Manage Your Vacation: Tripit.com
Click Factor: Every travel-booking site
worth its salt now offers the itinerary-management features that TripIt
pioneered, but few include such extras as integrated frequent-flier and
loyalty-point trackers (you’ll need to get the Pro version for $49 per year).
You can share itineraries with other members and post your itinerary on
Facebook. TripIt will also integrate your itinerary with iCal or Google
Calendar, as well as dozens of other travel apps, including FlightTrack Pro and
Taxi Magic (which helps you with taxi and limo bookings). You can now add and
amend plans on the iPhone, iPad, and Android apps.
Drawback: If you change your flight or hotel
reservation, you have to manually remove it from the site.
Runners-up: www.worldmate.com, www.tripcase.com, www.kayak.com
Get an Instant Itinerary: mTrip
Click Factor: If you’re traveling to
Amsterdam, Chicago, Prague, Vienna, or any of the 28 global cities covered by
mTrip, all you have to do is input your travel dates and lodging and what you
want to see and do, and the service will instantly calculate a daily,
location-appropriate itinerary, complete with reviews, directions, and
distances from your hotel. (Each city has its own app for $5.99.) Or just
explore your destination with the service’s augmented-reality app, which uses
your smartphone’s camera.
Drawback: Reviews of some venues can be
scant.
Runners-Up: michelin, zagat
Outsource Your Planning: Zicasso.com
Click Factor: Just fill out an online
questionnaire that briefly details the trip you’d like to go on—for example, to
take a family of seven to Iguaçú Falls and Patagonia for one week—and within
two business days you’ll get price quotes and sample itineraries from up to
three travel companies (all vetted by Zicasso). Then simply contact the travel
company you like and fine-tune the trip via e-mail or phone. There’s no
obligation to purchase, and you pay the travel company directly.
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Search for Flights: Kayak.com
Click Factor: Unlike many booking sites,
which often list fares that are no longer available, Kayak searches 200 sources
in real time so you'll find actual airfares (including all fees and taxes). The
variety of customizable filters—airlines and carriers to frequent-flier
consortia and arrival times—is unrivaled. You can also set up a daily fare
alert and wait for the price to go down. New this year: the Explore feature,
which offers a world-map view of fares, makes it easy to pick a destination.
Drawbacks: It isn’t always easy to find a
range of fares, since Kayak only spits out what's available in real time. Also,
discount carriers such as Southwest Airlines and easyJet aren’t always included
as a rule.
T+L Tip: Book your flight through the
airline’s site if Kayak offers you that option—it’ll save you a lot of hassle
should you need help from the airline en route.
Runners-Up: Mobissimo, Travelocity
Look for Flights in Europe: Momondo
Click Factor: Momondo scours more than 800
sites including Opodo, Thomas Cook, discount airlines like Ryanair and EasyJet,
and even high-speed rail networks like the TGV, and delivers the results in an
attractive, multicolored design with innovative filtering options. The new
iPhone app searches just as many sources for flights, and lets you scroll
through different suppliers with the swipe of your finger.
Drawback: Results for domestic flights in
the U.S. are hit or miss.
Runners-Up: Dohop.com, SkyScanner.com
Make Sure You’re Getting the Cheapest
Flight: Yapta.com
Click Factor: Every travel-booking site
from Orbitz and SideStep to Bing offers fare-tracking updates, but only Yapta
does it for a specific flight at a specific time on a specific airline. So if
you absolutely have to take the last nonstop flight out of Paris (Air France
008 at 7:10 p.m.), Yapta will send you an e-mail as soon as the price goes
down. If you’ve already bought your ticket and the fare drops, the service will
let you know if you’re eligible for reimbursement.
Runner-up: bing.com/travel, FareReport.com
Stay on Top of Airfare Deals:
Airfarewatchdog.com
Click Factor: Unlike other travel-planning
hubs, airfarewatchdog.com’s staff of actual humans searches for and finds the
best deals (all bookable with a couple of clicks) and posts them as soon as
they go up, making sure to filter out any that are already sold out. Plug in
your departure city, and the site will provide an instant list of special
deals, along with handy information such as restrictions and minimum-stay
requirements. The site also compiles a daily list of the 50 best fares around
the world.
Drawback: Deals are only for flights
originating in the U.S. and Canada.
T+L Tip: Subscribe to the site’s newsletter
and get e-mails announcing new deals as soon as they go live.
