Monday, May 21, 2001		The world of  dot.com

Get airline tickets on discount

Most of the schools and colleges have closed down for the annual feature called "summer vacations" and if the rush at bus-stands, railway stations and airports is any indication, most of the families want to utilise the vacations by sightseeing. The following sites can aid you in choosing your destination:

www.shubhyatra.com

This site, designed by Design Expo Network, has done a lot to facilitate the journey of those who wish to travel this summer. It provides a list of travel packages offered by India’s best tour operators. You can select a desired category for travel to hill stations, wildlife sanctuaries, coastal resorts, leisure sights, adventure tourism and honeymoon. Pilgrimage centres, historical places, idyllic islands, winter getaways and shopping paradise in India and abroad have been described in detail. Facility of online airline reservation and checking of the availability of seat is also provided. All one has to do is input the date of departure and names of starting and destination city. You may get airline tickets with discount. By inputting the names of start city and destination city, you will get suggestion on the availability of trains. A Smart-Route-Finder suggests you the best available routes and transport ways. You can select criteria for travel that takes minimum time or budget. Interactive maps of various cities of India are available. A distance calculator finds out the distance between 2 cities. The site also guides you about weekend gateways. You will find more about arts, culture, music, education, religion, clothing, weddings, dances and festivals of India. Information of beaches, sanctuaries, pilgrimage places and trekking and travel trips for visitors are provided.

This portal guides you to travel in an interesting fashion. You can select a category to visit to historical places, divine tour, wild life, adventure sports or relax tour. A map of India will appear showing you various places of your desired category. You just click on any city and get information about its history, culture, way of reaching there and accommodation facilities available there. It also gives you tips about best season to go there. Site also has nice photographs of the places. You will get some special tour packages also. The site provides you a search of tourist cities in an alphabetical order. All flight details of the various airports are available. Timings of arrival and departure of all trains at the various railway stations can also be found. Exclusive information of Indian healing system is also available on the site. It provides information about various known Ayurveda centres in the country and available package tours to visit. The site, made by Saparna Infotech Ltd, also includes information of Buddhist sites, fairs and festivals of the country.

— Sarabjeet Singh Kanwal