Colsmith Travel Links

This page shows links to places about travel. We set this up so that as we are planning trips we have some place to collect the links that we find useful. The first set are just generic. Later is information about particular places where we have been or are going to.

For quick access to the different categories, click on: (0) Travel Agents (0) Airlines (0) Travel Info (0) Local US Places (0) Chicago/Illinois/Warrenville (0) Wisconsin, Milwaukee (0) Washington D.C. (0) International Destinations (0) Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (0) Sweden, Norway (0) Ireland, England (0) Wayout Destinations

travel agents/tickets ...

  1. Travelocity good at finding deals for airfare, hotels (not so good) and car rentals. We use this site a lot. You can set up a fare watcher for particular destinations, it no longer does foreign fare watching.
  2. ITASoftware currently only US. You need to download their software to actually make a reservation.
  3. Best fares magazine. has last minute fares.
  4. The choice of last resort, Microcrap's (or Microsoft) Expedia Travel Agent not as good as Travelocity (0) 11th hour vacations
  5. hotwire searches multiple airline sites. Only tells you what time the flight is, and what airline it is on after you buy the flight, making it not much good for buying connecting parts separately. As far as I have tried it, hotwire did not do better than Travelocity.
  6. quickbook for hotels
  7. qixo a multiple site search
  8. fare chase multiple site search, but no longer serves individual users.
  9. side step multiple sites, but their software runs on your computer and can be difficult (if not impossible) to remove. Only works with explorer 4+.
  10. Orbitz AA/United/and 450 others
  11. Price line name your own price and get discounts.

Airline last minute fares information

  1. American AA You need your frequent flyer number to use this site.
  2. UAL United Airlines Their in flight magizine is Hemispheres They also have a dining for miles.
  3. Continental You need your frequent flyer number to use this site. Continental airlines gives frequent fiyer (one pass) miles to AT&T customers.
  4. North West NWA
  5. USAirways
  6. Europe By Air $99 "FlightPass" one way flights between European cities.
  7. Cheap flights for the UK
  8. Island Standby Caribbean
  9. Travac Bucket shop
  10. Trail Finders UK consolidator
  11. Midwest Airlines

  12. Moments Notice last minute fares
  13. Discount Tickets is a front end for a trvel agent. airfair hotels cars ...
  14. Airlines Inline or Airlines On Line
  15. Council Travel resells charter flight tickets

Travel Information

  1. US State Department passports, country information, travel warnings ... US Customs Service tells what and how much you can bring in.
  2. First Gov top level WWW site for the US Government, and states.
  3. Center for Disease Control CDC by the us government. Lots of information about each country and general medical problems. Intermational Association for Medical Assistance IAMAT also provides lists of English speaking doctors.
  4. Onda currency converter
  5. SBC yellow pages
  6. U.S. Postal Service in general and USPS MoversNet change of address forms, maps ...
  7. National Park Service maintains the American Historic Buildings survey. Some specific parks:
  8. Travel Lite a how to guide.
  9. Lonely Planet travel on the cheap
  10. Frommer's other good travel guides
  11. US Servas travel exchange
  12. Couch Surfing travel exchange
  13. Hospitality Club travel exchange

Local US Stuff

  1. Mapblast! Blast Central Microcrap
  2. Map Quest AOL
  3. USGS U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S Geological Survey has all the maps for for the US. Note that these are not road maps, but topographical maps.
  4. Audbon Society
  5. Dog & Suds drive in

