State Tourist Bureaus are one of the best sources for helping you to locate the interesting, exciting, obscure and sometimes hidden treasures of a particular state. Here, the internet is your friend. To find an official state web site, simply type the two letter abbreviation followed by .gov. So if you are looking for South Dakota, type sd.gov and you will get to the official state site. There is a good chance that the state’s tourism site is not located on the official state site. I usually use Google and type into the search field the state abbreviation followed by tourism. Examples would be ND Tourism, NM Tourism, CA Tourism and WA Tourism. In most instances, the first or second no paid hit will be the official tourism site for the state. I find the advantage of using the official state tourism site is that it is free and usually not biased by the company or attraction that is willing to spend the most to advertise.
Most of the state sites have an area where you can sign up for email notifications of special events that take place throughout the year. You really don’t get enough email do you? Also, there are usually printed materials available for free. You can sign up and indicate the parts of the state you wish to visit, your areas of interest or historical sites you wish to see. They will send you brochures and maps that will be helpful in the planning of your road trip, lodging, meals, points of interest, entertainment natural wonders and historical areas.We will continue to add items so check back often. If you have a favorite book, film, TV show or website let us know and we’ll include it.