GUWonder

Many of us bookmark our favorite travel-related websites. As these lists can be exported/downloaded from Internet Explorer, Mozilla/Firefox, Netscape, Safari, etc, I decided to do the same.

Well, here's a list of my bookmarked sites & links (and a brief description of some of the websites) which I rely upon for my travel-related needs:

Auction-Style Booking-Related Sites:
www.priceline.com — bid and press your luck; best combined with information from biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com
www.hotwire.com — not always as great a deal as Priceline but takes the price guess work away a bit; best combined with info from betterbidding.com
www.biddingfortravel.com — information on Priceline bookings
www.betterbidding.com — information on Priceline and Hotwire bookings
www.hoteldealsrevealed.com/hotelinventory/ — information on Priceline and Hotwire bookings
www.skyauction.com/home.do — Travel auctions and buy it now deals

Comparison sites for travel products:
www.hotelscomparison.com — one of the best for hotels.
www.travelsupermarket.com — flights, hire cars and (from May) hotels.
www.traveljungle.co.uk — strong on flights, hotels and cars. Sponsors
appear at the top of the results page, so scroll down to find the
cheapest.
www.skyscanner.net — a clever site comparing air fares to Europe,
though not every airline is shown.
www.cheapflights.com — the UK's biggest travel comparison website,
with acres of coverage. However, prices are not live.
travel.kelkoo.co.uk/c-169901-travel.html — flights, hotels and hire cars. Some results are
manipulated to favour paying clients.
travel.nextag.co.uk/ — flights and hotels only, but the site is neat and easy to use.
www.whichbudget.com — search for low cost carriers
www.opodo.com — ( www.opodo.co.uk , www.opodo.de , and related sites)
www.octopustravel.com — good for accomodation bookings
www.kayak.com — simultaneous multi-site searching engine
www.mobissimo.com — simultaneous multi-site searching engine
www.traveljungle.com — simultaneous multi-site searching engine for low airfares, hotels, packages
www.dohop.com — search for low cost flights
www.easylow.com — search for low cost flights
www.airlineconsolidator.com —
http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/dispatch — Allows you to search for lowest fare between two cities without a lot of the junk and distractions found on more mainstream sites. You can also run a weekend or 30 day search to find the least expensive days, and tell it how many segments you want for mileage runs. For example, you could enter in the from box bos :: ua iad ua ua ua which would search for a 4 segment itin from BOS to OAK on UA with the first top being at IAD. That is of course if you enter OAK in the return from box. More about this site in the Mileage Run FAQ.
http://www.expertflyer.com — This is a paid service that allows access to flight availability (including the booking codes, e.g. f9c9y9h9m9q9s9, etc. This can be useful for finding specific fare classes on flights, for checking standby options, or ofr keeping track on your upgrade chances. The site saved me $100 tonight because I found a Q seat opened up on a UA flight I had on hold, and then I called UA and they changed it from U to Q. Also the site displays full fare rules, seat maps, flifo, etc. It is new so they may add more bells and whistles.
http://www.air-fare.com/allsav.htm — daily posts of fare cuts by city but may be largely inactive
http://www.pricegrabber.com/home_travel.php —
http://www.joesentme.com — Provides a number of travel commentators. Subscription site. You get discounts on certain travel items when you join at various subscription levels. All kinds of commentary about travel and travel technology.
http://www.farecompare.com/search/fl...?departure=DCA — great Mileage Run tool that allows to search for the lowest cents per mile fares available from your choice of US or Canadian airport.
http://www.farecompare.com/search/flyertalk.html
http://travel.travelocity.com/releva...owLowFares.do# — sort of a successor to Travelocity's Dream Maps tool

http://www.airbrokers.com —
http://www.airlineconsolidator.com —
http://www.angeltravel.com —
http://www.asiaairfare.com —
http://www.CheapTickets.com —
http://www.economytravel.com —
http://www.expedia.com —
http://his-usa.com/en/top/Top.aspx —
https://www.iace-usa.com —
http://www.jtbgmt.com —
http://www.justfares.com —
http://www.kintetsu.com —
http://www.lowestfare.com —
http://www.onetravel.com —
http://forms.planetamex.com —
http://www.savvyonlinetravel.com —
http://www.smartertravel.com —
http://www.statravel.com —
http://svc.Travelocity.com —
http://www.tripmania.com —
http://68.178.219.209/skypasstravel/index.html

http://local.google.com — You may know about this, but for instance, you can enter address of your hotel, and pizza, and see nearest pizza places. Quick clean google like interface as well, much cleaner and faster loading then e.g. Mapquest or Yahoo.
http://www.travelite.org/index.html — Another website w/ advice for packing light
http://www.InternetTravelTips.com — Useful travel tips

Visa-related information:
http://www.delta.com/planning_reserv...tion/index.jsp — useful to check visa-, passport-rules/requirements to visit or transit a country. (It never hurts to double-check by contacting the consulate/embassy of the country which you will be visiting)
http://www.klm.com/travel/ch_en/trav...c/visaform.htm — also useful for checking visa/travel requirements

Checking itineraries:
https://www.checkmytrip.com/ITN/Logi...TN&LANGUAGE=US
https://www.virtuallythere.com/new/h...Finali=0&res=0
http://www.amadeus.net/home/new/en/flifo_en.htm
https://wftc3.e-travel.com/PL/thai5/...GHT_NUMBER=902 (just adjust airline and flight number)
https://wftc3.e-travel.com/PL/thai5/...HT_NUMBER=3022 (just adjust airline and flight number)
http://www.viewtrip.com
https://www.viewtrip.com/en-US/ViewTrip.asp
https://mytripandmore.com/ — useful to check Worldspan reservations
http://eitr.amadeusasia.com/ — useful to check eticket receipt info

http://www.tripit.com — useful to manage multiple itineraries from airlines, hotels, rental car companies, etc.

Taxes, fees and charges information (by airport or airline):
http://www.consolidatedtravel.com.au/qf/taxes.asp — look up information about taxes, fees and charges
http://www.iata.org/WHIP/_Files/WgId...ax%20Codes.pdf -- list of codes that show up in the fare calculation on tickets.


World Clocks
http://worldtimeserver.com/
http://www.timeanddate.com/


General travel:
http://www.wikitravel.org — a great wikipedia-type arrangement for travel destinations
www.johnnyjet.com —
www.viamichelin.com — maps and directions in Europe.
www.virtualtourist.com — Good for information on many destinations around the world
www.seatguru.com — for finding the best seats on the plane.
www.seatexpert.com — for finding the best seats on the plane.
www.hopstop.com — great for getting around the NYC subways if you aren't sure where you are going.

For some of the major cities, though not really a travel site -
www.kinteramasterplanner.com - a master list of many of the charity benefits and non profit events in several major cities. Sometimes this can result in a hotel discount if you call and say you are attending such on-site function.
http://www.quickaid.com/airports/ — quick aid airport information, great for ground transportation options, parking, terminal maps,
etc.

www.sendthisfile.com — another place for sending huge files online, when they are too big to go via e-mail. Free and pay services available.
www.gotomypc.com — remote access to your various PCs when you are on the road
www.foldershare.com — Love this one, again free and paid versions available. You install it on each machine you want to share with and tell it to share the files in that folder with the other machines. As soon as one of the machines comes online it synchs the files with all the other machines in the background. If I have to send a file or get one from the office, I just have it dropped into the shared folder, and the next time the laptop is online, the file will be transferred over. I also keep my palm data in a shared folder, so that it's always updated at work and home without synching to both machines.

www.flyertalk.com — information about frequent flyer miles & hotel points and many other things travel related.
http://www.fly.faa.gov — airport/flight delays and status
http://www.flightaware.com/live — tracking flights/airports
http://flightaware.com/live/airport/KDCA — tracking flights/airports
http://www.fboweb.com — tracking flights
http://www.subwaynavigator.com/ — Lots of subway system information for a dozen or so cities
www.hemispheresmagazine.com — UA’s ”three perfect days” series when visiting a city to see what the must see things might be.
www.travelaxe.com — searches most internet sites and displays results.
www.asiatravel.com — good especially for hotels in South East Asia

European LCCs (e.g.)
www.easyjet.com
www.skyeurope.com
www.wizzair.com
www.transavia.com
http://www.virgin-express.com
www.flybe.com
http://www.gexx.de
www.germanwings.com
http://www.hlx.com
www.applefares.com
www.whichbudget.com — listing of LCCs by country
www.dohop.com — search for low cost flights
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

www.cheap0.com — sorts by route, airport, airline
http://www.airberlin.com —
http://openjet.com/public/index.jsp —
http://www.skyscanner.net/ — is a good one - it also compares with full-service carriers, whose fares can often be cheaper.

HOTEL RESERVATIONS
http://www.precisionreservations.com/default.aspx — better hotel rates than the major household-name online travel sites
www.hotelclub.com
www.ratestogo.com
www.octopustravel.com
www.gtahotels.com
http://www.mtbeds.co.za/

www.fly.faa.gov —
www.aeroseek.com —
www.flightlevel350.com —
www.tripadvisor.com — good for hotel reviews, amongst other travel advice
www.micom.net/oops/ —


TRAIN TRAVEL
http://www.seat61.com/index.html — site for researching rail travel
http://www.trenitalia.com/en/index.html — site for researching rail travel options across Europe
http://www.bahn.de — site for researching rail travel options across Europe
http://www.ns.nl/servlet/Satellite?c...lang=en&c=Page — site for getting great prices for trains originating in the Netherlands to most of the big destinations around (Germany, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland).

www.toandfrom.org/airport (www.toandfromtheairport.com) — transport information to/from many airports
http://www.iaro.com/arc_en.shtml — airport rail/train/subway transport info
http://www.indiakane.com/ff/ff.jsp —


http://dps1.travelocity.com/lognlogi...tr_module=FARE — look up various fare basis available on a particular route
http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm — The old american express travel interface, allows looking at inventory
http://farechase.yahoo.com —
www.airportparkingreservations.com — airport parking reservation site
www.hotelzon.fi/portalHZO_eng.jsp — Booking engine for Finland
www.onebag.com — Tips on traveling light
www.placestostay.com — Booking engine for independent hotels
www.zuji.com —
http://www.airwise.com — flights schedules, airport guides, etc.
www.smartertravel.com —
www.smarterliving.com —
www.travelzoo.com — good for daily travel deals
www.Flyte.com —
www.laterooms.com —
www.orbitz.com —
www.hotels.com —
www.travelocity.com —
www.expedia.com —
www.cheaptickets.com —
www.cheaptravel.com —
www.hrs.de — hotel reservation service



