Use Your PC to Preview and Plan Your Trip
Jun 09 '01
The Bottom Line Preplanning will save you time, and aggrevation for a European trip. Here is a complete guide including maps and costs.
Visit 12 Northern European countries for $40, that’s really cheaper by the dozen. Of course this is virtual travel, but it offers great time and money savings potential for physical travel, so grab you guide books and let’s go! The Baedeker Guides have long been the support standard for world travelers. Now the contents of 18 of these renowned guidebooks have been incorporated into a single CD-ROM as a searchable database. The $40 price of the CD is far less than the cost of the guidebooks purchased individually and far more useful for both travel planning and actual travel.
That sounds good, but what does it really mean?
Notice that the title says, “travel planner”, which means that here is a means to plan your trip to ensure that you get to see that which you intended in a most efficient manner. The software provides ten powerful search methods of a comprehensive attractions database. You can organize your trip into a printed agenda including map locations, admission prices, holidays, addresses, phone numbers and money saving tips. Pictures of the sites are available to identify locations and to serve as a diary and description of your visit.
System Requirements
The minimum system requirements are modest; 486DX2, Windows 95/98 or 3.1, 640X480 Video, 8MB RAM, 14 MB hard drive space and a CD-ROM drive. The installation was flawless on my Pentium system running under Windows 98. Operation is nothing more than clicking on clearly labeled buttons and an occasional typing of keywords for a search or an annotation for trip information. There is excellent HELP available at the click of the mouse. The CD even has a self running tutorial.
Some Specifics
Ok, enough of the hype, let’s get to specifics. At the PlanetWare STARTUP window, let us assume that we wish to search for information on the Eiffel Tower. Click on SEARCH. This brings up several search option buttons. If we want to know what each of them does, just drag and drop the TUTOR\SEARCH from the CD to your hard drive and double click it to run. But, since we know that we are looking for the Eiffel Tower, we just click on the PLACE NAME search option, then type Eiffel Tower and click GO. This loads the Attraction Viewer, which divides our screen into two parts. On the left side we see the name of the attraction in both English and the original language, the country and region, a logic tree relating this attraction with all sites in the vicinity, the overall Baedeker rating and interest categories of the site. The right side of the screen contains the Browse Attractions box, a text description of the location, and a planned tour sequence that includes this attraction. There are also control buttons which provide additional data. FULL TEXT gives the description in a full screen window. ACCESS gives the directions to the site and the admissions prices. HOURS list the opening hours. CONTACT lists address, phone number, fax, internet address and how to call from various places worldwide. MAP brings up a city map pinpointing the location. PHOTO shows pictures of the attraction. There are also buttons for adding this site to an itinerary and performing other database navigational tasks.
If you just want some ideas on what to see in a particular country, you merely select Slide Show from the STARTUP menu where you pick the country of interest, click GO and sit back and enjoy the show. If a particular slide catches your fancy, just click READ ABOUT, which takes you to the ATTRACTION VIEWER for that item.
Area Maps and Attractions
If you know that you will be in a given area and you wish to find attractions by viewing a map, just select MAP SHOW. Pick the country, i.e., France, then LIST MAPS. Select say Paris Central west and click pinpoint. Now you see a list of attractions in this area. Click on Eiffel Tower and a purple circle with a pin marks the location on the map. If you click on the pin you get the ATTRACTION VIEWER.
Attractions along a Route
If you wish to find all the attractions along a driving route or within a given distance of a town, select the GEOGRAPHY SEARCH, then click a country. A click on the national map names the nearest town. Click RADIUS, select a distance and you are presented with a list of attractions within that radius of the town. A click on READ ABOUT loads the ATTRACTIONS VIEWER.
Zero in On a Particular Interest
If you have a particular interest or hobby just select the INTEREST search option and click on your interest category (there are some 140 choices). This gives you a list of sites relating to your interest by selected country. Highlighting your choice and clicking GO brings up the ATTRACTION VIEWER.
Some Other Applications
These are just some of the ways that you may use this wondrous tool. There are many more. Just think of the help this could provide a school child that is studying a country or site, say Stonehenge. Instant information and pictures are provided to enhance any school report.
Summary
Just to grasp the scope of coverage, this CD includes over; 25,000 attractions and events, 8,000 addresses, 1,000 walking and driving tours, 750 maps, 880 photos, 2 million words and encompasses 12 major countries and 8 smaller entities.
Both programs and data may be updated from the PlanetWare web site, www.planetware.ca.
Having spent considerable time in Northern Europe and Great Britain, I can attest to the reliability and accuracy of the information provided and only wish that such a resource had been available at the time.
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