My Favorite Travel Websites

- by Alan A. Lew
z

SECTIONS

  1. GENERAL TRAVEL TIPS & TOOLS - Info & Tips - Wifi Access - Restaurants - Travel Directories & News
  2. AIR TRAVEL: Air Tips & Tools - Air Fares & Bookings - Major Air-Hotel-Car Reservations - Budget Airlines - Mixed Budget & Major Airline Searches - Regional Air Specialists
  3. ACCOMMODATIONS: Hotels - Condo/Vacation Rentals - Package Tours & Last Minute Travel
  4. SURFACE TRAVEL: Car Rentals - Gas Prices - Train & Ship/Cruise Travel
  5. INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL: Travel Agencies Outside the US - Visa - Currency Exchange, ATMS & Phones - Travel Insurance
  6. AVOID THESE: Travel sites that I have had problems with

1. General Travel Tips & Resources

2. AIR TRAVEL

TIPS & TOOLS

AIRFARE TRACKING - these only work for the US, unfortunately

  • FareReport.com - FareCompare.com - Farecast.com - for benchmarking fares, and in finding cheaper alternate routes.
  • Yapta.com - Tracks prices on tickets you currently hold so you can claim a "rollover" refund if the price drops. - Also see this article on Yahoo Finance about making such claims.
  • Kayak.com has a nice Price History where you can see historical price patterns for any month.
  • AirFareWatchdog.com - click on city or subscribe to get a list of current airfares that are at their historic lows.

MAJOR AIR-HOTEL-CAR RESERVATIONS

  • THE BIG AGENCIES
  • MULTIPLE SITE SEARCHES
    • OneTime.com - search 10 of the major hotel and air booking sites at once - each will open in a separate browser window
    • Booking Buddy - allows inmmediate search of many airline, hotel, car, cruise and package vaction sites (but only one at a time) - includes discount airlines not on major CRSs, also has a last minute Deals section for all these categories of trave - I also use this site a lot
    • Travelzoo-Supersearch - enables selecting from several air search sites - I use this one the least
  • OTHERS
    • CFares.com - interesting interface and useful tools - special paid "platinum membership" prices
    • 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
    • ALSO SEE the ACCOMMODATIONS and TRANSPORTATION Sections Below

BUDGET AIRLINES
- these arilines are often not part of the international CRSs (computer reservation systems) used by the most travel agencies

3. ACCOMMODATIONS:

HOTELS (see also the "Major Air-Hotel-Car Reservations" above)

Hotel Tips

  • TravelGoop.com - Go to this website before you place a bid on a Priceline hotel. Try their Bid Wizard to see a suggested bids strategy for a destination. --- For some additional Priceline tips, see the BiddingForTravel.com and Betterbidding.com discussion forums. Most of the discussions focus on successful hotel bids, though airfares and car rentals are also included.
  • 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.
  • How to Upgrade your Hotel Room for a $20 Tip - works about 75% of the time in Las Vegas, and should work about as well elsewhere (worked for me in SFO)
  • Unusual Hotels of the World -- museum hotels, treehouse hotels, bullring hotels, and more

Major Hotel Search Sites

Regional Specialists

  • Travelworm.com - also air, cars, etc. in the US only - seems to specialize in Las Vegas
  • Agoda.com - Asia-based hotel booking site (similar to Hotels.com in the U.S.)

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
  • Vacapedia.com - vaction rentals, mostly in N. American and Europe, a few elsewhere

Air-Hotel & 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.

  • AirTreks.com - Round the World and Multiple City Travel - good online tool for guestimating the cost of these kinds of trips - though from my experience you always need to request a quote from an agent.
  • BootsnAll Travel - uses the AirTreks travel planner, but lso provides links to other RTW travel information.
  • Budget Travel Magazine - Top Bucket Shops (discount air) - the best part is the section on travel agencies that specialize in air tickets from the US to Europe, Latin America, and Asia
  • Zuji - Asian Travel - Asia-based discount travel site
  • FlyChina.com - Search engine includes many Chinese cities; also provides China Visas
  • Exotissmo.com - Only travel agency for Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar
  • Opodo.com - offices throughout Europe, though see my note below if you live outside of the UK
  • Destina.com - based in Canada
  • ALSO SEE: Budget Airlines / Low Cost Carriers in the Air Travel section above

Money, Phones & Insurance

6. AVOID THESES: Travel sites that I have had trouble with

1 - Opodo.com - UK based online travel agency with some great prices on car rentals. However, if you want to cancel or make changes to a reservation you must call them and wait forever to talk to someone. They will not accept cancellations or changes by email! If you live outside of the UK, avoid this website.

2 - UltimateFares.com - I have sometimes found the cheapest flights on this website, but readers of this Hubpage have commented on major problems that they have had using the site, and encountering large service fees. So be wary.