Resources

The following sites will be very valuable as you plan your European vacation. Be sure to explore them carefully. You’ll be amazed at some of the great information you’ll have right at your fingertips. Happy hunting!

Visit Europe The Official Gateway to Europe It's a great, user-friendly site that contains quality, updated information and links to each country’s official Website. Don’t miss the links from the home page to basic information on planning your trip and special interests! They will save you a lot of time planning! What annual events occur during the summer that you might want to attend? Will the weather change much if you travel in June or August?

Columbus Travel Guides

You will be very happy when you dive into Columbus Guides’ site full of all sorts of useful features, including the mini-guides you can create! Choose your country, and decide exactly which features you would like in your Mini Guide. You can even send the personalized Mini Guide to a friend, say your teammate.

Don’t miss the section on worldwide tourist attractions! At the top of each screen, you’ll see a menu bar with Attractions on the far right. You can find out background information as well as price, hours, address, and directions. Very handy indeed!

Columbus Guides also publishes City Guides.

Geographia Click on the Europe link on the left side. It’s a beautiful site containing information on Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Russia and Sweden. The information varies for each country but is worth exploring. Geographia is limited in the European countries it profiles; it has links on the left side of the page to the VisitEurope.com page for each other country. Check it out!

Travelocity is a sort of online travel agency. You'll find airline tickets and hotel rooms, as well as vacation packages all at discounted prices. It's easy to use, and checks most of the major airlines for the best deals on flights. The hotels are usually reasonable, too, but Travelocity does not find all the hotels in any city. Don't miss out on the Guides and Destinations portion of the site, which can be accessed easily by clicking on the tab at the top of any page.

Expedia is very similar to Travelocity. Compare prices on flights, hotels, and vacation packages here. If you're looking for bargain flights or hotel rooms, Travelocity and Expedia are for you! They will even suggest airfare and hotel packages for you. To find out more about a possible destination, on Expedia you want to click on Destinations and Interests at the top of the page. You may want to compare prices on different sites to make sure you're getting the best deal for your money.

Lonely Planet Guides are offered for each country in Europe. They’re more than your basic travel guides. They're easy to navigate and feature the following sections: Introduction, Facts for the Traveler, When to Go, Events, Money and Costs, Attractions, Off the Beaten Path (my favorite part), Activities, History, Culture, Environment, Getting There and Away, Getting Around, and Further Reading. The Related Weblinks for various countries are very helpful also. Worth a good look!

Subway Navigator If there's any chance you might use the subway to travel around a major European city, check this out! You choose the continent, then the country, and then the city to find your way through the subway to your chosen location . You'll have to know which stops you need, but that information should be easy to find in the different guide books. Have fun finding your way around!

Additional Online Resources:

These additional online resources may also help you plan your vacation:

Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative: Both the Information Gateway and the Just for Kids sections have useful links for your project. You can access many parts of the site without a current Hillsborough County Library card. You will, however, need your active library card to access the Premium Databases. If you need an active library card, there will be an icon of a library card next to the name of the database.

WorldBookOnline.com is one Premium Database accessible through HCPLC’s Information Gateway. The Atlas has helpful articles on each country, with specific data on climate and average temperatures in July and January, as well as short sections on each region and its geography. The WorldBookOnline also includes directions on how to cite articles and contains links to other Websites with very good data on the country. You may also be able to access WorldBookOnline if your school or local library has a subscription.

*If you have an email address and your parent’s permission, you may sign up for a three-day free trial of WorldBookOnline or ask your parents to sign up for you.

Note: All of the Selected Links on HCPLC are available to anyone, and generally lead to excellent sites.

The U.S. State Department has an informative page you will want to check out before beginning your journey. You can make sure that there are no current travel advisories for your chosen destination.

Orbitz is a good travel site, similar to Travelocity and Expedia except that it does not provide information on destinations. You can sometimes find cheaper flights on Orbitz than on the other sites by playing around with dates and times.

Make sure to visit your country’s official site, which you can link to from Visit Europe. Most, if not all, will include a section about what you should know before you go.

For currency exchange rates (or to know how far your money will really go):

The Quick Converter is located in the top left corner of the page and is set to convert from the U.S. Dollar to the Euro. You may need to change the currency depending upon which country you have selected for your journey. This site is very user-friendly.

X-Rates.com Currency Converter

Note for students: These sites cannot convert amounts for dates in the future, only the present or past.