Every so often it becomes time for me to take stock of my lengthy list of bookmarks and clean out any bookmark remorse sites. At one time it seemed like having that link to toyvoyagers.com saved made some sort of sense, but now it is time to say goodbye. I thought I would share the links from my Travel folder that made the cut, these are all great travel websites I have perennially found useful when I am planning a trip, and they might help you, or maybe someone you know.

Orientation:

1. Google Maps: Yes, its nice for directions, but my mom can do that. What you want to do is make a custom map to figure out how close the hotels you like are to all the places you want to visit. Or map out all the restaurants (with their phone number) you heard are great, print it, and have it around when its time to eat. See my custom map for an upcoming trip to Quebec City. Also the mobile version of Google Maps is very nice, your cell phone is your friend when you are lost.
2. Subway Maps from Amadeus: A great resource for subway maps from around the world. I especially like that you can export to pdf for easy printing, and if you click on the little book above the map it gives you all information you’d need on hours of operation, fares and lines.
3. Seatguru: This site seems to pop up a lot in articles about travel planning. While Seatguru can’t guarantee you won’t be next to a crying baby, it can help you pick a seat near power outlets, the bathroom, or with some extra legroom. I love getting the set of just two seats that planes sometimes have, and this site helps me find out if the plane has those, and what their seat numbers are.
4. XE.com: The classic site for calculating exchange rates. Their mobile version for cell phones is also pretty easy to use, as I should have found out when I took $500 USD worth of Hong Kong dollars out of the airport ATM instead of $50. I blame jet lag.
5. World Clock: What time is it in Dubai? I like this no frills world clock the best.
6. jiwire: Find wireless hotspots anywhere in the world. Lost that custom Google map? Want to send an email update from the road? Find yourself some free bandwidth.

Organization:

1. Budget Travel’s Reward Program Account Number Card: Travel lighter by not carrying around all those loyalty program cards. And when you are booking and have to find your frequent flyer number, don’t dig through drawers, wallets or your email to find it. Take a minute to write them all down on this one handy card, and you’re good to go. You can make your own card, I just like how this one is organized.
2. Yahoo! Trip Planner: Even if you aren’t going to write yourself out a travel itinerary (Trip Planner is the best online itinerary tool, in my opnion), Trip Planner is useful to crib ideas from other people’s trips; you can even copy and edit an existing trip plan. This one gets a vote from Viator too, check out the Viator trip plans for our favorite destinations.
3. Flickr: In the war of the online photo sharing sites, I think Flickr wins hands down. It has easy to use tools for uploading, tagging and organizing, plus nice slideshows. And, no one has to login or create an account to see your photos if you’ve made them public, so you can send a link to all your friends and all they have to do is click to see what a great time you had. Another Viator vote getter, check out our Viator travel photos on Flickr.

I’m sure you’ve got your favorite travel sites too, and since I am always on the lookout for a new bookmark, leave a comment and share the love.

– Kelly G

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 1st, 2007 at 8:00 am and is filed under Departure Lounge, Travel Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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