Top Travel Web Sites - 2005 by Andy of Hobotraveler.com

	TOP TRAVEL SITES 2005 DESCRIPTION and LINK	RANKING 2004	RANKING 2003	RANKING 2002	RANKING 2001

1	WIKIPEDIA.ORG http://www.wikipedia.org	No Ranked	2003 - 1	2002 - 2	2001 No Rank
FACTS - MAPS - DESTINATIONS Facts and data, information is King. Wikipedia.org has entered the game, it is a reader edited and created Encyclopedia of information in many language and for everyone to use for free. I personally first use the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia installed on my computer first, then will by design go to the Wiki Encyclopedia online, however it is normal for me to see them in a top search results in Google.com. This is good, I do not have to hunt for them, they are trying to find me. The hit a home run when I discovered a well compiled and complete list of LCC - Low Cost Carriers - These are the cheapest of the cheap airlines, and NOT listed or sold normally by travel agents, you will not find these airlines in Orbitz, Travelocity or Expedia.com. However you will find them in the WIKI - Wikipedia.org
2	GOOGLE.COM http://www.google.com	2004 - 3	2003 - 2	2002 Not Listed	2001 Not Listed
SEARCH I am a googler, I trust google.com, they are trying to help me first, then they make money, service and my best interest before money They climbed from the number three Top Travel Sites to number two because of some great new toys. However they are doing the world a great service this year by scanning and providing complete books on the internet. I discovered they have GUIDEBOOKS scanned and available for me to see. http://books.google.com The Google.com/alerts is wonderful research tool. I have some pre-set searches and daily I receive emails of information I am monitoring, it seems to work best in tandom with Google.com free email Gmail.com. http://google.com/alerts
3	WHC.UNESCO.ORG World Heritage List http://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31 http://whc.unesco.org	2004 - 2	2003 - 2	2002 - #	2001 - Not Listed
PLAN YOUR TRIP - DESTINATIONS - MAPS A list of over 800 of the significant culture and historical locations on the planet. There mapping has improved, however the site is overly techie done, great for a nerd, with a great computer, however completely invisible to the search engines. Horribly made, however once you find it great. You must BOOKMARK the site, remember to go look, like most of the United Nations information and they are truly a great source of information, you much go and find it, they will not find you. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage List
4	CIA - The World Factbook 2002 http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/	2004 - 4	2003 - 3	2002 - 3	2001 Not Listed
FACTS - MAPS - SAFETY Great raw data and facts - A Map, the Flag, the population, type of government, a few warnings, etc., a specific way to discover the underlying details that help you to understand the why of a country. This site will help you to understand how to stay safe. It is well constructed and made to be found in the search engines.
5	VIRTUALTOURIST.COM http://www.virtualtourist.com	2004 - 10	2003 - 10	2002 Not Listed	2001 Not Listed
DESTINATIONS - FACTS - HOTELS A wanna be Virtual Guide, they are not yet, however again and again this site invade my world. They are a world-class site, one of the very few, a real exception, they are trying to be a guide for the whole planet and not just the easy countries like the USA or Europe. This year I went to Niger to see the problems with Malnutrition, the prior year I was in Iraq, this site was a leader in my search for information about Visa, Rooms, or to me screaming, I need help. Take care, this is a site to make money, however half and half, it is not a replacement to the paper guidebooks it is a second opinion.
6	EMPTY - LOST AND NOT FOUND A Marker - Left as a Protest	Who	When	Where	Why
HOTELS - A protest and shame on you to all the Accommodations sites. Find a Mom and Pop site that has some recommendations, the small guy, made because he or she knows how to make a webpage. I have reserved and left one empty spot, the unknown, yet to be created Hotel or Hostel Information and Reservation site. To find a room on the internet is scary, I am presently off to explore the extremely expensive Caribbean Island, I wish to hop from Island to Island, the paper guidebooks are scarce and difficult to buy, not to mention too heavy to carry for the many Island and 20 plus countries. However it will take hours to find a good value Hotel or Room in the Caribbean. I will not trust any of these gougers, the sites that say, give up, you have to be rich to travel in the Caribbean, if you care about a good value, go fish.
7	ABOUT.COM http://www.about.com/travel/ http://www.about.com	2004 - 6	2003 - 4	2002 - 1	2001 - 1
FACTS - SEARCH - MAPS - NEWSLETTERS This is a great site to find the top pages on a specific travel subject. If you want to go to Bolivia and want some down to earth information and without the hyperbole this is the place. Note that I also recommend you subscribe to newsletters offered, About.com has good moderated recommendations of sites, a place to find the Mom and Pop sites, the best links on any subject. It is clustered and confusing when it comes to finding the the travel specific information, but once you understand this site it probably has more information than the ones above.
8	FORBES.COM - Travel Section http://www.forbes.com/bow/b2c/section.jhtml?id=3	2004 - 5	2003 - #	2002 - #	2001 - Not Listed
DIRECTORY OF TRAVEL SITES Forbes.com is a huge site and these pages can only be found by people looking very hard, I stumbled on them by accident. But they have paid people to collect the best travel sites on the internet. So if you are looking for a great directory of good sites on various travel related subjects. This is a great source or the place to start, they do not appear to have an agenda.
9	HTTP://THORNTREE.LONELYPLANET.COM http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com	2004 - 7	2003 - 7	2002 Not Listed	2001 Not Listed
FORUM - ASK QUESTIONS - (Warning! Lots of BULLAT#%*) The Lonely Planet is one of the worlds largest guidebook publishers, but I am not recommending this site as a guidebook, I want you to visit the Readers Forum called the Thorntree. I offer this as a top travel site with a serious warning to be careful. I want you to visit their forum that allows you to ask personal questions and other readers will post answers, but please take care as there are often tour operators and obnoxious readers hanging around causing problems, but if you are going to the end of the earth and there is no guidebook this may be the only place you find guidance.
10	JOHNNYJET.COM http://www.johnnyjet.com	9	2003 - 9	2002 - 4	2001 - 2
AIRPLANES - TRANSPORTATION - PORTAL Johnny is the collector. He collects all the links you need to book airplane tickets or enjoy your trip so you do not need to hunt for sites. This is an airfare sales site with a personal touch. JohnnyJet.com has left the USA, he is now going to some fun places like FIJI or Thailand, or Europe, the newsletters now are best read with a good connection and online.