Runner-up: smartertravel.com
Compare Flights: Insidetrip.com
Click Factor: Insidetrip.com assigns a
rating (1–100) to the overall desirability of a flight based on three
hard-to-find-in-one-place criteria: speed (overall travel time; on-time arrival
percentage; security-line waits), comfort (legroom; fullness of flight; age of
aircraft), and ease (lost-bag rankings; connection time; departure gate
location).
Pick the Best Airplane Seat: SeatGuru
Click Factor: Never be trapped in a
last-row, non-reclining middle seat on a flight with no Wi-Fi again. Enter an
airline and flight number and SeatGuru calls up a detailed airplane plan,
indicating seats that are desirable (emergency exits, those with extra legroom,
etc.), average, and simply bad (reduced legroom or recline). It also has reviews
of different airline services, as well as quick-scan icons for such in-flight
amenities as food, entertainment, in-seat power ports, and Wi-Fi.
Drawback: For accurate results, you have to
know the exact departure and arrival times, since airlines tend to swap out
planes depending on the time of year.
Runners-Up: SeatMaestro.com, SeatPlans.com
Track a Flight: FlightTrack
Click Factor: If you want to know if your
or a friend’s plane is delayed, FlightTrack is the best way to get travel
updates. Enter your flight number and receive gate information and departure
times, real-time flight maps, and a delay forecast based on historical stats.
Delayed passengers can also search for alternate flights—and contact the
airline right from the app—as well as access seat plans from SeatGuru. It costs
$5 extra for FlightTrack Pro, which offers the flight-alert and
delay-prediction features.
Runners-up: FlightAware.com,
TravelTracker.com, flightstats.com, flightview.com, flightexplorer.com
Make the Most of Your Miles: MileBlaster
Click Factor: This Web-based service, which
is optimized for mobile phones, is by far the easiest and most comprehensive
way to keep track of all your frequent-flier programs (including elite ones)
and make sure you use your miles before they expire. For a one-time app fee of
$5.99, you also get up-to-date listings, by program, of current bonus offers,
plus a trip calculator, so you can see exactly how many miles you’ll earn.
Runners-Up: Traxo.com, WebFlyer.com
(mileagemanager.com), frequentflier.com, traxo.com
Find Your Way Around an Airport: iFly.com
Click Factor: The most comprehensive
airport guide online offers advice on what to do while you’re waiting, whether
you’re looking for dinner, a manicure, or a quick tour of your locale. It also
has parking information, ground delay updates, and hotel listings for nearly
700 airports around the world. Downloadable maps mean you don’t have to worry
about accessing plans while roaming internationally.
Runner-Up: GateGuru (app only)
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Search for Flights and Hotel Rooms: Hipmunk
Click Factor: Hipmunk’s intuitive,
color-coded bar charts make it easy to scan flights by cost, carrier, length of
flight, and itinerary. Results can be filtered by the usual categories (price,
number of stops, etc.) and also by “Agony,” which factors in flight length,
number of stops, and price. Hipmunk’s site offers a similar approach for
finding hotel rooms, delivering results in filterable Google Maps.
Runner-Up: InsideTrip.com
Score a Cut-Rate Room: Priceline.com
Click Factor: The Name Your Own Price
feature of this dotcom-era pioneer of travel deals is still the best place to
score a luxury room: choose the neighborhood and star ratings you'd prefer,
enter the price you’re willing to pay and your credit card information—and then
bid away. If your bid is accepted, your credit card is charged and the room is
reserved. If it's too low, you won’t be charged and can try again. The same
functionality goes for airfares and car rentals.
Drawback: Unless you’re willing to
downgrade your request by resetting the filters (e.g., fewer stars), you have
to wait 24 hours to bid on the same hotel again.
T+L Tip: Forums like betterbidding.com can
tell you what hotels Priceline tends to use in different markets, so you can
try selecting certain neighborhoods in a particular city to get the hotel you
want.
Runner-up: hotwire.com
Book a Last-Minute Room: HotelTonight.com
Click Factor: Ask any traveler who has been
stranded at an airport in the middle of the night: finding a last-minute room
can be an expensive hassle, since most hotel reservation services are closed by
midnight. This new app can book you a room as late as 2 a.m., often at reduced
rates. To make things simple, just three hotel results pop up on any given
search. The app is available for 13 cities, including Los Angeles, Chicago, and
New York, and more are being added every month.
Drawback: The service is a mobile-only app,
so while you can technically access the site from a computer Web browser, you
won’t be able to book.
