Route 66 University

Looking to earn your stripes as a true road warrior on a road trip down Route 66, the Main Street of America? Then you might want to get yourself a quick education at Route 66 University (www. route66university.com). A good place to start is at Route 66 University’s Trip Planner. Here you’ll find a checklist of all the necessities for a fun Route 66 trip. Interestingly enough, it also includes a list of things not to bring (biases, doubts, and hang-ups, for example). There is also a link to weather conditions for nine major Route 66 cities.
You’d be remiss to accidentally skip out on a frozen custard from Ted Drewes’ in St. Louis or a good night’s rest at the Wigwam Village Motel in Rialto, Calif. Click the Businesses link to find information on these and several other must-visit sites on Route 66.
Click the Maps link to access maps for each state Route 66 runs through (Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and
California). Some of the maps are in PDF format, so you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. Of course, you might also want to know ahead of time about notable experiences other travelers have had on Route 66. Click the Study 66 link to find photo tours, essays, and current news articles. If you want to visit with other Route 66 enthusiasts, click the Community link and log in to find forums, private messaging, and more.

Roadside America

What exactly is a “Muffler Man,” and where is the World’s Largest Sassafras Tree? You’ll find answers to these questions and more at Roadside America (www.roadsideamerica.com). The site’s owners/authors Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, and Mike Wilkins, continuously update the site, which is loaded with features that will guide you to every roadside attraction under the sun. Click the US Map link to access The Electric Map of the United States of

America, which makes it easy for you to find unique attractions in every state of the Union. Just click any state on the map and see what you find. (At random, we decided to see what attractions South Dakota had to offer. We were delighted to discover the International Vinegar Museum, located in Roslyn.) The Electric Map also includes links to video, globally significant attractions, a who’s who of roadside attraction creators, and a guide to, uh, dead animals (“America’s greatest animals, buried, mounted, and stuffed”).

In the What’s New section, you’ll find up-to-date reviews of the most recent discoveries made by the Roadside America editors. Each review contains a lengthy description of the attraction, pictures, directions, business hours, phone numbers, and other pertinent information. (FYI: If you’re planning your long-awaited trip to the Mystery Hole in Ansted, W.Va., be sure you wait until April. The Hole is closed from November through March.) You’ll also find a list of nearby communities; click the name of a town to find a list of hotels and motels. After you return from your trip, go to the Latest Tips section and submit any fun facts or annoying experiences you had at a specific roadside attraction. Let other travelers know why the best time to visit the aptly named Antler Arches of

Jackson, Wyo., is between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and why visitors to the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument near Kearney, Neb., shouldn’t pull over on I-80 to take pictures.

Lonely Planet

Travel is an excellent way to foster respect and understanding between people of different cultures throughout the world, and the creators of the popular Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet .com) guidebooks have embraced this philosophy wholeheartedly since the 1970s. At the Lonely Planet Web site, you’ll find a wealth of information that not only points out cool places to visit worldwide, but also teaches you a thing or two about the people who live there. One of the site’s most useful features is its WorldGuide. Click this link, and the site prompts you to click the region and country you’re interested in. A wealth of information displays; our search for Fiji in the Pacific Islands revealed historical data, weather, cultural information, links to images and transport information, and more.

If you are uncertain or want to learn more about the types of vacations you could take, Lonely Planet has compiled several Theme Guides. Themes include travel standards such as Beaches, Honeymoons, and History, as well as more adventurous topics such as Safari,

Twilight Zone, and Fatal Attractions. Clicking any of these themes will present you with links to articles about interesting locations pertaining to the theme. (For example, you’ll find information about the Bermuda Triangle in the Twilight Zone theme and Paris in the Honeymoons theme.) Despite all their many adventures, the folks at Lonely Planet aren’t by any means content to while away their days at home. They’re still hitting the road, and you can follow along with them in the On The Road section. Here you’ll find blogs maintained by Lonely Planet authors as they travel; as of press time, you could read up on their experiences in Kaua’i, El Salvador, New Zealand, Nigeria, Colombia, and Russia.

CouchSurfing.com

Sometimes the best trips are the cheapest ones. As much fun as it would be to stay five nights in a Bellagio lakeview suite for a Las Vegas vacation, sometimes we have to live on a budget. But who says that can’t be just as fun? Enter CouchSurfing.com (www.couchsurfing.com). This unique site lets you find free accommodations . . . at the

homes of residents who live in the area you want to visit. Of course, it might sound risky to stay in the home of a complete stranger. That’s why CouchSurfing.com ensures

that every potential host you meet is vouched for or verified as “safe.”

Here’s how it works: You’ve decided you want to make a trip to Vegas in a couple months’ time and would rather spend your money at the poker table than the hotel check in. First, you’ll register free as a member at Couch-Surfing.com and then run a search for members in Las Vegas, Nev. Your search reveals the profiles of prospective hosts.

You contact three or four of them, introduce yourself, explain what your plans are, how many people will be traveling with you, and so on. When you feel you’ve found a comfortable match, all you need to do is confirm your plans with your host, hop in a plane to Vegas, and meet your new friend at the airport.

He’ll show you to your accommodations, which just happen to be in walking distance from “The Strip.”

And it’s all free. As a good guest, you may want to offer to help your hosts in any way you can, perhaps simply by taking them out to dinner, helping out with some yard work, providing some good conversation, or even offering to host them on their own vacation.

In return you might find that not only did you find a great place to stay, but you also made some great new friends who happen to know every cool local hangout in the Las Vegas area. Of course, CouchSurfing.com isn’t just limited to Vegas. You can find CouchSurfers in 169 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, who speak 135 global languages, from Abkhazian to Zulu.