Mobile Computing Tips: Best Web Sites for Travelers

Feature: Best Web Sites for Business Travelers

Airline ticket? Check. Driving directions to client's office? Check. PowerPoint presentation? Whoops.

Having a successful and pleasurable business trip depends, to a large degree, on keeping up with a million details. Fortunately, the Web can help. Here are some Web sites and services I rely on before or during a business trip, plus a few others I haven't tried but might come in handy.

Checking e-mail: When I'm away from home without my computer, I head to a cybercafe or library and pick up my e-mail at Mail2Web.com. You couldn't ask for a more no-nonsense, straightforward interface; just type in your e-mail address and password, click the Check Mail button, and start reading your messages (for free, and without having to register). Mail2Web.com, like similar sites, lets you check POP3 and IMAP4 accounts only, not AOL e-mail. (Most Internet service providers support POP3 e-mail; some, such as SBC Pacific Bell, support both protocols.)

Currency conversion: Before traveling abroad, I go to Oanda.com and print out a wallet-size currency converter cheat sheet that converts dollars into a particular foreign currency in lump sums. A Euro cheat sheet, for example, would tell you that 1 Euro equals 87 cents in U.S. currency, 2 Euros is $1.74 in U.S. dollars, and so on.

Driving directions: Though MapQuest is perfectly fine, I prefer MapBlast. The site's new LineDrive feature shows the segments of your trip as blueprint-like line drawings, rather than highlighting your route on a map, which can make directions more difficult to follow.

Flight tracking: Trip.com's Flight Tracker offers a cool, graphical way to check the status of a flight in progress, which is useful for seeing if a business associate will be on time or if your flight is late. Type in the airline and flight number and a continually updated map pinpoints the plane's location. The technology is still a bit crude; you can't see what movie they're showing on board or who's in first class--but maybe some day.

Local events: When I want to mix pleasure with business (meaning whenever I travel), I check Citysearch to see if there will be anything interesting going on in my destination city. Citysearch provides searchable theater, music, sports, and other listings for dozens of U.S. cities, both small (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and big (New York).

Local news: Being able to make small talk with clients or partners is just as important as talking business. So before you leave home, see what's going on in your destination city at Yahoo News, which serves up the latest headlines from dozens of U.S. newspapers and media outlets. Then, when you're in Seattle, you can start the conversation with something like, "Hey, how about that arsenic they found in the soil in South King County?"

Remote access: As for that PowerPoint presentation you left on your computer back home--relax. There's still hope, thanks to GoToMyPC, which provides remote access to connected PCs. PCWorld.com reports that because of its easy-to-use interface, "individuals should find GoToMyPC a handy way to retrieve forgotten files," though the service's less-than-robust security controls might make IT managers cringe. Single-user plans begin at $14.95 a month. For the GoToMyPC review, check out "Peek Into Your PC From Anywhere."

Save on airfares: Travelocity.com's Fare Watcher feature automatically notifies you via e-mail if the price drops between your home city and any one of up to five destinations. The e-mail includes a URL so you can use Travelocity's online reservation system to start planning a trip right away; a calendar at the site shows you the dates when the discounted fare is available. Airfares change so quickly that some rates have disappeared by the time I received the e-mail. Nonetheless, I've saved hundreds of dollars thanks to Fare Watcher.

Tech support: It's midnight, you're in a hotel room, and the laptop containing your PowerPoint presentation is acting funky. Who you gonna call? If your notebook is out of warranty or the vendor's support line is closed, check out Steve Bass's guide to finding tech support in a pinch, "Tech Support When You Need It."

Travelers' advisories: I'm supposed to go to Italy soon and, frankly, I'm a bit nervous, given recent rumblings about fringe groups targeting Americans in that country. So I've been monitoring the State Department's Bureau of Consular Affairs Web site--and if you're planning a trip abroad, I'd suggest you do the same.

Weather: Weather.com is The Weather Channel's terrific site for keeping tabs on Ma Nature. Aside from ten-day forecasts for national and international destinations, the site offers monthly temperature averages for travel planning purposes, sunrise and sunset times, weather news, airport conditions, and flight status. You can have weather info delivered directly to your desktop, pager, or PDA, as well.