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Travel Planning made easy
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| By: Jay Lee, Editor |
April 28, 2003 |
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Making travel plans online can be overwhelming and confusing. We've narrowed down the hundreds of online travel sites to help make your Travel planning a breeze.
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Whether you're shopping for low-cost air fares or wanting to book an entire vacation online, the web offers hundreds of online booking options. We've narrowed down the options and included some of our favorites to make your Travel planning easier. All of the links below will take you directly to the sites mentioned.
One travel planning item that is misunderstood by travelers is the avilablilty and pricing structure of hotel rooms. It is worth doing some shopping around when it comes to hotel rooms. If you call a hotel's toll-free reservations line and they don't have any rooms, don't give up. Many times, online travel sites such as Travelocity will have room availability when the hotels themselves don't show availability. Why is this? Online sites like Travelocity are given a certain "block" of rooms to sell which hotels' reservations services don't have access to. Pricing structures also vary between online services and hotel reservations lines.
You may have other favorite online travel sites and we'd like to know about them. Please send us feedback and let us know about the online travel sites you like. We'll research them and if we think they're worthy of inclusion here, we will add them to our list.
Have fun planning your summer vacation and be sure to drop us a post card!
GENERAL TRAVEL SITES
Travelocity got a facelift recently, but you'll find their site still works basically the same as before. Travelocity is great if you're traveling on a flexible schedule and want to save money. When you first plug in your departure city and destination, you can either set the dates and times yourself or let Travelocity search for the earliest, cheapest fare available. And even after you've searched particular dates, sometimes the Alternate Date Savings feature pops up, showing how much you can save if you change your itinerary. Another neat feature is one that suggests alternate airports (usually within a two-hour drive) in order to get a cheaper fare. Their vacation package finder is good, but is not my favorite.
 
Expedia, my personal favorite, is a full-service online travel agency that has always been a reliable source. The Quick Compare feature lets users eyeball the difference between nonstop and muti-stop fares. Expedia has gained a reputation for being an excellent vacation package site, bundling air, hotel and even rental cars together for FANTASTIC savings! Expedia does vacation packages like no other site!
 
Orbitz provides the most airfare options for any single itinerary. This full-service site is best for travelers who are particular about what time they arrive at their destination. It's also worth checking for last-minute weekend specials -- most of the deals that are listed on the airlines' Wednesday e-mails show up on Orbitz, too.
 
DISCOUNTERS
Hotwire has good prices, but the trade-off is that you can't find out what airline you'll be flying or at what times until your credit card gets charged. If you're not flexible, the guessing game won't be worth the discount. There's letss at stake when booking rental cars and hotels. With cars and hotels, Hotwire shows you the best rates for different categories then tells you which companies you are awarded after charging your credit card.
There are a few situations for which Priceline -- the original bid-for-fares site -- is worth trying. If, for example, you'd like to go to Miami this week, but only if you can spend less than, say, $200 for your flight, Priceline tells you whether any airline is willing to sell a seat that cheap. But it won't let you know which airline accepts the bid or what time the flights depart until you book. Beware of service fees on this and other discount sites. Sometimes they can add up to the same amount you'd pay elsewhere without the fee.
 
Cheaptickets opened in 1986, and has since become known as an airline consolidator offering unpublished airfares. These days, most of the good deals tend to involve international travel, and the best way to find them is through the site's Power Fare Search. It tells you what the lowest fares on offer are and what rules apply.
LAST-MINUTE PACKAGES
Site59 is a source for last-minute trips. Some of the deals are worthwhile but not all. Make sure that you compare each one with a la carte prices before assuming that you're getting a genuine bargain.
 
Lastminutetravel bundles air, hotel and rental car prices (or two of the three) and sells them as packages leaving from specific cities. Check it out if you're browsing for a last-minute getaway from a major city. And note that it seems to work better on Internet Explorer than on Netscape.
Lastminutetravel's site
HOTEL BROKERS
All-Hotels can book you into a whopping 60,000 hotels, but it doesn't tend to offer much in the way of discounts. Still, it's a good way to compare options.
TravelNow.com is run by the consolidator Hotel Reservations Network. This site lists 3,000 properties, mostly in North America and Western Europe. Rates are fairly low, but your credit card is charged as soon as you book and most properties impose a cancellation fee of $10. If, however, you find a lower rate within 24 hours of booking, hotels.com will cancel your reservation without the penalty.
TravelNow.com
Quickbook checks out all the hotels it sells, which means the quality of its options beats out the quantity. If you don't know where you want to stay, it's worth your while to see what Quickbook likes -- and its rates are often lower than those on other broker sites.
Quickbook's site
OUR TRAVEL PARTNERS
 
 
 
 
The Democrat has carefully chosen the travel partners listed on this page, however The Democrat cannot be held responsible for transactions made with any of the companies listed above.
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©The Democrat 2010
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