With so many travel websites out there, choosing the best one can get a little confusing. Luckily, our Newark Airport parking company found an article from Forbes that lists their top travel websites (and ours too!) for trip planning. Check out these helpful sites and plan your next adventure with ease:
TripAdvisor has grown to be a trustworthy source for hotel, restaurant, and things-to-do reviews. Now, you can even search for flights and find vacation rentals, making it a one-stop shop for your trip planning.
“There has been some recent criticism about peer review sites including TripAdvisor and Yelp about the legitimacy of some reviews. As with everything online, read each review with a grain of salt and look for consistent patterns in recent reviews. More than likely they will be true. This can be a good way to also find out if an attraction or restaurant is offering a seasonal special or undergoing renovations that can affect your travel plans.”
Over the past several years, Airbnb has made a name for itself among the hotel industry. Now, when people book lodging, many turn to Airbnb to do so. But did you know that you can also book travel excursions through the website?
“Some of the excursion opportunities include making a handmade hat in London and paddle boarding in Dublin. A few of these excursions might have only been offered at resorts with the corresponding resort price tag.
Another recent addition to Airbnb are online travel guides for Airbnb hotspots. Airbnb is teaming up with local hosts to create recommendations to their favorite restaurants, shops, music joints, etc. And don’t forget that you can earn and redeem these points for Airbnb.”
This website offers a unique feature in flight booking – the ability to find a flight where your destination is part of the layover process. For example: if you’re traveling to Denver, you can find flights that have a layover in Denver but continue on to another destination (say, California). And if it’s a cheaper price than your original flight, you can book it and simply get off the plane in Denver.
When the website first launched, it went to court because of the access to this seasoned traveler trick, but luckily, “hidden city” fares are legal and it’s going strong.
“If you plan on traveling this way, remember a few things:
“Priceline can be an adventure within an adventure as you can reserve pre-negotiated Express Deals or bid on Name Your Own Price hotel nights and rental cars where the brand name is a mystery until you pay for the reservation.”
This can be an exciting feature and is great for laid-back travelers who don’t need a specific hotel brand (only the hotel star rating and neighborhood) or car brand for their trip.
Priceline also lets you book flights, hotel rooms, and rental cars in a traditional sense (meaning you’re able to see the names of them before booking), which makes it an easy-to-use third party website.
“FlyerTalk Forums might have a vintage appearance, but, it’s still a very active travel site. You will be able to find threads about deeply discounted airline tickets, announcements of upcoming routes, and other helpful airline tips that can help you plan your next adventure.
Most of the news comes from travel experts, not travel newbies and wannabes that could possibly fleece you and waste your precious research time. This forum is free to use and if you are waiting to book a bargain flight deal, check back often as new offers are continually being listed.”
Like many other flight booking websites, Google Flights lets you search for the lowest airfare to top destinations and gives you access to around 60 days of flight prices at the time of the search. It also gives you the ability to track specific flights and set up alerts when they reach their lowest price.
“One nifty feature of Google Flights is “Explore Destinations” that allows you to view potential activities at a destination and have a birds-eye view of airfare prices to any destination on the map when you enter your departure city.”
If you’re part of a frequent flier rewards program or have a rewards travel credit card, it can be tedious checking every airline for its award flight mileage requirements. “With AwardEx, you can enter your flight information and travel dates and they will calculate all the information for you at once!
As AwardEx is still a relatively new travel website, most of the top loyalty programs are available including American Express Membership Rewards and the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program. They will also be rolling out an iOS app soon that will allow you to plan your next trip from anywhere.”
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