The following is a collection of Web links that I use very frequently, some even daily. I hope they will be of use to you as well. Travel Lonely Planet - Unquestionably, this is my favorite travel site. Having used LP guidebooks for years, I am equally committed to their web presence. Check out the Thorn Tree where you can post a travel question, whether out of curiosity or need, and you're almost certain to get an answer from someone who has either been there or done it before. One caveat: It's not especially useful for finding hotels. Africam - This site, which I've just recently discovered, allows you access to over a dozen webcams in South African game parks and reserves. If you're lucky, you'll see zebra, wildebeestes, elephants -- you name it -- in more or less real-time. Cams are set up at waterholes, near eagles' nests, hyena dens, etc. A GREAT site!!! Arab NET - Oman This links you to the Omani pages of ArabNet, which has lots of information on the entire Arab World. Asia Travel This is a great site for finding hotel accommodations throughout Asia. The Thai links are especially useful: often you'll find places that are offering deeply discounted rates to people booking over the 'Net. Best Air Fares This site is one of the best. Currency Calculator This Swiss-based site will convert virtually any currency to any other. Fast and seemingly accurate. After all, who knows more about money? Database of TravelHelpers This site is a great place to find people who either have traveled in, or live in, the place you're planning to visit. Just click on the name, your e-mail program will load, and you're ready to zap them a message. A guy in Estonia is even offering people a free place to stay... You can also sign up to help others as I have done. Escape Magazine This is an excellent, new travel e-zine that definitely deserves a read-through. Good links; interesting travelogues; lots of newsy bits. Frugal Travel News - This site offers tips on ways to save money while you're on the road. Definitely worth a look if you don't want to spend a fortune wherever you happen to be headed. Great Circle Route Calculator What's the shortest route between two points? Find out by using the calculator this link will take you to. Italian Tourist Web Guide - We used this before a trip to northern Italy last summer and were very pleased. Excellent links to half-way affordable accommodation throughout the country. Qatar-Info An excellent site for anyone planning a trip to Qatar. Written by British expatriates, it offers info on just about everything related to Qatar that the potential visitor or resident might want. Triangle Ranch B&B If you're ever in South Dakota and need a place that's a bit out of the ordinary to stay, check this out.   Favorite Search Engines Savvy Search A metasearch engine that submits your request to a good dozen other search engines at the same time. Google Despite its whimsical name, Google is remarkably good at sifting out the useless sites that many other engines will supply after a search request has been made. The interface is very simple and straightforward, so it's useful for inexperienced surfers as well. Many thanks to those brilliant guys at Stanford University (California) who put it together.   Northern Light Another first-rate search engine that is great at getting what you're actually looking for. Highly recommended. News Sources The Minneapolis Star-Tribune The principal newspaper in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis,-St. Paul, Minnesota (USA) Check out the thermometer in winter. Brrrrrrrrr.... The Washington Post Liberal newspaper in Washington, DC The Electronic Telegraph The on-line version of the London Daily Telegraph. Conservative political outlook, but a very with-it website. Not given to exaggeration. In a word: staid but reliable. The BBC The news service of the British Broadcasting Corporation is generally considered to be one of the world's best. The site isn't as glitzy as CNN's but it's certainly as thorough. The Economist Somewhat analogous to Time and Newsweek, this British news magazine is an excellent source for news analysis. American readers please note: A "leader" in British parlance is an editorial. If you call it up, you may be disappointed to discover that not all articles are on-line. The Guardian A superbly written newspaper originally based in Manchester, The Guardian is rather left-wing. American readers should note, however, that it is often very critical of US policy. You may also sense that some writers seem to go out of their way to make anti-American digs when they can. That said, it's still one of the world's best newspapers and should be required reading by anyone who wants to hear all sides of a question. The Khaleej Times This is unquestionably the best English language newspaper published in the Gulf. Based in Dubai (UAE), it offers good coverage of the region and the rest of the world as well. Its Subcontinent (India/Pakistan/Bangladesh) coverage is second to none, possibly because most of its reporting and editorial staff hails from there. And its editorials are worth a read, too, though they are sometimes uncomfortable for Western readers. For anyone who wishes to keep up with news in this part of the world, this paper is a "must". The Kosova Crisis News Center This site offers up-to-the-minute information on the Kosova crisis from the Albanian side. You can sign up for e-mailed updates. There's a lot more detail here than I've found in the regular media -- especially in terms of first-person accounts of the horrors. It's depressing, if very timely. The Oman Observer This is the web address for one of the two English language newspapers in the Sultanate of Oman. The Times (UK) The venerable London Times. Excellent international news section. Check out the Court page where the official appointments of the Royal Family are cataloged. The Drudge Report Often denigrated as a Web-based tabloid writer, Matt Drudge has successfully scooped many of the major papers. Besides his own interesting if sometimes rather over-the-top report, he provides a first-rate list of web links to newspaper and broadcast news sources, not to mention an exhaustive list of columnists. Neue Zürcher Zeitung - English Page (Zürich, Switzerland) The Neue Zürcher Zeitung is my all-time favorite newspaper, and offers a well-translated, though somewhat truncated, English version. It's remarkably unbiased and fair to everyone, yet its editors are quite happy to call a spade a spade when the need arises. Highly recommended. Not especially rich graphically, it downloads quickly. The Paper Boy A gigantic listing of newspapers from all over the world, though it's best for the US and Canada. If the paper has a website, it's almost bound to be here. The Philip Pioneer Review (South Dakota, USA) My hometown weekly newspaper. Good for a peak into small-town life in the Upper Midwest. Photographic Sites Mountain Light - Galen Rowell - Check this gallery out. Rowell, a world-class mountain climber, is a superb photographer and, hands-down, my favorite. Check out his gallery, where you'll find some of the best mountain photos you have ever seen. Highly recommended. Netlook Magazine - Excellent on-line photo mag. Orazio Centaro's Art Images on the Web - Centaro is a talented Italian photographer, who has put together an interesting collection of images of various 20th century photographers. Computers, Software, and Web Design Cybercafe Guide - This is an index of cybercafes throughout the world. As inveterate travelers, we have found access to the Internet a Godsend. Before we leave on a trip, we check this site out to find out if there's a cybercafe in any of the cities we intend to visit. It's just a matter of noting them down, and off we go, secure in the knowledge that we'll have a way of getting on the Web. Microtek.com - The company web site of the firm that produced my nifty X6el scanner that produced all the images on my site. Beyond descriptions of the Microtek line, it also has links to scanning tutorial websites, which I'm finding extremely useful. .Net Magazine - This UK-based Internet magazine is one of the best around. It covers most Internet subject areas from web design to ways to fight spam. It also rates web sites, and always has good lists of new sites that are of interest. Great tips on surfing techniques as well. Tucows - HUGE collection of downloadable software of every imagineable variety. Lots of shareware and freeware. And it has dozens of mirror sites from which you can download at speed. Photoshop Tips by Joel Abrahamsson - Great collection of tips and tricks to use with Photoshop 1001 Downloads - Another huge collection of software and what-not   Food, Cooking & Miscellaneous Stuff Prejean's This great Louisiana restaurant has an amazing collection of Cajun recipes. Take a look! Sultan Qaboos University - Have a look at where I work.

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