Internet Travel Planner: How to Plan Trips and Save Money Online [Paperback]

Michael Shapiro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Michael Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner is your shortcut to online travel planning. Packed with insider know-how, step-by-step instructions, and shrewd travel advice, this guidebooks will help you save both time and money by using the Internet to plan your next vacation or business trip. Learn how to find the best travel bargains, take advantage of exclusive online deals, compare ticket prices and make reservations, check schedules for delays and changes and all without leaving your house. Discover how to join online discussion forums to connect with others who have been there, plug into restaurant reviews, newspapers, and weather forecasts, create your own custom guidebook using free online resources and stay connected while on the road. Whether you want to be your own travel agent or simply learn more about your destination, this guidebook gives you everything you need to become a travel expert.

Editorial Reviews

Review

From bargains to bookings, from selecting tour companies to mapping out your route, this book should answer all your questions - and then some. Shapiro has collected the latest and best of the Net in this welcoming and well-structured guide. Passports and visas online; worldwide weather and health information; vacation packages; cruise, rail and airline Web sites - this book will show you how to find them. There's information for all kinds of travelers, including seniors, students, gays and lesbians, and the disabled. -- San Francisco Examiner, April 9, 2000

Thoughtful analysis and clear descriptions of online tools for comparing hotel prices, joining travel auctions and more. -- Baltimore Sun

We've seen other books that have tried to pass themselves off as travel Web guides. The reason we haven't mentioned any of them before now is that they were laundry lists. Ah, but this title truly is a guide. It does include the laundry list of sites, but first takes you by the mouse and, click by click, teaches you to use the Internet in general and to conduct travel research in particular...Open the book to almost any of its 280 pages, and you'll see color pictures of actual travel Web pages...The whole is written in easy to understand English - not computerese - and divided by color-coded headlines and other attractive visual elements. -- Chicago Tribune, March 12, 2000

From the Author

Not only can the Net help you save hundreds of dollars on your next trip, it can enhance your travels with free up-to-the-minute destination information, pictures of hotels and B&Bs, cruise reviews from other travelers, and so much more.

The trick is learning how to find and efficiently use these resources -- that's where "Michael Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner" comes in. Hundreds of travel Web sites are listed, of course, but this book is much more. With clear instruction in plain English, it's a primer on using the Net in general and for travel planning in particular.

Internet Travel Planner is attractively presented with *color pictures* to help you see what these Web sites really look like. In each chapter you'll find First Person features, where Internet veterans explain how they use the Net, enabling you to follow in their footsteps. Throughout the book are features called Siteseeing, where key Web sites are examined in depth. Among the other elements: advice for AOL users (including an entire section on AOL travel resources), a Glossary of key terms, and little Tip boxes.

With all these features, it's no wonder Michael Shapiro's Internet travel books have been praised by Arthur Frommer, Rick Steves and the New York Times.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762705795
• ISBN-13: 978-0762705795
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,410,196 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive Web Travel Guide, August 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Internet Travel Planner: How to Plan Trips and Save Money Online (Paperback)

I found this book to be both informative and useful even though I had already used the internet for travel purposes. My husband found out about free email accounts and signed up for one within a few minutes (Chapter 14). After reading Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner, I realized that by booking airline tickets on line, I had only begun to scratch the surface of the possibilities for travel planning on line. What I found most useful for both `arm chair travel' and trip planning was Shapiro's chapter on discussion forums and bulletin boards. Search engines are great but I find the results to be catch as catch can. In Chapter 13 I got a clear sense of which sites were worth my time. Shapiro covers everything from frequent flyer miles to vacation package sites, from weather to medicine abroad. The book is easy to use-it offers an index and appendices that allow you to find websites quickly. Read this book even if you wouldn't book a flight or make a reservation on line. The web is too great and too vast a resource to skip and you'll be glad you have this guide as you surf.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable aid for the dedicated traveler., April 5, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Internet Travel Planner: How to Plan Trips and Save Money Online (Paperback)

Michael Shapiro's Internet Travel Planner isn't just another listing of Internet sites to be obsolete in a few months time: it provides some important tips linking travel to the Internet, from creating a custom guidebook to using the internet to see pictures of hotel rooms and connect with other travelers through travel chats and forums. And for those worrying about the book's longevity: free updates are offered online!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Internet Travel Planner Second Edition, October 25, 2002

By 

[e-mail] (Richmond, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Internet Travel Planner, 2nd: How to Plan Trips and Save Money Online (Paperback)

For all of you web travel fans, the Second Edition of Internet
Travel Planner has been updated with the best and newest web travel sites. As a former travel industry employee, I find this is the most complete and easy-to-read internet book now that all the large travel suppliers and surviving internet travel businesses have improved their online booking sites.

Using Michael Shapiro's book as a guide, a newcomer to researching travel can click through a website with ease. An interesting new appendix was added on digital photography. Do any of us world travelers leave home without a camera! Of course we love finding a good discount and each chapter lists sites known for the best deals. Travel sales are still down and businesses are reducing prices or adding incentives to get customers. I would highly recommend buying the book for yourself or giving it as a gift for the holidays.