Middle East Travel

The University of Texas at Austin online libraries provide access to numerous maps of the Middle East, all produced by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Maps of the region and of individual countries are available; some are in PDF format, while others are jpg files. All maps enable you to zoom in for a better view, and you can view maps of different years for a better understanding of regional development.

The Encyclopaedia of the Orient is an excellent source for maps of the Middle East, though a bit difficult to navigate due to flashy ads. Click on a country name to access detailed maps that show numerous cities and geographical features. Click points of interest on the map to view photos and get further information. Read the accompanying article on the country where the place is located to get more facts and background information.

World Sites Atlas hosts a free political map of the Middle East that pinpoints dozens of cities and large towns throughout the region. Just be advised of ads cluttering the top and sides of each page. You can't zoom in on maps, but click on a country name, and you'll be directed to a page devoted to that country. Once there, you'll find all kinds of facts and statistics about the country's people, size, history, and more.

I Like 2 Learn is an educational site for students. The site has a simple online geography quiz on the Middle East: test your knowledge of the region's complex organization and fluid boundaries. If you don't do very well on your first try, don't worry; you can play as many times as you like.

Pars Times is a publication created primarily for scholars and researchers of the Middle East. In their Middle East Resource Guide, you'll find dozens of links connecting you to Middle Eastern media resources like online newspapers, virtual libraries, government organizations, and NGOs. There are particularly good links on Islam. Toward the bottom of the page, you'll also find several links to online museums and galleries.

TIMEA (Travelers in the Middle East Archive) is an online resource created by Rice University that chronicles travelers' experiences in the Middle East, primarily in the 19th and 20th centuries. You'll find texts, including travel writings and museum catalogs, drawings and photographs, historical maps, and sections that shed light on culture, customs, art, architecture, transportation, daily life, politics, and more. Note that you'll have to download individual documents to access each one.

Al-Bab has a series of links on dozens of specific countries in the Middle East region. These include media publications, historical documents, and statistical sources, and will inform you of the characteristics and evolution of countries you're interested in visiting. You'll even find links to news sources, to information about arts and culture, and to information about the different people who live in the region.

The New York Times has a whole travel section devoted to the Middle East, and while there are currently only guides to a handful of countries, including Jordan, Israel, Oman, Syria, and Bahrain, you'll also find any relevant pieces the newspaper has published as well as multimedia features such as slideshows or videos from the countries. Topics covered include cultural trends, hotspots for dining, socializing and relaxing, accommodation resources, and in-depth articles about other Middle Eastern locales.

Real Travel , apart from being a good resource to live vicariously through other travelers' experiences, also has a special "Attractions" section that is organized by region and lets users describe their tours, treks, and explorations of a particular place. The Middle East section, linked here, will give you ideas about where to go, what to see, and how to get there.

Peregrine Adventures is an adventure travel company that features several trips in the Middle East, many of which are multicountry tours. The site gives you guidance on when to go and offers several trip options, depending on the cultures you're interested in and your desired length of stay. Options include Nile cruises, desert treks, hiking destinations like Mt. Sinai, and cultural tours that focus on specific sights and artifacts in one or more countries. You can't book online, but use the "Brochures" tab at the top of the page to request more information, or choose "About Us" to contact the company by e-mail or phone.

Lonely Planet has a guide to the Middle East offering specific information and advice for traveling in each country in the region, including necessary terrorism warnings. You'll catch an adventurous spirit in each section: places to see, background info, transportation, or accommodation options. This guidebook company has been around for 30 years, and it has become so prolific that it was recently bought by the BBC.

Let's Go travel guides offer budget-friendly resources for exploring the Middle East, including suggested itineraries like "Best of the Middle East (45 weeks)." "Let's Go Picks" for sightseeing are especially intriguing; for example, they'll direct you to the "Best Café Frequented by a Nobel Laureate." The guides are entirely researched and written by Harvard University students, lending a college-age appreciation for saving money and for intellectual pursuits abroad.

Muturzikin has a difficult-to-read but interesting and colorful map showing the languages and dialects spoken in the countries of the Middle East. The varieties can be a bit mind-boggling but useful if you know the specific areas you want to visit.

Just Landed is a valuable resource for learning about a country you're visiting for the first time. You'll find practical information about visas, currency, accommodation, and more. But you'll also find a particularly useful "Culture" section for all of the countries featured (there are several major Middle Eastern countries included). Here you'll get tips and insight into customs, religion, etiquette, and other traditions you'll want to learn about.

The U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs sheds light on travel warnings, other security issues, health issues, and visa and immigration requirements. Check the "Travel Warnings" site before planning your Middle East itinerary, and visit the "Consular Information Sheet" section to find informative facts about the particular countries you'll be visiting.

Gulf Arabic is a free site that gives you the tools to speak Gulf Arabic, the Arabic dialect of the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and several other Gulf region countries. You'll find key phrases and words with phonetic and audio pronunciation. Move onto the more advanced lessons for vocabulary and grammar. Note: you have to register for free on the site to access all of the lessons.

Rosetta Stone makes learning a foreign language about as easy as it can be. You can try a free demo of dozens of languages to get some familiarity with the language(s) you want to know before your trip to the Middle East: just select a language from the pull-down menu in the "Personal" section. You can then purchase the program, available to use online in your browser or as a CD-ROM, for about $100 to $300, depending on how many levels you want to learn.

