) Additionally, the site’s layout is attractive and easily navigated. In essence, Time Out offers the best of travel guides and entertainment in one site.
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