I travel a lot. And I love to spend winter evenings in front of the fireplace with my MacBook in my lap, planning my journeys or just dreaming of exotic locations as I surf from one travel site to the other. I have talked to Gary Price, Director of Online Info Resources at Ask, who has some great tips for using Ask for planning travels or solving travel emergencies.

During carnival time and for Mardi Gras especially, I’ve been dreaming about New Orleans. If I search for new orleans on Ask, I get all kinds of information that’s important for a traveler.

Zoom info

Zoom info is Ask lingo for the links in the left pane or column, which can help me narrow or expand my search. The links in this pane leads to a lot of information which can be useful when planning a visit: I can narrow my search in the direction of hotels, history, news or even famous saints. Or I can widen my search for information on Hurricane Katrina, which is a must for any visitor.

Magic maps

The most striking part of the search results page is the Smart Answer — the information provided at the very top of the middle pane. Smart Answers vary according to the subject of your search. I get a map of central New Orleans.

Clicking the headline of this map takes me to the New Orleans section of Ask City (this kind of info is available only for the US and the UK). I can search for businesses, events, movies and directions.

But let’s say I’m already there and want to know it there’s a pharmacy close to my hotel. Below the map is a collection of tools. I choose the circle tool and draw a circle spanning some blocks around my hotel.

When I do my search, it is easy to see from the map which pharmacies lie within walking distance. The businesses are also displayed with phone number, so I can call to ask if they are open.

When I find a pharmacy that’s close by, I can click directions in the left hand menu and add the location of the hotel and the pharmacy. Ask provides both walking and driving directions.

Travel toolbox

Performing a search like new orleans turns the right pane or column into a virtual toolbox for travelers. It displays info about New Orleans from a number of sources. First, there are thumbnails of photos. If I had any doubts about going there, these photos shows me some of the famous sights.

Next up in the right pane is current time in New Orleans. If I want to phone the hotel to make sure I get a room with a view, Ask shows me not only in which time zone New Orleans is located, but the exact time — the seconds ticking away in real time. If time zones confuse you, this is very helpful.

The right pane displays an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on New Orleans next. Wikipedia isn’t always accurate, but articles about counties and large cities are mostly thorough and complete with lots of detailed information, links and more, so this is useful.

Under the Wikipedia article is a box displaying the current weather in New Orleans. You can choose between Fahrenheit and Celsius and there’s an icon showing, in my case, a beaming sun.

But I don’t care if the sun is out in New Orleans today. I want to know what the weather is generally like in the middle of February, in case I get there for next year’s celebrations. So I click a link taking me to a page where I can choose from a 48-hour detailed forecast, a 7-day forecast and seasonal weather.

The seasonal weather info tells me that mean temperature for February is 13 degrees Celsius (55 Fahrenheit) and goes on to display average high and low temperature along with average wind speed, wind direction, relative humidity, typical sky cover and more.

This kind of climate information will appear as a Smart Answer above the first search results if you search for climate in new orleans. The smart answer displays the climate information mentioned above and has a drop-down-menu which lets you choose which month’s seasonal weather you want to see. There’s also a little search box where you can search for climate information for other destinations.

I love Smart Answers

I mentioned above that Smart Answers vary according to the topic of your search. If I search for convert currency in Yahoo, Live or Google, I get a list of links to sites that might turn out to have a decent, up-to-date currency calculator.

When I do the same search on Ask, the Smart Answer is a currency calculator. I don’t have to go any further. All I have to do is choose the currency (US Dollars for a trip to New Orleans or Vietnamese Dong if I’m planning an even more exotic vacation).

Ask offers similar calculators for converting miles to kilometers, inches to centimeters, ounces to liters (or vise versa) and more. This is stuff I often wonder about when I’m traveling.