As summer approaches, the Internet overflows with information and advice for vacation planning.
It’s both a blessing and a burden. On the one hand, whatever you may want may be there: suggestions on where to go, what to do there, where to stay and eat, how to get around and, hopefully, how to get the most satisfaction for the money spent. But often, after hours surfing from site to site, you may realize that much of what you harvested is incomplete, commercial, out of date or all three.
In short, there is simply too much out there, with too little organization and control. Everyone with any sort of inkling to babble — from major corporations to electronically talkative individuals — seems to have a site on the World Wide Web or to be creating one. Some on-line guides, such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com) and Netguide (www.netguide.com), attempt to keep abreast of deserving newcomers, but what seems fine today may be outdated tomorrow or eclipsed by somebody else.
This column is an attempt to point out a few worthy sources of vacation information. They may not be absolutely the best, but they are the best I could find that were not too localized.
Yahoo: (www.yahoo.travel.com/destinations)
Country by country, there is exhaustive information by lifestyle, activity and interest to help with travel planning. There are links to nine sites about Portugal, for example, including governmental information as well as Nancy’s Portugal Site, compiled by Nancy Sandvoll, a 40-year-old Norwegian musician who loves Fado. Under India, you’ll find mouth-watering restaurant reviews for Mumbai (formerly Bombay) by Behram Contractor, popularly known as Busybee, a self-confessed gourmet who edits a newspaper there.
Excite City.Net:(www.city.net)
More than 5,000 destinations around the world are individually detailed. Example: You punch in Florence in the “search” box and you get a choice of Florences in Italy, Alabama and South Carolina. For the Italian Florence, you get a fact sheet and suggestions on where to eat and stay, a calendar of events and information on the shopping, sightseeing, transportation and the weather. Under “essential information,” you’re told that food shops are closed on Wednesday afternoons in winter and Saturday afternoons in summer. There are excellent maps that can be printed out.
Epicurious Destination Finder: (travel.epicurious.com/concierge/concier ge.html)
Using material from Conde Nast Traveler magazine (of which I am editor at large), this site suggests places to vacation based on individual preferences. I chose August in the United States, Europe or the Caribbean, with a temperature of 70 to 85 degrees. For activities, I chose swimming, wildlife viewing and hiking. I did not specify cost. Epicurious then told me that “130 destinations and 503 hotels match your criteria.” The first suggestion was Cuba, about which it said: “Even as a forbidden, embargoed Third World country, Cuba is once again irresistible — flush with renewed allure, buzz and self-importance.” Six hotels there were suggested. Other choices were in Greece, Italy, the Caribbean, Singapore, Mauritius, Hong Kong and California.
Festival Finder: (www.festivalfinder.com)
Whatever your musical preferences (alternative, classical, jazz, bluegrass, country, reggae, blues, eclectic, rock, Cajun, zydeco, folk or miscellaneous), this site provides details of more than 1,300 upcoming festivals in North America. It includes program details, performers, driving directions and phone numbers for tickets. It notes, for example, that campground facilities will not be available for the Wamboozy Rock and Roll Consciousness Festival at Lembo Lake in upstate New York in September, but that alternate sleeping areas are being sought. Festivals can be searched by name, date, location or performers.
Kids Events Worldwide (www.kidseventsworldwide.com)
You choose the date range, the area you plan to visit and your preferred activity (arts, entertainment, sports or special) and the site gives you a rundown of possibilities, such as the Battle of Gettysburg re-enactment in Pennsylvania, the Calgary Stampede in Alberta, the Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Festival in Kutztown and the Winnie the Pooh Friendship Festival in Winnipeg. One questions, however, whether the listed Bare-Buns Run in Kaniksu Ranch Nudist Park, Loon Lake, Wash., on July 26 is really for children.
Transitions Abroad: (www.transabroad.com)
This site of the bimonthly magazine Transitions Abroad is aimed at those who go abroad to work, study or simply for low-key travel on their own. A major purpose of the site is to promote and sell Transitions Abroad directories and other publications, but it also offers lots of free advice and where to get further information. It gives contact addresses for many work and volunteer programs overseas.
Virtual Library Museums Pages: (www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/other/museu ms.html virtual)
Jonathan Bowen, a lecturer on computer science at the University of Reading, England, has compiled a remarkably comprehensive directory of on-line museums, museum-related resources, children’s museums, library exhibits, art galleries and virtual exhibits. If you have the time and patience for downloading, you can see many art treasures right on your home screen, such as, from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Van Gogh’s “Hospital Corridor at Saint-Rmy.” Or, courtesy of the WebMuseum, an electronic “virtual” museum in Paris, you’ll find Cezanne’s Bathers, the original of which is in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Internet Guide to Hostelling: (www.hostels.com)
A database of more than 5,300 hostels worldwide has been compiled by a staff independent of all hostelling organizations. In New York City, for example, lodging suggestions run as low as $12 a night. A good bulletin board provides candid comments on which hostels are good and which are rotten. Also, messages can be exchanged to seek rides and traveling companions.
Great Outdoor Recreation Pages: (www.gorp.com)
This is a mammoth guide to virtually every conceivable outdoor recreational activity, including when and where you can pursue it. It covers birding, hiking, biking, fishing, paddling, skiing, wildlife, driving, camping, snorkeling, scuba diving, climbing, caving, horse riding, navigation, ecology, off-road driving, windsurfing, navigation, hang gliding and hunting. The site was created by Diane and Bill Greer, refugees from installing technology on Wall Street. It includes sections on family travel, traveling with pets and nature travel for the disabled.
National Park Service: (www.nps.gov)
An excellent source of information on every national park, national historic site, national recreation area, national battlefield and national monument across the country. If you have the right technology, you can download maps of many parks. The site advises how to prepare for your visit and offers information on campgrounds and reservations, entrance fees and multi-entry passports. A special section covers such lesser-known sites as Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site in Alabama and Weir Farm National Historic Site in Wilton, Conn., the summer home and workplace of the American Impressionist painter J. Alden Weir (1852-1919).
Scenic Byways: (www.byways.org)
Sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and managed by the National Scenic Byways Online project at Utah State University, this site details the eight All-American Roads (“our country’s finest byways: the best of the best”) including the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and the Pacific Coast Highway from Big Sur to Monterey, Calif.; the 14 National Scenic Byways; and the State Scenic Byways in all the states that have them. There are lots of details about driving time, distance, fees if any, best season to view, special features, etc., plus contact addresses and phone numbers and sometimes a map.
The WWW Speedtrap Registry: (www.speedtrap.com)
Maintained by Andrew Warner, a senior in computer science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, who says: “This page in no way encourages speeding and recommends you always follow the posted speed limit.” Each listing tells, if the information is available, the exact location of the trap, who’s running it, the speed-measuring technology and the average ticket cost. Warner says: “I got my one and only speeding ticket in May 1995 after starting the registry. The trap was in Goodland, Kan., and it was listed in the registry. I was in a rush to get home (Vail, Colo.) after finals and took apart my computers before checking my route.”
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Paul Grimes’ e-mail address is Paulmark@aol.com
