On A Cyber Cruise

But the section on tourist information resources is of more immediate use. Here, you have a long list, organised alphabetically, of the major tour operators who organise trips to India from the US. The website, obviously, is aimed at the American traveller. Requirements for travelling in India are quite detailed, if a bit curt. You are advised to contact several tourist offices and Indian consulates in USA for additional information. You also have a list of land operators in India. However, only some of them have e-mail addresses. So it is back to square one if you are trying to fix up your itinerary on-line.

 

Trying to locate tourist spots? The Lonely Planet Travel Guide (http://www.lonelyplanet.com) is the place to check. Attractively designed, the site has some of the best writing you come across on Indian tourism. The site provides you with a slide show of pictures, of the states you would want to check out. The site deals with each state and city, offers information specific to each of the states and its culture, places to visit and accommodation facilities available. Apart from this, it also tells you how to plan a novel vacation in its section Off the Beaten Track.

On the other hand, one could do a search on the Net. Even this provides information on everything from travelogues, tips, general material on tourist spots. This way, one could even search for the addresses of specific hotels, but that is as far as one can get.

The India Travel Guide compiled from responses on Usenet, which one can download from ftp.cc.umanitoba.ca is of especially useful. Discover India Magazine, a travel magazine by the India Tourist Development Corporation hit the Net just a month ago, and can be accessed at http://www.pugmarks.com/d-india. Explore India, a general interest web site, offers you some basic information along with Indian Yellow Pages and real estate.

The India Travel Network (http://www.inetindia.com) Inet helps you with information about the Indian tourism industry, including state tourism departments, hotels, resorts, airlines and tour operators. This is the official site of the Indian travel and tourism industry and offers you useful material in its Travel Yellow Pages, Hotels & Resorts and Tour Operators and Travel Agents in India. All ITDC hotels in India are listed here with their telephone and fax numbers and addresses. This site also hosts some of the latest news happenings in the tourism industry. Currently, the site is announcing the recently lowered rates of the Palace on Wheels and related details.

Goa, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala and Orissa have their own homepages, put up by their tourism departments, on this web site. You can also register yourself, free, with the Inet India Travel Network and keep up with the latest news.A help desk, soon to appear on this web site, promises to give you what you are looking for drawing up your itinerary on-line. That would be something to look forward to.

For a more Asian look on the Indian travel scene, the site of Asia One Travel is worth visiting at http://www.asia1.com.sg. Here, the information collected by the Singapore Press Holdings is tailor-made for a Singaporean. Either browse through the travelogues, or again, gather addresses and read advice on accommodation (including tourist bungalows and houseboats) and travel. The Happenings section keeps you posted on news that might have an impact on your plans.

This site, including several others, warns you that travelling in certain parts of India is risky and should be avoided. Kashmir and the north east figure here. An attractively designed site, it is perhaps doing more for the cause of Indian tourism than the official web sites. Consider this: there are lessons on the national language and useful phrases, and one can even download sound files and listen to them. The Shopping section advises you on what to buy from where and offers a few tips on how not to get duped. Singaporeans can find out about air departures from Singapore to India and also get some fast facts on climate, visa requirements and money matters.

The Net is useful for a traveller insofar as it lets him have a huge amount of information in one place. An hours surfing on the Net can give you all you need, including news that have a bearing on the travel scene to currency conversion rates. However, when it comes to deciding on a travel plan interactively, websites on India are sadly not up to par. Trust your brains.