The KIDS Report is a biweekly publication produced by K-12 students as a resource to other K-12 students. It is an ongoing, cooperative effort of 15 classrooms from around the world. Teachers assist and provide support; however, students select, evaluate and annotate all resources included in every issue of the KIDS Report.
The KIDS Report is published with a generous grant from John and Tashia Morgridge and with the support of the General Library System of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This issue of KIDS, dated February 15, 2000, was written and produced by Tina Krouth's class at Whitehorse Middle School in Madison, Wisconsin.
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PlacesToStay.com
http://www.placestostay.com
The Places To Stay website includes information about the name and location of hotels, the cost, the number of rooms, and how many floors there are. After you find the state and the city you want, you select from a list of areas. Then it will give you a list of hotels (or resorts) to pick from in that area. This website is great if you are looking for a hotel, for example, in Las Vegas, Nevada, because there are lots of hotels and resorts in Las Vegas. You have to do a little bit of searching to find the hotel you want. The price range is $25.00-$2,500.00 dollars a night! This site does not allow you to search by city.
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Vacation Rentals By Owner
http://www.vrbo.com
I think the Vacation Rentals By Owner Website should be recommended to anyone from the age of twelve and older who is interested in traveling. The website is very organized which makes it incredibly quick and easy to gather information. It has a worldwide list of condos, town houses and cottages for rent. It gives you a list of price ranges to fit your budget. Also, when you visit this website it will have photos for most of the places so you have an idea of what it looks like in that particular area. You can't search by location, price range or date but there is usually a phone number or an email address to contact the owner and make a reservation.
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Central Reservation Service
http://www.reservation-services.com/
This site helps people by providing information about hotels in ten major cities in the United States. You can reserve a variety of hotel rooms before you even get to the airport. Prices, locations, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed. This website usually takes only a couple seconds for each page to load and is worth your time if you need to reserve a flight or a hotel room somewhere in the United States. It shows maps and a picture of every hotel listed in these cities. You search through this site by choosing a city you are going to and picking a hotel. Then it lists the hotel amenities. All you have to do is fill in your personal information, dates that you would like to stay in that hotel, what type of room, etc. to reserve the room. |
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Yahoo! Travel
http://travel.yahoo.com/destinations/
This site is useful for reserving airfare, making car rental reservations, and for finding other vacation specials. If you'd like to rent a car, click on the picture of the car. If you wish to reserve a hotel room, click on the picture of the hotel. If you want to check out airfare, all you have to do is choose dates and say your origination and destination city. Then it will show you the best-priced flights. This site is very easy to search through.
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Around The World Travel
http://www.discounttravelhawaii.com/air.htm
This site shows you places and gives you information on a variety of travel options to anywhere in the world. All you have to do is show who is going, including seniors and children. Then, you choose a destination and your departure city. You also choose when you wish to leave and when you wish to arrive, including date and time. If you need to rent a car or get hotel accommodations while in the city that you are travelling to, you can also use this site. In this site there is an on-line travel agent. You must submit information including names of people traveling and your email address. You send your request and the travel agent writes back to you after determining an itinerary. This site does not ask where you'd like to stay (near airport, the beach, etc.) and it does not ask which amenities you require.
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Farebeater
http://1travel.flifo.com/
The Farebeater site is very good if you want to reserve a flight, rent a car, or get a room. The flight can be one way, round trip, or multi-city. The first thing you have to do is type in where you are departing from and where you are going. Then you have to set a date. When you hit "Show me the available flights," it will give you a list of all available flights for that day and time. You can also rent a car on this website. You can choose from a compact, economy, intermediate, full size, luxury, or convertible. You can also reserve a hotel. When you choose your hotel you can pick a specific area of the city (near the airport, suburban, resort, etc.) There are a variety of hotels you can choose from. I would recommend this site to anyone who wants to find a flight, reserve a hotel, and rent a car all at the same time.
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Lycos Auctions - Travel
http://auctions.lycos.com/HTML/Cat8976.htm
The Lycos Travel Auction site is great if you want to take a cruise, rent a car, buy a vacation package, rent a cottage for the weekend, or fly. The website can help people by telling them the rates of city to city air travel, rates of cruises to, say, the Caribbean, or how much it would be to rent a car on your vacation or business trip. The intended audience is adults because you have to use a credit card to purchase or rent anything. It would be useful to adults because you wouldn't have to call your travel agent to sort everything out. The site has several rates for airfare, cruises, or car rentals. You have to have a login name and password to make a bid, but it lets you register when you try to make a bid. The bad thing about this site is you can't search by date. When you win that auction you have to call the airport to see when the next available flight is. There are very few graphics, so the website can be used quickly.
