LIST OF ONLINE UNIVERSAL TRAVEL GUIDES FOR TRAVEL ENTHUSIASTS
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Fodor’s Travel Guides - Fodor’s is a user-friendly guide that is packed with traveling tips and information about destinations world-wide. Guides to hotels, restaurants and cruises cater for those who are looking for top quality through to those who are travelling on a budget.
Lonely Planet - Perhaps one of the best-known series of traveler’s guides, Lonely Planet’s website is equally impressive. The site features visitor’s guides and articles about most countries, along with online booking facilities.
Rough Guides - The Rough Guides website features informative content that is mainly taken straight from their series of traveller’s guides. Ample information is included for most countries on where to go, when to go and attractions that are not to be missed.
World Travel Guide - This website features not only guides to cities and countries but guides to beaches, skiing, events, attractions, tours and cruises. Features that change monthly include a “˜destination of the month’, top events for that month and feature articles on particular aspects of travel.
TravelNotes - More than just a directory, TravelNotes is an online guide to travel. Detailed country backgrounds, articles, tips and warnings are included, and the site welcomes contributions from visitors.
Travel Guides Online - Find travel guides and travel information from the official travel and tourism offices of over 1,200 travel destinations worldwide. Information on events, attractions, dining, shopping, tours and more is included, as well as an online hotel booking service.
Footprint Travel Guides - This site features quirky and humorous travel guides to 24 destinations that span the globe, from Reykjavik to Sydney. Standard details of how to get there, where to stay and what to see are included; also of interest is ample information about entertainment, eating, drinking and shopping.
WiZZ.to Travel Guide - WiZZ.to features local tourism and travel information for the whole world. The map interface on the website is particularly useful for prospective tourists to see where destinations lie in relation to each other.
Totaltravel.com - This site features comprehensive travel guides for Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. Feature articles and reviews of exhibits and accommodation are included, and tourists can access cheap flights and accommodation.
Road Junky - Road Junky is unlike almost other any other travel guide you’ll find online. Instead of reading about the best hotels and attractions, you’ll get a tongue-in-cheek taste of how to understand the culture of other countries, how to make money on the road and the real low-down on each destination.
TravelDir - TravelDir offers a wealth of information on accommodation, car rentals, restaurants and other fundamentals for most countries. Where possible, links to the appropriate websites are provided for ease of navigation.
Bugbitten.com - Bugbitten is devoted to adventure travel, with details of over 1000 tours available on their website. Traveller’s can join the Travel Club and get their own personal travel website, access to traveller’s recommendations and a saving of up to 10% off tours.
Destinetion - Destinetion features a wide range of destinations sorted by country, region and city. The website also includes online booking facilities for airlines, car rental and accommodation.
Lanier Travel Guides - This website is a traveller’s guide for smaller-scale, family-oriented accommodation. Bed & breakfasts, inns, boutique hotels, guesthouses, small resorts, cabins, farm-stays and other facilities in destinations worldwide are featured.
Let’s Go Travel Guides - This site is aimed at young, budget-conscious travellers. Worldwide destinations, articles and tips are included, with adventure guides for New Zealand, Alaska and the US being featured.
BootsnAll Travel - BootsnAll has travel guides, stories, book reviews and insiders from every continent. The site also features booking facilities for adventure travel and cheap accommodation and air tickets.
So Much World - So Much World features destination guides on easy-to-negotiate maps, and highlights the most popular destinations in each region. Reviews and articles are also included, as well as an online booking service.
Gayot.com - Pronounced guy-OH, the Gayot.com website is an honest and professional resource on dining and travel for an international readership who appreciates quality.
TouristClick.com - TouristClick is an informative online travel guide for all the major continents and regions of the world. The links to a wide variety of websites covering many aspects of travel are particularly helpful.
PlanetWare - PlanetWare is your unlimited travel guide to the world. It features 97 countries in-depth, 80,000 tourist attractions, 15,900 towns and cities, 22,000 photos and 13,600 interactive maps.
World66 - Featuring information on over 20,000 destinations, World66 is a travel guide made by travellers, for travellers. With website visitors having the option of adding their own content, it proves that the best sources of travel information are people who have been there and done it all before.
STA Travel - STA is a travel guide and online booking service for students who are travelling on a budget. Information on deals and discounts, tours, packages and accommodation is available, as well as facilities to plan your trip.
