When clicking around travel websites, which sections do you find the most helpful?

Question

When planning a trip online, you can do more than book the flight. Many websites offer travel guides, lists of destination activities, etc. We’d love to know which online travel tools you rely on the most.

Answer 1

For me, I like to know more about the destination cities or countries. the facilities, information about cool place and tourism area, etc. I also would like to know about the accomodation that travel agencies provide. About the flight, I would like to know the plane type, the services they give especially for a long journey, and all kind of important information such as baggage limit etc.

Answer 2

I want a good flight at the best price. I compare departure days and times of various airlines and their cost. Also, when traveling coach I like to find a flight that has seats with leg room, so I look for available seats before booking.

I want an airline that will include the food in the price of the ticket! With security restrictions being what they are you can't bring your own, and you are usually waiting in a line somewhere or racing between flights so cannot stop to eat at the airport. Just charge me the extra in my ticket and let the attendants serve it rather than make them deal with the money. Or, make the food purchase an option when buying the ticket.

I don't care about destination activities on the travel websites. I would rather buy a guide book and find my own activities. I like to get out and see the local people--otherwise why travel?

As for cars and hotels, I prefer to book them seperately from the flight.

Answer 3

It depends on what I am looking for in a trip.

When I was a travel arranger for my last company, I liked to be able to pick from all sorts of flight options to find the ones that best suit my travellers time needs. Then the ability to pick their exact seat on the plane (delta offered this :) ) when actually booking the trip was fantastic since everyone on my team of 200+ had their own preference for seating - aisle within the states, window internationally, wing, front, back, etc.

The ability to find hotels close to a specific address is also very important, especially to business travellers.

Usually I would go to the rental car site directly, however, because of emerald isle status and such it was difficult to book cars through most travel sites.

Some sites offer the ability to book show tickets or other event tickets when you book your trip. However, I've often found that this wasn't very useful as you can get even further reduced cost tickets many times at your destination.

Links to area restaurant options would be helpful just to know whats around.

And if in the US, seriously - on a personal vacation trip lasting more than a couple of days - the ability to find local retail stores (i.e. Walmart) is a godsend. :)

Answer 4

I only use Delta.com to book a flight, and then only if they offer the best fare (usually Yahoo Travel or their Farechaser are good jumping off points).
I find the best hotel website for Europe is Booking.com.
For overall travel reviews and tips try Lonely Planet (either the books or the site). Special reservations (museums, tours, football matches, etc.) I go directly to the source to find the best.
I check Rail Europe for train schedules and prices, but buy my tickets at the station (for flexibility).

I have yet to find a site that offers the best of more than two aspects of planning a trip. After a couple excursions outside of your country, you get to know how to work the best deals.

As a traveler, I am always considering my next adventure. Research and planning always make a trip a better value.

Answer 5

If I am booking a hotel online, I an very interested in where it is in the city and the attractions close by. I will also chose a hotel by it's lack of or availability of certain amenities and so they must be listed as well. Orbitz does a great job of listing by proximity and rating. I actually use Orbitz quite a lot in my initial search for any travel because of the ease of use in their results for anything (hotels, flights, car rentals) and then most often end up making the reservation from the site of the provider. Orbitz also has a pop up tool that will automatically alert you if a lower fare is published for the route you are looking for. When planning an overseas flight, I will use often use that tool.

Answer 6

By far, the most helpful tool on any travel website I use (which include TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Travelocity) is any part with user reviews - mostly for hotel rooms. I tend to like to go with hotel names I know, but for ones I don't, reviews by other people usually make it easier to decide whether it's a hotel worth staying in or not.

This comment thing would be helpful for airlines as well. I recently flew with an airline and the trip with them was such a pain in the butt both going to and coming from our destination that I will never use them again. I don't know if other people have had similar experiences or not, but I think reading other people's opinions could help be a deciding factor along with ticket prices and layover and flight times.

Answer 7

When I travel, I want peace of mind about making sure my connections to and from the airport will run smoothly and like to explore my transportation options both price and convienience wise. It is nice to have access to detailed information in English about shuttle services, trains, etc even in places all over the world.

I also usually look for customer reveiws about destinations and hotels, restaraunts, shopping etc.. I am a budget traveler, so I like to try and find the most bang for my buck wherever I go and I don`t like to rely on only commercial advertisements which may not give the full story.

I also like to find out which destinations are unique to the area and which places are good for families (since I am now traveling with a small child). When planning a trip to Hong Kong for instance, I found out about an amuzement park/zoo/water park/aquarium/seaworld place called "Ocean Park" which turned out to be much less crowded and a better value than going to Hong Kong Disneyland and had a lot more culture as well! We only read about it in a few places but the place was fantastic and makes Hong Kong a wonderful family destination!

Answer 8

I rely always on fare specials, must be stated, not the sign up for email specials.

Next, I look at last minute getaways since I'm a last minute traveler.

I also look for travel packages, such as air+car or air+car+hotel.

Also, maybe one map of the flights you offer, showing them city to city, so we can visually plan out our multiple destination trip much easier.

As far as activities go, thats what the city website is for.
I think airlines should really focus on providing great fares and packages, so we dont have to go elsewhere, like cheapoair or expedia. Lotsa times these other websites have better fare rates and packages then the airline's own direct page, which I dont think is good business at all for airlines.

Answer 9

My main thing is Money,seating, and how long could it REALLY take to get to the destination.And making it convenient.I live in Philly and I want to go to Greenville, SC for spring break and the only way to get there is to make a stop in Illinois, Cincinnati, Atlanta or Tennessee.The last time i went to SC it about an hour and a half but now it's gonna take me 4 hours or more!!

So I say why waste a couple hundred dollars and extra time sitting around in an airport for nothing?

And no travel guide can help with that!

Answer 10

I use Farecast quite a bit to stay on top of the cheapest airfare even if I am looking for a particular flight. The site still notifies me when prices are below average and it suggests when I should buy.

I also really like when you can put that your dates are flexible to leave and a website will let you look at what may be a cheaper day to travel. I would like a better version of it than what Expedia uses. It will let you look at an entire month of fares but usually does not list them all or makes you click on individual days.

If you could add those things to your webstie, it would be very beneficial.

Answer 11

I usually isolate my browsing to places that specialize in what im looking for. If i want to book a flight I'll go to Kayak.com, or something -- however I dont use the same sites to learn about travel destinations. No, thats silly.

The only thing I want to know from a place where Im booking a flight at is how i can get the cheapest flight. Anything else is completely useless.