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| Behold: The 124 best money-saving web sites for travel | | | | Print out the list, guard it well | | | By Jason Cochran
ARTHUR FROMMER'S BUDGET TRAVEL |
| | | December/January Issue — Even after you eliminate the thousands of travel Web sites devoted to selling a single product—the hotels and hotel chains, tourist offices, cruise lines, Avises, and Uniteds of this world you’re still left with a numberless mass of other sites that stridently claim to make objective choices for the travel consumer. |
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WE’VE REVIEWED those pure-in-spirit survivors and chosen more than a hundred that we think merit the attention of smart, cost-conscious travelers. But because we’re only human, we’ve also included a score or so of cut-rate upstart airlines and the like that also do a job for us frugal folk (even though they sell a single product). Here, then, is our list of the most effective, money-saving Web sites in travel-call them our Golden Bookmark winners-grouped in no particular order but under logical categories.
AIRFARE ROUNDUPS
Scanning for the lowest published rates
 www.travelocity.com Flights, beds, cruises, packages—name it and this giant site sells it. Sometimes it’s actually cheapest, so no shopping spree is complete until its booking engines rev up on your behalf. Also cool: Fare Watcher, which fires off an e-mail when prices to your favorite destination hit a low.
www.expedia.com Microsoft’s booking engine is the McDonald’s of the travel sites—it’s quick, it’s easy, it’s ubiquitous, but you’d be a fool to rely on it for all of your needs. Still, its tax-inclusive prices (on air, cars, hotels, cruises, and packages) compare well. Doesn’t sell Southwest Airlines; find British hotels and cars at www.expedia.co.uk.
www.orbitz.com Peeved that Travelocity and Expedia were liberating a captive audience, the airlines made their own playground. The resulting behemoth nets gazillions of airfares (but not from everyone, and with $5 to $10 fees) in a well-designed grid. It’s highly recommended. Tip: The best fares don’t always appear at the top of the heap.
www.cheaptickets.com , www.trip.comCheap Tickets is not as brilliant as it once was, but you should still make a stop here to check its consolidator airfare quotes. Trip.com has many of the same deals, but also offers packages and condos.
www.qixo.com Pronounced “KICK-so,” it lists low quotes from 21 airlines. If you’re unsatisfied, its QIXBot will poke around all afternoon for a better price. Too bad its hefty $20 booking fee undermines its best deals and its server is as sticky as molasses.
www.sidestep.com This program senses when you’re surfing for airfares, cars, or hotels and automatically creates a sidebar to hunt for a low price. Sometimes locates sexy deals, sometimes not. Bummer: It still doesn’t work on Macs.
BLIND FOLDBOOKERS
In exchange for bargains, something’s kept secret
www.hotwire.com Often produces delightfully inexpensive flights, stopping a maximum of once, but there’s a catch: The carrier and itinerary aren’t disclosed until you buy. Decide quickly—you have an hour.
www.priceline.com , www.priceline.co.uk Plug in a travel wish (air, hotel, car), credit card details, and a low bid. If your offer’s accepted, you’re good to go. For those who don’t mind gambling on hotel location or flight routing, it grants below-market rates. For U.K. deals: Priceline.co.uk. Use with…
www.pricelinedeals.com So that you don’t overbid on Priceline, first check this free message board, where posters squeal about the lowest bids accepted on the mother site. Need we say it’s completely independent?
www.ebay.com/travel www.skyauction.com The grandmomma of auction sites, eBay, recently partnered with a gaggle of dealers to branch into travel. One can score exciting package deals here—just compare prices with other vendors first to avoid paying too much. For the same effect, also visit SkyAuction.
LAST-MINUTE PACKAGES
Get up and go,keep your dough
www.lastminutetravel.com , www.11thhourvacations.com Like Site59 (below), Last Minute and 11th Hour profit in packages that would otherwise go unsold. For best results, have a dream destination in mind. Hotel-only deals, too.
www.site59.com Seller of “distressed packages”—meaning it hacks prices to unload last-minute getaways. Three to 14 days ahead, search by 36 home airports plus a North American destination city—or pick from a list of suggestions—and reap three-night air/hotel/car weekends, sometimes (but not always) costing as little as $300.
