Worldwide Travel Agents Online (NAPSA)—Here’s news that may take you far: An updated online travel resource site has tens of thousands of travel providers and resources. Called the Web’s most comprehensive travel search engine, it offers such travel-related resources as extensive listings of toursecom — Sraaed)myVeter fel CRCt ree ee tours and vacations, as well as contact information and descriptions of travel agents around the world indexed by each one’s specific niche or specialty. After all, when consumers complete online travel research, they typically seek out a travel agent when it’s time to book their trip. Now, without leaving the Website, travelers can find agents knowledgeable about everything from eco-tours to surfing trips to honeymoons to Katmandu. As with all of the travel suppliers listed on the site, each agent’s data has been personally reviewed andverified by Tours.com staff. The site is available in nine different languages, makingit a great place to plan a trip for businessor leisure. You can find out about motorcycle rentals in Alaska, see the dining menu of the luxurious Blue Train in South Africa, view the itinerary of an 11-day tour of Bosnia, Croatia and Slovenia, rent a room in a castle in England or learn about an around-the-world expedition by private jet. You can view trip itineraries, find last-minute vacation specials, view videos and pictures of destinations, research city or country visitors bureaus, view essential maps of destinations, airport terminals, subway routes, or ski and trail maps, find wheelchairaccessible rental cars all in one spot, with the ability to book your trips directly with the supplier or travel agent specialist. A little forethought and a top-notch travel site can help you have the vacation of a lifetime without spending your life savings. Because thesite is not an online travel agency, it doesn’t rely on commissions the way most other travel sites do. It gets advertising revenues instead of transaction fees, so it can remain unbiased and travel providerscan list at no cost. Here are a few moretraveltips you mayfind useful: * Be season-smart. Time your trip—Europe in autumn, the Caribbean in summer, say—so you can take advantage of “offseason”hotel rates. * Take the time. If an airline has sold out of an advertised discount ticket, try again just after midnight, when reservations that haven’t been paid for are canceled and becomeavailable again. That’s the ticket. You can often get discounted tickets to plays, operas and other shows on weeknights a few minutes before curtain time. Picnic in the park. You can sample the local culinary delights a lot less expensively at the gro- cery store than in a restaurant. Travelers and travel suppliers can learn moreor enter freelisting at www.tours.com.
