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Plan your trip online

While traveling through cyberspace can be exciting, it's no substitute for an adventure in the real world. That's where the Web can really help you research destinations, organize your itinerary, and book reservations. Whether it's a weekend getaway or a safari, look to the Internet to save you time (no more trekking to bookstores for guidebooks and maps) and money (discounts abound on airfares and hotels). How do you start? Here's our step-by-step approach:

1.Research a Destination

Where would you like to go? One option is to use a search engine to find information about choice destinations. If you choose to go this route, use a directory like Yahoo! Why? Because it lists websites in categories, so you can easily find listings of Mexican resorts, for example.

Another approach is perusing the websites of travel publications. Begin your journey at:

Fodors
Lonely Planet
Concierge

For detailed information about foreign locales, you can't beat the CIA World Factbook.
For worldwide travel advisories, visit the U.S. State Department website.

2.Plan Your Itinerary

Once you know where you want to go, it's time to get specific. What are the sights to see? What events will be happening? Where are the best places to eat? Answers to these questions await you online.

Let's say you will be spending a week in British Columbia and want to sample the local cuisine. Some of the websites listed above may have articles about Vancouver and Victoria restaurants. But most newspapers have dining sections, so go to the website of the local paper (try NewsDirectory.com to locate them), and search its archive.

Another strategy is to Ask Jeeves, the friendly search engine, where to find restaurant listings. He will reply with some tasty recommendations.

As you plan your trip, hopping from link to link, you are bound to stumble on all kinds of gems. Bookmark the pages so you can easily return to them.

3.Get a Map

Whether you need a street map, country map or even driving instructions, you can probably find it somewhere--for free. The CIA World Factbook is a good source for maps of countries and regions. For city guides, try:

MapQuest
MapBlast

5.Money

What's the local currency? How much is the dollar or pound worth in France? To convert currency and find out local exchange rates, visit Oanda.

4.Making Reservations

Most major airlines and hotel chains have their own websites, so if you have a favorite, start there to check for availability, prices, and to make reservations.

A number of websites do it all: planes tickets, vacation packages, cruises, accommodations, car rental--the works. Before you can make reservations, however, you need to to open an account with the site. Among the giants of Internet travel are:

Expedia Travel
Travelocity
Trip.com

6.Saving Money

Register with many airline websites to receive e-mail alerts when bargain fares to destinations you specify become available. Some airlines now offer discounted Internet-only fares, as do many hotels. It's worth hunting for these special deals.

7.Learn Some Lingo

It never hurts to know at least a few words of the local language. For some pointers, visit Travelang, Foreign Languages for Travelers. If you want to take a free online language course, try Parlo.