Communication-Related Websites:
http://www.textmefree.com/ — guide to free international text messaging with 185 free international SMS sites
http://smsonline.proximus.be/smsonl...customer&lan=en
http://smsonline.proximus.be/smsonli...ustomer&lan=en —
http://www.sms.ac/ —
www.teleflip.com — For US cellphone users whom you’d like to message, just send the message to [PHONENUMBER]@teleflip.com . (e.g., [email protected] for a US cell phone number 646-555-1111)
Teleflip figures out the cell phone providers and currently only supports valid North American numbers.
www.bigfoot.com — Bigfoot SMS international SMS provider, but there’s a cost involved.
www.telemessage.com — cost is 10 cents per SMS with delivered very fast and reliable; have Outlook plug-in but web interface works fine too.
www.freemailguide.com/free_sms.html — akin to textmefree.com
http://www.i2roam.com — ISP for roaming. Uses software called Ipass. Phone modem dial -ups in most all countries/cities. Some support of wired & wireless broadband. Allows "roaming" on T-Mobile WiFi Hot Spots.


Travel Technology-Related Websites:
http://www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm — Great site to look up Wi-Fi internet hotspots around the world. (It helped me find some around even India.)
www.logmein.com — a free alternative to GoToMyPC
http://www.onlinefavourites.com/index.html — put your bookmarks online
www.yousendit.com — send or receive large files up to 1 gigabyte that may not be sent by your email/ISP provider.
http://www.calligator.com/en/index.html — send faxes from your pc with the "Calligator Fax Printer Driver. Get a fax number and receive faxes as pdf on your own pc.


Exporting your travel related bookmarks and posting them can help many of our fellow FTers.

JohnG

A great resource !! Thanks GUWonder ^

nfc

Thanks for the great list!

ckforensic

Thanks GUWonder and congratulations on your 25,000th post!! ^

Kiwi Flyer

A great list guwonder ^

Cuts down a lot the number of sites I need to bookmark

SchmeckFlyer

I bookmarked this page!

Very useful list of sites. ^ I will have to go through it in more detail later on to see which ones I do not have (i.e. most of them) and which ones are useful.

May I add one? NS Internationaal in the Netherlands is the best in terms of prices for trains originating in the Netherlands to most of the big destinations around (Germany, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland). It usually prices the exact same trains cheaper than the websites of the train operators themselves (Eurostar is a good example). And they often have some fantastic deals (i.e. 45EUR return Amsterdam-Paris with Thalys).

SkiAdcock

This is great! I'm going to bookmark it. Thank you.

I also would like to see it made into a sticky. Too much good info to lose by it moving down the thread list...

Cheers.

richard

Let's make it a sticky and see what happens. A great resource

--richard, moderator

SirDomino

Add this website for Itinerary Checks for the "WorldSpan" System.

https://mytripandmore.com/

Thanks!

boazs

Great list - already found a couple I'm gonna use! Thanks!

A few more:

www.flightstats.com - All the statistics you ever wanted to know about your flight/airline/airport...

www.milemaven.com - Maximize bonus miles when traveling (Disclosure: I run this site, see MM thread)

www.oag.com - Find direct & nonstop flights from, to, and between airports

SanDiego1K

More:

www.oanda.com - currency exchange

www.tripadvisor.com - hotel reviews and sightseeing information

http://www.weatherbase.com/ - historic weather

http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ - weather

http://www.kropla.com/ - electrical and telephone plugs around the world

www.worldtimeserver.com - World time server

http://home.netcom.com/~rcowen/most_useful.htm - 100 useful travel websites

monitor

Thanks for the work, GUWonder.

I think that this one would be a good addition to the European LCC category:

http://www.europebyair.com/eba/Engli...ts/default.jsp

Also for Italy. another LCC: http://www.alpieagles.com/

SB_Travlr

I'm addicted to some travel forums, which are a great help in research -- and sometimes a real community, like FT.

All about cruises: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/
Travel questions and trip reports, worldwide: http://www.fodors.com/forums/

Traveling to the UK, I get driving route information from http://www.theaa.com/travel/index.jsp
And train info from http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

And for a mental-health break in the workday (in wintry New England), I love the Tahiti Explorer webcams: http://www.tahitiexplorer.com/weather_sat.html

Bob Utne

I asked, on here, a similar question in 1999: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=285704

Since then, I've added a few: see right column

http://ewatravel.com

SDF_Traveler

I'd like to add:

www.extremetourist.com

The above is a website which was originally geared towards adventure & activity travel to Australia, but has been expanding over the past couple months to include worldwide content.

(disclosure: I have been assisting & providing some content for this site)

SDF_Traveler