Find Out What a Hotel is Really Like:
TripAdvisor.com
Click Factor: With more than 35 million
user-generated reviews—featuring text, guest-uploaded photos, and percentage of
positive recommendations—TripAdvisor is a great prebooking resource. A typical
hotel profile has lots of options, including reviews (sortable by date,
ratings, and even type of traveler), rates, information about other hotels in
the same neighborhood, and special discounts. Plus, the site recently partnered
withflipkey.com to add a section on vacation rentals.
Drawback: Reviews may include the
occasional hotel-generated plant, but a profile system for each user makes such
posts easier to filter out.
Runners-up: oyster.com, travelpost.com
Pick the Room You Want: Room 77
Click Factor: Nice views and proximity to
(or distance from) the elevator are just two of the criteria you can select on
Room 77, which uses official hotel data, visitor reports, and geographic
coordinates to find the best accommodations for you. You’ll also find virtual
room views via Google Earth and floor plans for thousands of hotels.
Runner-Up: TripKick.com
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Shop Around for the Right Cruise:
Cruisecritic.com
Click Factor: Whether you're looking for a
cruise that's luxurious, romantic, tailored to families, or fitness-focused,
this site will give you the download through comprehensive reviews by editorial
contributors and more than 50,000 user-submitted critiques. You'll find
extensive information about every cruise ship that’s currently sailing—it even
allows you to browse through cabin photos and deck plans before you book.
You'll also get alerts on the latest deals and guides to ports around the
world.
Runner-up: cruisereviews.com, iCruise.com
Select a Property That's Right for You:
Raveable.com
Click Factor: This site aggregates
information about and reviews of properties from across the Web—including
TripAdvisor, Citysearch, and Yahoo Travel—and then summarizes them into pithy
pros and cons. It also ranks properties against other hotels in the same city
and provides excerpts from user reviews. You can also search properties based
on popular features or keywords—such as hotels with in-room Jacuzzis, free
parking, swim-up bars, or a location near, say, the American Girl store.
Drawback: The site only covers domestic
properties.
Bid for Your Stay: Luxurylink.com
Click Factor: T+L Vacationist.compartner
Luxury Link tops other auction sites when it comes to the breadth and variety
of properties, trip categories, and package deals. You can score three nights
at the W Barcelona for $939 (normally priced at $2,187) or a 12-night
transatlantic Silversea cruise in a Vista Suite for about $9,000 (that’s 60
percent off the list price). Get even better deals with “mystery auctions” that
start at a mere $1 and rise in increments of $1 (the only information provided
is the country in which the deal is offered and some of the luxury amenities
included). If the suspense of an auction is too much, you can also buy set
packages for $1,500 or less.
T+L Tip: The fine print varies on each
deal—watch out for added fees, taxes, and cancellation costs.
Find Great Values on Luxury Properties:
Vacationist
A T+L partnership with travel-auction
guruLuxury Link has deals on upscale hotels around the world. Recent sales at
Mexico’s Villa Zihuatanejo and the Elounda Mare Hotel, in Greece, offered rooms
for less than $175, a 25 percent savings from listed rates. Membership, which
you request via e-mail, is free, and the site posts two seven-day-long sales
per week.
Find a Luxury Villa: Homeaway.com
Click Factor: The site has more than
230,000 properties, many of them high-end—some rentals are by owner, others by
property managers. The reach is global, with listings available on six
continents. Check out HomeAway’s sister sites, vrbo.com (for more U.S.–based rentals
by owners only) andvacationrentals.com (for deals on beach houses, ski chalets,
and other leisure properties). All three sites are covered by HomeAway’s
Carefree Rental Guarantee up to $1,000 for free (additional coverage available
for $49).
Runner-up: flipkey.com
Score a Private Room or Apartment: AirBnB
Click Factor: Now in 181 countries, Airbnb
offers 110,000 owner-rented apartments, houses, and rooms—often for less than
you’d pay for a hotel. Each property gets a slideshow, and both rooms (and
guests) are reviewed by users. If for any reason you’re not pleased, you can
get your money back, since payment isn’t made to the host for 24 hours after
you check in.
T+L Tip: Rate hosts after each stay—it will
raise the status of your profile and make you a more attractive candidate.
Runners-Up: iStopover.com, Roomorama.com
Arrange a Last-Minute Affordable Rental:
AirBnB.com
Click Factor: Not only do you get images,
amenities lists, guest reviews, and information about the hosts but AirBnB also
provides a user-friendly search mechanism (cities, dates, property type) to
help you find exactly what you’re looking for. At press time, AirBnB had
apartments in 6,757 cities in 156 countries, with more being added every day.
Since you’re paying by credit card, your payment doesn’t go to the hosts until
24 hours after you’ve checked in and approved of the space. Deals are
impressive: a recent search yielded $52 for a night in a large studio for two,
with high-speed Wi-Fi and use of two bicycles, in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.
