The Internet is an immense, tangled mess.
Which is not such a bad thing. Think of it as a huge foreign city like Istanbul. From any point in the Turkish capital, you have innumerable avenues, streets or alleys to explore. The options are endless, wandering is a joy, and you’re bound to end up somewhere interesting.
But the Internet, like Istanbul, loses its charm if you’re looking for something specific and don’t have a map. Then those ubiquitous banner ads atop Web sites begin to grate on your nerves. And, as you jump from one unhelpful site to another, you feel like a hapless newcomer to the Near East, scurrying through Istanbul’s streets while shopkeepers block your way, hissing, “Come. See my carpets.”
Specific information about budget travel seems especially hard to find, thanks to countless “What I did on my summer vacation” Web pages and megasites hoping to book your next flight. But there are a few tried-and-true ways to find the gems of travel advice you’re searching for. Use these methods and you could even plan a vacation to an offbeat destination like the tiny South American nation of Suriname.
The venerable Rec.Travel Library (www.travel-library.com), for instance, points to five informative sites about Suriname, plus links to official tourism bureaus, the CIA World Factbook and U.S. State Department travel information. On-line since 1993 — ancient history by Internet standards — the Rec.Travel Library is still the premier resource for alternative and budget travel. Besides thousands of geographic links, there is information on everything from bicycle touring to freighter travel to overseas volunteer work. Plus, there’s plenty of esoterica to keep you hunched over your computer, including a detailed compendium of driving habits around the world.
Your second stop on the Net should be Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com), by far the most helpful site affiliated with a guidebook publisher. Consulting its “destination” dossier on Suriname, for instance, you learn that in the late 1600s, the Dutch acquired Suriname from the English, who cunningly traded the rainy patch of impenetrable jungle on the Atlantic coast for New Amsterdam — present day New York. Also, the country’s cheapest food comes from warungs, Javanese food stalls serving fried noodles and rice.
Lonely Planet’s site also includes the Thorn Tree, a bulletin board for budget travelers. But gleaning reliable advice from a bulletin board’s scattershot, highly opinionated contents is a hit-or-miss proposition. A much more reliable and timely collection of travel tips is Izon’s Backpacker News Wire (www.izon.com/news.htm), produced by free-lance travel columnist Lucy Izon. (Her column appears monthly in The Tribune’s Travel section. Today it’s on Page 7.) Scrolling through its entries, you can find information on inexpensive bus tours in Australia, tips on how to join a crew on an oceangoing yacht and advice on avoiding money exchange scams in Brindisi, Italy.
If you’re less interested in what to do in another country than how to get out of this one, consult one of the Web’s travel agencies catering specifically to the adventurous shoestring crowd. Students and those under 26 should head to STA travel (www.statravel.com). To devise an itinerary around the world, head to www.netfare.net, www.airtreks.com or www.airbrokers.com. Be advised, though: You can while away hours at airbrokers.com, which has the slickest interface in the realm of on-line air ticketing. On a map of the world, you click from one city to the next, then hit the “see fares” button. Flying from Chicago to London to Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur to Bali to Hong Kong and back to Chicago, for example, costs $1,799, plus tax.
Sounds tiring; good thing several Web sites concentrate specifically on places to affordably rest one’s weary head. Go to Hostelling International (www.iyhf.org) for detailed information on hostels around the world — a rather slow process — or the quicker Internet Guide to Hostelling (www.hostels.com), which provides only addresses and phone numbers. The Internet Guide to Hostelling also lists “independent” hostels, which are unaffiliated with Hostelling International and its global organization, the International Youth Hostel Federation.
If your travel plans include Third World destinations, it’s a good idea to research health precautions at the Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov/travel/travel.html). And when considering a visit to a country recently plagued by natural disasters, civil war or terrorism, it’s worth consulting the U.S. State Department’s travel warnings (travel.state.gov/travel–warnings.html).
But much of the State Department’s information verges on the paranoid. Of placid, nearly crimeless Switzerland, the State Department says, “Most crime is restricted to specific localities in major cities that are avoided by the prudent traveler and residents, such as areas frequented by drug dealers and users, the vicinity of train and bus stations, airports, and some public parks.” What it doesn’t say is how a traveler can still be a traveler while avoiding train stations and airports.
To compensate for such intimidation, surf for inspiration among budget travel “e-zines,” which feature photographs, travel narratives and quirky lists of Internet links. Two of the most interesting on-line magazines are Trips (www.tripsmag.com), produced in San Francisco, and Babylon Travel Mag (users.sti.com.br/babylon.travel/) produced in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
My Web site, Vaya! (www.davidgonzales.com), also fits in this category. Consider it a small coffeehouse in the vast, tangled Istanbul of the Internet. Be assured: I won’t try to sell you a carpet.
