No matter where you want to travel in 2010, preparation is key. You should know what is expecting you, pack the right gear, and bring enough funds to spend an enjoyable vacation. On Amazon or your local book store, you’ll find a huge selection of international travel guides.

To save some money for your trip, skip the expensive guides and begin to research online, where most material is available for free. I have compiled the best free online international travel guides that will provide inspiration and comprehensive information to prepare your trip.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the biggest commercial online travel websites. Pick a region from the Destinations tab and dive into the introduction. The sidebar on the left provides a menu, the top picks, eventually fast facts, related groups, and possibly blogs.

The menu leads to in-depth information about places in the area, its history, the climate, getting around, and much more. The map opens from the top and all other destinations are marked with a little flag.

If you have found an interesting place that you would like to keep in mind, you can save the destination, provided you are logged in.

Lonely Planet makes it to the top of the list because not only does it cover a vast amount of destinations with comprehensive articles, it’s also easy to navigate, contains stunning pictures, lets users save their personal highlights and they can contribute to the site through participating in various groups, blogs, and more.

Lonely Planet was also mentioned in my article Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation, along with Spotted by Locals, InfoHub, and World Travel Guide.

NileGuide

If you enjoy interactive websites that let you compile information your way, and play with the content, don’t miss out on NileGuide!

To “Get Started”, search for your desired destination. The first thing you’ll see is a “Snapshot“. You’ll notice that the “Overview” provides guides to download. All available guides are listed under the respective tab.

To start customizing your own guide, head over to “Things To Do”, “Restaurants“, or “Bars, Clubs & Nightlife” and play with the filters for the types of things you want to see or do. For example you could set your personal preferences, such as outdoors, off the beaten path, or must-see. You can also select neighborhoods and types of activities. If there is something you must do or see, click “Add To List” and it will appear in a little list in the sidebar on the left.

You can organize your trip and produce your own custom guide. Create a schedule, attach items from your list to each day, and share the result with your friends or other users. The most popular guides appear in the Snapshot Overview. However, the best is, you can print your personalized Guide-to-Go or create a PDF from it. Simply click the “Print My Guide To Go” button on the top right, while in the customize section.

A major draw of the site is its speed. It’s rather laggy and thus requires a bit of patience. Also, at this point the destination archive isn’t very big compared to other free online guides. Nevertheless, the flexibility and interactivity it offers is a killer argument in its favor.

Arrival Guides

These free travel guides are maintained by professional journalists. All information is available online, but each guide can be downloaded as a PDF for free. Some guides are available in several different languages, which is a huge plus of this site.

This page lists the continents and the countries featured on the site. When you click on “View destinations >>” next to a country, you will reach a page that lists its destinations and the available guide languages.

Curiously, there are three different download buttons: one for girls, one for boys traveling with girls, and one for boys. I compared a few of them and wasn’t able to spot a difference. Maybe it depends on the destination or it’s for statistical purposes.

Wikitravel

Wikitravel is a user-driven project. At this point the site comprises over 22,000 destination guides and articles maintained by Wikitravellers from all over the world. If you feel inspired, you yourself can update articles and help keep Wikitravel the most complete and reliable worldwide travel guide.

Wikitravel resembles the structure of the well-known Wikipedia, as it is also powered by MediaWiki. From the Main Page you can search for your travel destination, select a region, discover one of the featured destinations, or load a random page from the navigation menu on the lefthand side. In the toolbox, found at the bottom of the sidebar, you can open a printable version for each page.

The basic organization of the articles is similar to what you will find in commercial guide books. Wikitravel’s edge is the wealth of information, the amount of small places covered, and of course the chance to add your own experience and instantly correct mistakes. All for free!

Wikitravel was featured together with Dopplr in an article by Anthony on 3 Must-Check Traveller Websites Before Your Next Trip.

In Your Pocket

In Your Pocket focuses on destinations throughout Europe. Besides providing free online city guides, the site features articles that highlight various topics of interest to travelers, for example where to ski in Eastern Europe, what souvenirs to bring from Slovenia, or a guide to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

While all of the information is available online, buttons in the upper right corner of a destination indicate other means of access. Over 50 comprehensive city guides can be downloaded as PDF’s for free. Many of them can also be viewed as iPaper or you can download an Instant (brief overview) PDF.

MakeUseOf has previously published travel information and advice.

If you’re planning a lengthy trip, check out my article on How To Stay Digitally Charged and Connected On The Road. Before you go, also be sure the Create A Free Travel Packing Checklist With Packwhiz. My post about Hello Backpacker introduces a website with travel information tailored to backpackers and Dean wrote A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks.

Aibek’s post on 10 Travel Websites That Should Be Bookmarked includes a travel itinerary planner, a global ATM locator, a guide for camping at an airport, and a website concerned with clean bathrooms. Guy wrote about TripSay, a social travel guide that connects you to people that share your interests, in order to find travel recommendations that match your taste.

Are you searching for great deals? James explained on How To Find The Best Hotel Deals Online. David introduced 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites, and John covered Top 5 Sites To Search For Cheap Online Car Rentals.

Are you going to use public transport? Karl wrote about MetrO, the ultimate public transport guide for your phone. Ellie compiled 6 Subway Map Tools To Navigate Your Way Through NYC.

What did we miss?

Image Credits: rolve

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (12)Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation
• (21)5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel
• (10)Share Your Trips With EveryTrail
• (4)A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks
• (26)10 Travel Websites that should be Bookmarked

The internet makes it easy to find out about various destinations, great deals, attractions, local customs and curiosities that might otherwise have escaped your attention or become an unpleasant surprise. But there is almost too much information to make up one’s mind. So where should you start?

Here is a small selection of websites that will hopefully help you filter for the best available deals and sights.

Spotted by Locals

Spotted by Locals covers 20 European cities and promises that you will experience cities like a local.

The articles are short and cover everything from art & culture, bars and music, to relaxing, shopping and theaters. The attractions of each city can be browsed by category or area / district.

New spotters are hand selected by existing contributors and a face to face meeting is a must before you can write for Spotted by Locals, representing your own city. They are currently looking for new spotters, maybe that would be you?

trivago

On trivago you can compare prices for hotels, browse the site for attractions, reviews and photos.

When comparing hotel prices in a given city on a specific date, you’ll be presented with a list of hotels on the right. To the left you can refine your search, for example by reducing the price range on a meter bar. When switching from Hotel to Attractions you’ll see a list of attractions for that very city and in the sidebar you can filter for bars, restaurants, museums etc. or pick specific places from the “browse box”, where all available attractions are pulled together and listed kind of like in a tag cloud.

The site operates based on member contributions. Each review is accompanied by a detailed rating and eventually photos. So whenever you return from a trip with novel experiences and great discoveries, this is where you can show off your travel expertise.

InfoHub

InfoHub describes itself as “the ultimate source for out-of-the-ordinary and inspiring travel ideas” and I must say they have a point.

This speciality travel guide is indeed a great resource for finding all sorts of professionally organized tours around the globe. Of course these offers are not free, but using the site and looking for options is totally free and absolutely recommended.

You can browse by country or popular vacations, such as eco tourism, hiking & trekking, photography & videography, scuba diving or sports. A more detailed selection is available in the quick vacation search or you simply search the site for keywords.

World Travel Guide

Although this page loaded a bit slow when I tested it, it appeared to be the most thorough, informative and easy to use travel guide site for locations around the world.

First you pick a destination from the map, and then you select the type of guide you’re looking for to the right. Your options are country, city, airport, attraction, cruise and weather guides.

If there is anything you need to know about a destination, like key facts, public holidays, climate, top things to see & do, getting around by air, water, rail or on the road, this is where your inquisitiveness will be served with details, details and more details, packed in excellent articles, decorated with nice photos.

Lonely Planet

When embarking on an exciting vacation, how could anyone miss out on the Lonely Planet?  This is the ultimate and meanwhile mainstream information resource to help you plan your trip.

The archives are huge and you’ll find tons of useful information, reviews, beautiful photos, and recommendations. Like on trivago you can search for hotels, but also for hostels and within the Travel Services you can find out about available insurances, tours, car & rail, view travel checklists (tips & tricks included) and much more.

As a signed up member of the site you can contribute to discussions in the forum. The forums are what really make the Lonely Planet homepage most unique. Here you can discuss your experiences, expectations or find company for your next adventure tour.

