Here's a ton of links that should give you a hand in the planning stay of your trip and hopefully some general surfing enjoyment. Directly below is what are considered to be the most essential and useful links in a Java script, that may or may not work properly for you. Then below that is a very long, hard to maintain list of hundreds of other links that maybe helpful to you. The link of the minute is
Do us a favour and e-mail (address at bottom of this page) notice of broken links or if you think I should link up with your site (click here, fill out the form) plus any new links you know of. Please note commercial sites cannot be listed unless truly worthy, this is a page of links to sites like this one: by travellers for travellers.
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Second half listed in this order, jump to:
Highlighted & Recommended Links
General / world-wide
Please note excellent highlighted links contained within the script above.
Travellerspoint Travel Community: www.travellerspoint.com
Packing Lite - reviews and inspiration on practical items and keeping weight down: www.packinglite.co
One Bag (the name say it all, good packing advice/lists): www.onebag.com
Ubertramp, travel blog, advice & articles: www.ubertramp.com
Nomads Nation, travel blog, advice & recommendation of the best of the rest: http://nomadsnation.com/best-travel-blogs/
World Nomads, free MP3 language guide downloads: journals.worldnomads.com/language-guides
Budget your trip, a great way to get a handle on what your daily costs might be: www.budgetyourtrip.com
Backpacking tips and starter information, similar to this site - wwww.startbackpacking.com
Learning about the world through photography: www.trekearth.com
Travelholic (Europe, Oz/NZ): www.travoholic.com
World Climate - gives you the average temperature and rainfall for any time of the year just about anywhere in the world: www.worldclimate.com
Nice looking resource for all the popular destinations: www.backpacker-planet.com & www.worldbackpackers.net
Virtual Tourist (great info & forum): www.virtualtourist.com
Travel resource for independent travellers: www.the-backpacking-site.com
Which plug in which country?: http://users.pandora.be/worldstandards/electricity.htm
Great interactive world weather map: http://www.worldreviewer.com/world-weather/
Accommodation:
We all know Booking.com, Hostel world, etc... so won't plug them or similar 3rd party booking sites further.
Great directories for specific regions/countries:
Southern Africa travel bible (hostels): www.coastingafrica.com
Latin America info/hostel guide: www.hosteltrail.com
in USA Canada: www.hostelhandbook.com
The best directory of hostels in NZ: www.backpack.co.nz
Allowing strangers to connect and stay for free (mixed success):
www.couchsurfing.com and
www.hospitalityclub.org or Global Freeloaders -
same principle but new members must host someone within the first six months.
Similar, but you pay consumer to consumer with the site taking a cut:
Air BnB or Home Away - better for longer stays or appartments/home rentals.
On-line Magazines
Ron Gluckman, many excellent articles: www.gluckman.com
Boots N All (very popular): www.bootsnall.com
Plenty of information: www.gonomad.com/
Large directory of useful travel links: http://travelresourcelist.com
The Long Trip Home: www.thelongtriphome.com
Polo's Bastards Extreme Adventure (odd and sometimes dangerous places): www.polosbastards.com
Excellent: www.travellerspoint.com
inTravel, experiences and ideas: www.intravelmag.com
For SEA it is hard to beat: www.travelfish.org
Just For Fun
The
Fabulous Adventures of Mister Wombat:
www.wombattravel.com
Atlas of the real world: www.telegraph.co.uk/.../The-Atlas-of-the-Real-World.html
Lies to tell tourists: http://www.economist.com/tourist-advice
Test your Geography Knowledge: www.lizardpoint.com/fun/geoquiz/ and www.jetpunk.com
Historical Country Names: www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/hist_country_names.htm
Golden Plungers, the world's best public toilets and where to find them: www.thebathroomdiaries.com
Spud Travel's: www.spudstravels.com
Guide to sleeping in airports: www.sleepinginairports.net
How far is it? www.indo.com/distance/
The Big Mac index: www.oanda.com/products/bigmac/bigmac.shtml
Which side of the road do they drive on?: www.brianlucas.ca/roadside
Let your books travel and catch up later, great idea: www.bookcrossing.com
Where is Matt? (quirky video of Matt's dancing on his travels): www.wherethehellismatt.com
Five Steps for Doing Laundry While Backpacking: www.theworldisnotflat.com/laundry
Money
ATM Cards and Foreign Exchange (American Focus): http://flyertalk.com/wiki/
MasterCard/Cirrus ATMs worldwide: www.mastercard.com/cardholderservices/atm/
VISA/Plus ATM's worldwide: http://www.visa.com/atmlocator/
American Express ATM's worldwide: http://amex.via.infonow.net/locator/cash/
Exchange rates (quick): http://finance.yahoo.com/m3?u or Universal Currency Converter (better) above or Currency printable cheat sheet: www.oanda.com/convert/cheatsheet
Health
Travel health advice: www.travelturtle.co.uk or www.travelhealth.co.uk
World Heath Organisation: www.who.int/ith/
Travel Medicine (information and products to buy): www.travmed.com
Medical Advisory Service for Travellers Abroad: www.masta-travel-health.com
Centre for Disease Control and Protection: www.cdc.gov/travel/
Travel
advisories: see top list
Travelogues and blogs - General (ones we liked):
Indietraveller http://www.indietraveller.co
Globetrotter extraordinaire: http://berclo.net/inden.html
Heinz Stcke - cycle around the world, not once, but ten times: www.bikechina.com/heinzstucke1z.html
Alby's Travels - nice format great photos: www.albytravel.com
The Savage Files: Gunther, Christine and Otto - the ultimate road trip
Stories, advice and photos (S. America, M. East and Asia): www.gorustic.com
Blurry Travel. Nice personal travelogue with detailed tip filled diaries (SEA focus): www.blurrytravel.com
Wired to the world (travelogue and practical tips): www.wired2theworld.com
Day-by-day travel diary through Asia, Oz & N.America: www.yearinthelife.org
On-line guidebooks and travel books
World Stompers on-line: www.stompers.com
Peter Moore: www.noshit.com.au
Fodors Travel (useful user comments about individual hotels): www.fodors.com
See guidebook write up in
on the road section for
all guidebook links see there or Lonely Planet link at the top of
this page.
Transport
Who flies where: The air DB
Airports and air travel guide: www.airwise.com/airports/
The Subway Guide (great for first arrivals): www.reed.edu/~reyn/transport.html
Travel Safety
British Foreign Office Advice: www.fco.gov.uk
Australian Travel Advisory: www.dfat.gov.au/travel
Canadian Consular Affairs: www.voyage.gc.ca
In site advice: Backpackers travel insurance
Budget Airlines
This is tough to keep updated with new up-starts and close-downs happening all the time. Please feel free to help, in fact please help!:
European Budget Airlines
Ryan Air - Everywhere from everywhere
Easy Jet - Almost everywhere to a lot of places
Fly
Be - UK-wide to Europe
Vueling and
Clickair-
Spain-wide to Europe
Jet2
- Leeds & Bradford to Europe
BlueAir,
Brussels Airlines,
Pegasus,
German Wings and
Condor
Transavia - Stansted to Amsterdam & Holland Europe-wide
Iceland Express - Stansted to Iceland
Volare - Stansted to Italy
Aer Arann - England & Scotland to Ireland
Norwegian Air Shuttle Stansted to Oslo & Bergen
FlyGlobespan.com Edinburgh & Glasgow to EU
TUI Fly Mainly UK and Germany with package holiday resorts globally.
Wizz Air - UK/Ireland to Eastern Europe
flightconnections.com - is by far the best overview.
Australia & New Zealand
Virgin Australia - Australian staple
Skywest - Western (inc. Darwin & Bali) Australia
Regional Express - South East local Australian routes
Jetstar - Across Australia and to New Zealand
Middle East & Africa
Africa:
Fly540 - Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Tanzania
Precision Air - Tanzania domestic
FastJet - Tanzania, but plans to expand
Middle East:
Air Arabia - UAE based, wide network & Jazeera Airways
Other Resources
SkyScanner - the easy way to search the above or
or
Air Ninja
For international flights try:
A recommendation: Kayak, GoEuro or Skyscanner. They search various airlines and agents like orbitz in the US, ebookers & Opodo in UK and expedia. It then allows you to sort the results according to a sliding bar for price.
See full advice
and more links for international flights
here.
Asian Budget Airlines
South East Asia (SEA)
Air Asia - great & cheap flight network based in SEA
Nok
Air - Thai based, predominately domestic
Orient Thai Airlines - Now integrated with One-Two-Go the domestic
low-cost carrier
Jet Star Asia - Again excellent.
Singapore based; Indian, SEA and NEA capital connects
Vietnam Airlines - Local and international connections (mainly
from HCMC) inc. Oz
Lion Air - Indonesian based,
domestic and connects with SEA capitals
Laos Airlines - domestic, Cambodia and Vietnam. Not the most
efficient
South Asian
Sri Lankan Airlines - cheap flights to India, Thailand, Malaysia
and beyond.
Jet Airways - India based, predominately domestic, not the cheapest
Air India - National carrier, now merged with India Airlines
the state owned domestic airline. Again not the best value
Jetlite - (formally Air Sahara, now part of Jet Airways)
IndiGo - Go network, inc. Delhi to Goa
For Indian domestic flights schedules and which airline flies which route the following link is recommended: www.mapsofindia.com/flight-schedule/
Budget Airlines in the Americas
Focus around USA, Mexico and Brazil. South America lacks behind in terms of budget airlines.
