Travel Guide - August, 2003

Having trouble flying to Botswana? Want to know the dialling code for Peru? Or looking for a visa for Uzbekistan? We can help!

Global Hand members have asked us to put together a guide to manage the joys and headaches of travel required for humanitarian work. On the ground research and follow-up are extremely important in work of this nature, but it is often hard to find useful travel information about our less-frequented destinations.

The results are now online in ourĀ  travel guide.

Here are some highlights:

Comprehensive travel sites:

  • Rough Guides
    http://www.roughguides.com
    This travel book company features thousands of travel destinations, and is one of the only travel sites to publish all of its guides online. Has an excellent travel resources section, with info on topics such as health and safety, currencies, maps and weather.
  • World Travel Guide
    http://www.worldtravelguide.net
    An impressive, well structured country-by-country travel guide, with an entry for every nation in the world. Each country page has an overview of the country, as well as detailed information on accommodation, climate, currency, obtaining visas, internal and international travel, international dialing codes and public holidays. Also included are useful contact addresses, relevant web-pages of the US, UK and Canadian governments, health advice and a social and business profile of each country.h2. Flights:
  • OAG
    http://www.oag.com
    OAG gives information on all scheduled flights worldwide.

Maps:

  • University of Texas Map Library
    http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps
    Has a large database of maps from around the world, with many links to maps on other sites. Includes physical, geographical, and geological maps, time zone maps, transport maps and historical maps.
  • Relief Web Map Centre
    http://www.reliefweb.int/w/map.nsf/home?OpenForm
    A United Nations map resource, with general maps of the various countries and an interactive map.

Insurance:

  • Banner Group
    http://www.bannergroup.com
    This UK based insurance group specialises in providing international medical expenses and travel cover for individuals of all nationalities who are working and living outside their country of origin. In 1992 a special policy was introduced for overseas aid workers.h2. Climate:
  • World Climate
    http://www.worldclimate.com
    This site has a detailed climate guide, providing data such as the mean temperature and rainfall, for tens of thousands of places around the world. This information is essential for those planning to visit unknown or unusual climate conditions.

Dialing codes:

  • World Time and Dialing Codes
    hhttp://www.whitepages.com.au/wp/
    This website is helpful for working out the time difference between two countries, and is especially useful for international dialing. By entering the country of origin and the destination country, the webpage displays the time in both countries, as well as providing a comparison table.
Please let us know if you have any suggested additions for these pages.