In Africa, when communication systems were less sophisticated, travellers and market traders had an ingenious way of exchanging information: the thorn tree. On an outward journey, so the story goes, they scribbled messages and pinned them en route to the spiky thorns of the tree at the crossroads, expecting fellow travellers to leave replies for them to pick up when next they passed. It was a noticeboard in the wilderness, an information hub. And travellers always need reliable information.

When the internet began, it was like a latter-day thorn tree and the travel news, advice and story-swapping discussion groups were among the first to find their voice in this new cyberspace. But now that the web has found its feet, the internet has become much more than a digital noticeboard. It is a vast information resource and marketplace through which an independent traveller can research and plan a trip, look up departure times for boats, planes and trains, send and pick up email while on the road, calculate tricky currency conversions, translate and even learn languages and book and pay for a flight - even arranging to pick up the tickets at the airport departure desk.

Online English-speaking local papers give a pretty good idea of what is going on, what to do and what to look out for - a fuller picture than any British media could give. A little imagination, lateral thinking and rooting around on the web and you can find out about any destination in a way you could never have done three years ago. And if you're after more conventional information, like tour brochures, that is there too, from climbing in Snowdonia to boat trips to watch penguins in Antarctica.

The Rough Guides website (www.roughguides.com) now has its books online, Fodors (www.fodors.com) will help you construct your own miniguide to your destination city or country, and a host of offbeat sites provide, for example, advice on how to travel with your dog. The internet is a huge free library with all the info you could need.

But the biggest - and most liberating - web developments have to be e-commerce and web-based electronic communication.

Secure credit-card transactions mean that booking a flight online is now the preferred option for savvy queue jumpers and bargain seekers. While some are put off by the absence of voice-to-voice or face-to-face contact, there are plenty who are happy to click the mouse, hit the return key and pick up their tickets at the airport.

Cheap flight operator easyJet is beginning to offer deals exclusively to web users, which is not surprisingly, since web sales account for 45% of its total business, compared with only 10% a year ago.

And if the destinations offered by easyJet (www.easyjet.com) and the other 'no frills' airlines are not what you are looking for, there are online ticket agents like Expedia (www.expedia.com) ready to step into the breach. Fill in the details of destination and departure airports and times and dates of travel on the website and it provides you with a list of flight opera tors, full flight information and the chance to buy or reserve immediately online.

If you want a one-click bucket shop there are more and more opportunities to buy whole holidays or weekend breaks online. Lastminute. com (www.lastminute.com) offers fantastic opportunities such as seven nights in the Gambia for £229.

And the internet will even allay your fears of losing your baggage, wallet or documents. You can log all your passport and insurance information into the secure (and Foreign Office approved) 'travel vault' section of the Lonely Planet's website (www.lonelyplanet.co.uk), then if there is an emergency all you have to do is type in your password at any internet terminal and it will download all the details.

If you feel a bit stuck, you could just send a message from an internet cafe to one of the many digital thorn trees out there - including the one that takes that very name on the Lonely Planet site - asking for more information about where you are now or where you are going. You'll get an answer pretty quickly. And you could request a travel companion for the next leg of your trip - if there isn't a message there already looking for someone just like you.

The internet thrives on information; it is driven by it. If knowledge is power, then easy-access web information is independence and freedom. And for many travellers, those are the primary destinations.

Learn more about how to take the information super highway to the best travel internet sites at Independent Travellers World, which is sponsored by the Guardian and Observer, and takes place at London Arena January 28-30 and at Edinburgh Assembly Rooms from February 5-6. The exhibition features more than 200 exhibitors and a ticket price of £6 includes entry to a comprehensive series of talks and debates on all aspects of travel. Guardian readers can get a special advance discount of £2 by pre-booking 0800 328 0888 (quoting GUITW) or they can obtain a £1 discount on the day by presenting a copy of this newspaper when they purchase their ticket.