October 27, 2000

Conde Nast's 50 Essential Travel Web Sites

NEW YORK -- The magazine Conde Nast Traveler, noted for its surveys ranking hotels and resorts, has now come out with what it calls the "50 Essential Travel Web Sites."

"From adventure travel to shopping to the major booking sites, we've annotated the sites with pearls of wisdom that you don't dare leave home without," the magazine says. Some examples:

At travelsecrets.com, you can learn such things as how to increase your chances of having an empty seat next to you on your next flight: Claim to be excessively fat when making your reservation.

There's nothing new about checking out weather conditions in your destination, but leave it to Gazoontite.com to offer asthma and allergy sufferers an added bonus. Simply click on to Gazoontite Forecast for a briefing on how local conditions may affect your breathing, search for portable hypoallergenic products and locate tips on trips that are sniffle-free.

While your hotelier may be well-versed in the art of hospitality, his English skills may be sorely lacking. Open up the lines of communication in a snap with altavista.com. Alta Vista translates English into five popular languages -- French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish (and vice verse) and from Russian to English.

Little in life is guaranteed, but biztravel.com makes sure that flights arranged through this site for in-transit businessmen are. If a flight on one of biztravel.com's five leading carriers is canceled, you'll get a refund -- guaranteed. And there's even a sliding scale of compensation for flying's minor calamities, such as the $100 you'll pocket if your plane arrives 30 minutes late.

Previous columns:

• NW Folklife dinner, dance and auction, 10-20-2000
• Alaska Whalefest celebrates marine wildlife, 10-20-2000
• Creepy, crawly, disgusting and scary, 10-20-2000
• Norwegian Cruise Line has Hawaiian plans, 10-20-2000
• Fall festival of wines and microbrews, 10-20-2000