using href links inside <option> tag

UPDATE 2022: This answer is fine but really in 2022 we shouldn't be doing this anymore!

UPDATE (May 2020): Someone asked in the comments why I wouldn't advocate this solution. I guess it's a question of semantics. I'd rather my users navigate using <a> and kept <select> for making form selections because HTML elements have semantic meeting and they have a purpose, anchors take you places, <select> are for picking things from lists.

Consider, if you are viewing a page with a non-traditional browser (a non graphical browser or screen reader or the page is accessed programmatically, or JavaScript is disabled) what then is the "meaning" or the "intent" of this <select> you have used for navigation? It is saying "please pick a page name" and not a lot else, certainly nothing about navigating. The easy response to this is well i know that my users will be using IE or whatever so shrug but this kinda misses the point of semantic importance.

Whereas a funky drop-down UI element made of suitable layout elements (and some js) containing some regular anchors still retains it intent even if the layout element is lost, "these are a bunch of links, select one and we will navigate there".

Here is an article on the misuse and abuse of <select>.

ORIGINAL ANSWER

<select name="forma" onchange="location = this.value;">
 <option value="Home.php">Home</option>
 <option value="Contact.php">Contact</option>
 <option value="Sitemap.php">Sitemap</option>
</select>

UPDATE (Nov 2015): In this day and age if you want to have a drop menu there are plenty of arguably better ways to implement one. This answer is a direct answer to a direct question, but I don't advocate this method for public facing web sites.

Use a real dropdown menu instead: a list (ul, li) and links. Never misuse form elements as links.

Readers with screen readers usually scan through a automagically generated list of links – the’ll miss these important information. Many keyboard navigation systems (e.g. JAWS, Opera) offer different keyboard shortcuts for links and form elements.

If you still cannot drop the idea of a select don’t use the onchange handler at least. This is a real pain for keyboard users, it makes your third item nearly inaccessible.

You cant use href tags within option tags. You will need javascript to do so.

<select name="formal" onchange="javascript:handleSelect(this)">
<option value="home">Home</option>
<option value="contact">Contact</option>
</select>

<script type="text/javascript">
  function handleSelect(elm)
  {
     window.location = elm.value+".php";
  }
</script>