That Travel Girl | thattravelgirl.net

Accommodation

All-hotels.com
	Nice interface, 60,000 hotels worldwide. Lots of hotel location maps.
Hotelnet.co.uk
	Nice interface, good selection of hotels worldwide.
Leading Hotels of the World
	A group of very high quality hotels - if you want to be assured of a deluxe experience, choose one of these hotels.

Airlines and Aviation

Airline Links
	Over 150 different links to airline websites
AirDisaster.com
	Everything you always wanted to know about airplane crashes (assuming that this is a topic you really want to know much about, especially immediately prior to your next flight!).
AirSafe.Com
	This has both information about air crashes and also interesting information about fear of flying and air security.
Aviation History
	A useful site with a lot of information about early planes. Covers planes that were first built prior to the 1960s.
Aviation Safety Network
	A database of airline accident information going back to 1943. Easy to find the information you want, and very helpful.
Customers First
	Want a laugh? Visit this site, created in 1999 (I think) by the airlines' lobbying group, the ATA, to head off the threat of Congressional legislation creating a Passenger Bill of Rights (whatever that would have been). Although the site triumphantly trumpets its apparent 'success' the reality is that the drop in air travel de-stressed the system, and now that air travel is back up to its highest levels ever, the system is stressed once more - you'll see they don't show any 2003 or 2004 statistics in their charts that 'prove' they have solved their problems.
FareAware Bargain Fare Tools
	A compendium of tools to help you research and find the lowest airfares.
FlightView
	Type in an airline and flight number and it will tell you when it is expected to take off and land, and, if in the air, will show you where the plane is, how high, and how fast it is traveling.
ICAO Airplane Type Designators
	Gives standard designators/abbreviations for most common current airplane types
Plane Crash Info
	Another site with rather gruesome but fascinating information. Find out how safe the airline you'll next fly is.
SeatGuru.com
	A very nice site with extensive information and very well laid out seat maps with recommendations about where better and worse than normal seats can be found on planes operated by AA, CO, DL, UA and US.

Cars

Car Rental Express
	A site which accesses smaller rental car companies that often have better rates than the major national companies.

Cruise

CDC Vessel Sanitation Program
	All cruise ships that carry more than 12 passengers and visit US ports with foreign itineraries are given unannounced inspections twice a year by the CDC and given a rating for their hygiene/sanitation standards. Read reviews of which ships pass and which fail.
Cruisemates
	An extensive website with ship reviews and an excellent newsletter.
The Shipboard Cruiser
	Well established and comprehensive site with links to just about everything you're likely to want to know about cruising.

Government Departments and Services

CDC Travelers' Health
	An encyclopedic reference to travel related health matters. Perhaps a bit overly conservative in some areas, but still a great source for information for things like if you should get vaccinations prior to visiting somewhere.
Passport Information and Applications
	All you ever wanted to know about how to get a US Passport. Includes printable application forms.
State Department Foreign Per Diem Rates
	A huge list of countries and cities around the world, along with official daily allowances for hotels and meals costs. Rates range from enormously higher than reality (which would allow you to live in five star luxury and indulge in gourmet dining) to fairly realistic, with usually the meal rates being further above reality than the accommodation rates. I understand that the IRS will allow these levels of claims as being fair (if you don't have receipts) but don't know this for sure.
State Department Travel Warnings and Consular Information Sheets
	A useful service with excellent summary fact sheets for all countries in the world, plus warnings on those countries which warrant them.
Transportation Research Board

Miscellaneous

Airline Meals
	What will they think of next! Here's a website dedicated to pictures of airline meals - a mix of airline promotional pictures (that never look anything like the food on my plate, no matter if I'm in First class or Coach) and real pictures taken by travelers of the food in front of them. No real practical value, but if you're wanting to do a bit of semi-random surfing, it is a nicely presented site.
The Bathroom Diaries
	This site answers my largely rhetorical question 'what will the think of next'. A fun site that claims to list and evaluate 6000+ bathrooms in 100+ countries. Also has 'The Golden Plunger' awards (for good bathrooms) and an amusing section of bathroom horror stories. It includes a toilet I visited in France that was...scary.
Dine.com
	Information on over 150,000 restaurants in the US, including user reviews. Put in a city or zip code and then choose from different restaurant types. Even offers maps so you can find the restaurant. Information is sometimes more than five years out of date, and even with 150,000 restaurants listed, there is vastly more data missing than included. So, use with caution - at the very least, phone restaurants before visiting to confirm they still exist! But, shortcomings aside, it is a useful tool.
FlightHumor.Org
	A collection of humorous articles and jokes to do with flying.
Terra Fly
	This is an amazing site. Type in an address and you get a satellite picture of the location. It includes amazing data for the area if you click on a data point, including even homes for sale. Satellite photos may be some years out of date (I estimate the satellite picture of my house is 7+ years out of date). Image resolution is 1 meter on the free site, but 6" resolution photos can be ordered.

Other Travel Informative/Consumer themed Web Sites

Bidding For Travel
	This excellent site helps you understand the type of rates that you can successfully bid at on Priceline.com. If you plan on buying travel through Priceline, you should visit this site first to check what the best going rates are.
Johnny Jet
	This site bills itself as 'the ultimate travel portal' and its claim seems reasonably accurate. Whatever you're likely to want in terms of travel websites, you're likely to be able to find it here. Amazingly, this site is the work of a single individual ('Johnny Jet') and done on a part time basis.

Reference

Airport, Airline and City Codes
	There are over 9000 airport codes around the world, and while some are known to everyone (LAX) and some are obvious (LHR for London Heathrow) others are less obvious (MSY for New Orleans)! This is a helpful site with lots of information on airport codes, airline codes, a wonderful 'time and distance calculator' between airports
EmbassyWorld.com
	Wow - a massive list of foreign embassies and consulates plus some other international themed services and resources (eg some maps, power/voltage info by country, etc).
Holidays for All Countries
	This site gives details of national holidays for most countries in the world. It seems both complete and accurate.
MSN Maps
	Has a very useful world atlas that enables you to find where just about any town or city is in the world. I was even able to find a city that has been spelled a different way for over 100 years!
Phone and Power Plugs
	This is an encyclopedic site with all you couple possibly want to know about different voltages, power plugs and phone plugs.
Sunrise and sunset times
	A very helpful site that will tell you, for any date, and for any place, anywhere in the world, when the sun will (or did!) rise and when it will (or did) set.
Time Zones for World Cities
	This is invaluable. Not only tells you the current time, the time zone the city is in, but also has information like when daylight savings starts and finishes, sunrise/sunset times for both the present day and future dates, and lots more.
Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory
	A listing of 1288 different country and regional tourist offices. A great place to start planning your next trip.
World Fact Book
	This CIA publication gives you excellent general information and country maps for just about everywhere in the world. Great for general reference.