Country Profiles and Cultural Information

Country profiles with factual information about government structure, income levels, literacy rates, predominant religions, languages and ethnic groups and major industries will give you a broader base from which to explore and dig deeper for a richer cultural experience for yourself and the people you meet in your travels.

Global Exchange Country Profiles

Global Exchange provides in-depth country profiles that explore current and historical human rights, political and economic issues in individual countries. Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. The organization organizes reality tours to many countries, providing the traveler with first-hand, people-to-people experiences that enhance our understanding of contemporary political, economic, environmental, and cultural issues around the world.

Free Travel Guides

You can of course find basic country facts and cultural information in travel guides, many of which can now be found online.

You can download a free pocket travel guide (in pdf format) with all the essentials for just about any worldwide destination at hostelworld. The pocket travel guides cram everything you want to know into a mere three or four pages, including your room reservation and tour details if you also book your bed and tours for multiple locations -- very handy!

Wikitravel is an online project to create a free, complete, up-to-date and reliable world-wide travel guide. It is built in collaboration by travellers from around the world, with a constantly growing list of entries on destinations and other travel-related information.

As for some of the better known commercial travel guides, Lonely Planet goes far beyond simply selling their guides and trips for their sponsors. Their web site is full of much of the same detailed and informative content about countries and destinations that has made their Travel Guides indispensible. The Destinations section of their site is also very easy to navigate and get 'just the facts' in a format similar to their guidebooks, without the distractions of advertising and forum chatter.

Encyclopedic Factbooks

Use the snapshots you can find from online encyclopedic sources for further research into the different influences contributing to a people's culture, customs and day-to-day life, and how traveling responsibly can make a positive contribution.

There are a few well-established and respected sources for research on every country in the world, offering full country profiles on economy, geography and demographics. A vast majority of the travel websites you'll come across rely on and reproduce alot of the information found in these authorities, so rather than surfing endlessly, you can go direct to the source from here.

The World Factbook is referenced by almost every other source offering country profiles, including National Geographic's Country Profiles. The benefit of going directly to National Geographic first is that you'll find more comprehensive and interesting reading to inspire your travel planning, including information on sustainable tourism and ecotourism.