Bermuda's newest website is www.paradisegetaway.com. For local entrepreneur Antwan Albuoy, it represents two years of thinking and planning, and eight months of hard work. The site gives Bermuda visitors and potential visitors a wealth of information on the island.

"People who are planning a vacation, or just thinking about one, need a place on the Internet they can visit to find out everything they need to know about where they're going, and pre-plan their vacation or visit," Mr. Albuoy(pictured) said. "Bermuda is well served by a number of websites, but none of them has the goal we do, to let you know exactly what's available in every aspect of the visitor experience."

Locals will find themselves learning a thing or two as well, Mr. Albuoy said. "No one really knows everything there is to know about Bermuda. Paradisegetaway is intended to be a source of information for everyone." The site features a message board, where residents and non-residents alike can go to voice their opinions or concerns, or simply drop in to chat about their favourite restaurant or Bermuda experience.

Mr. Albuoy first had the idea of an omnibus Bermuda site about two years ago. "I was initially just going to focus on listing restaurants," he explained. "About a year ago, some friends who were coming to Bermuda asked me for information. I gave them four or five sites, but they didn't find the information they wanted. They looked at the accommodation websites, but the information those sites had was not everything they wanted. That's when the idea began to grow." The original target for the site was 25 to 50 pages. Today, it carries more than 300 pages and more are planned. "Lots more," Mr. Albuoy said.

To design the site, Mr. Albuoy turned to a web design specialist with whom he had worked before, David Desjardins ("Day-shardan"), of Vancouver.

"I've been working on the web since its infancy, seven years ago," Mr. Desjardins said by telephone this week, "as far back as the days when you would design with a notepad. My core expertise is in marketing; I've been doing that for a little over 15 years." Paradisegetaway was "designed around targeting specific markets, making it a unique type of website in a lot of ways," he said. "What makes it easy for us to market, is that its purpose is to pass on concise information to that particular group of people who plan to visit Bermuda, and who can now plan their visit in advance.Unlike the expedia.coms, or the site's competitors, it's not just a giant website devoted to advertising, it's a usable resource."

The website carries paid advertising at various levels, but anyone can advertise on it for free, "like a yellow pages, where the little ad is free," Mr. Albuoy said. "We take it further, with a 30-word description about each business, again for free to start with." Details of the different levels of advertising and rates can be found on the website

Each entry is automatically cross-referenced with every other listed site on the island.

"We are objective with the information," Mr. Desjardins said.

"It's taken us eight or nine months since we first sunk our teeth into project. We were convinced from day one that it had to be easy to maintain for Antwan and for us as programmers."

Other features on the site include an employee of the month spot, for which any employer in Bermuda is eligible. All it takes to qualify is an e-mail about the employee and why he or she was chosen. A special events calendar is free for anyone planning an event.

"My main goal is not to get as many buttons as possible, but to try to assist businesses," Mr. Albuoy said. "We don't want a Las Vegas-style site; like Bermuda itself, paradisegetaway is a high-quality place to visit."