I’ve been booking most of my travel online for a good 10 years now. Lots of wonderful innovations have come out in that time, but for the past several years my approach has remained mostly the same: a few reliable go-to websites that get me what I want in a relatively efficient manner. They keep me from losing my mind when I feel myself being pulled into travel-planning-related information overload.
With the launch of several new travel sites this year, it looks like my standard approach might be about to change. While I’m excited to move on to the new and the better, I’m also pretty pleased with my current travel-planning routine. So before I review the new sites, I thought I’d write about my standard plan of attack up until now.
Kayak is usually my first stop when planning a new trip. There are a few other sites out there that consolidate flight offers, but in my experience Kayak is consistently the best. Sometimes I’ll swing by Google Maps to see if driving wouldn’t be a better option, and every once in a while I’ll look up trains, too.
For hotels, it’s usually a session of cross-referencing between TripAdvisor for reviews and Booking.com (and sometimes HRS or Venere) for availability and price. TripAdvisor tends to have pretty good hotel reviews for most destinations in Europe. I particularly like Booking.com for its easy and clear cancellation policies, as well as the prices which are usually the best out there. When I am beginning to plan a trip I’ll often make a placeholder reservation at a place that sounds good at first glance, knowing that I have the option of going back and changing it if further research produces an even better sleep. I also usually do some extra searching for apartment rentals, but the sites I use for that vary depending on the destination. TripAdvisor sometimes lists apartments, too.
When it comes to restaurants for a new destination, my research usually gets a little more fragmented. Frommer’s is often a good place to start. I usually skip TripAdvisor at this point – as much as I love them for hotels, I find their restaurant listings tend to lack the critical mass of information required to be truly useful. Zagat used to be a staple of mine in the US, but their European listings are pretty awful.
As I make reservations and bookings, all confirmation emails get forwarded to TripIt, which organizes them into a nice neat itinerary for me. TripIt also makes information sharing easy when there are multiple travelers involved.
I supplement this routine with tips from friends, blogs, and other sites (not to mention the odd old-fashioned guide book), depending on how much time and energy I want to put into my research. I’ll usually run searches for lists of museums and current exhibitions in my destination city, as well as for self-guided walking tours I can use to get my bearings in a new place. And it always helps to post a status update on Facebook asking for tips. My friends are one well-traveled bunch.
What about you? What steps are essential for your travel planning?
Good little summary here, Jul.
I’d be interested to know what sites you think are good for apartment rentals. We’re looking at nearly a month in Canada next year, probably based in the same town the whole time.
Also, about Kayak: be careful whom they bounce you to. I landed via Kayak on expedia.de and got hit with a clear case of bait-and-switch. They tried to upsell me a flight to Vancouver nearly 300 euro more than what I was after, saying that the flight was already booked out from the time I started the process to the payment – about 8 minutes and that for a flight 8 months from now. So I told them no thanks, headed directly to the airline’s site and got the flight I wanted at the price I knew was available.
I used to use booking.com too until I found hostelworld.com! It is a great site and even though it says hostels, it goes beyond traditional hostels and includes those with private rooms w/their own bathrooms, as well as B&Bs. I also like that it carries reviews…VERY important for us, as we read the reviews on tripadvisor.com and booking.com. For apartment rentals, my favorite is still VRBO.com…it’s worldwide.
Lastly, virtualtourist.com is best when going to a place you’ve never been or need help figuring something out, let’s say early metro connections or walking from point A to B, if it is doable, etc…their message boards are very helpful.
These tips were great, though after our recent trip to Croatia, I have to say that non-booking (at least in the shoulder season) worked out really well there, as it has in a few other Eastern European cities. We simply got off the ferries and there were always people waiting, ready to rent their apartments to us. And one of them gave us an apartment for 30 Euros, as opposed to the 120 Euro price they have listed on a home-away style website. In places where English isn’t that widely spoken and the internet not as handy, being flexible really paid off for us.
And Ian — homeaway.com was good for us for booking a place in ireland but I suspect you might be able to use a German site (ferienwohnung.de) and get equally good quality.