U.S.UPSTARTS
Cheap, and large enough to challenge the Big Boys
www.jetblue.com Barely three years old, this cheerful airline is already a model for the industry. Live satellite TV at every leather seat, a chipper cabin crew—and impeccable prices, like $250 round-trip coast-to-coast—make it a Budget Travel fave. Why can’t they all be like this one?
www.airtran.com The onetime ValuJet reinvented itself as a no-frills airbus serving the eastern half of America. Most of its flights connect in Atlanta, most of its aircraft are new, and most of its advance one-way prices dip below $100.
www.southwest.com This innovative jetter continues to show the majors how to be profitable (31 years and counting), keep employees and customers happy, and, of course, supply those bargain fares—check out the “Click ‘n Save” rates. Man really was meant to fly.
LODGING NORTH AMERICA
Look for a bed
www.hotels.com The former Hotel Reservations Network moved here, where it discounts lodging worldwide, with over 6,000 properties in North America, Europe, the Caribbean, and Asia. In response to undercutting hotel chains, it now guarantees the lowest rate.
www.quikbook.com Scout hotels and prices fast. Unlike other sites, Quikbook discounts cheapie (a notch above hostel) and palatial (a notch below heaven) alike; search by “Economy” for baseline quotes.
www.roomsaver.com The major hotel and motel chains post discounts and freebies here, where Webbies can download “coupons” for their destinations, print them, and hit the road. Ideal for saving big on road trips.
www.bbonline.com (Bed & Breakfast Inns Online) Prune a vacation budget using this portal, which describes thousands of properties in North America. Try its arcane groupings, such as “Shoreline B&Bs” and “Horses Welcome.”
www.cheapestdeals.com Another engine for hotel-room discounts across the land. Give it a city and some dates and it shoots back hotels and prices. Book from there or use it as ammo in a price war.
www.familiesfirst.com , www.disneyvacationhomes.com , www.orlandovacationhomes.com Consult this trio and rent an entire house near the theme parks for less than you’d pay to stay in a Mouseland pillow mill.
www.lasvegas.com , www.vegas.com Check this winning pair and odds are you’ll find a Sin City discount bonanza.
www.resortquest.com A good outlet for vacation homes focusing on the American East and West.
LODGING WORLDWIDE
Cherchez un lit
www.laterooms.com This Manchester, U.K.-based dynamo discounts lodging in America, but it’s truly handy for last-minute price trims in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
www.octopustravel.com Hotel booking site specializing in European cities, which eliminates guesswork by quoting all prices in U.S. dollars, including surcharges.
www.cheapnights.com A sister site to Cheapflights, it’s a powerful source for notice of specials at international hotels from Bangkok to Zanzibar. Magnificently easy to use, with links to each property.
www.homelink.org , www.4homex.com ,www.inventedcity.com Three home-exchange databases. The most widely used (with some 11,000 listings), HomeLink charges $60 per year, which keeps riffraff away. It’ll pay for itself when you swap homes for free with new international friends. Global Home Exchange (4homex.com, $30), with some 3,000 members, does the same thing. Invented City ($50) excels in English-speaking lands.
www.innsite.com Eight thousand B&Bs and inns in 69 countries provide detailed descriptions, with prices visible right from the start of your search.
www.unusualvillarentals.com Looking for a charter yacht? A castle rental or a private island to call home? This site rents over 3,000 private villas and 30 islands worldwide, starting at $1,000 per week.
www.allhotels.com Well, okay, not all hotels, but a hefty herd of ‘em. This Edinburgh-based gem sports some 60,000 properties—searchable by “Economy” and “Discount”—worldwide. Bonus: Many of its 20,000-odd European bedders are not online elsewhere.
www.wotif.com Wotif (an enjambment of “What if?”) is Australia-grown, giving it an edge in last-minute hotel rooms there and in Asia. Nets discounts topping 50 percent for rooms in the coming fortnight. Now expanding into the U.K. and U.S.
www.hotels-london.co.uk Under “Select Hotels,” click “Budget London Hotels” and your computer will spit back bargains starting at £40 (US$62). Pick “B&B Cheap London Hotels” and you’ll save even more, albeit in shabbier digs.
www.asiatravel.com As the name implies, it’s all about Asia. Nabs up to 75 percent off some 5,000 hotels (typically luxury level) in the Far East (Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, etc.) and the Middle East.
www.english.ctrip.com (CTrip) Four- and five-star hotels in Asia go for two-star rates (priced in U.S. dollars) when bookings are made through this Shanghai-based master; it’s China’s largest hotel-reservations operator.
www.venuemasters.com Links to British universities renting summer dorm rooms for bloody low rates.
www.edubabnet.com Teachers host teachers in their homes for $32 per night, and they hook up here for a slight fee.
GLOBALFLIERS
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Jet abroad for less
www.airtreks.com America’s best source for round-the-world tickets. Choose a prix fixe option (say, New York-London-Madrid-Cairo-Bangkok-New York for $1,295) or use the TripPlanner to postulate and price a fantasy. Its planners know all the tricks for saving cash on multistop odysseys.
www.icelandair.com Ever the renegade, Icelandair has flown budgeteers to Europe since 1953. Sign up for its “Lucky Fares” and reach London from the East Coast for $320 in fall or spring—with a free stop in soothing Reykjavík. Iceland truly is as cool as they say.
www.ebookers.com Europe’s mightiest online seller of cheap flights and vacations. Seize upon it for cheap vacation packages in Europe’s sunny places, then hop a transatlantic flight and enjoy.
www.atab.co.uk (Air Travel Advisory Bureau), www.cheapflights.com Using these pages and connecting in London to fly around the world, you may pay less than by flying direct from home. ATAB is a 20-year-old compendium of Britain’s cheapest airfare consolidators, arranged by destination. Its rival, Cheapflights, goes a step beyond by quoting sample fares.
www.virginexpress.com The Virgin Group’s no-frills airline flies from its Brussels hub to 14 European destinations as far-flung as Athens, Rome, Barcelona, and Stockholm with one-way fares starting around $60 (sales pull them as low as $38).
www.europebyair.com A partnership of 21 wee airlines. Their individual networks may be small, but banded together they cover a surprising amount of terrain. Its FlightPass is a “Eurail of the Skies”: Fly between 150 European cities for just $99 per leg (if you buy at least three flights).
www.easyjet.com One of Europe’s brashest no-frills airlines flies from London to key cities in the U.K., France, Spain, Switzerland, Holland, and Greece. It recently absorbed rival Go, nearly doubling its routes and adding Italy, Copenhagen, and Prague.
www.virginblue.com.au Australia is mammoth, and so are Qantas’ stranglehold prices. Thank Sir Richard Branson’s mushrooming two-year-old upstart for fares like US$49 Sydney-Melbourne, $55 Melbourne-Hobart, and $137 Sydney-Perth, coast to coast .
www.ryanair.com Irish Ryanair became an upstart in the 1980s, before it was fashionable, and always has jaw-droppingly low fares. It’s expanding its network, covering the U.K., Italy, France, and Scandinavia from hubs in London, Dublin, Frankfurt, and Brussels.
www.buzzaway.com The baby of the European no-frills, founded in 2000 by KLM Dutch. Its network seems to be shrinking, and its service isn’t as stellar as its rivals’, but it’s useful for connecting London with cities in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, and France.
www.aerfares.net An airfare search engine for the top intra-European no-frills airlines. Query dates and places (you can even be vague, entering “Spain” rather than a city), and it compares current rates. Once you find the best fare, head to the airline’s site to book.
www.degriftour.fr The leading engine for flights and vacations leaving from France.
