Tom, Surprisingly, PTVL is not one of the top 10 best travel websites!!
The ten best travel web
sites
By Charles Dubow
As anyone who has tried to research or book a
trip online knows, there are a dizzying
number of travel-related web sites to choose
from. There are roughly three types of travel
sites: the proprietary site owned by a hotel, tour
group or airline; the travel service that allows you
to book your reservations online; and the travel
guide sites that offer relatively objective
suggestions on where to go. Most of these sites
are serviceable, some are terrible and the rest
somewhere in between. Of the thousands on the
Internet, only a few are real gems.
Of the thousands of travel
sites on the Internet, only a
few are real gems.
What we were looking for was not simply one
more site on which to find the lowest fares to
Cancun or cheap lodging in Belgrade, we wanted
to find sites that conveyed a genuine passion for
travel. The criteria for selecting the best travel
web sites boiled down to these: the web site must
not be shilling for a specific product or place; it
must be easy to navigate; it must be useful; it must
be accurate; and, last, it should contain equal
amounts of wit and understanding. Too tall an
order? Not really. Below are ten web sites, in
alphabetical order, that more than met the exacting
standards of the Digital Cool editorial team.
Epicurious Travel The travel section of Condˆ
Nast's web site, Epicurious. This is essentially
Cond‚ Nast Traveler online and it brings all the
glamour and sophistication of its print cousin to the
Internet. Better still, it has well-written articles and
clever features such as the Deal of the Week. It
also offers extensive archives culled from past
issues of Traveler, weather information and a link
to Microsoft's Expedia web site for booking tickets
and reservations.
Expedia This is the main travel site of the
Microsoft network. Not surprisingly, it is lavishly
produced and offers everything from feature
articles and maps to travel tips and an online travel
agent.
Fielding Travel Although its web site offers fairly
tame stuff, too, such as information about cruises,
etc., what really distinguishes Fielding Travel is its
DangerFinder application. The DangerFinder, as its
name implies, is for hard-core travel nuts who
actively seek out trips to the world's less pleasant
destinations. Want to go to Rwanda and need to
know what to bring? How about Cambodia,
Lebanon or Chechnya? Check out the
DangerFinder. The articles are well written,
insouciant and right on the money.
Infoseek Sure, sure, it's a big browser's site but it's
got it all for when you want to plan a trip. If you
can't find it here, it doesn't exist. Links take you to
information on resorts, hotels, travel warnings, tour
guides as well as to sites that specialize in traveling
with children, budget traveling, business traveling,
you name it. It's also linked to such premium travel
services as American Express, Preview Travel
and Expedia.
Mungo Park Named after the famed Scots
explorer who was the first European to return from
sighting the Niger River in 1796, this Microsoft site
is aimed at the adventurous traveler. (Not quite as
adventurous as the people who read Fielding
Travel--that's more like a death wish.) Again, a
handsome, well-produced site with all kinds of bells
and whistles such as audio logs and links to C&W
singer Lyle Lovett's current motocross tour
through South America. It also offers excellent
travel writing by some of the best in the business.
Oneworld Although this is a heavily
environmentally oriented site, it's also very cool.
Beautifully laid out, Oneworld offers no travel
services, only gorgeous photographs and travel
essays by some of the best classic and
contemporary writers. It may not tell you where to
stay in Paris but if you want to explore the
Kalahari Desert or Antarctica, this is the place to
come.
Rough Guide This is the travel site of Hotwired,
the online version of Wired magazine. As one
might expect, this site is aimed at a younger
audience, people in their twenties who are
exploring the world for the first time on a limited
budget. You can tell that the designers of the site
have big plans for it but it's not there yet. There
are still a lot of gaps but what they do is have is hip
and useful. It also emphasizes the things in which
its likely market will be most interested: cheap beds
and hot night clubs.
Salon/Wanderlust From Salon magazine,
Wanderlust is an elegant site that has some of the
best travel writing on the Internet--and no wonder,
when you see that it has articles by such authors
as Carlos Fuentes, Isabel Allende and Tim Cahill.
This is a web site for grownups who like to travel
and are willing to spend a little bit more on their
trips. Wanderlust also offers a travel agency and a
very amusing regular gourmet column.
Sidewalk Another Microsoft site but one of the
most useful on the web. Sidewalk is aiming to
become the definitive urban Internet guide series
and it is off to a great start. It has more
information about its selected cities than anyone
else and it's all arranged intelligently and usefully.
The only down side is that this kind of work takes
time and even with Microsoft's spending powers it
will take a while before it has created anywhere
close to an internationally comprehensive list. So
far all it has is several major American cities and
Sydney, Australia, of all places. But stick around
because there's going to be more.
Travel@The Speed of Light This is a whimsical
and extremely smart site that offers "on-the-edge,
off-the-wall travel stories, by the (often strange)
people who voyage around the world." This is all
true and it has done a very good job of getting the
right mix of people and stories. Articles range from
an essay on weird food to mingling with the
gunsmiths of the Punjab. There is also a very
amusing feature called "Tips from A Broad,"
offering useful, occasionally tongue-in-cheek travel
advice. |
