10 most useful travel websites
September 27, 2011 -- Updated 1421 GMT (2221 HKT)
Travel websites can help you before, during and after your trip.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- For planing your trip, Bing Travel, AutoSlash and Plnnr can be helpful sites
- While you're on the road, check TripIt or Tripping for travel advice
- Once you're back home, creatively preserve yur photos with Blurb
So when it came time to
line up our favorites, the task was easy -- we just turned to the sites
we keep revisiting because they're so darn helpful. Our top picks can
help you avoid overpaying for airfare (Bing Travel), bag the primo room
at a hotel (Hipmunk), and never miss a deal on a rental-car reservation
again (AutoSlash).
Some of our favorites are
as useful as a mind-reading tour guide (Plnnr); others are as handy as
having a personal secretary track your frequent-flier balances (Award
Wallet). Put them all together, and they become Budget Travel's picks
for the best the Web has to offer.
For Planning
1. Bing Travel
Buy plane tickets at the best possible time.
Like other booking sites,
Bing lets you comparison-shop for tickets across more than a hundred
sources. Yet unlike most other sites, it also analyzes historical data
to predict whether the price you see on the screen today is likely to
rise (or drop) in the coming week, clearly marking the bargains with a
big, green Buy Now icon. What's more, Bing is the only airfare search
site to have its predictions independently audited. With an accuracy
rate of 75 percent, it's not perfect -- but those are better odds than
blind guessing gets you. bing.com/travel.
2. AutoSlash
Lock in the lowest rate on rental cars.
Here's how it works:
Reserve a vehicle from a favorite agency through the AutoSlash site, and
the site will instantly begin tracking rate changes for your
reservation. If a sale pops up later -- snap! -- it automatically locks
in the lower price on your behalf. You can even use AutoSlash if you've
booked independently. Just enter your confirmation number, and the site
will notify you when it's found a lower rate (which you'll have to
rebook on your own). Neither AutoSlash nor the company you first booked
with charges a fee for the service. autoslash.com.
3. Fly or Drive Calculator
Determine the cheapest way to reach your destination.
Coupon site befrugal.com
crunches data from sources such as AAA and Google Maps to power its Fly
or Drive estimator (found in the site's Tools & Calculators tab).
The more details you supply -- the make and model of your car, the
number of travelers in your group, whether you'd be springing for a taxi
to the airport -- the more accurate the estimates. For the eco-minded,
it even includes a carbon-footprint estimate for each mode of travel.
(Note: The calculator only works for trips within the continental U.S.) befrugal.com/tools/fly-or-drive-calculator/.
4. Plnnr
Get instant itineraries tailored to your tastes.
Whether you have a full
week or a few hours, Plnnr can craft a (free!) customized point-to-point
trip guide for 20 popular urban destinations across North America and
Europe. You supply the length of your stay, desired activity level, and
interests (such as outdoors, kids' activities, and culture), and the
site spits out a fully formed itinerary, factoring in each attraction's
opening and closing hours and travel times between spots by taxi or on
foot. You can further fine-tune the results by adjusting the priority
level for even more specific subcategories -- architecture, breweries,
and even cemeteries -- or reject individual suggestions outright. (Plnnr
won't get its feelings hurt.) plnnr.com.
5. Hipmunk
Find a hotel you'll fall in love with.
The folks behind
Hipmunk's airfare and hotel searches know that good trips are about more
than mere numbers. That's why they've incorporated an "agony" scale for
flights with multiple legs and long layovers, and an "ecstasy" rating
for hotels based on a combination of a property's amenities, rates, and
user reviews on TripAdvisor. Even better, Hipmunk's hotel search tool
has built-in color-coded heat maps to display a given destination's best
spots for dining, shopping, nightlife, landmarks, and -- ahem --
"vice." So you'll always end up in a neighborhood that fits your
specific needs (or noise tolerance). The site displays real-time prices
available on Orbitz, Getaroom, Hotels.com, HotelsCombined, or Airbnb and
links out to the appropriate site to close the deal. hipmunk.com.
On the road
6. TripIt
Keep every last confirmation number, arrival time, and prepaid reservation fee straight.
Don't have an
über-organized type among your travel crew? Don't worry. TripIt
consolidates every important detail of your vacation into a single handy
document, which you can access on the go via laptop, tablet, or
smartphone. Just forward each email receipt from booking a flight,
hotel, rental car, or cruise to your TripIt account, and the site will
cull and compile the flight numbers, gate information, and other
relevant items so you never show up in the wrong place at the wrong time
-- or with the wrong confirmation code in hand. Not satisfied? The site
also supplies seat-selection advice for flights, links to check in
online, flight status updates, weather forecasts, and driving
directions. tripit.com.
7. Tripping
Connect with the locals -- through a trustworthy community.
While any old travel
site can add some social-networking features and call itself "the
Facebook of travel," Tripping paves the way for true face-to-face
interactions in about 130 countries across the globe. Primarily a
homestay network -- but just as effective for setting up a casual coffee
meeting or a video chat with a looped-in local -- Tripping manages the
risk factor with its stringent membership policies and strong
user-reference system. (To join, users must display a passport via Skype
and prove a home address.) When you're not traveling yourself, you can
earn some good travel karma by playing tour guide for visitors to your
own hometown. tripping.com.
8. Google Maps
Expertly navigate unfamiliar territory.
Thanks to constant
refining by its mapmakers and graphic designers, Google's gold-standard
mapping tool just keeps getting better. Live traffic information was
recently added for 13 European countries; the site's maps for New York
City, London, and other major cities now have public transit options;
markings for tunnels and highway signs become easier to read every year;
and you can plot your route by car, bicycle, or foot -- although the
latter two options are still in beta. There's simply no more
comprehensive and user-friendly way to explore. maps.google.com.
Once you're back
9. Award Wallet
Never let another frequent-flier mile expire.
Consider it the
loyalty-program counterpart to TripIt's travel-info collector. Award
Wallet streamlines your family's assortment of frequent-flier and
loyalty programs, compiling them in a single, simple, point-tracking
package. The setup takes minutes. For each account, just enter your
log-in information; Award Wallet automatically pulls your points
balances and expiration dates -- so you know to take action if you're on
the verge of losing them. And because the site saves your log-in
information, you only need one password to access all your accounts. awardwallet.com.
10. Blurb
Preserve your photographs in a format that people can't keep their hands off of.
Custom book publisher
Blurb lets you design and print a soft-cover or hardcover travel photo
album using impressive design tools and high-quality inks, paper, and
binding. Most important, it also leaves you broad creative control. (No
floral borders or faux photo-corners necessary.) Price is based on size,
paper stock, cover material, and shipping fees, but single copies start
at $11 for a 20-page book. Think your book has potential beyond your
own coffee table? Blurb can also share your images as a free online
slide show or sell copies of the book through its online shop. blurb.com.
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