BUDGETNEWS
These guys know where the deals are
www.budgettravel.msnbc.com You didn’t think we would overlook our own site, did you? We cover the entire world of travel—objectively, selling nothing (except subscriptions to BT)—and deliver high-quality research by our team of dedicated specialists. Contains a daily newsletter, archives of the printed magazine, tips, Q&As and editorials, an amazingly comprehensive Encyclopedia of Travel, message boards, live talks, and priceless, time-sensitive tips on bargain trips for the months ahead. Not bad for the price—100 percent free.
www.digitalcity.com/travel AOL’s “online network” is free for nonmembers, too. Unlike most sites, it includes the airlines’ sales in its scans, which it breaks down into 58 origin areas. Click “See All Travel Bargains” for your list of the latest deals by destination, including when each expires.
www.travelzoo.com About 180 companies—from minnows to whales—use the Zoo to promote specials and sales. To find out who’s hosting promotions, click on by.
www.transitionsabroad.com When the travel bug bites so hard you get the itch to live abroad, this magazine (free in its Web incarnation) points the way to study programs, jobs, and internships, both short- and long-term.
www.nolo.com What are your rights when you rent a car? Buy an airline ticket? Take a cruise that skips a promised port? “In many instances, lawyers are simply unnecessary” proclaims this magnanimous site, which dispenses free legal advice to consumers.
ROADTRIPS
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Do road-trip savings exist? You bet your asphalt!
www.gaspricewatch.com , www.gaswars.com Clock into this free site before a drive to find which filling stations charge the least, or be one of 60,000 “price spotters” to help other motorists. Then tank up on savings. A developing clone: www.gaswars.com.
www.autoeurope.com It obtains wholesale prices from the European car-rental agencies. It can also arrange short-term leases (cheaper than rentals if you drive more than 14 days), and through its Destination Europe subsidiary offers low airfares as well.
www.discountcars.net Quickly rounds up comparison quotes on rental cars everywhere.
www.eurolines.com Representing 35 coach lines in 25 European countries, it provides a single place for bus schedules, reservations, and multiday-pass purchases.
www.mapquest.com Print directions and driving maps here—free.
www.bnm.com (BreezeNet) Compares rates for cars at airports all over the place.
RAILSAVERS
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Tracking the train of bargains
www.raileurope.com The quickest source for rail passes and goodies, such as London Visitor Travelcards, is also prime real estate for researching fares (like through the Chunnel). Buy for a $15 fee. For small stations, use the national sites indexed at Mercurio (below). mercurio.iet.unipi.it/misc/timetabl.html (Mercurio) A portal for Europe’s national rail companies. Through it, calculate costs or divine whether a rail pass is a true deal. Mostly in each country’s native tongue, but timetables are intuitive.
www.amtrak.com Love it or hate it, our railway touts discounts and reasonably priced city packages that come with lodging.
CRUISECREW
Pier-less savings on the major tubs
www.icruise.com, www.cruise411.com ,www.cruise.com , www.cruisestar.com , www.cruisevalue.com Start here to snare discounts. These ship-shape pages have titanic databases and commonly offer seven-night cruises for as little as $400—a lifeline for consumers faced with the cruise lines’ high rack rates. All are reliable and cheap.
www.cruisesonly.com Backed with rare buying power (via the muscular My Travel Group), it grows stupendous bargains. More than 10,000 sailings, some as cheap as $399 for a week in the Caribbean.
CHEAPCLUBS
Gathering offrugal folks
www.disneydollarless.com ,www.mousesavers.com As compiled by a cabal of Disney nuts, it’s an outlet for alerts about the latest Disney-sponsored discounts and promotions, from Lake Buena Vista to Anaheim to Paris. Also try the similar Mouse Savers.
www.caribbean-on-line.com It contains untold megabytes of information on the Caribbean—car-rental tips, boating suggestions, and so on—but we value the thousands of frank resort reviews, written by recent tourists, that may warn you away from a lemon.
www.tug2.net (Timeshare Users Group) Thwart time-share shy-sters with these merciless property reviews. Membership: $15/year.
www.tripadvisor.com Snoop on that resort before sinking savings into a vacation blunder. Hundreds of properties receive brutally honest reports by vacationers like you. The tone can be bitter, so take it with a grain of salt. It also books vacations using other engines.
www.globalfreeloaders.com The brainchild of a brainy child, 21-year-old Australian Adam Staines, GF is a free database of more than 3,000 people in 100 countries who’d like to lodge traveling strangers for free.
www.affordabletravelclub.net For $55/year, it supplies those over 40 with a database of cheap ($20/double) spare rooms in fellow travelers’ homes worldwide.
www.toshare.org The free English-language window to the French site Compartir.org, it’s a clearinghouse for globe-trotters looking to meet travel partners or hitch free rides.
www.travelchums.com www.whytravelalone.com (Travel Companion Exchange) Beat the single supplement bugaboo (and the lonesome blues) by finding a travel companion with this duo. Travel Chums—free—lists 16,000 potential buddies of youthful age ‘round the world. TCE is even better (ultraresponsible, dedicated), except it aims for the mature set and sets a nominal fee.
www.planetout.com/travel Along with its partner www.gay.com/travel (which shares content), PlanetOut is a spunky encyclopedia of destination listings, calendars, tour operators, and articles for gay and lesbian travelers.
www.osolomio.com Its members (in it for travel, not sex) organize trips for singles.
www.bootsnall.com A virtual clubhouse designed to connect travelers with experts from their destination. It includes reams of travel articles and a global network of members who’ll answer your questions—or provide lodging—everywhere. And it’s free
ADVENTURE TRAVEL
Keeping up withthe Indiana Joneses
www.sierraclub.org The premiere U.S. outdoors organization, founded in 1892 by national park godfather John Muir, fights for the preservation of our great outdoors and sponsors some 300 annual outings, often for $80 a day.
www.nbtda.com (National Bicycle Tour Directors Association) A network of cycling organizations, many nonprofit. That’s why the tours (in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and France) are supercheap (often under $50 a day). Look for tours by region, date, or price.
www.hiddentrails.com Riding clinics, horseback vacations, guest ranches, and beyond—this detailed site, maintained with care, is a stable source for equine holidays. Hitch up with one of its listings and ride off into an affordable sunset.
www.snow.com Save cold, hard cash with discount advance lift tickets for Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, and Keystone.
www.skiingthenet.com The big burrow for ski bunnies. Find the perfect job at a ski resort. Many positions come with lodging.
www.woodalls.com North America’s preeminent campground directory, searchable online for free.
www.reserveamerica.com Three million campground reservations a year are handled by this budget stalwart.
VOLUNTEERVACATIONS
Bargain trips for selfless types
www.wildernessvolunteers.org Lists outdoor volunteer opportunities in America’s national parks repairing trails, taking wildlife inventory, or planting trees, with weeklong camping trips starting at $198, including food.
www.globalvolunteers.org Features write-ups of 150 short volunteer trips (working at orphanages, repairing schools, etc.) in 19 nations in Africa, Asia, Latin America, North America, and Europe—starting at $500 per week.
www.americanhiking.org Log on for stays at volunteer camps in the national and state parks.
DIRECTORIES
Sites to start your search
www.atlasnavigator.com No opinions, no reviews, no hard sells—just links to nearly every airline out there, major or minor, commercial or charter, U.S. or foreign, plus links to airports, hotel and motel chains, and car-rental agencies around the world.
www.ase.net (Accommodation Search Engine) Find pretty much any hotel, anywhere on the globe, down to a specific neighborhood and price range. While you’re at it, find out rates, link to its Web site, or book from your living room. With 200,000 hotels, it could barely be more comprehensive.
www.hostels.com www.iyhf.org Save big with the largest free online database of hostels (managed by Paul Otteson, a guru of cheap travel). Without bias, it lists hostels of every stripe—both the happening independents and the foursquare Hostelling International properties—with contact info, links, and booking. HI’s site, www.iyhf.com, only lists its own facilities.
www.officialtravelinfo.com , www.towd.com (Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory) The places to access numbers and links for official national and local tourism offices around the planet, which can in turn hook you up with free maps and guides, discount packages, and planning.
www.infohub.com , www.shawguides.com InfoHub collects specialty tours by 1,300 companies, from cooking schools in Tuscany to outfitters in the American West. Sadly, it won’t let you surf to any operator’s site (you fill out a form and wait to hear back). Shaw Guides offers more (4,500 companies), with better variety. The difference: InfoHub lists tours (searchable by price); Shaw Guides provides a larger but less discretionary list of tour operators (and sends you on to them).
www.specialtytravel.com It surveys some 500 dealers in adventure trips, organizes them at your command by region and area of interest (paleontology, camel safaris, canoeing), and renders them unto your screen. Many are pricey, but there’s a section for specials.
www.cybercafes.com Save on calls by sending an e-postcard home. This site guides travelers to more than 4,200 Internet cafés in 150 countries. Sometimes a touch out of date but usually on the ball.
www.pti.org.uk (U.K. Public Transportation Information) One-stop portal to information for every road, rail, and air carrier in the United Kingdom. Saves on international phone calls.
www.johnnyjet.com No favoritism, just a cornucopia of travel links, artfully cataloged, covering everything from guidebooks to flight trackers, passport paperwork to surf reports, world newspapers to cruise discounters.
www.payaway.co.uk Designed for Brits on their “gap year,” this site works just as well for traveling Yanks who’d like odd jobs as they work their way around the world. A bumper crop of opportunities.
www.gocamps.com With hundreds of listings in North America, expect to find the day or overnight camp (including ones for adults) to suit your needs. Or find a camp job.
www.apta.com/sites/transus (American Public Transportation Association) Linking through this thorough portal to U.S. mass- transit sites, ensure that wherever you go, there’ll be a bus, subway, or newfangled people mover to convey you cheaply and easily.
SHOPPING/ENTERTAINMENT
Eat, drink, and be frugal
www.sierratradingpost.com This catalog-based outlet store offers 30 percent to 70 percent off travel and camping clothing and gear from such big names as Eagle Creek, Patagonia, and Ex Officio.
www.globalrefund.com The Value Added Tax is a sales tax, often between 16 percent and 19 percent, which is charged in many countries. It’s refunded to foreigners, and this site tells you how to get your kickback.
www.rei.com This savvy Seattle-based co-op, with 65 nationwide stores, grants a year-end refund of about 10 percent on most purchases (luggage, guides, etc.) made by members. That’s like a permanent discount on stuff you’d buy anyway.
www.playbill.com When Broadway freaks take Manhattan, they a) buy ahead and pay $100 a ticket, b) queue up at the half-price booth, or c) sign up for Playbill’s free discounts, as high as 50 percent off for popular tourist shows such as Phantom.
www.theatermania.com Like Playbill, free TheaterMania goes nuts with markdowns on big shows, but it spotlights intelligent Off-Broadway entertainment. It’s also stocked with listings for productions outside NYC.
www.magellans.com The mother lode of travel doodads, Magellan’s sells everything from compasses to jet-lag pills to disposable underwear, some items cheaper than anywhere else. | | |
www.idine.com Helps frequent fliers cash in miles for free meals. Use ‘em before the airlines go bust.
Copyright © 2002 Newsweek Budget Travel, Inc.
Additional reporting by Reid Bramblett, Matthew Link, and Peter Sikowitz. Jason Cochran is senior editor of Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel.
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