Israel & the Palestinian Territories

• The Jerusalem Post and Haaretz are two of the Israel’s major newspapers, offered in English and Hebrew.
• Israelwire posts breaking news on the hour. English links provided below.

• Infotour.co.il A comprehensive conglomeration of Israel's major cities’ main attractions, hotels, car rentals and more. Also lists dates of important religious holidays and countrywide celebrations. It even has a section devoted to the current events of the week.
• Visit Palestine. Some practical information listings, but the site is very slow and the listings are sparse. One nice feature is a table of mean temperatures for different places in the country. It also has a nice table listing major events for the coming year.
• Bestj.co.il gives complete listings (in English) for sites, sounds, and travel info in and around Jerusalem. The drawback of this site is that it does not have write-ups of the places it analyzes, but otherwise provides comprehensive coverage.
• The Israeli nature society has set up a website detailing national parks in all regions of the country. It provides hiking suggestions and valuable historical information.
• Introductions to Tel-Aviv and Haifa.

• Youth-hostels.org.il. Provides a map of 32 different youth hostels around the country affiliated with the Israeli Youth Hostel Association.
• Kibbutz.co.il. An accommodations listing that provides access to a unique cultural experience, Kibbutz.co.il lists various kibbutzes that offer hotels as their primary service.
• Discover travel offers an accommodations search engine that allows you to search according to budget preferences.

South Africa

• Naspers.co.za is the English-language page of the local Afrikaans newspaper, ‘Die Burger.’
• The Independent Online has all the daily business, local, entertainment news etc in South Africa.
• The Zimbabwe Independent and the The Zimbabwe Standard both offer English-language news on Zimbabwe.
• The Swazi Observer isa daily Swaziland newspaper.

• Truth.org.za is the official web site for the South African Truth & Reconciliation Commission. This web page is essential to understanding the country’s turbulent political history including the atrocities of the apartheid era and how the country is rebuilding itself. Includes information about all of the committees of the Commission including the Amnesty Committee and the Reparation and Rehabilitation Committee as well as links to major press releases and reports published by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.    

• Southafrica.net is the official website for travel and tourism in South Africa.
• Lycos provides a pretty comprehensive guide to visiting South Africa including specific information about South Africa’s major cities e.g Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban as well as general information about the culture and history of South Africa.

• Southafrica.co.za lists links to a range of hotels and hostels in South Africa.
• Travel in Africa is a comprehensive guide for backpacking in Southern Africa created by Adventure Travel Africa, a company based in Pretoria, South Africa. Available in several languages including French, English, and Spanish. Includes information about car hire, hostels, as well as tours and adventures.

• Africa Online is Africa’s equivalent to Yahoo! or Excite, with links to pages about sports, news & info, travel, women, business and finance as well as chat rooms and newsgroups. There are also special pages dealing with Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
• Southafrica.co.za is a search engine for South Africa in English 

Turkey

• byegm.gov.tr. In English, German and Turkish, the Turkish government introduces you to its history, culture, infrastructure and geography. Fairly comprehensive survey information; will provide the uninitiated with a good basic understanding of Turkey.
• mfa.gov.tr. Official site for Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Provides links to media, consular information, diplomatic archives, and transcripts of recent speeches.
• Turkey.org/ After an animated introduction, this site links you to everything you always wanted to know about Turkey (from its spin doctors). Well-organized, and provides useful links to related information.
• iyte.edu.tr Links to all of Turkey’s major universities’ home pages, and links to other Turkey web servers.
• Ege.edu.tr. General introduction info on Izmir, the birthplace of Homer, including an overview on the arts & culture scene, a brief history of the area, and listings of major museums and monuments.

• Dominet.com.tr. All sorts of cultural links, from helpful language hints to examples of Turkish humor. A must-see for your trip planning.
• Istanbul.com. This site was under construction at the time of this review (April 2000), but it looks like it might have potential.
• Istanbul City Guide. Not as budget-savvy as Let’s Go when it comes to food and lodgings, but has a spectacular listing of upcoming concerts, arts and music festivals, and so forth; a long list of clubs and other nightlife (go to the "What’s Happening" link); also includes exhaustively comprehensive descriptions of sights and their historical backgrounds.
• Ankara Life. This is a recently created site featuring trendy, expat-ish listings of the best of what Ankara has to offer, some on the more upscale side – though it's not clear if establishments had to pay to be listed or not. "Accommodations" features only real estate.
• Hitit.co.uk. Calls itself "an Alternative Guide:" a very opinionated, very enthusiastic web guide. Learn about paintball in Turkey!

• Travelturkey.com. Best site yet for organization, budget-savvy, and honesty. Accommodations listed by city and categorized by price.
• Hostels of Europe is an online company that provides on-site accommodations discounts (if you buy their card). Site lists comprehensive details on each accommodation, and includes available links to hostels’ websites.
• Focusmm. Splitting Turkey into regions, geographically lists a huge range of hotels all over the country. Hotels are listed with address information only, and are rated from five stars all the way down to one.

• Tr-net.net.tr. In Turkish. Links to major sites on education, books, tourism, cars, finance, cinema, you name it.