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Global Online Travel
http://www.got.com/html/spotlght.html
The Global Online Travel website is recommended to anybody interested in traveling nationwide or worldwide. It contains information about weather, cool stops, parks, tourism offices, travel guides, travel books/magazines, travel tools, special needs for travelers and information for sport enthusiasts. It also gives you links to over fifty other travel planning websites. These links include information such as maps, shopping and transportation. They also have a list of articles about body treatment, family spa vacations, spa fitness, flying with pets, ordering airline food, avoiding travel scams, travel tips, budget guides and much more. One disadvantage is that you can't search by location, price range or date.
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Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel
http://www.frommers.com/destinations/
This site is for travel destinations all over the world, and it provides airfare and lodging. The site is helpful to people for all price ranges; top hotels, quality, moderately priced, upper-budget, and lower budget. This web site would be useful to anyone who travels for vacations or on business. The site is so easy to use that you can type in your destination and your budget and it will list a bunch of packages and lodging options! Searching by keyword or by destination makes it very easy to find what you are looking for. On the message board, people give feedback on their trips and they ask questions about destinations and lodging. There are also package deals on cruises and monthly discounts. The site was created by the company that writes the popular Frommer's Travel Guidebooks.
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| Travelocity.com
http://www.travelocity.com/
This site provides airfare, lodging, and car rental offers to travel destinations all over the world. It also provides special deals for vacations and cruises and a special destination guide. The web site offers maps and current weather information in your destination. The service is free, but you have to become a member. You can search by date or by specific dates. You can check the delivery status of your tickets or of a flight.
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| National Geographic Traveler
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/media/traveler/
This site is for travel destinations all over the world. It offers a wide variety of things but is mostly for tourism and fun vacations. There is a tourism forum on the pros and cons. There is a place for travel tips and questions. It tells you about weather, road conditions, news, local events and more. It features 50 places of a lifetime. The site has great graphics, but one downside is that you can't search by travel destination.
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Avis Rent A Car
http://www.carrental.com
At the Avis Rent A Car website, you can find a great car to rent on vacation or business. The cars are worldwide, and the website has easy access to car rates and reservations. You can search for a car by brand or type and you can make your car reservations at the website. The Avis Rent A Car website offers a wide variety of price ranges, and the information is easy to understand. The website provides information on where to pick up the car, and the location of the nearest airport. The website provides pictures of some of the cars. It may be difficult for someone under 13 to use the website. |
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Hilton Worldwide
http://www.hilton.com
At the Hilton website, you can plan a great place to stay on vacation or business. The hotels are worldwide, and the website has easy access to hotel rates and reservations, amenities, conference information and tourist attractions. You can search for a hotel by region or you can check out special offers and value rates. You can make your reservations at the website, and have a walkthrough of each individual hotel. Hilton offers a wide variety of price ranges, and the information is easy to understand. The website provides directions to the hotel and the location of the nearest airport. The website would be useful for business travelers and anyone planing a vacation. It may be difficult for someone under 12 to use the website. Most major hotels have a site like this. |
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Trans World Airlines
http://www.twa.com
At the Trans World Airlines website, you can plan a great place to book a flight on vacation or business. The airports are worldwide, and the website has easy access to flight rates, reservations and amenities. You can search for a flight by region or you can check out special offers and value rates. For instance, you can make your reservations at the website, and pick between different classes. If you want first class, you type it in and it will show how many first class tickets are available for that date and time. Trans World Airlines offers a wide variety of price ranges, and the information is easy to understand. The website provides hotels that are connected to the airport. It may be difficult for someone under 11 to use the website. |
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These Internet resources were evaluated on the basis of Site Selection Guidelines that the students developed. Questions and comments can be sent to the facilitating teacher at Whitehorse Middle School, Tina Krouth, at kkrouth@madison.k12.wi.us
2000 Copyright by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the entire KIDS Report provided this paragraph, including the copyright notice, is preserved on all copies.
Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
A Publication of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries