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Some Other Sources of Information

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Before You Travel

• Probably the single most valuable source of information is a good US and Canadian road atlas, such as that published by Rand McNally. While this can be obtained very much less expensively in Wal-Mart in the USA than in Britain (and probably most other countries) such an atlas is an invaluable aid to planning in advance of travelling. US state road maps in Adobe Acrobat PDF format are also available for downloading in the World Maps > Download Maps section of the Rand McNally web site. While very useful, these maps do not include small towns or minor highways. External link verified Dec-00.

• Traditional printed encyclopedias and guide books are extremely useful sources of information.

• Many coach tour brochures contain photographs and brief descriptions of the most popular National Parks and similar areas. If nothing else, these may give you some ideas for places to visit. However, since coaches are prohibited from using it, coach tour brochures don't feature the excellent Blue Ridge Parkway.

• The Travelinformation.com web site provides a useful facility for requesting printed brochures promoting various regions of the USA to be sent to your conventional postal address. You can choose the brochures you wish to receive from a large list, with a maximum of twenty-five brochures per request. If you live outside the USA, be sure to enter a hyphen (-) in the state/province box, otherwise your request will be rejected and you will have to specify which brochures you want all over again. Also remember to specify your own country in your postal address. External link verified Feb-02.

• For visitors to the USA and/or Canada from Britain, the Holiday-America (previously called Northwest Fly/Drive and Fly Drive USA) brochure is very clearly laid out and provides a useful guide to the various cost elements and other factors to be considered when booking a fly/drive package. Tel (UK): 01424-224400. External link verified Feb-02.

• For visitors to the USA and/or Canada from Britain, US Airtours offer an excellent free North America Travel Planner with a large amount of general information plus details of each region, together with some useful maps. From their web site's home page select the "Brochure Requests" option. Tel (UK): 0870-528-00-67. External link verified Feb-02.

• For visitors to the USA and/or Canada from Britain, the North American Highways brochure has some very useful information on National Parks and scenic roads. Their web site includes a form for brochure requests (UK residents only); from the home page select the "Enter" option, then "Brochure Request Form". External link verified 7-Feb-02.

• The various excellent publications of the AAA (American Automobile Association) are highly recommended. These books may be available for purchase through motoring organisations in countries outside the USA who have an association with the AAA.

• Encyclopaedias and atlases published on CD-ROM, such as Microsoft's excellent Encarta, have a vast wealth of relevant and interesting material in the form of text, photographs, maps, animations, sounds and video clips. Because most of these products originate from the USA there is a natural tendency for them to have an emphasis on the USA and Canada.

• Other web sites - see the External Links section of this site and the Internet search engines such as Alta Vista, FAST/All The Web and Northern Light.

• Canadian Embassy/High Commission in London, UK Includes information for visitors from Britain to Canada. External link verified Jul-04.

• UK Passport Service includes useful information for British visitors to the USA and Canada. External link verified Jun-04.

• United States Embassy in London, UK The "Visa Services" section includes full details of visa requirements for visitors to the USA from Britain and how the Visa Waiver Programme operates. It also has information on machine readable passport and biometric passport requirements. The site also has links to some US travel information sites. External link verified Jun-04.

• Travel Industry Association of America (TIA) Includes a list of US state tourism offices with conventional addresses, telephone numbers and links to their web sites. External link verified Oct-98.

• Ecola Travel Planner Includes a list of links to numerous US towns' Visitor and Convention Bureaus web sites. External link verified Oct-98.

• US National Park Service External link verified Feb-04.

• Parks Canada (Canadian National Park Service) External link verified Feb-04.

• GORP (Great Outdoors Recreation Pages) External link verified Apr-97.

• L.L. Bean Parksearch External link verified Aug-97.

• Life In The USA - A Guide for Immigrants and Americans Although it is not a travel site, Life In The USA contains a wealth of useful information for visitors, especially the Transportation section. Many of the other sections provide interesting background facts. External link verified Aug-00.

