Hitting the Net Before Hitting the Road

A good friend of mine recently took a one-year job in Argentina. Good for him. And potentially good for me too, if I can get my act together to visit him before he leaves.

I’ve never been to South America. In fact, I’ve never been south of Ensenada. So I’ve got a few things to learn in order to plan a trip, such as:

* What’s the best time of year to visit Argentina?

* How much will it cost?

* What should we plan to do while I’m there?

My first instinct was to head to a bookstore and pick up one of those travel guides. But they were full of small black-and-white pictures and even smaller type. My next idea was to log on to the World Wide Web. Surely among the vast number of Web pages there are sites to answer all of my questions--for free, no less.

I began my search at Ask Jeeves (https://www.askjeeves.com), one of my favorite Web sites. It’s like a search engine, only better. You type in a question in plain English (“How do you make black-and-white cookies?” or “What’s the national motto of Canada?”) and an impressive amount of the time Jeeves points you to a Web site that has the answer.

So I asked Jeeves, “When is the best time to visit Argentina?” Jeeves studied the query and returned with a list of questions it could answer. Among them: “Where can I find travel information for Argentina?” I clicked on that and jumped to Lonely Planet Online (https://www.lonelyplanet.com).

Lonely Planet publishes travel books, and its Web site offers online tours--through text and pictures--of places on every continent, including Antarctica. Jeeves jumped me straight to the “Destination Argentina” page, which covers everything from history to costs to getting around the country. It also offers several special features, such as an intriguing book list of recommended reading and a listing of major festivals and events.

I presume all of this information is available in book form. But the Web site also links to a slide show--full-color pictures of the country’s natural wonders. There’s even a link to firsthand reports from recent travelers--something that could exist only on the Internet.

I’m a hiker, and Lonely Planet suggests a trek through the Andes, Sierras de Cordoba or the Sierra de la Ventana in Buenos Aires province. So I went back to Ask Jeeves to find a Web site with more information about hiking in Argentina. This produced links to several travel companies offering package trips, each with pictures of breathtaking views.

OK, I’m ready to book my ticket. But how much is it going to cost? To answer that question, I turned to Expedia (https://expedia.msn.com), the online travel agent from Microsoft. I’ve tried several online travel sites, but this one consistently offers the widest range of low air fares. Plus, it’s easy to use. Expedia asks you to set up an account, but it’s free and mine hasn’t resulted in any junk e-mail.

After clicking on “Travel Agent,” I typed in my departure and arrival cities, made up some dates to travel and--voila--flights and fares on three different airlines, including a Chilean carrier I had never heard of. Unfortunately, everyone’s fares are pretty pricey. But by changing the dates of my trip, I can get the prices to come down a bit.

One alarming note from the Lonely Planet guide: Cholera is a health hazard in some parts of Argentina. So I took a wild guess and went to https://www.health.com for more information. It turns out this is the Web site for Thrive Online. I couldn’t find anything about the symptoms for cholera, only what drugs to take if I became infected.

So I looked up the home page for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (https://www.cdc.gov). The CDC has a whole section devoted to travel information. Unfortunately, it currently lists Argentina as one of many “cholera-infected countries.”

The CDC also has a link to the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs home page (https://travel.state.gov), where there are no travel advisories posted for Argentina. But I did download a helpful document describing the country’s entry requirements, medical facilities, embassy location and other information.

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Times staff writer Karen Kaplan can be reached at karen.kaplan@latimes.com.