Find the bad airline seats before you book

You must have noticed that some flights seem longer than they should for the time they take. Others seem to literally fly by. The difference is a comfortable seat.

Even if you always fly coach, you can stack the deck in the favor of comfort if you go to Seat Guru, www.seatguru.com. Put in the airline, flight number and departure date. The aircraft type and layout will appear. You can also choose an airline and scroll down the list of aircraft it uses, then look at the seat configuration.

Good seats are marked in green, seats with "Be Aware" warnings are in yellow and seats ranked poor are colored red.

Move your cursor over any colored seat and helpful information appears. Checking American Airlines' 757-200 craft, you find that seat 14 A (in yellow) has no window, so you are advised to choose another seat if a view is important to you. All seats in row 17 have extra leg room, but they tend to be cold on long flights as they are in the exit row.

The sheer number of travel-related Web sites--almost 250,000 -- makes it overwhelming sometimes to find what you need and to know what sites to trust as you plan you trip.

At Planet Rider, www.planetrider.com, editors have cut through the thicket of travel sites and have come up with the most useful and reliable ones for different needs, from lodgings to restaurants to outdoor adventures to night life.

Choose among various topics, such as Activities, with its subsets of Adventure and Sports, Art and Culture, Food and Drink, Lifestyles and Music; of Landscapes, with a subset of Deserts, Forests and Jungles, Mountains, Rivers and Lakes, and Seashores. Other sections include Maps, Weather and Geographic Destinations. There is a lot more on this site, so it's worth bookmarking.

One site www.PlaneRider.com reviews is Smarter Living Discount Travel Specials at www.smarterliving.com. PlanetRider says: "Smarter Living offers up to the minute deals for deep airfare, hotel and auto rental discounts. Explore the 'Deal Alert!' section on the site, or have the specials e-mailed right to your desktop. We especially love the searchable list of the airlines own weekly cyber deals, superbly organized and conveniently customized to the airport of your choosing."

In print

"Lonely Planet: The Africa Book" by Matt Philips, published by Lonely Planet at $40, is a beautiful pictorial book with images spanning the best features of a continent where 1,800 languages are spoken. It includes sections on each of 54 countries, complete with information on traditions, legends and rituals; a group of recommended and off-the-beaten path routes and journeys; and gripping essays.

There are also fascinating maps of old and current routes, the five regions of Africa and every country.

But the main reason to own this book is the astonishing photographs. Eerie and evocative photos of vast plains, bodies of water brimming with hippos and people in their ceremonial dress will make you want to call your travel agent.