As someone who has traveled the world, I can attest to one fact. I will eat out at some point in time during my journey. The challenge is to find the right restaurant. Unless you happen to on a cruise ship, you will need to search for someplace for every meal. Many will choose the hotel dining room, if it’s reasonable and has the right type of food. But that assumes that there is either one at all, or you are staying in a hotel. You might be in a motel, campground, or other place without an eating facility. So, what are your options for beginning that search?

Having worked as a Yellow Page consultant for 25 years, I am somewhat loyal to that product, which is available in most hotel and motel rooms. But many times there are few ads, almost no menus and mainly just listings that give addresses. Now, if you are in a new town, an address by itself is meaningless. What you need are directions. So where else can you go?

If you try asking the concierge to suggest a place, they will have their own favorites which is limiting and may not be your taste or fit budget. Local flyers or tourist magazines tout a few other choices, but not every choice. I suggest you head for the Internet. Every hotel has one, or at least there is an Internet café down the street. You might have packed your laptop or have a cell phone with the net onboard. Whatever way is possible, get on the web.

The reason is simple. Whether you are looking for something special or just nearby, you want to be able to search by location or cuisine. A local, online Yellow Pages, would be better than the paper equivalent. But, as with the print product, there you will discover mostly listings, which tell little about the restaurant. Want you need is a menu. There are dozens of menu sites on the net that list various restaurants. Finding the best involves digging a bit deeper. Some require signing up. Others only cover certain cities. Still others are confusing to use or have tons of advertising, making it confusing to navigate through. But there is one that has none of these issues and it thankfully covers every US city.

If fact, it has over one million restaurants making it the most complete on the Internet. It also features menus and Google maps for each location. It’s fast, user-friendly, free and purple. That’s right, purple. It’s a site you’ll never forget and our pick for the traveler or someone at home that needs to find a restaurant around the corner or around town.