Getaway guides

Traditionally those who can in the hospitality industry do seize the opportunity at this time of year to put some space between themselves and the job. Some look for exotic locations, others want just a change of scene; either way, the Web makes a good departure point.

The travel trade was among the first to cotton on to the potential of the Internet, and the sheer volume of tourism material that has built up is overwhelming. Unless there is a specific destination in mind it is best to take advantage of one of the Net's world travel guides such as the Lonely Planet site (www.lonelyplanet.com), Rough Guides (http://travel.roughguides.com) or Columbus Travel Guides (www.travel-guides.com). The first two are geared towards the more independent traveller, the third is more straight-laced. The Rough Guides site limits itself mostly to US and European destinations and offers text-based information for adventurous types: two of its recent recommendations were a tour of Soweto township in South Africa; and Roswell, New Mexico, home to the legendary crash-landing "alien spacecraft" incident in 1947 that has stoked the passions of conspiracy theorists ever since.

The Columbus Travel Guides site is a collection of facts about countries of the world for potential visitors. Again, no pictures, just brief write-ups, maps and details of passport/visa requirements, local money, public holidays, health, climate, history and so on.

Lonely Planet, however, wins Web Watch's Golden Tarantula award in the travel guides category. It's a lively, beautifully laid-out site with everything solidly linked. For example, visitors can view "slide shows" of many destinations in which the photos are linked back to text information about the specific place or people in the picture. There are "postcards" here from travellers who have sent in their opinions from around the globe, and an electronic message board with hundreds more contributions and requests for travelling companions. With occasional exceptions - North Korea, Iraq, Sudan - the Lonely Planet people have the whole world covered. The maps are detailed, the pictures are tempting and the information is factual, unbiased and far removed from brochure-speak.

Once the destination has been selected, it's time to make a booking. Again, the Web comes up trumps with offers and prices available every hour of every day. Bargain Holidays (www.bargainholidays.com) lists more than 70,000 late-availability holidays and flights from top UK travel agents, but bookings must be made by phone or by e-mail with telephone confirmation. A2B Travel's massive site (www.a2btravel.com) allows holiday flight searches by price, date, departure airport, destination or length of stay, and bookings can be made directly on-line with a secure credit card transaction (card details are scrambled before being sent over the Internet).

Top tip for holiday bargain hunters, though, is the Teletext site at www1.teletext.co.uk/travel/offers.stm. Web users can say goodbye to hours-of-waiting misery while the television version scrolls through its pages. On the Web, the teletext pages come up 10 at a time and can easily be saved or printed out for leisurely perusal later. n

by Mike Docker