Chicago/Warrenville

  1. The of city of City of Warrenville is in Du Page County or at Du Page County IL, USA. For voting info Du Page Elections .com The Du Page County Sheriff IL, USA. You can take a tour of Du Page airport
  2. Moviefone.com | Showtimes & Tickets for the Warrenville area.
  3. CNN - Weather - Warrenville, IL
  4. Daily Herald newspaper, has a quick link page to fuller accounts of stories from the paper in as easy links.
  5. Link to Naperville's Last Fling event over Labor Day weekend Last Fling.
  6. Naperville Library
  7. DuPage Science Fiction & Fantasy Society
  1. Chicago Mosaic Home Page lots of interesting things, including festivals, and museums. Also for the areas around Chicago.
  2. Chicago Reader Online entertainment paper.
  3. Ostriches Online
  4. Chicago Cubs the North Siders, the good guys, National league
  5. State of IL.
  6. Chicago Tribune newspaper
  7. Brookfield Zoo
  8. METRA Information Chicago's commuter train.
  9. Chicago's O'Hare Airport
  10. Looking for a classic car, try Volo cars
  11. Midewin National Tall Grass Prairie
  12. Chicago Pride Calendar
  13. Chinese-American Museum of Chicago
  1. Fox Chicago, channel 32
  2. Public television station WTTW which is trying to convince us that they are Network Chicago channel 11. The Chicago Comunity Collage is the other PBS station WYCC channel 20. and PBS in general.
    (0) National Public Radio (NPR) in Chicago is WBEZ, which is also Chicago A-Z. They are also part of Public Radio International (PRI).
  3. CBS 2 Chicago,
  4. NBC 5 Chicago
    Realtime Weather Information From Lucent Technologies / NSC building in Lisle, IL, and Naperville North HS
  5. ABC 7 Chicago,
  6. WGN TV, channel 9 and the rest of the WGN family super station and radio
  7. WPWR 50 is a UPN network station it seems not to have a web page.

Wisconsin, Milwaukee

We have moved to Wisconsin to be able to take our cheese trips and drive in less traffic. Here is the WI DOT camera nearest our house.

  1. The city of Milwaukee You can get information about probertersin in the city ("get propertery information" button)
    1. Assessor's Office (0) They seem to have 2 pages Milwaukee Assessor's Office now run by AOL.
    2. rental owner information. This is also known as the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS)
    3. Milwaukee Public Works and the customer service. They are rebuilding the Marquett Interchange I94/I43 through 2008.
  2. Milwaukee County
    1. Milwaukee County Sheriff Traffic, weather and links to all things Milwaukee.
    2. The Milwaukee County Transit Service the bus company. Routes, maps and stuff.
    3. The Parks (0) Milwaukee River Keeper NGO for river cleanup.
    4. The Milwaaukee County Public Museum
    5. Milwaukee Co Federated Library System and their card cattalog (0) Racine county Lake Shores Library System
  3. Free local activities
  4. For general information on happenings see On Milwaukee.
  5. Milwaukee TV
    1. Weather links
      1. WISN-TV weather information 5 day forecast. (0) WISN.com has now changed to "The Milwaukee Channel" ABC WISN 12 tv station's big bloated slow website.
      2. WTMJ weather and for the general tv station NBC WTMJ 4
    2. Milwaukee Public TV the PBS stations, and 10-36 Friends their fundraising arm.
    3. Fox 6
  6. Welcome to Tool Town
  7. Green Bay Packers
  8. Milwaukee Brewers baseball, (still not as good as the Cubs.) Hey, I was born in Milwaukee when the Braves were winning, so I have a right to my opinion Now if the Brewers would have stayed in the American League ...)
  9. Summerfest Milwaukee's great music fest. For more festival listings The Milwaukee Journal - Sentinel go to their travel page using pull down, then use the pull down for festival Some of these have links to other festivals. (0) Pridefest
  10. West town sponsor of River flicks free outdoor movies. (0) Milwaukee Downtown events
  11. (0) Stoughton's Norwegian Independence Day always around the 17th of May. (0) Town of Stoughton (0) Town Westby also has Syttende Mai (0)
  12. University of Wisconsin Milwaukee or UWM to its friends. You can also go to the computer science department in College of Engineering and Applied Science
  13. I love cheese.com
  14. The 2 car drive in. 170 S 2nd in the alley loading dock on the south side of the building. About 10:00 pm Wednesday and Friday nights in the summer Paul Dorobialski shows movies and shorts.
  15. The Digital Toolbox free CD of Milwaukee building and remodeling ads and stuff
  16. 7 Mile Fair like a giant rummage sale, but with lots of produce and new merchandise.
  17. Kopp's Custard
  18. Discover Wisconsin
  19. Wisconsin Historical Society
  20. The Rave at the Eagles Club, music venue.
  21. Fair Wisconsin
  22. Center Advocates

Racine

    1. Racine county
    2. Racine county code
    3. Racine county wiki pedita entry
    4. Town of Raymond
      (0) link to minitues and agendas.
      (0) Raymond blog
  1. Racine Penny Saver Free paper with ads and classfied ads.
  2. Racine Theatre Guild
  3. Little Europe (Restaurant) Euro-meats (smoked meat) great German/Slovak/Czech/Austrian/Hungarian/Polish food, off 94 in Kenosha Co. Big portions (they offer doggy bags as you are served), heavy on the meat. Comfort food. They have added a rib place as well. 1-262-857-9073
  4. Kewpee A fun 30s restaurant in Racine.
  5. Library can get books from book mobile on line.
  6. Show Time Cinema Franklin has free movies at 10:00 on Wednesday mornings.

