Before you travel the world, travel the web

It's amazing how quickly the Internet has become a part of so many aspects of our lives. I got to thinking the other day about how many different ways I use the net in preparing for my annual foreign mission trip. I thought I'd share some of those ways with you; perhaps some of the links or suggestions will be helpful to you, whether you're on a mission trip, a business trip or a vacation.

Perhaps the most obvious thing you can do is book tickets online -- but I really don't have a lot of experience with that. The tickets for my foreign mission trips are usually booked through a travel agency by the missions organization with which I travel. I would suggest, of course, that if you do book online, you do some shopping around -- look at online booking sites like Travelocity, Expedia or Priceline, but also check out individual airline web sites for special deals or promotions.

Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet has become one of the leading producers of travel guidebooks. When I was in Bolivia, one of the locals started leafing through my Lonely Planet guidebook and was suitably impressed with its accuracy and some of the details included. The company's web site, lonelyplanet.com, is as helpful and informative as its publications, with information about a variety of destinations. Two years ago, founders Tony and Maureen Wheeler sold 75 percent of the company to the BBC, which adds even more credibility.

Ask the CIA: Sure, 99.9 percent of what the Central Intelligence Agency does is super-secret. But they also maintain the "CIA World Factbook" web site, a useful public resource with basic information about pretty much every country on the planet. Find it at snipurl.com/g168s.

U.S. State Department: The Consular Affairs division of the U.S. State Department, at travel.state.gov, has general tips for foreign travel along with country-specific information such as travel warnings.

You can also register your travel with the state department (snipurl.com/g16x2), which isn't required but is a great safety measure that could help save time and help reassure your family back home if a natural disaster or international incident were to occur during your trip. As you register your trip, you have the option to sign up to be notified by e-mail of changing situations.

Visa requirements: The travel.state.gov site can tell you about the visa requirements for the country you plan to visit. In the case of my upcoming trip to Kenya, we obtain our visas in advance. That means going to the Kenyan web site, downloading an application and instructions, and mailing one's passport and the required fee to the Kenyan embassy in Washington. It is possible to get a visa at the airport in Nairobi once you arrive, but it takes much longer -- and so for Kenya, the State Department recommends the advance route. Every country has its own specific policies and procedures, which is why online research can be a great help.

Travel health: Because my trips take me to developing countries where there may be medical risks, I always check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's travel web site, www.cdc.gov/travel. Click on "Destinations" and find the particular country or region to which you are traveling. From there, you can find out what vaccinations are required or recommended, as well as whether you need to take anti-malaria medicine. There are other useful travel health tips.

Pick your seat: As I indicated, the tickets for my foreign mission trips are usually booked by the non-profit group which organizes the trips. But once they send me my flight information, one of the first things I do is go to the airline's web site, figure out where I want to sit, and register that trip with the airline's frequent-flyer program.

If you did not book your own flight, you will need the confirmation number for your reservation in order to claim it on the airline's web site. You may need to set up an account on the airline's web site.

Once you do, most airline web sites will show you a grid of the seats on your flight and allow you to switch from the seat you were assigned to any other open seat. (Keep in mind that some desirable seats may cost extra.) I am still enough of a travel geek to want the window seat, even on an eight-hour flight, and so that's my immediate choice.

Luggage rules: Many airlines have changed their luggage policies in recent years. It's a good idea, while you're at the airline web site, to find out the charges and weight limits for your checked baggage. Most airlines now charge a fee for checked baggage.

Sometimes the fees or limits are different for international travel than they are for domestic travel, so study the rules carefully.

If it's been many years since you've flown, you may need to acquaint yourself with the security rules for transporting gels and liquids in your carry-on baggage.

Frequent flyer: Even if you haven't traveled that often in the past, it's a good idea to sign up for the frequent flyer program whenever you book (or claim) tickets on a new airline. It usually costs nothing, and you never know when you might need to travel on that same airline in the future, perhaps racking up enough miles to get an award.

Even if you don't accumulate enough frequent flyer miles for a free trip, you may be able to trade your miles for a smaller award (like a magazine subscription or a restaurant gift card), combine them with cash to buy a ticket, donate them to a non-profit agency, or give them to a friend.

I once helped a former mission trip teammate of mine by giving her some of my frequent flyer miles so that she and her new husband could take an Alaskan honeymoon. There was a fee for transferring the miles, but in this case she paid it, and still came out way ahead compared to buying her tickets outright.

Print boarding passes: This is one that I can't do for my Africa trips; for those, I am still required to check in at the ticket counter. But in many circumstances, you may be able to print out your boarding pass from home, the day before your flight.

When you arrive at the airport, your checked baggage can be left with a curbside attendant or at a special express lane at the ticket counter. If you have no checked baggage, you can just go directly to security and to the gate. Check your airline's web site for more information.

Purchase travel essentials: Because I'm never sure what the laundry situation will be on my trips, I like to take along plenty of Tide sink packets. These are small packets of liquid laundry detergent especially formulated for washing clothes in a sink or bucket. I can usually find them in the sample-size toiletries aisle of a discount superstore, but last year I could not. I went online and ordered a supply of the packets with no trouble at all.

You may have similar travel essentials, and you might be surprised how many of them can be ordered online. Use a comparison-shopping site like Google Products (google.com/products) to find the best deal.

--John I. Carney is city editor of the Times-Gazette and covers county government. He is also the author of the self-published novel "Soapstone." His personal web site is lakeneuron.com.