Arthur Frommers Encyclopedia Of Travel - http://www.frommers.com Info on top 200 tourist sites + daily news updates.

Cheap Tickets http://www.cheaptickets.com Highly publicized, well-known discount travel booking site.

ExciteTravel - http://travel.excite.com/- Guide to communities around the world including travel, entertainment, local business and government information.

Fodor's Travel Service - http://www.fodors.com/ -Tools to plan plus travel tips.

Hotwire.com - http:www.hotwire.com - Hotwire is similar in concept to its main competitor, Priceline.com, in that it asks you to fill in your requirements for airline tickets, hotel reservations or car rentals, and then to wait for a listing of the lowest priced offers. You will not know the name of the airline, hotel or car rental agency or the exact times of your flight until you accept and pay for the reservation. Hotwire, unlike Priceline, does not ask for your credit card number upfront, nor are you required to accept their best offer.

Lonely Planet Online - http://www.lonelyplanet.com
"This Australian publisher of travel guides aimed at adventuresome travelers provides on its user-friendly site miniversions of the print guides, complete with interactive maps. For each destination, you are told when to go, what to see, and how to get there and back. It even suggests what else to read on each place."

Microsoft Expedia - http://expedia.msn.com/ -Free registration to use planning and reservation system, but lots to see without it too.

National Geographic Travel http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel Guides to destinations around the world with an emphasis on adventure.

Priceline - http:www.priceline.com - Original player in the online auction process includes all sorts of travel services. Hot deals abound, but beware the small print. By typing in your credit card number and personal specifications, you are signing a contract to buy the best deal offered. See Hotwire above.

Travelocity - http://www.travelocity.com/-Soup-to-nuts resource.

Virtual Tourist - http://www.vtourist.com - "Interactive site aimed at sharing travel knowledge. Includes chat, forums, travelogues, photos, and maps.

AirFareWatchDog- airfarewatchdog.com- The airlines lower airfares every day without advertising them. This  team of fare experts tells you about these "hidden" fare reductions and alert you to $0 "blooper" fares and other air fare bargains that you might otherwise miss. They claim to  provide straight talk about finding low air fares on the Web.

Albany Gas Prices - http://www.albanygasprices.com - Find the lowest price of gas in your neighborhood.

Amtrak - http://www.amtrak.com/- Plan and book your U.S. train travel here.

CapitalMoves - http://capitalmoves.org/capital-region-travel -  Resource for discovering travel options to and within the Capital Region including car pool information, bus routes and schedules, best biking and walking trails, car share programs, train stations and a transportation news blog.

Eurail - http://www.eurail.com/ -Travel Europe by rail by ordering your pass here.

FareCompare - http://www.farecompare.com - FareCompare.com is an airline ticket comparison shopping website.

FlightArrivals.com - http://www.flightarrivals.com -A free service that offers comprehensive real time arrival/departure/delay information for commercial airline flights operating to/from/within the United States. A variety of search options allows you to find flight info even without knowing the flight number.

Gas Price Watch - http://www.gaspricewatch.com -Search for the latest gas prices in all 50 states and other territories.

Google Maps - http://maps.google.com - Still in the experimental stage, this site offers maps, driving directions, and a search feature for local businesses and service. Check out the new satellite image lookup.

Greyhound's Internet Station - http://www.greyhound.com/ -Look up fares, schedules, and special promotions.

Internet Travel Airlines Of The Web - http://flyaow.com -Information on all types of airline flights from medical transports to cargo airlines.

Kayak - www.kayak.com - Best site for booking airline tickets per Conde Nast Traveler.

Mapquest - http://www.mapquest.com- Provides maps from around the world, and driving directions within the United States. This is one of three mapping and driving routes web sites listed on this page. Try them all and find your personal favorite.

Multimap.com - http://www.multimap.com/- "is Europe's most popular mapping web site, offering a range of free, useful services to assist with everyday life. Key features include street-level maps of the United Kingdom, Europe, and the US; road maps of the world; door-to-door travel directions; aerial photographs; and local information. Multimap also provides a range of complementary services through its partners. These include entertainment, hotel, holiday-cottage, restaurant and train-ticket booking services, SMS weather alerts and the ability to buy both historic and aerial photograph prints."

