Most travel research starts with Google (or your other favorite search engine). You progress through websites showing flight schedules and prices, hotels and reviews. You may choose a restaurant and a few sites to visit, noting the opening and closing times of that museum you're sure will change your life. Whatever shape your research takes, some of it can by done casually but other parts require more accurate sources.
For example, do you need a visa to enter a particular Middle Eastern country? In advance or on arrival? Do you need the address of an embassy, the most current information on health concerns, perhaps a country report that provides a bit more background than Lonely Planet?
You can Google all of this, however the answers often conflict and its hard to choose which is correct. That said, in these cases it's fundamentally important to know the facts, and fact #1 is: Sometimes sources matter.
I would never, ever, EVER trust visa information from Wikipedia. Similarly, vaccination information needs to come from a health authority. The implications of getting it wrong are just too severe.
So where do you go?
For years the Canadian government has hosted an excellent website that I recommend highly. The information is useful to both Canadians and foreigners, is up-to-date, and provides telephone numbers, addresses and links to other sources. This website doesn't pretend to be the authority on all things travel, but rather provides a very solid starting point for information you need to get right.
Check in out!
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