Resources
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?
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!
CIA World Factbook provides basic information on each country.
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 to access a particular
database, 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 a students has an email address or a
parent’s permission, he or she may sign up for a three-day free trial
of WorldBookOnline or
ask his/her
parents to sign up.
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 students should
check out before beginning their journey. They can make sure that there
are no current travel advisories for their chosen destination.
Orbitz is a good travel site, similar to
Travelocity and Expedia except that it does not provide information on
destinations. It is possible sometimes to find cheaper flights on
Orbitz than on
the other sites by playing around with dates and times.
Make sure to visit each country’s official
site, which you can link to from Visit Europe. Most, if not all, will
include a section about what to know before you go.
For currency exchange rates (or to know how far your money will really go):
Oanda.com, The Currency Site 164TM Currency Converter
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. This site is very
user-friendly.
This site is also easy to navigate and use.
Note for students: These sites cannot convert amounts for dates
in the future, only the present or past.
For the bibliography:
EasyBib.com or
NoodleTools using QuickCite, the free resource
Students need to make sure to list every
source they use.