Orbitz - http://www.orbitz.com - Several major airlines own and operate this site, which professes to offer the "most low airfares on the Internet." While this site may have the longest list of low-end fares, it does not promise the lowest fares. Also offers hotel and car rental deals.

Seat Guru - http://www.seatguru.com - the "ultimate source for airplane seating, in-flight amenities, and airline information." Includes detailed seat map graphics, seat specific comments, and locations of galleys, lavatories, Exit Rows, and closets.

TravelZoo - http://www.travelzoo.com -  is an online resource providing  deals available directly from companies across all travel and entertainment categories and locations.  The Travelzoo Top 20® is the list of the week’s best travel, entertainment and local deals,  which subscribers may sign up to receive free via email. 

Bed And Breakfast Inns Online - http://www.bbonline.com/ -1200 inns described.

Discount Hotels – http://www.discounthotels.co.uk A British-based site offering help in finding cheap hotels around the world. Make sure you change the currency display to U.S. dollars when you enter your search paramenters. Recommended by a library patron.

Internet Guide To Hostelling - http://www.hostels.com/ -Worldwide hostel guide.

Quikbook - http://www.quikbook.com - Highly-rated discount site offers deals at "quality" hotels in 34 American cities. Lets you search for rooms by city and price range.

Epicurious Food - http://food.epicurious.com/ -Click here for everything related to fine food including restaurant reviews.

Fodor's Restaurant Index -http://fodors.com/reviews/drevselect.cfm?lid=Restaurants&lpos=top_nav -Expert reviews of restaurants in more than 70 cities worldwide. Search by name or other criteria.

511NY –www.511ny.org  - New York State's official traffic and travel info source. Whether you drive or take public transit, refer to this web page or simply dial 511 on your phone.   It offers real-time traffic  and transit conditions and emergency alerts as well as work zones and construction reports, border-crossing conditions, weather conditions and forecasts , transit trip-planning (door to door) , intercity bus and rail services, carpools and vanpools, park-and-ride lot locations, airports and airport access services, ferries, tunnels and bridges, commercial vehicle information,  bicycling and toll information.

City of Boston - http://www.cityofboston.gov/visitors A useful site for visitors.

Canada's Tourism Information Center - http://www.travelcanada.ca
-Official site for Canada's Tourism Commission.

I Love New York - www.iloveny.com- Official state tourism promotion site.

JIMAPCO Map Room - www.jimapco.com/maproom - A repository for  online Capital Region maps including real estate, educational, demographic, health and medical maps. 

New York Convention and Visitor's Bureau - http://www.nycvisit.com/ -Start your trip to New York City here.

Internet web sites devoted to specialized travel needs abound. Here are a few that seem to fulfill their promise:

Cruise2 - http://www.cruise2.com - "the largest and most comprehensive online cruise information source

Elderhostel - http://www.elderhostel.org/ -Worldwide educational experiences for seniors.

Great Outdoor Recreation Pages - http://www.gorp.com "One of the best sites for everything outdoors.."

History Traveler - http://www.historytraveler.com. Plan vacations around historic spots. Type in a location and retrieve historic info and nearby lodging, sometimes including historic hotels in which you can spend the night.

Universal Currency Converter - http://www.xe.net/currency -Automatic, up-to-date foreign money exchange rate conversion.

Weather - http://www.weather.com/ Local, national, and international weather forecasts.

Contact Zina Shevchik, Travel Librarian

To make suggestions about this site, to report dead links, or for information related to travel resources you may contact Ms. Shevchik at:

William K. Sanford Town Library
629 Albany Shaker Road
Loudonville, NY 12211

Phone: (518) 458-9274
Fax: (518) 438-0988
E-mail: shevchiz@colonielibrary.org

URL:http://www.colonie.org/library/virtual/travel.html