This list of travel links is also found at: http://hubpages.com/hub/My_Travel_Websites
MY FAVORITE TRAVEL WEBSITES
SECTION LINKS: (Sites that I use the most are in Bold)
- GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS & TOOLS - Info & Tips - Restaurants - Travel Direcotires & News
- AIR TRAVEL: Air Tips & Tools - Air Fares & Bookings - Major Air-Hotel-Car Reservations - Budget Airlines - Mixed Budget & Major Airline Searches - Regional Air Specialists
- ACCOMMODATIONS: Hotels - Condo/Vacation Rentals - Package Tours & Last Minute Travel
- SURFACE TRAVEL: Car Rentals - Gas Prices - Train & Ship/Cruise Travel
- INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Travel Agencies Outside the US - Visa - Currency Exchange, ATMS & Phones - Travel Insurance
- TRAVEL BLOGS that you may enjoy
1. GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS & TOOLS
Resources and Discounts
Money and Points
2. AIR TRAVEL
AIR TRAVEL TIPS & TOOLS
- Fly.FAA.gov - live map showing delays in major airports in the US.
-- also see: Security Gate Wait Times for US airports
- SeatGuru.com - detailed information on seat characteristics for all major airlines -- you also need to know the type of airplane that you will be riding on
- BiddingForTravel.com - tips on bidding on Priceline.com for air, hotel and car rentals
- JET LAG
- How to find cheap airline tickets online
- FareReport.com - Fare Report is a free tool that provides travelers with historical airfare averages on over 6,000 routes. This tool is useful in benchmarking fares, and in finding cheaper alternate routes. BUT, it only includes cities in the 48 conterminous US states.
MAJOR AIR-HOTEL-CAR RESERVATIONS
- META / MULTIPLE SEARCH
- Booking Buddy - allows inmmediate search of many airline, hotel & car travel sites, including those below (but only one at a time) - includes discount airlines not on major search sites
- Travelzoo-Supersearch - enables selecting from several airline search sites, including those below
- Grab2Travel.com - similar to BookingBuddy.com, but fewer options
- ITASoftware.com - the most comprehensive worlwide airline search engine that I have found, but you must go to the airlines directly to book
- THE BIG AGENCIES
- OTHERS
- CFares.com - access wholesale prices + name-your price auto-bookings tool [NEW!!]
Budget Airlines / Low Cost Carriers - Mostly outside of the US
3. ACCOMMODATIONS
HOTELS (see also the "Major Air-Hotel-Car Reservations" above)
- ParkSleepFly.com - Reserved a parking space at a secure hotel for the duration of your trip, overnight accommodations and transfers to and from the airport. They also offer cruise port packages that accommodate your travel by car or air.
- Unusual Hotels of the
World -- museum hotels, treehouse hotels, bullring hotels, and more
- Paguna.com - simple and quick AJAX-based hotel booking website
- Travelaxe.com - compares a dozen or more hotel search engines - need to download onto your
computer
- Hotels.com
- Quikbook.com - Roomsavers.com
- Hotel!Discounts.com
- Travelworm.com
- also air, cars, etc. in the US only - seems to specialize in Las Vegas
- Octopus
Travel - specializes in hotel/air packages to major cities
- Asia
Hotels.com - useful user reviews of most hotels
- Asia
Travel.com - among the cheapest hotel and tour package sites for Asia;
Good destination information; Also covers the rest of the world, though in
less detail
- Condo / vacation Home
Rentals
- VRBO.com
- Vacation Rentals By Owner - ads posted by individual owners around the
world
- Search on "vacation rentals"
and the place you are going in any search engine
- ResortQuest.com
- condo management company - selected US states only
- ResortTime.com
- US timeshare rentals - discounts for last minute and off-season
- Condo
Rentals Hawaii
Air-Hotel and
Package Tours - Discount & Last
Minute
4. SURFACE TRAVEL
Car & Camping
Gasoline Prices in the US
Rail and Water Travel
5. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
Overseas Travel Agencies
(outside the US) - these sell tickets that are sometimes not available
in the US, such as tickets that originate outside the US
- Zuji
- Asian Travel - Hong Kong-based discount travel site
- FlyChina.com - Search engine includes many Chinese cities; also provides China Visas (US$90/Single
entry)
- China Service Center of America
- Visa Mail
Service - has cheaper China Visas (US$70/Single Entry)
- Exotissmo.com - Only travel agency for Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar
- Opodo.com - offices throughout Europe
- Destina.com - based in Canada
- ALSO SEE: Budget Airlines / Low Cost Carriers in the Air Travel section above
Money, Phones & Insurance
6. TRAVEL BLOGS that you may enjoy...
Forbes Magazine's 13 top travel websites (April 2006)
- Vijaydandapani.com - former chairman of the Hotel Association of New York, pens this eponymous blog, which documents the idiosyncrasies of the hospitality industry in New York and beyond. This is a site for industry professionals--or those with an avid interest in the hospitality industry.
- Breezenet.com - best domestic car-rental discounts on the Internet. Because it works with airport locations, Breezenet.com is most useful if you’re traveling via plane and want a car waiting for you when you land.
- Concierge.com - The online offshoot of Condé Nast Traveler, Concierge.com has all of the magazine’s content available on the Web, as well as unique travel articles and tips.
- FlyerTalk.com - allows users to exchange information on how to get the most out of their frequent flier miles, credit card points and hotel points.
- Gridskipper.com - a self-proclaimed "urban travel guide," pointing out the raunchier aspects of life in big cities across the globe.
- HotelChatter.com - an uncensored compendium of hotel reviews from all over the world: "Hotel Hell" for horror stories; "Hotel Heaven"; Tips, news and deals are available as well. The one hitch is that it’s difficult to find information on a specific hotel.
- IgoUgo.com - guides write detailed journals about recent trips; anyone can sign up to write a travel journal, and writing earns you points that are redeemable for gift cards and frequent flier miles.
- Kayak.com - includes flight listings from budget air carriers like Jet Blue and Spirit Airlines
- MyTripJournal.com - We like MyTripJournal.com for its colorful and easy-to-use features like "Find a Friend’s Web Site" and the customizable world map. Even if you aren’t currently traveling, browsing the site allows you to experience someone else’s vacation vicariously.
- Priceline.com - most online travel veterans use Priceline.com for one thing: hotels. Try bidding $99 for a four-star hotel in pretty much any American city
- SeatGuru.com - provides seating maps and a helpful color-coded quality key (green is a good seat, yellow means be aware, and you don’t want red). Once you select your airline and aircraft, you’ll be able to see just where each seat falls on the floor plan, as well as which in-flight amenities (including video, AC power and Internet access) are available. The site is most useful when booking a ticket on an air carrier’s site.
- Site59.com - last-minute weekend getaway: Bookings can be made up to three hours before departure.
- TravelZoo.com - more effective at offering cheap fares than any other Web site - be prepared to be spontaneous!