Although the Lonely Planet appears to cover it all, I found that World Travel Guide was more easy to use for tracking down information and InfoHub provided a much better selection of available trips. The point is, different sites are good for different purposes and each site has its pros and cons.

So are you serious about booking your vacation now? Last year Varun wrote about 5 Review Sites to Help You Find The Perfect Hotel and recently David covered 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip.

Which resources do you turn to for the perfect trip?

Picture credits: Zela

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

• (2)The Best Free Online International Travel Guides
• (10)Share Your Trips With EveryTrail
• (4)A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks
• (21)5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel
• (4)Travel The World with Hello Backpacker

Here are a bunch of websites that are diverse, interesting and even just quirky for anyone that is planning a trip or is simply a travel-addict.

MetrO – Public Transport Guide for your mobile phone

Métro is a free worldwide public transport guide can be used on the web and on most existing smart phones. Download the program for over 250 cities wordlwide and have an easy subway, bus and tram station guide rite on your phone. It lets you calculate travel time, major landmarks (in major cities), shortest distances and of-course travel direction between any stations.

Highlights include:

• - directions and information to major tourist attractions (in selected cities)
• - download maps to your phone for selected cities.
• - easy public transport search function between stops.
• - and lots more

In case you need a printable Metro map for a city you’re about to visit, also check out SubwayMap in MUO directory.

TripIt – Travel Itinerary planner

TripIt is a handy itinerary planner for those going on an independent trip. Simply forward your individual booking confirmations, reservation emails etc. TripIt recognizes these emails and creates a master itinerary that puts together all the individual pieces, provides extra information where appropriate (maps, weather information etc), enables the user to add notes and ultimately share and collaborate on this master itinerary with others.

For more details and a review see ‘TripIt: Travel Itinerary Planner and Organizer‘

ATMLocator – Global ATM locator

A free service from VISA that lets you instantly locate ATM cash machines in your vicinity. Simply select country and city name, enter pincode (optional) and get address details and map for each ATM. Also access it while on the move from any web-enabled device. Over 170 countries covered.

CyroFinders – Real-time worldwide flight arrival and departure information

Get real-time information on flight arrival and departures for all major airports in the world. View airport location on a map, check weather information, and more.

Yapta – Flight-ticket price tracker

Yapta is neat service that allows users to track the price of the flight-ticket that they want to purchase or have already purchased . For people yet to buy a ticket, Yapta allows you to purchase the ticket when prices drop. If you have already bought a ticket, Yapta still allows you to track and see if prices drop. Many airlines have policies that allow for travelers to get refunds/vouchers (of the price difference) if the price of the ticket that they have purchased drops.

See full features list @ Yapta: Get Refund on Flight Tickets

AirlineMeals – Huge directory of airline meals from around the world

Fascinating user-contributed database of airline meals (over 5000 images of airline meals). Users submit photographs, rate, provide meal details (airline, class of travel, flight details etc) for each meal. Browse meals by airline, peak into crew meals, special meals, meals from the past (1970’s, 80’s), behind the scene images, airport lounge meals etc.

SleepingInAirports – Guide for camping overnight or a few hours in an airport

Ever needed to camp overnight in an airport either out of low funds or simply bad flight connections? This is the perfect website for such a situation. Browse and read through brief overview of the airport along with user-submitted review on safety, facility, photos (where available), etc. A must for solo or women travelers who may have to experience such a situation. I personally have used it a couple of times when I had to camp overnight at airports ranging from Paris- Charles de Gaulle to Hamburg International airport and wanted to make sure that the airport even allows people to camp over.

SeatGuru – Extensive guide on airplane seating, in-flight amenities etc.

Provides detailed information or a seat map (best to worst seats on the plane), amenities (power chords, bathrooms, tv’s) for different aircraft models of over 40 different major commercial airlines. Simply select the airline followed by the aircraft model, and you are provided with general information on the airline (website, frequent flier partners etc) along with a seat map (you get a map of the seating structure of the plane- the best seats, what amenities are available on which seats etc).

TheBathroomDiaries- “Search the globe for a clean bathroom”

Submit, rate and search through over 12000 bathrooms across the globe, read about the world’s best-rated bathrooms etc. It gets even better, you can access the website rite from your cell phone. For readers based in the US, see MizPee.

Did we miss something? Let us know in comments. Enjoy!

Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers!

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