USA (internal):
South Western and
Jet Blue,
Frontier Airlines or
Ted,
AirTran Airways
Mexican/Central America (internal):
Vivaerobus - Mexico internal and to/from USA
Brazilian (internal):
TAM,
Gol,
BRA,
Ocean Air, Web Jet
Pantanal Linhas Airline
(Pantanal only)
Please note,
there are many more not mentioned here with smaller networks, for more
information please see
getting around by
air in the on
the road section.
Working Abroad
Find Volunteer work that doesn't have you paying for the privilege: www.truetravellers.org
South American free and low-cost volunteer work: www.volunteersouthamerica.net - (see comments)
Work for accommodation exchange: www.workaway.info
Volunteer International work camps: www.vfp.org
More volunteers work: www.workingabroad.com
Teaching English: www.tefl.com or www.onlinetefl.com or
Studying abroad: www.studyabroad.com
Volunteer Latin America: www.volunteerlatinamerica.com
Travel Photography
Ultimate Guide and good directory: www.tripbuzz.com/travel-photography-guide/
Longish essay on the backpacking for photographers: www.photo-mark.com/articles/backpacking/
Travel photography hints: www.fodors.com/focus/
Digital cameras: www.digitalcamera-hq.com
Great photography and electronic FAQ page. Good discussion about SLR Vs compacts: http://adrianwarren.com/faq/
How to Fix Memory Card Errors: http://www.softwarehow.com/sd-memory-card-error-fix/
Here is the second part of this links page. They get a little more
disorganised from here on - please e-mail us (address at the bottom of this
page) notice of broken links or if you think this site should link up with any
other site (click here, fill out the form). These
links are mainly travelogues, homepages and tourism ministry sites, but can
be helpful and most have at least some interest.
Latin America
Excellent Colombia and Latin America info/hostel guide: www.hosteltrail.com
Argentina Cafe - independent travel guide to Argentina: http://www.argentinacafe.com
Amazing mountain biking ride from La Paz: www.gravitybolivia.com
Peru, more photos and general information: http://perutraveller.cjb.net
Peru's conservation travel organization: http://inkanatura.com
Chichen Itza: www.chichenitzafacts.com
Australia, New Zealand & the Pacific
Ticket to the World, dedicated to backpacker's to Australia:
www.tickettotheworld.co.uk
The best directory of hostels in NZ: www.backpack.co.nz
Travelling NZ: www.backpackerboard.co.nz
Settling in and visiting Oz: www.immi.gov.au
Uluru information: www.crystalinks.com/ayersrock.html
Finding work in Australia: www.jobaroo.com
Backpack New Zealand: Backpacking & Hiking in NZ: www.backpack-newzealand.com
Kakadu national park: www.ea.gov.au/parks/kakadu/
Independent travel resource about Vanuatu: www.positiveearth.org/bungalows also see: www.positiveearth.org
USA and Canada:
Hostels in USA, Canada: www.hostelhandbook.com
SouthWest USA: www.canyontocanyon.com
Budget Internal Airlines: www.southwest.com & www.jetblue.com
Accommodation swapping: www.swapnow.com & www.stay4free.com
Europe
General travellers information:
Free guides for Eastern European cities: www.inyourpocket.com
For the Balkans: www.balkanology.com
Train times all over Europe: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en?ld=107&newrequest=yes&
Air travel: www.europebyair.com
Trains travel: www.raileurope.com
Free to do: www.freetodo.net
Great opinionated guide to sleeping cheap: www.eurocheapo.com
Moldavia Info: www.marisha.net
Africa
Southern Africa travel bible (hostels): www.coastingafrica.com
Africa general and country guides:
Swaziland: www.biggame.org
Asia
Due to the sheer number of listable links for this continent, it has
meant I have shied away from the task a little. Will come soon, but for
now, most information, can be found listed in the essential links at the
top of this page - most sites listed have very good
links pages themselves.
Asiaphoto: www.asiaphoto.de
Central Asia: wwww.caravanistan.com
Japan on the Cheap: www.japan-cheap-travel.com
SEA Travel FAQ, basic easy to follow - good info: www.chaskemp.googlepages.com/asia_travel
The trans-Siberian - start to finish (google maps and video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmc2STzMOT4
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Thailand
Tourism Authority of Thailand - information on festivals, destinations, activities: www.tourismthailand.org
Guide to Thailand by Thai students, great site! (over 5000 pages): www.thaistudents.com
Keng's Thailand travel experiences - stories, photos, links, "Ask Keng", etc: www.keng.com
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India
An independent and very polished site about travel to and within India: www.indiamike.com
Good maps and information on planes, trains and automobiles: www.india.mapsofindia.com/
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Other South East Asia
Excellent Thailand, Laos and Cambodia info: www.travelfish.org
Travel homepage SE Asia resource with pretty detailed info for the region:
Malaysia Travel Guide: www.travelmalaysiaguide.com
Myanmar Travel Guide: www.myanmar-travelnet.com
Tourism Philippines: www.Tourism-Philippines.com
Please report any broken links or redirecting URLs.
"Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience"