Dream Trip To Yukon and Alaska By Road, To Anywhere Else By Any Means At All

My top 10 links for
...planning travel anywhere

Here are my ten favorite websites and shortcuts to squeeze the best out of Google, Yahoo, and their equivalents.

I do not seek or accept advertisements or sponsorships for this website, so be confident that none of these organizations has paid to get on the list.

(If you find that any of these links is no longer functioning, please email me, and I will can make the needed changes. Thanks!)

• Mapquest, www.mapquest.com – for overview driving directions in North America.

• Google Earth, http://earth.google.com/ – to see satellite images of where you’re really going!

• National Park Service Nature and Science Web Site, http://www2.nature.nps.gov/geology/parks/byname.cfm – a real gem – well-designed, handsomely-presented, easy-to-read information on what you’ll see in virtually any US national park or historic landmark. Spend a lot of time here!

• Fodor’s Travel Tips Archive, http://www.fodors.com/wire/archives/cat_travel_tips.cfm – though stocked with ads promoting Fodor’s products and services, scroll down and around, and use the “Search” function liberally, and you’ll usually finds plenty of pearls of wisdom.

• AAA.com (American Automobile Association), www.aaa.com – worth the cost of membership if you’re planning a long road-trip in North America, first because its on-line trip-tik (turn by turn map) services leave all other online mapping services in the dust for planning your itineraries, and second because if you do have a breakdown or flat, they really will show up.

• Altitude Travel’s online inventory, http://www.attitudetravel.com/lowcostairlines/, of Europe’s low-cost airlines and its even larger list of these airlines worldwide. It's not the prettiest website in the world, and it's also chock full of ads and come-ons. But it is the best core data I’ve found so far for finding your way through the maze of no-frills airlines popping up all over the world. Complete with direct links to each airline.

• The Barnes Jewish Hospital “Travel Medicine Page”, http://www.barnesjewish.org/healthinfo/content.asp?PageID=P01442 – Follow the subject links shown on the left side of that page. Each linked article is short, to the point, and chock full of useful, practical information for traveling here and abroad.

• Amazon.com ( www.amazon.com) and Barnes & Noble.com ( www.bn.com), for the best overall collections of travel literature and maps, including Milepost, the indispensable guidebook you’ll need for traveling the roads of Northern British Columbia, the Yukon Territories, and Alaska.

• Official website wherever – Using Google, Yahoo, or another search engine, search this term with or without quotes around the whole phrase. Wherever can be a city, region, or country. Once the results appear, choose (if there is one) the link appearing in the country’s home language. After the website appears, look for and click on the little British or US flag symbol to get the English version. Or, one of the first five search results will indicate, in English, that the referenced site is the official one in English. Go right there for a wealth of unequalled up-to-date information.

• “Embassy of wherever” “Washington DC”. Use Google or an equivalent, type in the phrase at the left, including the two sets of quote marks just as they are shown here, substituting your destination country name for wherever. Go nto the Embassy's web site and follow the links that the embassy presents for travel and tourism, and also for visa and passport requirements.