Links to other (hopefully) useful sites:
- U.S. State Department:
- These are the folks that keep track of U.S. citizens abroad,
communicate with embassies, and airlift your ass out if you get in
trouble (at your expense, of course). It's good to know what they're
saying about your destination and it's probably wise to follow their
advice. They've got a wealth of info on this site, including passport
info, visa info, tips for travelers, travel advisories, etc. Among
other things, check out their Foreign Entry
Requirements and Travel
Warnings/Advisories and Consular Information Sheets.
- World Atlas
- This is an excellent collection of maps all over the world. A good
link
to give to everybody you're leaving behind, so they can see where you
are.
- Premier Travel
- A travel site with lots of links to all kinds of travel resources.
I have no experience with their commercial services, but they have a lot
of useful links.
- International Bike Fund
- This guy wrote the book (literally) on biking through Africa. Lots
of good
info both for cyclists and non-cyclists.
- Travel-By-Cycle
- An excellent site dedicated to bicycle touring. Lots of links, lots
of
resources. I used this site a lot.
- OANDA Currency Exchange
Converter
- In some countries, the value of your currency (which,
if you can afford to be traveling, is probably "hard" currency such as
dollars, pounds, francs or deutschmarks) can fluctuate wildly with their
"soft" currencies. Inflation in some countries is more than 100% per
annum, so the rates published in 2-year-old guidebooks are worthless.
There are dozens of sites for currency conversion, so I basically picked
this one at random. The OANDA converter is pretty cool, though, as it
lets you select your means of conversion (credit card, cash, etc.) and
estimates your average commission rate, figuring that into your
conversion (if you wish).
- World Flag Database
- What
exactly DOES the flag of Estonia look like? Find out here.
- Center for Disease Control
- These folks keep track of outbreaks of nasty things that you don't
want to catch.
- World Health Organization
- Another good resource for finding out who's dying of what these
days, and what's available to keep you from getting it.
- Newsgroups
- USENET: A "bulletin board" where you can post
messages and read what other people have posted. It's mostly garbage
these days (ads for mail-order brides and sex videos), but if you sort
through all the crap, you can find some very useful info. The real
wonder of the USENET is that you can post a question, and anybody in the
world with access to that newsgroup can read your post and respond to
it.
- soc.culture.*:
see what the locals are talking about; get the latest news and opinions.
Ask intelligent, non-inflammatory questions and you may even get
intelligent, non-inflammatory answers. I even got some people to
translate a thank-you note into Turkish for me on soc.culture.turkey.
- rec.travel.*:
see millions of ads from tour companies, and a few good tips from other
travelers. You can even post/respond to ads seeking a travel partner.
- Search Engines
- Find whatever you want (with a limited degree of
success; check out each site's hints for writing a successful query).
- Web Design Resources
- Want to make your own site? These folks
will help you learn. I used these in designing this site.
If you have other links which you think ought to appear here, or if
you
run a (related!) site which you think we might want to link to,
contact me.