JUST FOR FUN SITES

?	MOSTTRAVELEDMAN.COM http://www.mosttraveledman.com	2004 - Not	2003 - Not	2002 - Not	2001 - Not
This many has gone to more countries than any person I know, his list of all the areas of the world is great.
	TravelersCenturyClub.org http://www.travelerscenturyclub.org
This is a club of person who have gone to over 100 countries.


	E-MAIL UPDATES OR NOTIFICATIONS: Sent to your e-mail box.
I receive emails from world news, tips and travel warnings. A great way to be notified when the world changes, and stay away from civil wars... or find them. Travel Warning Alerts By Andy of HoboTraveler.com NOTE: I am reading all the alerts and sending as they come in, however I may be two days behind on very current issues.
1	Canada Travel Warning http://www.voyage.gc.ca/main/sos/ci/all-en.asp Sign up for this one, probably the best.		Not	2002 - Not	2001 - Not
2	Travel Warning by USA Government. http://travel.state.gov/travel/warnings.html	2004 - 1	2003 - 1	2002	2001 - Not
2	CNN.COM NEWS UPDATES Go to site and look for news updates. http://www.cnn.com	2004 - 2	2003 - 2	2002	2001 - Not
4	BBC.CO.UK http://www.bbc.co.uk/email The BBC of England has added a nice news report you can receive in your box.	2004 - 3	2003 Not Listed	2002 - NA	2002 - NA
5	Yahoo Alerts http://alerts.yahoo.com They will send you an annoying amount of news updates, however for sure you will know.	Not	Not	Not	Not
The popular belief among travelers is that all of these updates by email are full of crap. Please read offline materials for the accurate information. But these sources are good starting points to keep you aware.

Mentioned	HOSTELWORLD.COM http://www.hostelworld.com	2004 - 8	2003 - 5	2002 - 6	2001 Not Listed
HOTELS AND HOSTELS This site is great, but losing ground fast as they have allowed NON- Hostel type properties to enter. Take warning, use this site, but there are lots of cheaper hostels available and these are not the cheapest. But this is a great source and a great guide to know about, and sometimes a place to book a room. I used only this site to book room in the past year.. How much is a cheap room in Katmandu, Nepal? A search engine of "Budget Hotels" for the world that allows you to make reservations with the cheap sleeps. This site helps the small hotel compete with the large chains and you should keep you eye on this site. I have used the service and recommend because I believe it one of the best. This reservations system is for anyone, and not just backpackers.

MENTIONED	TOPICA.COM http://www.topica.com	2003 - 8	2002 - 10	2001 Not Listed
LEARNING - SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTERS This is a site to find newsletters to subscribe to, or a place to publish your personal newsletter. Newsletters are the easiest and best way to research a subject. A good newsletter will collect and give you digested materials, with what is NEW or News inside the letter. I choose a few newsletters on a subject a year in advance and read the letters from the writers. Topica.com is my choice and helps me avoid receiving junk mail. Yahoogroups.com is a good source and worth mentioning, but Topica.com is my favorite. I use Topica.com for my travel newsletters, but also have some mirrors in Yahoogroups.com. I worry about Yahoogroups.com will try to hard to sell and this is distracting and sometimes annoying for the reader.

MENTIONED	MAP SEARCH http://www.nationalgeographic.com or http://www.google.com	2003 - 6	2002 - 7	2001 - 18
MAPS This section is having the most trouble as the computers in the internet cafes cannot handle the best sites. There are some really good java and flash sites available but still impossible to use by the average travelers while on the road. I still recommend you look at National Geographic for an overview, then search in Google.com for the map you need. Note: Buy a great country map from home and bring with you, they do not sell them on the road.

MENTIONED	ESCAPEARTIST.COM http://www.escapeartist.com	2002 - 5	2002 - 3
For the person that wants to leave home and never return. This is for the expatriate, the investor, or for the person wanting to retire overseas. A portal of information for people that live, work, and hide offshore.
MENTIONED	RANDY JOHNSON'S PERSONAL PAGE or RANDY'S HOME PAGE http://www.ease.com/~randyj/bestlist.htm http://www.ease.com/~randyj/index.html	2002 - 8	2002 - 4
I like this page. This guy has been everywhere. Although obviously made by him for him. It provides the personal introspection of a true traveler, and sets a tone or voice to understand the future of travel.
MENTIONED	AIRTREK.COM http://www.airtrek.com	2002 - 9	2002 - Not Listed
On the cutting edge of airfare booking services. This site understands the budget traveler and is trying to give you the necessary tools to book a flight anywhere in the world. With around the world tickets and open Jaw, this ticket sales site understands that on a trek we do come home the same way we went.