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Last checked 3/15/2024

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  • 25 Best Travel Sites as determined by Kiplinger.
  • Travelocity5 stars is a pretty comprehensive site with fares, hotels, car rentals, etc.
  • Expedia5 stars is a travel planner. You can book air, rent a car, get a map, etc. It also has a Hotel Pinpointer that lets you pick a hotel close to where you want to be. Requires cookies.
  • kayak.com allows you to book air, hotel, and cars. Basically, a search site but more.
  • Hipmunk compares flight fares and hotel rates from the top travel sites.
  • Orbitz Orbitz was created by United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines, Northwest Airlines, and American Airlines to serve their customers.
  • Google Flights shows available flights when you enter your travel date and other info.
  • Fodor's Travel Guide is new to the Web but has good information already.
  • CNN's Interactive Travel Guide is an easy to use, effective low-fare tracking system. Uses Internet Travel Network (ITN).
  • TravelZoo has air fares.
  • Frommer's The webmaster declares that this site is "the largest travel site on the web with 6,000 pages of bargain priced tickets and trips". If you like Frommer's books then this Web site is for you.
  • MapQuest5 stars has great maps and also has maps of major airports, national parks, and scenic drives. You can get traffic reports, road closings, and you can even get a arial photo of a select point. You can select locations as intersections of roads without knowing exact address.
  • WikiTravel has information about travel destinations in the classic form of a wiki. The public can add entries which are reviewed by moderaters.
  • RCI VacationNet
  • Roadside America4 outta 5 has some great day trips.
  • FlightView - you enter the airline, tail number, flight number, or departure/destination to find a flight's status. This is real time flight data so it only shows flights that are flying, have recently flown, or are about to take off.
  • JourneyWoman has travel information aimed at women travelers.
  • The Total Yellowstone Park Page contains all you'll ever want to know about the park.
  • The National Park Network has everything you'd want to know about the national park system.
  • Great Outdoor Recreation Page - GORP
  • True Experiences has a list of places you can go to learn while vacationing.
  • Biztravel has specialty trips.
  • State Department has travel warnings.
  • Universal Currency Converter shows the exchange rate for currency.
  • Corbis Travel Photos includes pictures of just about every destination you can think of.
  • PlanetRider is an index of travel sites.
  • Hotel Guide lets you search their database for the kind of hotel that you desire.
  • Speed Trap tells you where all of the speed traps are in your area. Pretty thorough.
  • World Climate tells what the usual climate is like at any time and any place in the world.
  • Wells Fargo ATM Locations
  • Time Zone Information
  • Cruise Guide from the National Geographic folks.
  • Lonely Planet has travel advice and information for the average traveler. (Hint: if you want to know how to rent a Lexus, you are not an average traveler.) Ideas for trips for those who have 'destination-block'.
  • SFStation has information on San Francisco.
  • TravelSmith sells bags, gadgets, and clothing for the traveler.
  • Cruise411 has a CruiseFinder that lets you search for a cruise that meets your specs. The site allows you to investigate the cruise and book it.
  • CruiseMates has a great deal of information on cruises.
  • Timeout has visitor information on a few (less than 50) cities.
  • City Search assists you in finding events and happenings in the big cities.
  • National Center For Infectious Diseases Travelers Health has health alerts for all sorts of locations and advice for travelers.
  • State Guide is a rather chaotic collection of links to sites associated with areas in states. For example, you select a state and than a town within that state and you are presented with a collection of sites related to entertainment, weather, news, things to do, parks, etc.
  • Rough Guides - general travel information, newsletter, info on specific destinations, etc.
  • I Go U Go - another general travel site where people publish their travel journals. Includes picture gallery, message board, etc.
  • Travel Mom has info on family travel vacations.
  • Smarter Traveler - travel site with info on best prices on air fares, hotels, car rentals, etc. Pretty easy to use..
  • Orlando - travel information about Orlando - attractions, accommodations, etc.
  • One Minute Vacation has a collection of 60 second sound segments from various parts of the world.
  • FlyerTalk is a forum for travelers.
  • Transportation Security Administration
  • Structurally Deficient Bridges is a article in the Washington Post that has a map of the US showing all of the bridges that are structurally deficient as of 2017.
  • Roadside is a collection of eatery reviews along the roads of the USA.
  • TerraFly unbelievable detail about neighborhoods along with an aerial view. Kind of cumbersome to use but only because of its wealth of data..
  • Road Food is the place to go to find out about eateries along the way.
  • Menu Pages shows you the actual menus of restaurants.
  • Trip Advisor4 stars - reviews of hotels and resorts including restaurants, maps, discount packages, etc. Enter a destination to get comments from the public.
  • Minimus sells small size stuff like samples and travel size stuff.
  • ChowHounds is a site where good quality food for cheap is king. Plenty of info on where to go to eat well for less.
  • World Wikia has information about city environs entered by folks who visited. You get down-to-earth reviews of places, resorts, destinations, etc.
  • Virtual Tourist seems to have very useful information about cities especially stuff like public transportation, spots to avoid, local customs, and general tips. This is information that has been submitted by the public. The site also hosts a few travel forums.
  • WikiTravel - is a great site for travelogue type information.
  • lastminute.com specializes in getting you tickets, car rental, rooms, etc. at the last minute without having to pay exorbitant fees.
  • Hertz (requires javascript to even view the site)
  • National Car Rental
Airlines & Airports
Philadelphia/Local
Maps

  • 511PA5 stars has traffic and travel condition maps for all of Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. One option is to show the real-time position of snow plows.
  • OpenStreetMap5 stars does not track your use of the site and has maps of the world available. This site has a lot of info contributed by the public and includes such features as a blog, forums, GPS tracing, lots of other technical capabilities, and a very active wiki that explains how OpenStreetMap (OSM) data can be contributed and used effectively.
  • I95 Traffic shows current conditions along the I95 route.
  • SigAlert shows current conditions where you are - as long as you let your browser track your location.
  • MapQuest seems to have more recent satellite info than other map services.
  • Google Maps4 stars
  • Bing Maps
  • wego.here is very similar to Google Maps.
  • Five Sites and Apps To Find Halfway Points This article reviews 5 ways to find the halfway point between two addresses or cities.
  • FlashEarth uses Flash and Google maps to allow you to zoom around the world. You can optionally overlay the graphic view with the names of streets.
  • Google Maps Tricks Here are tricks you can use with Google Maps which can be very useful.
  • Google Maps Tricks from the MakeUseOf folks.
  • Google Maps Tricks from Tom's Guide.
  • Trails.com has topographical maps. Requires you create an account but then offers topographical maps including GPS coordinates.
  • Maptech $ has topographical maps and nautical charts.
  • Google Earth Engine shows a time lapse of any area from a satellite view. Excellent impression of how fast an area is being developed or is changing over the recent past.
  • National Geographic MapMaker is a fun tool to view map information of pretty much any area of the globe.
  • USGS Topoview is a giant, easily navigated, database of topograhical maps. However, most are from the late 1800's.
  • Traffic Info - Construction alerts, traffic conditions, road closings - national by state.
  • Map Pedometer This is a great map application that lets you click on waypoints along a route and it tells you how far it is. Great for walking, running, or cycling. However, the app does not indicate the nature of the route (gravel road vs three lane highway).
  • Google Maps Tricks
  • MoreMap - is a great 'mashup' based on Google maps. It finds weather stations, tracks packages, finds earthquakes and banks, reports on traffic, etc. Pretty cool stuff.
  • Free Map Tools This is a collection of a wide variety of map tools like graphing a radius distance from a central point, finding an elevation of a specific location, etc.
  • alltrails is a hiking and biking sight that focuses on trail maps. Marginally useful.
  • RidePlanner is a map site that allows you to transfer the map to a Garmin device.
  • NOAA Flooding Map NOAA has an interactive map that shows the effects of flooding as the sea level rises.
Traffic
  • 511PA5 stars has traffic and travel condition maps for all of Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. One option is to show the real-time position of snow plows.
  • I95 Traffic shows current conditions along the I95 route.
  • SigAlert shows current conditions where you are - as long as you let your browser track your location.
  • AccuTraffic - has realtime traffic information as well as a bunch of other data on scheduled road and bridge closings, rail schedules, public transportation, etc..
  • NBC10's Traffic Reports for Philly4 stars
  • Philadelphia Traffic is a beta project from NAVTEC. (Doesn't seem to be active as of 5/15)
  • Sigalert.com Get updated traffic reports on various roads throughout Philly. Real-time traffic cams are available.
  • Local Philly Traffic Updates for the major roads.
  • Philly Roads has traffic and construction reports.
  • Philly Expressways - traffic on expressways in Philadelphia.
  • Traffic Info - Construction alerts, traffic conditions, road closings - national by state.
  • Yahoo Maps shows the volume of traffic on its maps.
  • Google Maps shows the volume of traffic on its maps however, it seems difficult to get to the traffic display directly from the usual Google map site.
GPS
  • GPS Tracklog has decent reviews of GPS devices and accessories.
  • Best GPS Devices according to PCMag (2024)
  • GPSpasSion - blog for GPS freaks.
