What other trip planning, travel websites do you use to plan travel (other than WDW)

iwannbindisnee

DIS Veteran
Joined
Dec 29, 2004
Hello! I love travelling & planning travel (not just WDW) & have been asked to help my nephew & future wife with honeymoon ideas. I suggested a travel agent, but they asked me to get some ideas for them before they talk to a travel agent. They are thinking Barcelona for about 5 days & then Santorini Greece for 3-4. I know nothing about these places, so I thought I'd look at some info & travel blogs or planning sites. But there are tons!!
What sites do you all find helpful/reliable? ( I've looked at Trip Advisory) but thought there might be others that some of you have tried.
Thanks, Debbie
 
kayak, booking.com, vrbo. Those are all just really looking for flights and lodging though. As far as what to see ... I would just google.
 


Expedia, Travelocity, Justfly, Vacationstogo, are all sites I've booked through, although often I find what I'm interested on them and then book directly with the airline or hotel. Especially with hotels, the property's own website is often where the best prices can be had. One piece of advice I would give is if you're looking at booking flights, hotels and activities as a package, price out each thing separately to be sure you're getting a deal.
 
Orbitz is good for checking airline prices for several airlines, but they don't show Southwest or Frontier. Only used Orbitz to book domestic travel and never had any issues. Perhaps they also show international flights/hotels. Site save time vs. looking at each airline individually, but typically it shows the same price you can get at each airline's website. I don't care for the sites that won't show you which airline it is until you make a reservation, since some airlines are terrible to fly with or they might have bizarre connections.

With blogs or various random websites where people post comments, you have to know if they are reputable or just posting a lot of useless information. People sometimes have one bad experience with either an airline or hotel and then go on multiple websites bashing them, which I don't find helpful.
 


Cruise Critic is good to find info on Barcelona. A lot of cruise ships depart from there and many cruisers stay there a few days before their cruise. There's some info on Santorini, but since it's not an embarkation point for cruises, there's not much info on hotels or multi day itineraries.
 
I always check in with Tripadvisor for reviews on hotels and things to do, and I check their forums for where I'm going to see what people are talking about and get ideas for the place I'm going. I also check Lonely Planet, especially for touristy places I'm unfamiliar with. My uncle recommended their books to us as they've referred to them for their travels around the world.
 
Skyscanner, Booking . com and Airbnb are my go-to tools for my travel planning. They helped plan my first ever NYC trip 2 years ago, and then I found yet another deal which resulted in me coming back last year, which was even cheap and meant more spending money than ever before.
 
Information
TripAdvisor has some great forums
Rick Steves has good forums as well
THE BEST: if you're going to a major city - Visit A City. You can do travel plans and map your days. Going to England in July with only 2 days in London -- using the planner to map out my days has been invaluable and helped me see where I could fit some additional sights in

Travel Purchases
Expedia for hotel/air/car
Viator for tours (usually following links from Trip Advisor
Groupon -- they have air/hotel/car deals from travel agents that are really good -- we used one for Scotland in 2017
 
Cruise Critic is good to find info on Barcelona. A lot of cruise ships depart from there and many cruisers stay there a few days before their cruise. There's some info on Santorini, but since it's not an embarkation point for cruises, there's not much info on hotels or multi day itineraries.
Didn't think about them since it wasn't a cruise! Good idea. Thanks.
 
Of course, there are lots of sites to offer the tours with the typical tourist attractions but if you are looking for something special and itching experience I would recommend Altezza Travel and their site https://en.altezza.travel . The agency is outstanding as it offers tours to Tanzania National parks and Lakes to enjoy the wildlife at hand. The prices are generally moderate and reasonable for such ranges of service but there are also a separate set of premium class tours. Last year we took a tour for 5 days in Serengeti Park which was not at all enough. This your we have already contacted Altezza and are looking for a 14-day vacation in other National Parks in Tanzania - Arusha Park and Ngorongoro Park ("Dik-Dik"tour available )
 
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I check Tripadvisor before I stay anywhere.


i do some research on tripadvisor but i take the reviews of lodging w/ a grain of salt and compare them with reviews i find google searching. this is b/c i've had private parties that i've rented from offer a kickback on the rental fee i paid for posting a positive review on tripadvisor.
 
I recently took a 2 week trip to London and South Africa. I used Trip Advisor to research hotels and activities, Kayak to search for and book flights.

I also spent lots of time on Fodor’s South Africa forum researching the South Africa portion of my trip. Some very helpful posters helped me fine tune my budget and pick out the perfect classic safari camp that fit that budget. I ended up changing a couple things in my original plan because of the terrific advice I got there.
 
i do some research on tripadvisor but i take the reviews of lodging w/ a grain of salt and compare them with reviews i find google searching. this is b/c i've had private parties that i've rented from offer a kickback on the rental fee i paid for posting a positive review on tripadvisor.
When you are a veteran there it becomes easy to discriminate.
 

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