Landing at Bombay airport recently, I found myself in the grip of culture shock. It wasn't the usual Westerner's problem with India - seeing entire families sleeping out on the pavements, not knowing how to respond to hollow-cheeked children begging with outstretched palms or how to escape from tradesmen who clutch at your clothes as they try to drag you into their shops for "just a little look, nice antiques, Kashmiri shawls" or whatever else they happen to be selling. No, my problem was that the last time I had been in India, some dozen years or so before, I had travelled round a country where the only cars on the road were antiquated-looking Ambassadors, and telephonic communications were, to say the least, limited and uncertain. This time I found myself in a country where - in the cities at least - every other car was a European or Japanese import, and a significant proportion of the population carried a mobile phone.

The change that made the biggest impact on me, however, was the fact that the advertising hoardings on each street corner no longer exclusively proclaimed the merits of agricultural equipment, the latest Bollywood extravaganza and Thums Up cola. Instead, most of them seemed to be touting the virtues of the computer age, and almost every company that advertised its wares seemed to be promoting its website as well. It was then that I realised what a profound impact the internet was having on the world and that, soon, no corner of the planet would be unaffected by its coming, no life left untouched by the digital revolution.

Here in the West, we have been swept up in the 'dot.com' revolution. It is only recently that the first wave of overhyped internet companies have had to face up to a realistic revision of their market value, bursting the bubble of investor enthusiasm for a technology that is little understood and frequently overvalued. But there can be little doubt that the internet is changing our world - and it is here to stay.

Many home computers are limited in their memory and the speed of their modems, all of which affect the rate at which web pages can be downloaded, but within a very few short years all this will change, and the net will open up a world of possibilities, allowing virtual travel to take place in the comfort of our living rooms. But at the moment, when it comes to its relevance to travellers, cyber-science is in its infancy.

Currently, the biggest drive is towards e-commerce functions, and there are many sites around that allow you to book your flights and hotels speedily and efficiently, without having to spend an age on the telephone listening to a recorded voice telling you, without a trace of irony, that your call is valued and will be attended to as soon as an operator becomes available. So, if all you're after is a no-frills flight or a package deal, the computer world is your oyster, and there are plenty of sites, from the infamous www.lastminute.com to www.go- fly.com, that will be able to meet your needs with slick efficiency. If, however, you find yourself at the planning stages of a major trip, the internet offers a more limited, albeit constantly growing, set of resources.

First of all, if you need inspiration about exactly where you should be going on your trip, there are a growing number of online 'magazines' that, like the newspapers, publish articles about a range of destinations. Some even carry 'video diaries' of travellers' trips, allowing you to experience the journey in a way that no piece of prose, however embellished by still pictures, can. Try www.uksmart.co.uk or www.breathe.com for features on the most happening holiday locations of the moment. The added advantage of such sites is that, as well as carrying the basic story, embedded within the feature you'll find hypertext links to pages that will give you extra information that can help you to plan your journey. A short piece about the Sydney Olympics, for instance, may carry links to a list of the top ten hotels in the city, a guide to the best restaurants in town, the lowdown on the local beaches and suggestions for day trips, as well as information about flight prices, weather conditions and the latest exchange rates.

If you have a location in mind, but would like to research it in greater depth, www.roughguides.com, the website of the publishers of the Rough Guide series, carries all the information contained within its vast range of guidebooks. A recent check showed that the site carried details of more than 10,000 destinations on its database - and the figure keeps climbing. That other major publisher of guidebooks, Lonely Planet, also has a site: www.lonelyplanet.com. While its resources are not as extensive as those of the Rough Guides, it does carry a wealth of information, posted by travellers to all kinds of destinations, as well as a noticeboard that can help you find a travelling partner. Finally, Time Out, London's grooviest weekly city guide, publishes extensive information about 25 of the world's most happening cities, from Paris to Shanghai, at www.timeout.co.uk.

For some admittedly more biased advice, log on to www.towd.com. This site will put you in touch with the tourism offices of almost any country you could possibly want to visit. Don't expect to find a wealth of information on the site but, with any luck, you could be the recipient of a whole pile of brochures within weeks, possibly even days, of your initial contact.

For some fairly up-to-date information about risky destinations, www.fco.gov.uk or travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html are UK and US government-sponsored web pages that can give you the gen on a country's political and criminal situations. Of necessity, though, the information carried on these sites tends to be cautious, so it's worth seeking a second opinion before cancelling your adventure on the basis of advice there. If you are seriously concerned, there are professional advisory services on the net, which, for a fee, will give you all the latest information. One of the best of these is www.krollassociates.com.

On a lighter note, the weather can make or break a trip. You can make sure the sun will be shining - but not too hard - by visiting one of the following sites: www.worldclimate.com,weather.y ahoo.com or www.cnn.com/weather.

You can get a feel for how far your travel funds will take you by logging on to www.quote.yahoo.com/m3?u, which will give you up-to-date exchange rates for over 160 currencies. And make sure you never run out of the readies by planning an itinerary of cashpoint machines at www.visa.com/pd/atm/ or www.mastercard/com/atm/.

When it comes to finding somewhere to stay, www.hoteldiscount.com offers discounted rates on a large range of hotels, and if you're travelling on a budget, www.hostels.com is the site to visit for details of backpacker accommodation worldwide. If you're planning a long stay in one place, you might want to check out www.homexchange.com, which can arrange for you to swap addresses with strangers right around the world.

If you're interested in witnessing any kind of festival, from open-air rock concerts in the US to snake-boat racing in Kerala, www.whatsonwhen.com is the site with all the details of what's happening around the world. All you need to do is plug in the date of your projected visit and the details of the country you're visiting, and the search engine will tell you all about any exciting goings-on that happen to coincide with your trip. Alternately, if you want to go to a particular festival, but aren't sure when it's actually taking place, this site can help you to pick the right dates for your journey.

Always fancied going on safari, but never quite made it? Log on to www.africam.com for an insight into life on the open plains. This site's strength lies in the fact that it carries constantly updated video images that vary from season to season so, depending on the time of year, you might catch glimpses of leopards on the prowl or migrating wildebeest on the hoof.

Finally, as any WEXAS member will know, the company's site, www.wexas.com, is chock-full of travel information, from the kinds of basic details you'll need to plan a successful trip, to insightful accounts of journeys posted by other travellers. The site also carries facsimile copies of recent issues of Traveller, WEXAS' glossy and thought-provoking magazine, which you can download from your computer and print off to read at your leisure. If you're not a Wexas member, check out www.travelleronline.com for a taste of what's available on the site.

Of course, by the time this book has been printed there will be many hundreds of new and fascinating websites out there to help you plan your trip, whether you're heading for a couple of weeks in the Algarve or an expedition to the hinterlands of the Amazonian basin. All I can suggest is that you keep your eyes peeled for news of such sites - and that, at the moment, the best place to find them is via the good old-fashioned medium of print: newspapers and magazines, especially ones that feature travel articles or guides to the web, are still great sources of information about the latest, most informative websites in cyberspace.