Be your own travel agent

DIVORCE, death and organising holidays: the three most stressful elements of your life, and not necessarily in that order. Why are travel agents always busy when you need them - usually during your lunch hour or at the weekend? Why are brochures, well, like they are? Why can't the couple in front decide whether they want upmarket at Benespaol or the Costa del Booze?

But booking your holiday doesn't need to be a chore. On the Internet you can browse at your leisure, cold beer in hand, and book what hotel or flight you fancy (giving your card details to respected companies on the net is no more dangerous than giving them over the phone). On the net you are the travel agent. 1) Choose your destination It's a jungle out there - if it's not a beach or mountain or city break. On the net there are photographs and maps and information about every country in the world.

National Geographic Traveler http://www.nationalgeographic.co m/media/traveler. Glossy National Geographic Trav-eler magazine has archived travel features on a variety of destinations along with helpful links to Web sites that relate to the feature. Once you dive in here you may never come back. Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com The Lonely Planet Web site shovels inspiration by the bucketful. A quick roam around the site will fill your head with ideas for your next exotic adventure. Take Off http://www.takeoff.beeb.com The BBC offers plenty of breadth but disappoints a little on the depth of travel information. Worth a look if you love the Travel Show. Almost every country has an official tourist board site although they're not always easy to find. Search engines can help. Just type in your destination with a few extra keywords like holiday, vacation, and travel. 2) Get the right deal Package holidays are a bit too complex to handle on the Net but you can, at least, find one to suit your needs and then book it by telephone. Bargain Holidays http://www.bargainholidays.com Does 14 nights in Majorca for GBP 55 sound about right? This is one of the best UK sites for getting that last-minute steal to a sunny place. It's Abta- bonded, fully registered and brimful of juicy offers. You can't book online but you can seek out bargains at your leisure. Cheap Flights http://www.cheapflights.co.uk A return flight to Turkey for GBP 49? Bonkers, but true. Email Cheap Flights with your requirements and they'll get back to you with the best deal they can find. Holiday Rentals http://www.holiday-rentals.co.uk A villa in Antigua, a ski condo in Aspen or a farmhouse in the Cotswolds ... Find it and book it with Holiday Rentals. International Home Exchange Network http://www.homexchange.com Howzabout swapping your two-up, two-down for a sprawling ranch in Utah? This is the place to do it. 3) Find a flight or hotel The best part about net travel is booking your room or ticket through the same reservation systems that travel agents use. When you check the flights and fares of British Midland on its Websit eat http//www.iflybritishmidland.com or British Airway sat http://www.british-airways.com, you're slipping into each airline's own database of fares and availability. Travelocity http://www.travelocity.com Travelocity offers access to millions of fares available on the Sabre reservation system. You can book flights, hotel rooms and car-hire through Travelocity and the information you see is what a travel agent sees. Trave-locity also has a good, comprehensive destination arm which makes the site almost a one-stop holiday shop. Expedia http://www.expedia.com Expedia uses a reservation system similar to Sabre, called Worldspan. Again, you can book hotel rooms, flights and cars through Expedia. At least, you can if you're in the States. Expedia is set to offer booking capability to UK residents later this year. TravelWeb http://www.travelweb.com TravelWeb focuses on hotel bookings, although you can book flights and cars too. It's the net side of established hotel switching company, Thisco, which handles millions of hotel bookings for hundreds of hotels. Its Net connection gives you the ability to book hotels directly. And finally ... Your currency converted at the Universal Currency Converter http://www.xe.net/currency. Destination maps from MapQuest http://www.mapquest.com The chance to keep your head dry with the Weather Channel http:// www.weather.com Essential embassy contact details at EmbassyWeb http://www. embassyweb.com Net connection on your travels with the Cyber Cafe Guide http://www.cyberiacafe.net/cybe-ria/guide/ccafe.htm

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