Last fall it was easy. I could browse most of the decent sites in a single sitting and, frankly, found their output wanting when compared to the well-edited travel information furnished by the in-house experts at Compuserve and America Online. By winter, however, the number of travel-oriented Web sites on the Internet had doubled and begun to challenge the commercial online travel gurus. Then Compuserve and AOL countered with their own resident Web browsers and the race was on. Finally in the spring, Netscape Navigator, the Web browser furnished to new subscribers by most Internet access providers, leapfrogged ahead with new, full-featured upgrades, and from that time on, the proprietary browsers provided by the online services never had a chance.
Summer arrived, and the World Wide Web was in full flower. To examine even a fraction of the posted travel sites in one session became unthinkable. Fortunately, search engines like Yahoo, AltaVista, and Infoseek created paths through this cybergarden, and made travel planning a picnic, even for Net novices.
Whether novice or professional, most Web explorers have discovered that the use of search utilities and "keywords" provides the most direct routes to specific information. Each system, however, has its own method for coding inquiries which would-be Web surfers should pause to learn. In AltaVista, for example, enclosing two or more words in quotes (i.e., "keyword phrase") looks for that specific combination of words instead of searching for each word separately. This feature alone can greatly reduce the number of postings one must peruse. For example, using the phrase, "one-stop travel," a current buzzword in online circles, I started my hunt for Web sites which assemble the information travel planners need most: destination descriptions, links to lodgings, and online access to trains, planes and rental cars. Sites that included other niceties like seasonal promotions, travel advisories, weather forecasts, etc. got additional points. Home pages that promoted contests got points deducted. (I hate contests, drawings and other mailing list scams.)
One of the high points of my search was Go Explore. Running against the current trend of glamorous, slow-loading home pages, Go Explore quickly scrolls a simple start-up graphic, half dozen clearly-defined navigation buttons, and a hypertexted list of new features, which, on the day I looked, included a mapping function with pointers to hundreds of business locations, and an airline reservations service supported by the same Apollo system that is used by over one-third of the world's travel agents. Ticketing is accomplished through electronic access to a certified American Express travel agent. And that's only the start of information about, and links to, dozens of other frequent traveler services including major hotel chains, Hertz car rentals, Federal Express, and Kinkos business centers. The Go Explore resource includes more than 23,000 pages of U.S travel information, and should be a prime Web stop for busy business travelers.
Providing "maximum power for the do-it-yourself traveler" is Travelocity. This simple home page, with buttons for Travel Reservations, Destinations & Interests, Chats & Forums, and the perennial Travel Merchandise, makes this site a bit more attractive to the recreational traveler without lessening its appeal to serious business types. Sabre, another online reservations giant owned by AMR Corp. (parent company of American Airlines) is the power behind this comprehensive site with a new interface that puts the aged easySABRE found on the various online services to shame. This fun-to-use Web site is packed with informative pages and links, and, naturally, it isn't a bit shy about nudging travel shoppers toward one of American's vacation packages or flights. And who could have guessed? You can get 500 extra frequent flyer miles when you book on AA through Travelocity.
Equally full-featured as the institutional sites above is a compendium of Web pages, brilliantly organized by Travel Weekly Online, a division of the Reed Travel Group, and online presence of Travel Weekly, a print publication serving the travel agency community. This New Jersey-based paper (with a sister publication in the U.K.) claims to reach 35,000 locations producing 93 billion dollars in annual sales, which, if true, means that their site should be well tuned to the needs of all travelers—professional, business and recreational alike. Although this page does not have a resident reservation system for airlines, car rentals or hotels, its impressive collection of links does provide these essential services and many more.
Because I have used this company before and plan to use it again, I have to plug one of my favorite TW Online plug-ins, Europe-by-Car. Not exactly a household word compared to familiar domestics like Hertz and Avis, this discount car leasing/rental agency has become very popular with overseas travelers, now boasting a number one position among European providers. Those who are unfamiliar with foreign automobiles will especially appreciate the photo gallery of the firm's fleet which compares size, passenger and luggage-holding capacity, and even the estimated fuel consumption for each available model. Not a bad bit of information for those planning travel to countries that charge $4-$6 per gallon for fuel.
While all three of these Web locations meet most criteria for useful, one-stop travel sites, I must confess that I lean toward Travel Weekly Online. I like it because it gives travel consumers a the broadest possible choice in the way they select their preferred destinations, recreations, transportation and accommodations. This Web site is "selective," but it doesn't "censor." It endorses no one vendor or service over another. And while this plethora of information can be a bit intimidating, travel shoppers are free to click and choose for themselves and, with the limitless resources of the World Wide Web at their disposal, they are making smarter choices than ever before.