Drawback: Some hosts request nonrefundable
deposits, which are handled outside of AirBnB, so check reviews before you send
any money in advance.
T+L Tip: Make sure you see lots of pictures
and read reviews before you book—if you have a question, use the messaging
system to get more information directly from a prospective host.
Runners-up: vrbo.com, craigslist.org
Find a Place for the Whole Family: HomeAway
Click Factor: Focused on privately owned
vacation rental properties, HomeAway—along with its sister sites VRBO and
VacationRentals—is a great first stop for group travelers. The more than
250,000 properties on offer are particularly strong in popular destinations
such as Cape Cod and Paris.
Drawback: City listings are uneven—a search
for apartments in Tokyo yielded only 11 results.
T+L Tip: HomeAway’s Carefree Rental
Guarantee protects you if the property is double-booked or drastically
different from what was advertised.
Runner-Up: FlipKey.com
Swap for a Stylish House: LuxeHomeSwap.com
Click Factor: A worldwide house-swapping
site that’s aimed at the design set, Luxe Home Swap has everything from
one-bedroom apartments to sprawling houses. Looking for a two-bedroom apartment
next to the Tate Modern in London? No problem. How about four bedrooms in a
village near Lucca, Italy? For a membership fee of $159, it could be yours for
a week.
T+L Tip: A lot of the listings are second
homes, so you don’t necessarily have to arrange a simultaneous swap.
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Tip Properly: GlobeTipping
Click Factor: Do you know how much to give
a hotel porter in Tuvalu or a waiter in Bermuda? Don’t worry: it’s optional,
according to this app’s tipping advice for more than 200 countries, from
Afghanistan to Zambia, which make it the most comprehensive of the global tip
calculators. Speaking of which, the app includes one, which will factor in tips
by percentage and divide the overall bill by number of diners.
Drawback: Specific information for
different types of services—housekeeping, spas, taxis, and the like—is uneven.
Get Turn-By-Turn Directions: Google Maps
Click Factor: Create a route traveling by
car, foot, bike, or public transportation—all of which can be sent to others
via e-mail or text message via your desktop. On the app, you can also zoom in
on your directions on either a road map or with a satellite view. Maps show
graphic overlays for traffic, and Wikipedia entries of specific locations.
Drawback: On Android phones, the app works
best with GPS turned on, which can run down your battery in as little as two
hours.
Runners-Up: Bing.com/maps, MapQuest
Find a Local Business: Yelp.com
Click Factor: The original word-of-mouth
user-generated review site for everything from local restaurants and spas to
nearby ATM’s, hardware stores, and pharmacies, Yelp now has more than 12
million write-ups to offer travelers. While international coverage was
previously a weak point, in the past year Yelp has launched sites in Canada,
France, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K.—so, if you speak French, you can search
and evaluate potential dinner options in Nice, Bordeaux, or Paris.
Drawback: Since Yelp relies on user
reviews, listings can be out of date. Be sure to call first.
Runner-up: where.com
Speak Like a Local: Rosetta Stone
Click Factor: The renowned Rosetta Stone
language-learning system is now fully online and even has an iPhone app so you
can practice your phrases in more than 30 languages (Arabic, French, Russian,
Turkish, etc.) while waiting in an interminable security line at the airport.
Rosetta’s format skips formal grammar lessons in favor of computer-game-like
repetition, in which you hear questions and answer them by clicking on pictures
and responding, conversationally, into the mic.
Drawback: Starting at $179, this system
isn’t cheap, and you need headphones and a mic to make it work.
Runner-Up: LiveMocha.com, Google Translate
Post Your Videos: Vimeo.com
Click Factor: Everyone’s a director on
video-sharing site Vimeo, and a famous one at that. You create a profile—the
basic version is free, but a more advanced option with unlimited albums costs
$60 per year—which features videos on your home page, plus includes comments
from your friends as well as stats about you. You can also choose to have Vimeo
updates appear in your Facebook news feed.
Create a Photo and Video Blog: Posterous.com
Click Factor: A supercool, brand-new,
ridiculously easy option for blogging neophytes, Posterous lets you post photos
or videos without registering simply by e-mailing them topost@posterous.com.
The site will send you a URL by return e-mail, which you can then circulate to
your friends, who also won’t need to register to view your post. If you opt to
use the “autopost” function, the site will automatically upload photos directly
to Facebook or Flickr, make posts into Twitter updates, or paste them onto
existing personal blogs.
Source: www.travelandleisure.com