  • Wisconsin Government

    1. Wisconsin .gov
    2. Wisconsin state commerce comission It has information about the Wisconsin building codes things with a "comm" and a number. They also have the non-owner occupied rental property Weatherization info.
    3. WI legislature and legislation you can get bills here, and statutes for example statute 66 for 2001 go to this one and replace the 0066 with statute number you want number you want. Wis adm code rl 018 Wisconsin administration codes go to this one and replace the 018 with regulation number you want number you want.
    4. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources

  • Wisconsin general

    1. Auction Specialists near Fond Du Lac
    2. Alma Wi Swan Watch Tundra Swans visit each fall

    Washington, D.C.

    This was compiled for a 2005 trip.
    1. Washington Post newspaper, weather and other information.
    2. Fly 2 DC . com (0) transport to/from airports (0) Washington MATA metro (subway, bus) planner

    3. Washington D.C. City web site (0) The Convention and Tourism Corp has Washington D.C. The American Experience not very much info.
    4. Smithsonian Museums It has lots of sub sites.
      1. Air and space
      2. Postal Museumsin Post Office building, by Union Station
      3. U.S. Botanic Garden orchid show
    5. Library of Congress
    6. Folger Shakespeare Library
    7. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
    8. International Spy Museum Not really worth it probably be more interesting for kids.
    9. Washington Cathedral
    10. Organization of American States has an art museum.
    11. Daughters of the Americian Revolution free museum, quilts textiles ...
    12. Department of the Interior free art museum. Is it still open?
    13. National Building Museum (What is there?)
    14. Tudor Place house and gardens. $6
    15. City Museum DC. Now closed.
    16. Niagara Falls stuff.

    Miscellaneous Local places

    1. Hershey PA for a good chocolatey time.
    2. Florida Birding Trail Currently (1/03) sends you to the Florida Fish and Wildlife page, you then have to find the link to the birding trail.

    International

    1. Eurolines European bus service.
    2. EuropeRail is the official site, they have a "where to buy page" Some people on their list who sell tickets see Rail Europe and Rail Pass Express Inc. The Amsterdam/Paris official high speed train service. Get multi day tickets from
    3. International Youth Hostel
    4. Rick Steves PBS travel host and travle books
  • Here VI BVI and USVI info.

    Holland/Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg

    1. Hollandlinks direct
    2. Holland .com
    3. Visit Amsterdam is the VVV site for Amsterdam. Amsterdam Hot Spots has live web cams and practacal "how to" and "what to" as well as current events. Has reviews of hotels.
    4. Amsterdam Channels
    5. Go Amsterdam
    6. Timeout Amsterdam
    7. The Flying Pig Hostel internet reservations only. The place did not look that great to us, seemed to be a coffee shop / bar with a hostel attached. We did not stay there.
    8. Visit Holland is the national VVV (Vereniging Voor Vreemdelingenverkeer) is the Dutch board of Tourism. They don't have any order to the web addresses. VVV Den Haag / The Hague (0) Look for the language option at the bottem of the VVV Texel Island site. (0) VVV Peninsular Holland "The Cheese Trail" starting in Alkmaar (0) VVV Edam (0) VVV Delft for porcelain (0) VVV Zandvoort site some times has problems (0) VVV Rotterdam and the general Rotterdam site.

    9. Luxembourg City

    10. Belgian Tourism
    11. Welcome to Belgium and Brussels
    12. Flanders Tourism

    Sweden and Norway

    Most of this is from our 2002 Europ trip.

    Scanrail's Links to Sweden/Norway trains Service
    Translator Service English-Norwegian-Spanish.

