Middle East Travel

SideStep is one of the premier search engines, trawling over 200 airline Web sites and search engines to find its results. In the search tool, enter your travel dates and departure and destination cities or airports, and SideStep will find flights fitting your specifications. Above the list of search results is an easy-to-view chart showing your best options according to airline and price. Make a selection, and you'll be linked directly to airline Web sites to book tickets. Large airlines like Emirates are predominantly featured in the results, since most of the central hubs in the Middle East are popular business and leisure destinations. Use the left-hand side of the page to track an airfare by selecting "Track this Fare." The function allows you to adjust your price range, change your desired time of departure, and more.

The Man in Seat Sixty-One is an independent site based in the United Kingdom that promotes rail and sea travel around Europe and Asia. The site offers resources and tips for getting across countries and continents without the use of airplanes, when possible. You'll find links to the official Web sites of several Middle Eastern countries' rail networks, images and anecdotes about the journeys, and other advice for planning and booking rail trips. (Note that some countries often thought to be part of the Middle East are in the "Africa" and "Europe" sections in the list of countries on the left-hand side of the page). There are also useful sections like "Things to See" and "Hotels" on many countries' individual pages.

Amadeus Subway Maps is a resource created by Amadeus, a worldwide travel company that has published metro and subway maps for hundreds of cities. While you're likely to find similar maps in a guidebook, you can print maps for your trip at no cost on this site. This is particularly useful if you're traveling to Egypt, Iran, Israel, or Turkey, all of which have cities with metro systems.

The Bus Station has a site design that's a bit chaotic, but you'll find links to bus tour operators and public bus companies in many countries in the Middle Eastern region. Highlighted in yellow are the companies that operate tours and provide services to the public. Many also connect to destinations in other nearby countries. However, bear in mind that many Web sites are in Arabic, particularly if they are in less tourist-heavy countries.

Viator is a global travel site dedicated to compiling sightseeing and activity packages that has many listings for Middle Eastern destinations like Muscat, Oman, and Dubai, UAE. Many excursions involve bus travel. Fortunately, these trips are priced in dollars, and they can be purchased online. View a complete itinerary of the tours, choose the length and private or public option, and read reviews of the tour from other site visitors.