I’m going to go check out tripit right now! Most of my travel booking this year has been work-related to Africa and Asia which means I need to be efficient with time and money.
Julie what do you do when you plan a trip to an out-of-EU-and-USA location? How would you go about planning a trip or itinerary to say, Japan, or Vietnam?
(also what is this commentluv thing?)
@Ian – So far I’ve mostly used country-specific sites for apartments. If I end up booking and liking a flat I try to mention the site in the post about the trip. I’ve also heard good things about homeaway.com and airbnb.com.
I’ve had occasional problems with Kayak bait-and-switch too, where fares will disappear when I click through to them, but that seems to be happening less often. If possible I try to book through the airline’s site directly to avoid the dodgy sites.
@Military Wife – I’ll check out HostelWorld – thanks for the tip!
@C – You’re brave! I’d love to be so spontaneous, but I think I’d be anxious just showing up at the dock and hoping there was someone waiting with something good to offer.
@J.A. – With all the traveling you do, TripIt would probably be great for you! There’s also an iphone app that is pretty handy. If you sign up, be sure to add me as a contact.
Actually we haven’t traveled outside of Europe and the US for years now. You probably have better ideas than I do. For our Japan trip I did most of my preliminary research from a guide book and reading blogs. Our lodgings were eclectic – a minshuku, a monastery, a former geisha house – and mostly suggested by friends.
Commentluv is for people with blogs – it links back to one’s most recent post. You can just ignore it, or start blogging again. I vote for the latter.
I think about it sometimes 🙂 A cooking blog.
I’d read that blog!
I don’t like Kayak any more- it seems to be owned now by expedia and I don’t like that site. I find momondo.com or de and opodo to be the best. Yoday I booked a flight to Budapest from Malev through opodo at lastminute.de for lss than half the cost of direct through the airline. Very pleased. While I’m here- any recommendations for things to do in Budapest on a weekend?
Great post! And yes — how things have changed over the years. I can’t even remember what it was like making trip arrangements before email and Internet. Oh wait, yes I do: You had to actually talk to someone on the phone and hope that whoever was on the other end of the line in France or Greece or Italy would understand me and vice-versa. Yikes!
Anyway, Tripadvisor has become invaluable — it’s saved the day warning-wise on a few occasions, and I simply don’t know of a better resource for getting a good overview of what’s even out there; most travel guides list only a selected few hotels and restaurants.
And funny that you mention Frommer’s — what a resource, not so much as regards freetime activities, but great restaurant tips.
Take care,
Michael
@G – I just used Momondo to find a flight and it wasn’t bad, but wading through all the sketchy sites with poor reviews that came up was a little annoying.
I don’t think I noticed any change in quality when Expedia bought Kayak, but I agree Expedia is not my favorite, either.
Wish I had some Budapest advice but the only time I was there was over 10 years ago. Oh wait, how about this: avoid late-night skinhead knife fights in the subway stations. They are most unpleasant.
@Michael – TripAdvisor was down for a little while today and I found myself quite hesitant to book a room without having a glance at what it had to say. Luckily it’s back up now.
As for Frommer’s, I agree – I have some serious issues with the low quality of their internet articles (might post about that in the future), but their restaurant recommendations have not steered me wrong yet.
I’ve been using expedia.com for the past 10 years and have always been happy with them. In fact, I use them so much I’m an Elite Plus Member (although I’m not sure what good that does me). I find their site easy to use and appreciate the fact that I can book everything in one big package. Bam! Everything over and done with in an instance.
Having said that I also utilize sites like tripadvisor, kayak, google earth, airfarewatchdog, vacation rentals by owners, priceline, and a few other sites. I think the most important thing while traveling is to keep your options open and to make sure your using a reputable site.
Nothing like being in hawaii to find out the tickets you purchased for a luau aren’t any good.
@Eava – I agree, reputable and trustworthy is key! Don’t want to miss the luau.
I didn’t know Expedia had such a thing as Elite Plus. Now I’m curious what that gets you, too. I’ve had a couple less-than-perfect experiences with them, but plenty of good ones, too.