BKETRAVL.RVW   20000119

"Sams Teach Yourself E-Travel Today", Mark Orwoll, 2000,
0-672-31822-9, U$17.99/C$26.95/UK#12.99
%A   Mark Orwoll askmark@amexpub.com
%C   201 W. 103rd Street, Indianapolis, IN   46290
%D   2000
%G   0-672-31822-9
%I   Macmillan Computer Publishing (MCP)
%O   U$17.99/C$26.95/UK#12.99 800-858-7674 317-581-3743 info@mcp.com
%P   302 p.
%T   "Sams Teach Yourself E-Travel Today"

This guide would appear to be aimed primarily at those who are
completely comfortable with the Internet, but are totally new to
travel planning.  There isn't much material on the net and its tools,
but more pointers of the "oh yes, you will want to find out this type
of information" type.

Part one starts out with basic facts.  Chapter one is a sampling of
travel tools on Web sites, starting out with the suggestion that you
learn how to use a search engine.  (On your own.)  How to bookmark Web
sites is explained in chapter two.  That might be just a tad
patronizing, but chapter three's points on how to evaluate the
reliability of a Web site are actually very good.  Chapter four
introduces the major tour guide sites.  Web sites for foreign
newspapers are mentioned as a good source of pre-travel info in
chapter five, but Orwoll doesn't mention the fact that a very large
number of foreign radio stations now also broadcast over the net. 
Government tourism sites are discussed in chapter six.

Part two outlines the process of planning a vacation.  Chapter seven
gives you a quiz to determine what kind of traveller you are, although
this doesn't seem to have an awful lot of relevance to the rest of the
book.  Chapter eight is a bit odd, and it tersely reprises a look at a
couple of search engines.  Unusual sources of information, such as the
US State Department, the CIA World Factbook, and personal travel
sites, are suggested in chapter nine.  The sites in chapter ten seem
to have been chosen almost randomly.  There is limited information on
weather and events in chapter eleven.

Part three looks at booking travel online, with respective chapters
discussing online travel agents, travel planning tools, hotels,
airfare (with very good tips), rail, car rentals, and sea transport.

Part four deals with other travel preparations.  Chapter nineteen
covers taking your laptop along, but doesn't mention such areas as
taking along proof of purchase, electrical adapters, and phone systems
and adapters (for modems).  There are sites you can use to obtain
information about required documents, discussed in chapter twenty. 
Digital cameras are recommended in chapter twenty one.  Chapter twenty
two closes with miscellaneous travel tips.

There is a lot of joking around in the writing, to very little
purpose.  The humour does not really support the material under
discussion, and even detracts a bit at times.  The Internet content is
fairly limited, and I found it a bit surprising how few Web sites were
included, among the thousands that are out there.  On the other hand,
Orwoll does seem to go for quality.

For those new to travel planning, this book should provide some
valuable and useful suggestions.  But you'll have to do a lot of work
yourself.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 2000   BKETRAVL.RVW   20000119