• National Geographic Magazine - Destination Guide - A very useful collection of information on selected travel destinations in the USA and Canada, including both cities and National Parks. External link verified Jul-00.

• Virgin Net Travel Section - From the Virgin Net home page, select the "Travel" section. This site contains some very useful and highly detailed information on travel destinations world-wide, including the USA and Canada. The lengthy descriptions of each state and province contain a wealth of information. The Resort Locator department contains descriptions of selected National Parks, cities, etc, together with interesting reviews from visitors to each. External link verified Jul-00.

• The rec.travel.usa-canada Internet news discussion group, to which questions can be posted. As with all news groups, some of the material posted on this news group may be unsuitable for children.

• The members of the Travel-L and Travel-Ease Internet EMail discussion mailing lists may be able answer specific questions. As always, the replies may be more opinion than fact but they do usually attempt to be helpful. See the External Links page for details of how to subscribe.

• The rec.travel.usa-canada Internet UseNet news group may be able to provide answers to specific questions. However, be prepared for the same mix of nonsense, spam, flame wars, largely ignorant opinions and occasional bad language which permeates all the news groups.

• For those people who happen to live in or near Norwich, Norfolk, UK, the American section in the Norwich Public Library contains many useful books on the USA, including a fair number on its geography, history and tourist attractions. Although a few of these books are academic, the majority are quite normal books perfectly suitable for a general audience. Provided you are a member of the library then you can borrow these books. Although the collection in the original library was completely lost in the fire which occurred a few years ago, the new collection in the temporary lending library on Bur Street has been gradually built up and is now extremely useful. There are also folders with maps and leaflets for each state, but these cannot be borrowed.

• If you have any questions which the above sources cannot answer, please email me using the link at the bottom of this page and I will attempt to answer them. However, I certainly cannot claim to be an expert in everything (far from it!).

While On Holiday

• Many US states and Canadian provinces have "Welcome Centres", often found on Interstates and major highways as you enter the state or province. These are excellent sources for each state or province's free official state highway map, many of which also give details of the relevant state or province's various attractions including National Parks, National Monuments, State and Provincial Parks, scenic roads, etc.

• Many US states and Canadian provinces issue free booklets detailing their various attractions, and in addition almost all states and provinces now also make much of this information available on their official state and province tourism web sites. Worthy of particular mention is Wisconsin's excellent free "Auto Tours" booklet, which can also be downloaded from their web site.

• Many towns in the USA have a Chamber of Commerce, which despite the name is a local tourist information offices open to the public, very similar to V V V 's in the Netherlands. The Chambers of Commerce and/or Convention and Visitors Bureaux of many American and Canadian towns, counties, etc now have web sites with information about their areas.

• Most motel lobbies and offices have racks with numerous local tourist attraction leaflets and brochures available. While most of these leaflets are advertisements for commercial attractions and of very marginal interest, these racks are always worth a quick scan.

• The local Yellow Pages for each town you visit provide a good source of information regarding restaurants, shops and other businesses and services, together with detailed local maps. Again, much of this information is also now available on the Internet. A copy of the local Yellow Pages is almost always provided in every motel room - although sometimes a previous visitor has taken the maps and the restaurants sections. If you want to look up "Supermarkets" in the Yellow Pages, it can sometimes be useful to try under "Grocery Stores" as well. Most Yellow Pages have a separate section for "Pizza" rather than listing pizza restaurants under "Restaurants".

• The USA Today newspaper and the Weather Channel on television are excellent sources of information on weather conditions throughout the USA - often a deciding factor when adjusting your route while on holiday.

• Don't forget to make a point of visiting the Visitor Centres in National Parks, National Monuments and similar areas. They are excellent sources of information.

• Never hesitate to ask for information in the USA and Canada - almost always people will be delighted to assist you.

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Most recently modified 30-Dec-05