Planning a Trip Online

Surfing for Airfare

The most popular online travel agencies are Travelocity (www.travelocity.com or www.travelocity.co.uk); Expedia (www.expedia.com, www.expedia.co.uk, or www.expedia.ca); and Orbitz (www.orbitz.com).

In addition, most airlines now offer online-only fares that even their phone agents know nothing about. For the websites of airlines that fly to and within the United States, go to appendix D.

Other helpful websites for booking airline tickets online include:

• www.biddingfortravel.com
• www.cheapflights.com
• www.hotwire.com
• www.kayak.com
• www.lastminutetravel.com
• www.opodo.co.uk
• www.priceline.com
• www.sidestep.com
• www.site59.com
• www.smartertravel.com

Surfing for Hotels

In addition to Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Priceline, and Hotwire , the following websites will help you with booking hotel rooms online:

• www.hotels.com
• www.quickbook.com
• www.travelaxe.net
• www.travelweb.com
• www.tripadvisor.com

Of the sites listed above, we really like Travelaxe. It's an excellent free program that can help you search multiple hotel sites at once, even ones you may never have heard of -- and conveniently lists the total price of the room, including the taxes and service charges.

If you plan on bidding for a hotel room on Priceline, be sure to visit the BiddingForTravel website (www.biddingfortravel.com) before placing the bid; it features a fairly up-to-date list of hotels in the U.S. that Priceline uses in major cities and you'll get a fairly good idea of how much to bid for a hotel in your selected area. The downside is that the site does not offer information on Hotwire hotels -- for help in getting a good hotel room on that site, try www.betterbidding.com.

It's always a good idea to get a confirmation number and make a printout of any online booking transaction.

And keep in mind that hotels at the top of a site's listing may be there for no other reason than that they paid money to get the placement.

Surfing for Rental Cars

For booking rental cars online, the best deals are usually found at rental-car company websites, although all the major online travel agencies also offer rental-car reservations services. Priceline and Hotwire work well for rental cars, too; the only "mystery" is which major rental company you get, and for most travelers the difference between Hertz, Avis, and Budget is negligible.

Travel Blogs and Travelogues

To read a few blogs about destinations within the United States, try:

www.writtenroad.com

Frommers.com: The Complete Travel Resource

For an excellent travel-planning resource, we highly recommend Frommers.com (www.frommers.com), voted Best Travel Site by PC Magazine. We're a little biased, of course, but we guarantee that you'll find the travel tips, reviews, monthly vacation giveaways, bookstore, and online-booking capabilities thoroughly indispensable. Among the special features are our popular Destinations section, where you'll get expert travel tips, hotel and dining recommendations, and advice on the sights to see for more than 3,500 destinations around the globe; the Frommers.com Newsletter, with the latest deals, travel trends, and money-saving secrets; our Community area featuring Message Boards, where Frommer's readers post queries and share advice (sometimes even our authors show up to answer questions); and our Photo Center, where you can post and share vacation tips. When your research is done, the Online Reservations System (www.frommers.com/book_a_trip) takes you to Frommer's preferred online partners for booking your vacation at affordable prices.

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Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before planning your trip.

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				Frommer's USA, 10th Edition Author: Beth Reiber Pub Date: February 27, 2007 Price: $25.99				Related Titles: Best Places to Raise Your Family: The Top 100 Affordable Communities in the U.S., 1st Edition Cities Ranked & Rated: More than 400 Metropolitan Areas Evaluated in the U.S. and Canada, 2nd Edition Frommer's Best RV and Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A., 3rd Edition