  • GPS Forums sponsored by GPSpassSion.
  • GPS Lodge - reviews, news, advice, gossip, etc. about GPS.
  • Rated 4 Stars - reviews GPS devices that are rated 4 stars or higher.
  • POI Factory is a forum about POI (Points of Interest) databases for GPS devices.
  • How to Create POI Databases is a nice step-by-step set of instructions on how to create and load a POI database.
  • EasyGPS is free software that allows you to download and upload favorites and points of interest to and from your GPS.
Hotels
Disney Stuff
  • DisneyWorld This is their main site. Then there is the Disney Store.
  • DIS5 stars - Disney Information Site has information on Disney along with a chat room, news, and bulletin board where folks can post questions and answers. This is a good site for Disney Vacation Club info and includes The DVC Calculator.
  • EasyWDW5 stars has "crowd calendars" that show the best and worst attractions to visit on a particular day based on historical crowding and other factors. The site also has photos of the menus, live wait times, cheat sheets (printable maps and scheduling helpers), and very active forums.
  • Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar shows when crowds may swell at various Disney World attractions
  • Laughing Place4 stars has all kinds of news about Disney including who is currently striking, news, trivia, etc. Covers both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Very active discussion forums.
  • Intercot4 stars - INTERnet Community of Tomorrow - a virtual guide to Disney World - has some videos and great pictures.
  • MiceAge.com is all about Disney parks.
  • Disney Vacation Club FAQ
  • Disney Food Blog has a pretty thorough review of food in Disney.
  • The DVC Store - Disney Vacation Club timeshare sales
  • Hidden Mickeys has hundreds of reports of hidden images of Mickey all over the place.
  • YourFirstVisit has a lot of helpful material about what to see, where to stay, where to eat, etc. Especially aimed at the first time visitor.
  • MousePlanet has a variety of information about the parks.
  • An Unofficial Tribute to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean aka 'Tell no Tales'
  • Disney Forum This is the rec.arts.disney.park Usenet. In other words, this is a public forum for anyone who wants to say anything or ask anything about Disney parks.
  • DisneyWorld Restaurants - Frommer's reviews.
  • AllEarsNet is another unofficial information guide.
  • DisneyWorld Restaurant Menus from AllEars.
  • Disney Restaurant Reviews is part of a Disney blog. The list of restaurants is extensive but are sorted by location instead of by quality.
  • Disney Dining has a lot of brief "best of" articles related to Disney restaraunts. The variety is overwhelming and may not be as useful as a more focused approach.
  • Disney Dining Reviews off the DisBoards discussion group. These are reviews and comments from the public - usually pretty fresh.
  • Top Table Service Restaurants at Disney World There are plenty of sites that give you someone's opinion of the top restaurants at Disney World. This site's recommendations match our experiences pretty closely.
  • Priority Seating Chart shows the earliest times to call to try to get priority seating at each of the restaurants.
  • Disney World Dining Packages - most include preferencial viewing areas for the fireworks or parades.
  • Unique Disney World Dining Packages 10 of the top dining experiences. The last one at the bottom of the article includes a phone number to contact a Disney rep to learn of and schedule very special dining not advertised or well known elsewhere.
  • Re-Imagineering Blog - another point of view heard from.
  • Fodor's DisneyWorld - has a lot of information on places to visit, restaurants, shopping, etc.
  • MouseOwners is a site for Disney Vacation Club members but can be very useful for others who seek info about vacationing at Disney.
  • Touring Plans has maps of the hotels with room numbers. It also has a crowd calendar and other useful information for planning a Disney stay. Some pictures are available that show views from specific rooms.
  • David's Vacation Club Rentals
  • Mouse Steps has some sections on walking around Disney World. There are a number of photo sequences that document various walking trips. The site also has other tidbits about Disney adventures that might be helpful for others.
  • Behind the Scenes Tours This is a list of special tours that are available for those who have had their fill of rides. The tours usually include dining at a restaurant. The cost is in addition to the price of admision to the park so these tours can be pretty pricey.
  • Disney World Tours - special tours as described by Disney
  • Disney World Resorts This site has volumes of information about the resorts at Disney World including room layout diagrams. Good advice about which resorts are best in each of the main categories - value, moderate, and deluxe.
  • 20 Unusual Things To Do At Disney World
  • Disney World Apps
  • Taking the Autotrain to Disney is pretty thorough. Describes the seating options and other amenities pretty well and has additional links to helpful material.
  • Matterhorn Web Cam is a live feed from Disneyland. The camera, mounted on a Howard Johnson Motel across the street and pointed generally at Disneyland's Matterhorn, rotates randomly.

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