CLICK AND DOUBLE CLICK: ARE WE THERE YET? TRAVEL INFORMATION PLENTIFUL

Are we there yet?

Those four little words, which become a mantra for children, are the bane of vacationing families across America. As a parent who's readying for a roadtrip to Chicago this summer, I find the prospect of vacation offers a mix of anticipation and fear.

But even if the vacation doesn't live up to expectations, you can start your engines on the Internet. There are plenty of wonderful travel sites both for planning actual trips or that dream vacation.

Of course most of these sites are in the business of selling travel packages. But you can still research the trip and buy from your local travel agent. If do you buy online, make sure to read all the fine print. Sometimes the details can prove troublesome.

www.fodors.com

For general travel information, this is a great site. It lets you build your own miniguide from a list of 110 cities.

They also provide some advice on where to stay, eating out, essential information and top picks for each city. There were plenty of exotic sites, but I of course picked Chicago. Hey, the more information the better. The suggestions were very comprehensive.

You can also check out Fodors planning center with lots of travel trips. There are also forums, where you can share advice and ideas with other travelers.

There's also three interesting buttons at the bottom of the page: parks, adventures and language. Under language, you can listen and learn 500 essential phrases in French, German, Italian and Spanish. You don't have to travel to sound more continental. S'il vous plait and merci. I'm polite and ready.

The parks button gives you Fodor's guide to the best-loved seashores, forests, parks and monuments in the U.S. and Canada. You can pick a park or browse by region. The adventure button links you to sports and adventure vacations, such as hand-gliding or skydiving schools or rappelling in the Yosemite Valley.

www.frommers.com

This series of travel guidebooks has also developed a great site on the Web. The problem with some sites, there's little information other than travel packages. Fodors and Frommers both give you more.

You can read newsletter information or the hot spot of the month, which is Europe. You can also read the travel message boards: There are more than 100 topics in all.

You can also check out Arthur Frommers tip of the day. Today, it was interesting. He pointed out that while there are many last-minute discounts in the hotel field, that there are even greater savings for persons who book their lodgings a long time in advance.

You can also check out Frommers Travel Guides for specific cities or countries.

www.lonelyplanet.com

This is another great general travel site, geared for global treks. You can search destinations, theme guides and get the scoop on sites across the globe.

Under destinations, you can choose a region or a country. In the Thorn tree, you can read from fellow travelers or speak your mind in a number of chat rooms.

The Postcard section is not your typical e-mail postcard. It's e-mail that Lonely Planet receives from travelers on the road. It covers everything from how to get a summer job in Guatemala to how to find a cold beer in Timbuktu.

There's also some interesting health links off this site, which cover topics ranging from predeparture planning to diseases and ailments.

This site also has LOTS of travel-related links that will keep you busy for a long time under the subWWWay heading.

www.indo.com/distance

How far is it? Here's a great site that calculates the distance between locations. It calculates both in miles and kilometers.

It's 328 miles from Cape Girardeau to Chicago. You can also see the longitude and latitude location, and click off to Mapquest for more specific directions.

Cape Girardeau to Paris, France? Well, 4,430 miles, of course.

www.iexplore.com

This site gears itself to adventure travel. You can get a quick idea of its appeal by a look at its vacation "host list." The top three most popular travel packages are: Cruising the Galapagos Islands, safaris in Botswana and exploring Alaska.

Other popular trips include bicycle tours of Italy, hiking to Machu Picchu in the Highlands of Peru, diving in the Caribbean, cultural tours of Morocco, adventuring in Australia, culinary tours of Europe and mountain biking the American Southwest.

Obviously, these people have lots of money and no young children.

The featured site is the pyramids of Egypt, another place I'd love to go. You can explore virtual views of Egypt. You can send e-mail question to their Egyptian expert, share travel stories or travelers' views. You can choose experts by region or activity. That kind of one-on-one interaction with an actual person whose been there could be invaluable.

Are you the outdoor type? Then check out the Backpacker trails database.

www.thebackpacker.com/trails.asp

All you have to do is select a state and region with the state to search the a trail. You can also sort by hike name, length or score by backpacker reviews. There's also a beginner's corner, suggested destinations and gear and pictures, which they call the window to the wilderness. You can link up with other hikers at the trail talk. You need to register to chat, but it's free.

travel.discovery.com

If you're looking for extreme travel, check out the Discovery Channel. They can help you plan a trip or link with an expert or fellow travelers in their Travel Talk section.

They also have tools and tips, such as live cams, 360-degree images, maps, weather reports, converters, travel health and tips. The converters work for currency, temperature, distance, weight and volume.

What's your favorite travel site? E-mail me at click@semissourian.com.

This has certainly put me in a travel mood. Are we there yet?

Joni Adams is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.