    (0) (0) (0) (0)
    1. Scandinavian coutries links to Sweden, Norway, etc. (0) Scandinavia links has great lists of bus sites.
    2. Swedish forum Web site to communicate with others about Sweden, helpful info for travelers
    3. Sweden Informations Smorgasbord lots of good info, hiking trails, Swedish words, etc.
    4. Go Sweden .org Official site for North Americans (0) Visit Sweden .com
    5. All Travel Sweden
    6. Svenska Institute FAQ page, many other Swedish links
    7. Stockholm B&Bs you can book these in advance by mail or fax. B&B Center you can book on line (email).
    8. Vaxholm islands and penisula Bogesundslandet. Vaxholms Hotel
    9. Stockholm Town .com this is a the English sub site under Stockholm info .se
    10. Swedish trains (0) Overnight trains to the north
    11. Swedish Airports (LuftFartsVerket) has liks to 19 Swedish airports it opperates, includes current arival depatrure information at Arlanda.
    12. Meravsverig has accommodations, but it is hard to use as even though they say they handle different languages it is unclear where they are unless you can read Swedish. (0) Stores hostel (0) City Backpackers really close to the train station.
    13. Swedish Armor modern body armor. Not really a travel site, but kind of intresting/weird.
    (0) (0) (0) (0)
    1. Norway .Com nifty virtual tours, good links to accommodations (with pictures, inside and out.) (0) In the US Norwegian Tourist Board (0) Norway Heritage has lots of information about people who emigrated to the US.
    2. Norway Train Service Travel around Bergen, Flam and Sognefjorden. (0) Route Info has boat, bus and train info. For long distance ferry traffic from Bergen up the Norwegian coast to the far north see the Bergen Line (0) There is additional bus information
    3. Venabu FjellHotell has lots of interesting links, travel, weather ...
    4. Bergen links for hotels, etc. (0) Bergen Kommune
    5. Some of Jim's relatives, Gunnar and Ragnhild Stensrud Gauslaa, live in Porsgrunn Kommune As of 3/02 all but a small part of the site is in Norwegian. This is near Skien Kommune This is also in the Telemark region. Telemark has a Tourist Information Office. (0) Jim has a Swedish relative, Eric Christenson, living in Vinje Kommune whose site is currently Norwegian only, but they have some pictures.
    6. Fjord Norge has buttons for English, German, and Japanese, but all show up as Norwegian.
    7. Fjord Pass cheap hotel rates, and good hotel lists.
    8. Odin Norway information, and links to other sites.
    9. Aurland Flam Laerdal. Flam railway, accomodations ...

    Ireland

    1. Ireland Travel
    2. Go Ireland
    3. Irish Rail
    4. Ireland Expert
    5. Ireland Blue Book Travel in style Ireland's manor houses and castles.

    England France

    1. Cunard Lines The QE2 and the like.
    2. North Sea Ferries
    3. BBC News The British Broadcasting Company's world news.
    1. Paris .org

    Itily

    1. Ferry service
      1. Debrovnic local Croatian, Itily
      2. Split Havar, Vis, Ancona, and local
      3. Adroatica Venice Albania and Itily

    Mexico

    Planning for our January 2006 trip
    1. Mexicoan Wave Current events.
    2. WTG On Line World Travle Guide has a page Mexico
    3. GORP and their Mexico page
    4. Mexico Referance Desk from the University of Texas Austin
    5. Mexico Web selling packages, some info (the logos link to different things than what they say)
    6. Mexico Tourist Board only sells package deals and hotels.

    Really non-local places

    1. NASA to see live pictures of launches, and shuttle missions watch at NASA TV broadband connection and low speed NASA TV dial up speed support. They have 2 schedules for broadcast, here is the most accurate one, but also the one that is not updated between missions NASA TV Schedule YOu can also visit the Kennedy Space Center If you don't want to pay their admition prices, the visitor center has lots of free stuff just in the parking lot, from WWII missiles through the Saturn 1B. Local information there includes Space Coast and Titusville (Chamber of Commerce) which lets you camp out in town to wait for a launch. Or see it by boat with Ron Thorstad 321-267-4551
    2. Hubble telescope for great pictures.
    3. Columbia Investigation Board for info about the crash.

    Send us mail jmcolsmith@worldnet.att.net
    View the Colsmith home page.

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