BBC Languages has free online resources for learning many languages, and while Arabic is not yet available, you'll find Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, which is also used in urban areas of Saudi Arabia and shares common words with Farsi and Arabic. BBC also has lessons in Turkish (included in the European languages section). You can print key phrases to know before you go and use the interactive lessons on the site.

Tripology is a matchmaking service for travelers, pointing you in the direction of travel agents connected through the site's network. Start by checking the boxes in the orange area on the front page (these include flights, accommodation, sightseeing, car rental, and more, depending on what you'd like included in your package). From there, you're prompted to select your departure and arrival destinations and specify your airline preference. For more on the process involved, visit the FAQ, starting with "How does Tripology work?" Be sure to read the accompanying articles on the Middle East, which take the form of guides and tips by knowledgeable agents.

Kayak caters to a long list of Middle Eastern airports, so you may want to compare Kayak's prices to prices found on airline sites. Head to the link we've listed, click on your desired destination's airport, and you'll see the flights currently on offer to that destination. The results include price, airport name, and airline name.

Economytravel.com has a breadth of airlines in their search results and a knack for finding good deals. The site's coverage of Middle Eastern destinations is one of the most thorough, and you'll find airlines like Lufthansa (based in Germany) and Emirates (based in the UAE) in their search results, as well as many more you may not have thought would cater to the Middle East. The site specializes in flights, but there are also car rental and ski package searches.

Emirates is the largest airline based in the Middle East, catering to "more than 90 destinations worldwide." The site provides thorough coverage of destinations in the areas in and around the Middle East. Emirates flies out of major U.S. hubs like New York City as well as Asian hubs like Singapore and Tokyo. Often, the U.S. flights connect in Europe on the way to the Middle East. You can book flights and browse schedules through the airline's Web site.

Gulf Air is a larger carrier in the Middle East, and while it doesn't offer flights from the United States, you can connect to a Gulf Air flight in a European city like Athens or London. Gulf Air also offers vacation packages in the Middle East, and all these offerings can be purchased on the Web site. Visit the "Arabian Experience" section to see the different vacation itineraries available.

Cruise Critic is both an online travel magazine and a cruise search engine, allowing you to read reviews from experienced cruise travelers and book your cruise. The Middle East section is thorough and informative, giving you "Fun Facts" [] to introduce you to the idea of taking a Middle Eastern cruise. You'll also learn about the various itineraries and themes on offer.

all-hotels makes it easy to find accommodation in the Middle East, regardless of your price range. Search in one of three ways: by clicking your destination on the map of the region; by selecting your destination from the pull-down menu; or by using the hotel search tool on the left-hand side of the page. The site is affiliated with U.K. Travelocity and includes discount hotels and motels as well as luxury hotels in its searches. A helpful feature is the bargain hotel search tool (scroll down in the left sidebar).

When We Travel has a strange design, but it provides hotel listings for 16 Middle Eastern countries. The site narrows its selection down by specifying particular amenities, like "breakfast" or "swimming pool." You can read detailed information and view pictures as well as book through the site. This site is also valuable in its other travel sections, although some, like the "Restaurants" section, are not as filled out as the hotel listings.

Luxury Travel provides many options for those looking for a more lavish selection of accommodation in the Middle East. More than a dozen countries are included in the site's directory, the most populated ones being Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Israel. You can search for a hotel by brand (e.g. Claridge's, Hilton). There are also guides to "Leading Luxury Destinations" around the world, though the coverage of the Middle East as of September 2007 included only Dubai and Istanbul.

Concierge has a hotel finder that spotlights all of the most recommended hotels and resorts featured in the magazine Condé Nast Traveller, most of which are quite high end and not suited for budget travelers. While the list is not as long as a hotel search engine's results, you will get a thorough review of some of the finest accommodation options in the region.

Hostelz.com has some of the most comprehensive information on the accommodations in their listings, and it covers many Middle Eastern countries, including smaller cities and towns therein. Choose your desired country to browse all the hostels available in that area; view ratings; read the site's description of amenities, location, and ambience; and book online.

Hostelling International offers help with selecting and booking a hostel in the Middle East, provided you have the organization's membership card (prices vary depending on your age and location). HI is a nonprofit organization representing more than 4,000 hostels in more than 80 countries, and it has an extensive list of properties in Middle Eastern countries. To search for hostels, select your destination from the map; you'll be provided with background information and a list of hostel options, located below the "all hostels" tab in the right-hand sidebar. Many hostels can be booked online.

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.

VirtualTourist combines the practicality of travel tips, tools, and ideas with the input of travelers. This fusion creates a valuable site that emphasizes facts, tips, planning, and inspiring visuals rather than blogs or other overly subjective information. Browse the landing page of the Middle East section and select your desired destination(s) from the map, or choose one of the "Popular Destinations" on the right-hand side of the page. Be sure to stop by the "Travel Deals" section of the site, where users post deals they've found around the Web.

GLOBOsapiens is a travel network where users write "reports" on places they've visited. In the Middle East section, you'll find dozens of reports from experienced travelers, which chronicle anecdotes, suggestions on what places to visit and how to get around, and other useful tips from insiders and veteran vagabonds.

Travellerspoint has tips and tools for booking accommodation, sharing and viewing travel photos, and talking with other travelers and prospective travelers in the "Forums" section. There is a thread devoted to all Africa and Middle East topics, where site users share insights and ask questions about trip planning.