1. Surfing fanatic Steve England, also publisher of various surf magazines, has plugged what he believes is a gaping hole in quality information for UK surfers.

His site, The Surf Directory is designed to help surfers plan their trip, without having to waste time searching for where to stay, where to eat or which gig to go to, once they’ve decided where to go for the best waves.

The interactive map is the backbone of the site, and takes you through to detailed surfing information about the type of break, wave and swell direction, then links to surf schools, surf shops, places to stay and places to eat and drink. There’s also a surf forecast and in some places a live beach cam.

2. TripTouch is a travel blog and widgets site – it’s nothing new, but this site is ahead of its competitors because of its clean design and good choice of partner sites.

BACKGROUND

• The 10 hottest travel websites to watch

• 10 travel websites to watch: July

• 10 travel websites to watch: June

• 10 travel websites to watch: May

• 10 travel websites to watch: April

50 best travel websites of 2007

Another year of innovation and refinement as travel websites continue to become more niche, focussed and useful

Times Online's top 100 travel websites

Once again, we've crawled, clicked and crashed our way around the world of internet travel to bring you our top 100 travel websites in 2009

The premise is to offer a site where travellers can catalogue their adventures, communicate with other users, upload photos and use services, including booking flights, checking the weather and looking up local events. Google and Kayak are the main partners, which means technology should be flawless and the travel searches relatively comprehensive.

3. The shambolic opening of Terminal 5 will surely see a surge in ranting entries to FlightsFromHell.com – which does what it says on the tin. It was started by Greg Rottler as a way to vent his fury at the world’s airlines and an outlet for others to do the same.

The stories are divided into 15 categories, including luggage and delays, food and drink, and more entertaining categories such as weird people and odours. We can’t vouch for the accuracy of the entries of course – stories of this kind are often prone to exaggeration, but we can vouch for one thing – you’ll think twice about getting on a plane again.

4. On the back of its user-generated travel guides site, the team behind wikitravel.com, has launched wikitravelpress.com – a licence to print your own travel guide. The site has collated the best entries from its 30,000 destination guides to create up-to-date guides to a select number of destinations – so far only Chicago and Singapore.

The content is updated regularly and as books are printed on demand, you’ll always get the latest information. You can also add information yourself so it’ll appear in your personal guidebook. They cost around £10 to print, and next in line is Paris, Toronto and Sydney, plus guides in other languages.

5. Destination Cooking wins our price for prettiest website this month – it’s purpose is less clear. The site is the result of six operators who have come together to sell outdoorsy French holidays based on regional food.

You can search by region, which brings up a recipe and some foodie suggestions, but what disappoints is that there’s no holiday search – you need to click through to the separate providers to book a holiday or even get a quote. Nevertheless the site is fun, easy to navigate and great for recreating dishes you had on holiday, if nothing else.

6. When Carnival Corporation bought Swan Hellenic and years later ditched the name, avid cruise fans bid a sad farewell to one of the grande dames of cruising. But it wasn’t long before the name resurfaced – in one incarnation, as a river cruising operation whose website, www.swansrivercruises.co.uk, went live last month.

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?