Incredibly useful websites for travellers & tourists.

[Mrs Magpie]

OK. Short description and links to good sites please. Just found this gem on the BBC. They have a podcast to take away.

Learn and take these essential phrases in 40 languages with you on your mp3 player and as a print-out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/quickfix/

 

[craigxcraig]

Before leaving for South America, a friend recommended Coffee Break Spanish, numerous podcasts all for free - from beginner to advanced.

The also do other languages: http://radiolingua.com/

 

[Crispy]

http://wikitravel.org/en/Main_Page#b
Wikitravel - written by travellers as they travel, so can be more up to date than the guide books

 

[boohoo]

Virtual Tourist

I always look at the bits about tourist traps and off the beaten track.

 

[pinkmonkey]

If only I'd known about these sites at the time.

I wish I'd known about this site before I booked us flights on Kuwait airlines (completely dry flight, broken seats and rude staff).

http://www.airlinequality.com/

I wish I'd read this website, before I booked a room in this dreadful knocking shop of a hotel. I've linked to my review, I post there as Monkeypink

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187849-d568336-Reviews-Arco_Hotel-Milan_Lombardy.html

Ok, hotels do plant their own reviews on these sites but they're so bleeding obvious. I still don't read it enough, but it probably saved me from being robbed when I discovered another hotel I was staying in was notorious for staff thefts from rooms.

This next site is really useful if you need a quick currency exchange ready reckoner -especially if you business travel and have to convert your currency for your expenses (like I do)

http://www.xe.com/

I love this blog http://www.travel-rants.com/

 

[craigxcraig]

I wish I'd known about this site before I booked us flights on Kuwait airlines (completely dry flight, broken seats and rude staff).



I wish I'd read this website, before I booked a room in this dreadful knocking shop of a hotel. I've linked to my review, I post there as Monkeypink

[URL="http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187849-d568336-Reviews-Arco_Hotel-Milan_Lombardy.html"]http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187849-d568336-Reviews-Arco_Hotel-Milan_Lombardy.html

Ok, hotels do plant their own reviews on these sites but they're so bleeding obvious. I still don't read it enough, but it probably saved me from being robbed when I discovered another hotel I was staying in was notorious for staff thefts from rooms.

Trip Advisor and Agoda used together is a great resource for finding decent and cheap hotels.

 

[pinkmonkey]

http://www.onebag.com/

This site has loads of tips for those of you that fly on budget airlines where they charge you £50 overweight surcharge if you bring more than a pair of pants in a carrier bag.