A good place to start looking for information on a foreign country is the CIA's World Facts Book. Find out if a country has any political unrest or if there are any reason's for a traveler to be wary.

The big name travel guides are hosted on the big travel sites. Travelocity uses Frommer's Travel Guide. Expedia uses travel guides by Fodors. Or you can go directly to Fodors. Fodors has all sorts of travel information and discussion groups. They have reviews of hotels and restaurants along with news and discussion groups.

The Trip Advisor contains a multitude of sources for vacation information. Enter a location and get links to guidebook reviews, articles, reviews, and local attractions. They also have hotel rates and airfares to the location. This is probably the best place to find out whether or not you would like to go to a certain place. They have an incredible amount of reviews. Once you find the place you are looking for, click on the tabs at the top and to get reviews on the resort, hotel, restaurant, attractions, etc.

Concierge.com from Conde Nast Traveler gives you travel advice including times of the year to avoid certain places, medical requirements for exotic locations. Their hotel reviews use Fodors, however.

There is a lot of information on cities and a bunch of good hyperlinks to cities' web pages on the Excite Travel Guides (scroll down to the bottom of the page). The guides have been stripped down a bit. They give general information, but no longer link to pages beyond the Excite web site.

The Columbus World Travel Guide has good information of a whole lot of places worldwide. They don't get into the small cities or towns, but it is a good place to find out information about a place you haven't been before.

CNN Travel concentrates more on travel news than anything else. This makes it a good place to check for strikes, bad weather, or any other problems you might encounter during your travels. They also have travel guides and travel information. The guides provide more Worldwide coverage than other guides.

Rec.Travel offers links to many local travel web sites, travelogues, and travel tips. The site appears to have been put together by folks traveling in more questionable countries.

For a more down-to-earth travel guide, try Rough Guide Travel. It's a chatty and realistic guide to worldwide travel. Topics include lodging, restaurants, and things to do and avoid doing. The list of places to stay is short, but it has better information about the towns and regions than the other guides do. They also list bed and breakfasts.

If you are looking for a place to eat, you can go to Restaurant Row. Here you can look at menus, see pictures of the restaurants and get a map. You can search by town/city and by cuisine.

If you want an opinion about restaurants, you'll have to go to one of the major guides like Fodors, Zagut, or Frommer's. Try all three web sites to see which restaurants are consistently good. Zagut now requires money to read their reviews.

People who travel tend to eat out a whole lot. Sign up for Rewards Network and get 20% off of your entire food bill, including tax and tip. It costs $49 each year, but you break even after spending $245, which is about 10 meals. They now let you apply your initial savings to pay your fee, so you don't have to pay out of pocket. They have a web site where you can locate restaurants. Transmedia combined with iDine, then they added hotels and became Rewards Network. Restaurants are usually not big chain restaurants so you'll get some local flavor. If nothing else, you can find some really good restaurants with this card. I have found some great places that I never would have found otherwise. The hotels require that you pay for you full stay up front, so don't use it unless you are positive you will take the trip and you know you will be there for the entire time.