From the Home Office, the Top 10 List for Most Useful Websites for the Traveler

Not sure what we ever did before Al Gore invented the Internet ? Seriously, the WWW has been a lifesaver for us, both living overseas as well as traveling. For those of you might be packing those summer vacation bags, hitting the beach with a good book, or heading for the road trip, here are the Hachie Gal's top 10 most useful sites for the traveler:

#10 - http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ - Need to know the time in another country, or when is the best time to call your overseas friend? Check out this site....

#9 - http://www.oanda.com/ and http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html
This is a tie. For those of you who are “currency conversion challenged”, the first site converts to and from all traded currencies, even that pesky Turkish Lira. For those of you who are “metrically challenged”, the second site converts to and from metrics for all types of things. And while we are on the subject, can someone tell me why the US is not using the metric system? It sure would make my life easier if I knew more than how to convert 5Ks, 10Ks, and marathons to and from the metric system.

#8 - http://www.state.gov/ - Not sure of the travel conditions in another country? What about any travelers’ advisories for this country? The US Government not only lists all the advisories by date published, but also includes general information on each country, listing of embassies, travel and safety precautions, etc.

#7 - http://www.weather.com/ - The weather channel goes international! Gotta know whether you need to pack an umbrella or sunscreen....

#6 - https://metoc.npmoc.navy.mil/jtwc.html - Don’t laugh but this site is quite useful, particularly for those of you who either live in (like we did in Taipei) or will be traveling to an area that is prone hurricanes, typhoons, and tropical storms. This site is maintained by the US Navy but tracks storms globally through GPS. Really cool graphics that show not only the storm’s current path, but also the forecasted path and time and date storm hits land. Cruise fanatics take heed.

#5 - http://www.cdc.gov/travel/ - Need to know what shots to get before traveling? Curious whether the water is safe to drink in a particular country? What are the medical facilities like in the country I will be visiting? The Center for Disease Control can answer these questions and more.

#4 - http://travel.yahoo.com/ - Need a crash course in the tourist highlights of a particular destination? The search "by city name" or by clicking on the "world map by region" is especially useful.

#3 - http://www.bestfares.com/home.asp - Looking for that deal on air, hotel, car rental, or the all-inclusive package? This site can help, but be aware that to get many of these deals requires that you become a member of Best Fares. I have found it more useful for domestic travel than for international travel....

#2 - http://www.mapquest.com/ - I always need directions…this site is great. I can even get a lot of directions for international destinations.

#1 – no URL – if you are going on vacation, you won’t need your PC or and you shouldn’t be surfing the web…..