eSpotlight – Travel Planning with eResources

Plan for travels and trips with eBooks and eResources, visit local sites of interest for free, or travel virtually with an eBook.

Traveling with eBooks & eMagazines

Several of the eBook services available through the library have travel books and guides from a variety of publishers. Even though some providers carry the same series, they may not all cover the same locations so it's a good idea to check more than one. Some titles are available all the time with unlimited copies and others are limited in copies and items may be not be immediately available, but you can place a request to be on the wait list for the item.

Always Available:

• Hoopla - Lonely Planet, Fodor's, Frommer's, Bradt Travel Guides, and more
• Travel Books from Gale - Eyewitness Travel, Rough Guides
• Ebsco - Culture Smart

Limited Copies (books may not be immediately available):

• OverDrive - Lonely Planet (always available), Rick Steves, Fodor's
• Axis 360 - Rick Steves, Fodor's, Lonely Planet,
• enki - Culture Smart, Hunter Travel

One of the great benefits of having a travel guide (or any book) in eBook format is that you can easily carry multiple books with you without adding more weight and bulk to your suitcase. This is especially handy when you come back from vacation with all your souvenirs or if you like to bring several books to read while on vacation.

In addition to travel eBooks, we have eMagazines about travel from OverDrive and PressReader.

Even More eResources

Along with all those excellent eBooks, we also have some other eResources that are a fantastic help for planning travels:

• A to Z World Travel focuses on cities throughout the world (as well as major cities in the United States) and includes information on current news reports, info on currency, electrical connections, phone & internet, culture & customs, language, maps, points of interest and transportation
• Global Road Warrior has a broader focus on countries and like A to Z World Travel, it includes information on current news reports, info on currency, electrical connections, phone & internet, culture & customs, language, maps, points of interest and transportation
• A to Z the USA is a great resource for facts and news about each state if you're looking to travel within the United States: including history, maps, symbols, climate, economy, demographics and schools. In addition to travel planning, this eResource is helpful for school state reports

Explore Locally

If you'll be staying around the bay area for the summer and are looking for fun things to do, there are plenty of wonderful local museums to visit and many have free or reduced price tickets available through SJPL's Discover & Go program.

Plan to visit any state parks? You can check out a free Parks Pass that can be used at most California State Parks. And if you need supplies on your park visit, check out one of our SJPL Outdoor Exploration Packs.

And don't forget to sign up for Summer Learning between June 1 to July 31 online or at any San José Public Library. All those travel books and magazines count towards your reading time for the program!

Learn the Language

If you're traveling to a country where English isn't the primary language spoken, it's always a great idea to brush up on that language and at least learn greetings and basic questions.

• Mango Languages is a good place to start for the basics and can be used on a mobile device
• Pronunciator has even more languages and more in depth courses and is also accessible from a mobile device
• Hoopla has lots of audiobooks that are great for language learning and can be used their their app on a mobile device

Travel Virtually

If you can't travel in person, it's still fun to do it virtually. Some books just make me feel like I'm there and a part of the story. Here's a mix of fiction and nonfiction eBooks that transport you to their locales.