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One of the most common reasons for people to use the
internet is to help them travel around and to book holidays.
There are many ways in which the internet can help with finding
our way to places, looking at places that we might want to get
to and booking holidays - whether they be cheap, expensive,
singles holidays, activity holidays or any other form of
holiday.
Travelling Around
Making the Most of the Internet links
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Many people have a satellite navigation system in their car
in order to help them navigate their way to places. There's
nothing wrong with this and it can be of enormous help. Many
people haven't, of course, and even if we have sat nav, like
any other technology, it can go wrong. Therefore, it's a good idea
to have an alternative system for finding our way around and
this is where the internet can help. Go to
Google maps, which
is excellent for getting directions both in map form and in
writing if you prefer. You type in where you're starting from,
either as a post code or street name, and the same for your
destination and you get a map and written directions that you
can print off.
If you want a location map of any area, you can get one from
either:
- The
Ordnance Survey, where you just type in a postcode or
street name and a map of the area will come up
- Streetmap,
which is similar to the Ordnance Survey and you can even
have maps downloaded to your phone - if you use O2.
If we are travelling somewhere and want an overview of our
destination or, indeed, of anywhere in the world, we can download
Google Earth onto our computer. Go into
Google (or your own
preferred search engine), type in 'Google
Earth' and you will be able to download it free. Once you have
it, you can find any location in the UK or the world, see the
interesting places in the locality and see its location.
Holidays
Planning our holidays, whether we want to do it ourselves or
get someone to help us, is something that we can do on the
internet very effectively. All the help that we could possibly
want is to be found there. That's not to say that we should
necessarily ignore other sources of holidays but the internet
should certainly form part of our shopping around.
(See the page on Shopping Around by clicking on the link in the
box.)
The first thing you might want to do is to have a look at
Laterlife's
Travel and Holidays section. If you intend going on holiday
alone, then go to the
Guide to Holidaying Alone, where you will find links to
companies that specialise in holidays for single people, tips
for going away on your own and lots more.
There is a wealth of help for us if we are planning a
holiday, whether we want to do it yourself or go through a
travel company.
Doing it Yourself
If we're planning a holiday abroad then
the two elements that we need to organise are the travelling
and the accommodation.
Travelling
For organising the travelling, we can either go to a website
that will compare lots of different airlines (if you're flying,
of course!) or we can go directly to a specific airline. For
comparison websites, try:
All four will also provide hotels and car hire
- lastminute.com
- which will do the same as the others plus find theatre
tickets, seats in restaurants and a host of other things
Specific airline sites include:
There are, of course, many others but these are just a few to
try out. The latter two are, of course, budget airlines which
people seem to either love or hate. There is no doubt, however,
that they have transformed European travel. It is now possible
to have a European break very cheaply thanks to the budget
airlines and the internet.
We can book a cheap flight over the internet and then
book accommodation also on the internet, which usually means
it's cheaper than going through a travel agent. In order to book
accommodation, we can do the following:
Accommodation
- Go to one of the websites mentioned above under
Travelling
- Go to Google and type in something like 'Hotels in' plus
your destination. You will then be able to click on the
websites of all those that you think look of interest to
you.
Travel Companies
If the holiday you're planning is quite
complex, with lots of different flights and locations, you might
well feel that it's better for the experts to do it for you. If
this is the case you can, of course, go to a high street travel
agent who will be only too delighted to help. However, the
internet should be part of shopping around . There are a number
of very good travel agents that you can access over the
internet. They include:
For something closer to home, companies like
Warner Breaks offer adult only breaks that may suit us if we
want a less stressful holiday!
If you would like to find a specialist travel agent, go to
the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA)
website and you'll find whatever you require there.
If you want to be able to book holidays, see what other
people think about various destinations and be part of a debate
about holidays, try:
Finally, if you would like to take an activity or learning
break go to
www.timetolearn.org.uk . You will find hundreds of breaks that
cover almost any subject you care to think of.
You may have your own thoughts and ideas about your holidays
but if you take a browse around some of the websites mentioned
here, it will give you some idea about the vast range of
holidays that are available. You can then extend your research
to other sites until you find your perfect holiday.
You can do your research through typing in the relevant words
into Google or your own
search engine. You can then put the web sites
you think you'll use regularly into your favourites so that
you're only a click away.
Now take a look at the rest of the Guide, by clicking on the
links in the box, to see how else you can make the most of the
internet.
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