When the feet begin to itch, it’s a sure sign that travel thoughts are not far away. With a plethora of websites and travel guides to consult, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start planning your next trip. Here are some travel websites that make it easy to see and experience the world the smart way.

Worldtravelguide.net

Want a heads up on what the visa regulations are for visitors to Thailand, how much duty free you can bring into or from Australia, what the main sights are in Vietnam or when the best time of year to go to Sri Lanka is? It’s all available here, and quickly searchable by country or region. The site also lists contact details for embassies and tourist boards so, if you’re sceptical of any answers, it’s easy enough to double check.

Seatguru.com

Aisle or window? This site takes your inflight choices to a more sophisticated level, giving seating plans for most airlines’ fleets of planes and information on things like which places have storage boxes under them, which have the most leg room and which are nearest to the toilets or aligned with an exit. Handy if you’re checking in online and want to put your name on the best seats.

Seat61.com

One to bookmark if you’re trying to avoid travelling by air, or you just want to find out how to get from A to B overland. Mark Smith’s cult website – named after his favourite Eurostar seat – is a helpful worldwide journey planning tool for train and boat travel. You can find out just about everything you need to know to organise a journey (there are even photos of most trains on most routes). The only thing it doesn’t do is sell tickets, but it tells you how to do that and contains all the relevant links.

Tripadvisor.com

The idea here is a good one – members of the public post up personal, unbiased reviews of accommodation, restaurants and so on, producing listings by destination according to popularity. No longer can pesky hotels post up pictures of palatial rooms on its website and then check you into a shoebox, because the real deal will be there for all to see here. The catch is that there’s no accounting for taste. I’ve stayed in gorgeous places that have been slated on this site and vice versa. There have also been reports of some people posting glowing reviews of their own businesses.

( Trip Happy references: “The 50 Best Travel Websites”, independent.co.uk, 14 March 2009, http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/the-50-best-travel-websites-1644467.html)

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