Travel

A list of travel resources, directed mainly at broke Anglophone college students and young adults.

bGuides

– Life as a Broke American Student in Paris

Resources

General

– Lonely Planet, a backpacker’s guide to pretty much anywhere in the world
– Frommer’s, an American family- and budget-friendly guide to tourist destinations
– About.com/travel, an extensive guide to lots of places, with useful events calendars
– wikitravel.org, an extensive wiki on favorite destinations
– Matador, a community of travelers and their articles and stories
– 10best, a list of top tens of everything in tons of cities
– MoleskineCity, a travel blog community based on the Moleskine City Notebooks

Europe

– Affordable Europe: City Guides – the guides are under New York Times Select, but college students can usually get a free subscription to TimesSelect through their school.
– Rick Steves’ Europe Through the Back Door – Just don’t think about how wrong this title sounds. It’s a comprehensive guide to tourist and non-tourist spots in Europe, especially Paris.

England – London
– Frommer’s London and the other Frommer’s online guides are good, though their paperback versions are better. Snag a copy from the library if you won’t be gone for long. Your guide should be up-to-date; it’s hefty and contains info on restaurants, hotels, tourist traps, etc., along with blurbs and ratings.

France
– gofrance.about.com and the rest of the about.com travel guides are useful, albeit full of ads. Whatev.
– us.franceguide.com – a guide to tourism… from the French government? Okay, it’s maybe not the best idea, but there’s a lot of useful contact info in there.
– Frommer’s Irreverent Guide to Paris – If you can get your hands on an Irreverent Guide, go read it. It’s not worth the money, but it’s fun. This particular one taught me lots about Parisian culture (“Why do men keep staring at me?”), and some fun factoids about the places it lists.

USA

New York City
– TONY: Essential New York. I LOVE Time Out. eom
– Manhattan User’s Guide is a daily e-mail for locals featuring the hot stuff du jour and places to check out. Sort of like DailyCandy, but only for New Yorkers.
– Gothamist is a blog for locals about news and events in and around the city.

Bay Area
– SFGate.com’s Bay Area Traveler is a brilliant site for non-locals. It’s got solid descriptions and maps of the neighborhoods.
– The Unofficial Guide to Stanford is the website version of the annual paperback guide full of coupons and tips on life at Stanford (it’s geared towards freshmen). Check out the student-written “Out and About” guides to San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area/Peninsula.

Asia

– Lonely Planet Asia – This guidebook originated as a simple guide to India for backpackers. I have a 15-year-old Lonely Planet guide to Thailand that I bought for 2.30 euro, and has still helped me with the language and culture.