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The Virgin Internet Travel Guide (Virgin Internet
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Do we need travel agents any more? Not according to The Virgin Internet Travel Guide. With the Internet has come “the opportunity for everybody, whether or not they have their own PC, to cut out the middleman and make their own travel bookings directly,” writes author Davey Winder. His book, however, covers much more than holiday booking online. There are sections on finding general travel information (eg exchange rates or weather), activity holidays (eg cycling, whale-watching), luxury travel and resources for long-haul travellers like cyber cafe locations and Web discussion forums. The longest section is a country-by-country listing of sites with local information, ranging from government-sponsored sites to unofficial sites full of experienced travellers’ tips.
Following the fashion in Internet guides, the book is small–pocket-sized–but the listings are sufficiently detailed. There are 2-4 line reviews of most sites listed, which are informative if somewhat chirpy (here’s the review of Virgin Atlantic’s site: “A very snazzy, well very red actually, Web site–and excellent online booking and information resources”). The author has dug up sites with information on countries from Libya (a personal audio greeting from Colonel Qaddafi)to Micronesia. The first two sections cover Internet basics, which seems an unnecessary inclusion, since anyone seeking to learn to use the Internet has most likely already bought a beginners’ guide. The lack of an index of sites makes looking up a specific travel site difficult. Still, there’s a wealth of information here: travel agents beware.–Kathleen Keefe
The Virgin Internet Travel Guide (Virgin Internet Guide)
