It is summer here in the UK - a time when people start thinking about taking a holiday. Perhaps a little getaway to find some sunshine on distant shores? Or maybe a trip that is a little more daring.
If cave crawling in Carlsbad or fly fishing in arctic Russia sound like your idea of a perfect break, then consider Gorp your travel guru - it stands for Great Outdoor Recreation Pages.
This site is rammed to the seams with amazing ideas for adrenaline-packed adventures as far or as close to home as you care to travel.
Use the tabs across the top to access the various guides - or if you are looking for something specific - like, say, sand boarding through desert dunes - use the handy little search box just underneath.
There is a tip of the week for the hardened traveller and the gear guy offers some sound advice for those of you planning to travel off the beaten track.
Get inspiration for your next trip in the activity guides section and when you are ready to book, the site does link to various travel sites where you can organise your trip.
It is worth remembering you are under no obligation to use these though, and you might find a cheaper deal if you surf around looking for it yourself.
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Once you have your getaway booked - flights, hotel, hire car etc - it is time to sort out your itinerary. For me this used to mean countless bits of printed paper - e-tickets, booking references - all stuffed into a folder. But not any more.
Take a look at TripIt.com.
This service is so simple yet effective, it is mind boggling. It is basically an itineriser - if there is such a thing - that takes all your travel documents and plans and combines them into one comprehensive and easily digestible itinerary.
According to the website they can work with tickets and booking forms from most travel companies and airlines.
Although it is worth remembering this website is a work in progress at the moment - it is not finished, so there may be some wrinkles yet to iron out.
Once you have registered, all you need to do is e-mail your travel documents to plans@tripit.com and the snazzy automated software will work them into an itinerary even including weather forecasts, city guides and tips on where to go and what to do once you are there.
If the website cannot work with a document you send, they will mail you a note to tell you. You can then just pop onto the website and add the details manually without too much effort.
There is even the option to get details on your mobile or PDA and have your itinerary mailed to you, so you will never have another excuse for being late for that flight.
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Many items listed for sale on the popular auction site eBay go unnoticed and are sold for a steal because of a simple spelling error.
You can pick yourself up a grammatically powered bargain by visiting e Boo Boos.
The site is simplicity itself to use. Just select the flag of the country you want to search in the yellow search box, and type the name of the item - correctly spelt - in the box below.
You can add words to exclude from your search and even specify a category section and how you want the results to be sorted - by price, or time left to run on the auction.
And you would be surprised how many people spell their auction details wrong. With no spell checker attached to eBay, items like handbags and even designer labels names like Armani can go for a steal at the minimum bid specified by the seller.
If you want inspiration on what to search for, the site even has a selection of example search words in the panel to the left.
A nice trick is if you do not find what you want on your first search, click on another flag and you can search that country's site as well.
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I like to test my brain on puzzles and word searches and such like. And while this site is quite simple in design I actually found the content nicely challenging. And the premise behind it gave me a warm glow inside.
The idea is you have to state the meaning of a word from a multiple choice of four. For every word you get right, the site will donate 20 grains of rice through the UN World Food programme.
You can see the donation piling up on the right and can play for as long as you like.
So if you know your cognomen from your glissade and have a few minutes to spare, why not do some good? Okay, so 20 grains of rice is not a lot, but it all adds up you know.
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