Travelocity - Travelocity features travel guides sorted by destinations as well as interests (such as gay and lesbian, romance or mountain travel). The site also contains hotel reviews, travel advice and vacation packages.
TripAdvisor - At TripAdvisor you can get advice from real travellers, as well as planning and comparing things like cheap flights and accommodation.
TravelLibrary - TravelLibrary offers destination guides for holidays and short breaks, as well as direct contact details for hotels and vacation rentals.
Info Hub - Info Hub is a specialty travel guide highlighting attractions, pursuits and pastimes mostly neglected by other sites. These include spiritual vacations, farm-stays, mountain-climbing, naturist vacations, bicycle tours and wildlife viewing.
Concierge.com - With lists of destinations and travel ideas, Concierge.com is where inspired travel starts. The most popular destinations are highlighted, and a range of tools including maps, a photo finder and a currency converter are available.
Kasbah - Kasbah features the world’s largest collection of online travel guides. Insights are offered into nearly every country, city, island and all the best destinations in-between. A prominent feature is the “˜top 10 country guide’, which is updated periodically.
iExplore.com - This site has a wide variety of travel guides, as well as articles highlighting various destinations and tours. Prospective travellers can find trips to suit their needs sorted by region, country, activities, length and price. An interesting feature not found on many other sites was the list of the top 10 best-selling tours.
MYTravelGuide - MYTravelGuide is your guide to trip planning. It has destination guides for most major regions of the world including hotels, attractions, restaurants and online booking facilities.
ÂTime Out - Time out has 40 years’ experience in providing up-to-date, insider information about the world’s most exciting cities. What started as a single sheet of listings for London has evolved into a highly respected international publisher of magazines, websites and city guide books.
SearchTourist - SearchTourist offers a wide range of information for travellers covering such aspects as destinations, accommodation, transport and tour operators. Many links to external travel-related sites are also on the site.
Hostelworld - If you’re a backpacker travelling on a shoestring budget, Hostelworld is the travel guide for you. Along with a worldwide directory of hostels, the site includes travel and activity guides for most countries.
Nozio - Nozio offers destination and event guides that are divided according to categories such as “˜beaches and islands’, “˜mountains’, “˜wine’ and “˜small historic towns’. A feature of this site is the ability to make direct hotel bookings straight from official websites.
TravelNow - This is a one-stop online shop for destination guides, flights, accommodation, hire cars and all the rest. Most countries of the world have their own destination guide, with extensive information on the history, facilities and attractions of each city and town being included.
Virtual Tourist - Virtual Tourist, with its’ user-friendly map interface, details the best places to stay and what to see and do in all parts of the world. Special interest guides covering things like adventure holidays, backpacking and travelling with children or pets are also useful.
AOL Travel - AOL Travel has a range of excellent travel guides for all areas of the world, which include photos and a wealth of information. In addition, the site boasts information on 21,000 destinations, 103,000 hotels and 35,000 restaurants.
USA Today - Travel - This website features comprehensive city and country travel guides, as well as a quirky collection of “˜Top 10′ lists. These include ‘10 great places to get spooked by your surroundings’, ‘10 great places to be awed by a rainforest’ and ‘10 great places to slumber under the stars’.
WCities - As the name suggests, emphasis is placed on city guides on this website. Most major cities of the world are covered, with details of history, interesting facts, districts, entertainment, transport and accommodation being included.
WorldWeb - WorldWeb includes information about a wide range of vacation types (from Polar Bear watching to guided walking tours) and accommodation options (from campgrounds to chalets) to suit all tastes. These span the world, and website visitors have the option of constructing their itinerary online.
Frommer’s - Frommer’s have been travel experts for 50 years. Their website features destination guides for most countries of the world, plus their top picks for holiday spots and cruise ships in 2008.
Wikitravel - Wikitravel aims to be a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable worldwide travel guide. So far it features 17, 424 destination guides and articles, as well as interesting factoids and “˜off the beaten path’ attractions. Travellers are encouraged to add their own content to the site.
TripSpot - TripSpot features a variety of guides to suit most travellers’ needs - those sorted by destination, city, state and country as well as business and specialty travel. A huge variety of information is provided, from the world’s best roller-coasters to things forbidden on planes.
National Geographic Travel - The travel guides on this site are made even more impressive by the maps, photo galleries, videos and “˜ask an expert’ feature. Links to online booking facilities and other informative sites are also available.
Travellerspoint - Whether planning a trip, on the road or sharing travelling experiences, TravellersPoint is where the journey begins. Information about language, money, work, accommodation and other essentials is provided for most countries, with travellers welcome to make their own contributions.
Word Travels - This guide features a fairly comprehensive worldwide list of countries, cities and states with information and traveller’s reviews available. Also of interest are the guides to ski and beach resorts around the world, and the list of upcoming events around the world.
The PlanetRider Travel Directory - The PlanetRider is as much a portal to other useful travel sites as a worldwide destination guide. A stand-out feature is the ‘10 Min. Vacations’ section, which provides a quick virtual sample tour of the best travel sites for almost any country in the world.
Travelxl.com - Travelxl certainly lives up to its’ name. Comprehensive, in-depth information about most aspects of travel for most countries around the world is provided in an easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate format.
JohnnyJet.com - This well-written, interesting and humorous travel guide is written from the first-person perspective of other travellers. Each entry has hyperlinks to photographs as well as other online resources, which are also listed at the bottom of each page.
Pongu’s Travel Guides - In terms of destinations, this isn’t the most comprehensive guide on the net. The destinations that are included, however, are covered thoroughly via a mix of delightful photos, articles and information.
Attitude Travel - Attitude travel provides travellers with information on how to minimise their travel costs, while still enjoying their vacation. It’s guides like this that prove that you can still have fun on a budget.
TravelPage.com - TravelPage has information on destinations, hotels, cruises and air travel in most parts of the world. Photo galleries, reviews, international news/weather and an online fare search are also prominently featured.
GLOBOsapiens - GLOBOsapiens is an online community, with travel guides written by its’ members who are all seasoned travellers themselves. Information and photographs of most countries are provided, along with links to other helpful resources.
Travelago - Along with perusing a wide range of destination guides, at Travelago you can plan and book accommodation, activities, flights, cars, tours and other aspects of your holiday all in the one place. This makes organising your trip much easier, particularly if you aren’t a seasoned traveller.
Travel.org - As its name suggests, Travel.org features loads of information about most of the world’s destinations. Seasoned travellers who already know where they’re going and what they’re doing can also submit their travel information to get comparisons from major travel sites, which can save a lot of time and shopping around.
Guidez.net - Guidez.net is a self-proclaimed travel destination guide to everywhere and everything. Pictures, travelogues, attraction guides and monthly feature articles make this a good starting point for what to do on your vacation.
World Rover - World Rover features individual country and travel guides. These include information on history, embassies, stats, maps, flags, culture, government, geography and more.
Travel-Quest - Travel-Quest has loads of information on specialist vacations. Ideas for more adventurous travellers include extreme sports, caving, hiking and mountaineering. Other options include cruises, wildlife holidays and relaxation getaways.
Leisure Time Places - This site offers a wealth of vacation ideas, including information on national parks and eco tourism a lot of other sites don’t have.
World Travel Net - Travellers can find most of the common-sense information they need on World Travel Net, thanks to information on currency, time zones, climate, travel tips and a range of other tools.
Travelthinks - The information on TravelThinks is organised by regions and key topics. Visitors are encouraged to submit articles to the site.
Travel Professor - Travel Professor is a source for one-stop world travel information. It is one of the largest and most impressive travel guides for accommodation, tours, resorts, golf courses, cruises, travel agents, airlines, car rentals, attractions”¦and a lot more.
Experience Destinations - Experience Destinations is the definitive guide to the world’s best vacation destinations. Additional information on topics such as the best secluded beaches, the best locations to elope.
Where Will We Go? - This website well and truly lives up to its’ name. You can find travel guides and vacation ideas sorted by country, activity or theme as well as photos, travel reviews and trip suggestions.
Travelingo World Travel Guide - Along with world-wide destination guides, this site features user-submitted tips for individual countries. Users can also search for places, hotels and flights as well as peruse photos and add their own snaps.
Stayfinder - Travellers can find information about destinations, accommodation, tours and cruises in a format that’s well laid out and easy to navigate.
Destination Planner - Destination Planner is an efficient, online “˜destination-selector’ for users from anywhere in the world searching for exciting holiday destinations. It aims to connect travellers with reputable and well-priced travel companies.
Travelguides4u - Travelguides4u features information on 182 countries, as well as links to
EatandStay.com - Looking for the best places to eat and stay during your vacation? Look no further than this user-friendly guide.
Distinctive Travels - This site is designed to bring the discerning traveller a comprehensive overview of premier resorts and vacation spots throughout the world. Ample written information and photographs give travellers an insight into each country, along with practical aspects of travel.
Travelleronline - Travelleronline has it all”¦a traveller’s handbook, internet guide, online bookings and more.
Travel-world-tips - At travel-world-tips you can find information about every country in the world, maps and flags, travel articles and helpful tips for your next vacation. Read about Asia, Africa, Europe, America, the Caribbean, Oceania and many more.
Priory Travel Guides - This site is an independent guide to some of the world’s finest wildlife and nature destinations.
Independent Traveler - Independent Traveler has destination guides, resources, news and feature articles. The tips on things like packing, safety and travelling with families are very useful.
Gridskipper - Gridskipper is described as “˜The Urban Travel Guide’. It has information on such destinations as Berlin, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris and Sydney.
IgoUgo - This site has destination guides, vacation and accommodation reviews and travel photos. Travellers can submit their own content to the site to earn rewards like frequent flyer miles and online gift certificates.
Geographia - For travellers looking for fascinating background information, Geographia is the site to go. It features destinations in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America and Europe.
RealAdventures - RealAdventures is for travellers who are looking for exactly that. Information about active vacations and sight-seeing tours worldwide is available.
Bugbog - The many features on the Bugbog site allow you to plan great holidays with a minimum of fuss. These include guides to English-speaking destinations, exotic destinations, beaches, world wonders and more.
VacationIdea - VacationIdea doesn’t include as many destinations as other sites (only Australia, Canada, the US, the Caribbean and Italy), but the travel guides they do have are excellent. These include ideas for honeymoons, romantic getaways, family vacations and island trips.
GoNOMAD - GoNOMAD has inspiration and links to plan your trip. Most destinations - ranging from the standard to the unusual - are featured, along with dozens of categories to help you search for the perfect vacation.
Captain Tony’s Adventure Guide - Captain Tony’s Adventure Guide is the outdoor adventure travel guide. From whale-watching to bungee-jumping and everything in-between, this worldwide guide is one of the better ones around.
Around the Worlds - The team at Around the Worlds use their travel experiences to inform and inspire prospective travellers embarking on their own adventures. The range of online travel tips and tools is impressive, as are the photo albums.
Off-Beat Travel - If you enjoy vacations that are slightly left-of-centre, this is the place to look. It details unusual destinations and off-beat attractions, as well as putting a unique spin on old favorites.
ItchyFeet - ItchyFeet features destination guides, photos and a range of feature articles. Since 1999 they’ve encouraged visitors to share their travel adventures and read about the experiences of others.
History Channel Traveler - Being affiliated with the History Channel means that this website is packed with interesting background information on destinations worldwide.
Travel to Where - Whether you’re looking for a pristine beach, ice-capped mountains or cultural attractions, Travel to Where features them all and everything in between. You can also construct a personal travel profile which features your favourite travel destinations.
RealTravel - RealTravel is a travel guide and trip planner powered by advice from real travellers. It’s been voted one of “˜twelve essential travel sites’ by Forbes, and “˜Best of web for trip planning’ by BusinessWeek.
Schmap - Exploring a Schmap Guide is a uniquely interactive experience: maps and guide content are dynamically integrated, allowing intuitive, real-time access to reviews and photo slideshows for places of interest.
International Circuit - International Circuit has unbiased travel reviews for top vacation destinations. Top spots for family vacations are listed separately, making planning your brood’s next trip a breeze.
Exploitz - Visitors are encouraged to become members and share their exploitz on this vibrant, informative online guide. As a result, it features one of the more impressive collections of travel photos to be found online.
Gusto Travel Guide - Travel with Gusto! Organize your family vacation, simplify your travel research and create your dream vacation with a click of a mouse - and all for free.
ThereArePlaces - ThereArePlaces highlights all the best places in the world to visit. Getting the fundamentals right is also a breeze with their range of travel planning guides.
Indigo Guide - Indigo Guide offers guides for a variety of locations in the Mediterranean and across the world. You can find information on all aspects of travel - attractions, accommodation, transport, shopping, tours, maps and more.
WorldWorx - WorldWorx has plenty of common-sense, practical advice on travel issues such as vaccination, currency and translation along with the usual destination guides.
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