This Finish Line Blog post is not an attack on travel agents. The industry has been around for many years, and I don’t think that one post will bring it to its knees. Heck, I use a travel agent myself, and she’d never forgive me if I ruined her business! The purpose of this post, is to bring you “Back to Basics” and realize that with your device – be it a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet, you can shop around for the best deals on travel and put together your own itinerary yourself with no middle man or extra charges. Today, we’re going to introduce the websites you’ll use to book your next vacation, as well as a site with reviews from other travelers recounting their experiences with specific hotels and restaurants that you can trust. Let’s take a trip on the information superhighway. Bon voyage!
If you spend any time at all watching television, there’s no doubt you’ve seen Travelocity’s roaming gnome, or sung along to Expedia.com’s jingle. Do you ever wish that William Shatner was still on another planet so you didn’t have to see him on one more Priceline commercial? We all have. Despite all that, if you’re looking to travel, these are the types of websites you should be looking at. The aforementioned three offer the ability to purchase flights, hotels, cruises, rental cars, and attractions. You can select one part of your journey by itself, or bundle a flight and hotel, flight, hotel, and car, flight and car, or hotel and car. Simply click the desired tab, enter the dates and destination of your trip, and start shopping. If, for instance, you’re looking for a hotel, you can sort the hotel results by price, guest rating, hotel name, hotel class, best deals, or recommended. If you click on a hotel that looks like it has possibilities, you’ll be greeted with photos, maps, and the types of available rooms for your desired dates. You’ll also see the terms of the purchase, such as non-refundable or free cancellation, free parking, free Internet, etc. If all looks good to you, click “Book” and you’re on your way! To check these sites out for yourself, visit www.travelocity.com, www.expedia.com, and priceline.com.
I’m frugal. Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you. Actually, they’ll tell you that I’m cheap. I have a hard time parting with money, because, hey, “Hard come, easy go” as my father says. Before I buy anything, especially on the Internet, I read the reviews of others. I don’t want to buy something without making sure I’ll be satisfied with the product. You can learn a lot from the experiences of others. Because of this, before traveling anywhere, I consult TripAdvisor. If you’re a faithful reader of The Finish Line Blog, you know all about the trip my wife and I took to Barbados. You’ve even seen a couple of pictures. We loved our trip, and would love to go back some day. Why, you ask? Because we found the perfect destination for our vacation from TripAdvisor. We were interested in traveling to Barbados, so we visited www.tripadvisor.com before booking anything. On the main page it asks, “Where are you going?” and “What are you looking for?” Type the desired location into the first box, and a dropdown list will appear in the second one with things like “Hotels”, “Vacation Rentals”, “Things to Do”, and “Flights”. We selected Hotels, and selected the hotel class, style, and amenities we were looking for. From there we sorted by ranking, and settled on the #2 hotel in Barbados. After reading probably one hundred reviews and seeing tons of pictures, we booked that hotel right through TripAdvisor. It seemed impossible that the reviewers could be correct. It sounded too good to be true. It wasn’t. You can believe what you read there, and many hotel managers will reply to address the things that guests found to be below par. Feel free to search for restaurants in your area is well. Nobody holds back on restaurant reviews!
If you have a high-speed Internet connection, it’s incredible how quickly you can spend large amounts of money! It’s also true that you can save large amounts of money by shopping around for the best deals. You may be surprised how affordable trips and vacations can be when you’re the one doing the shopping. By planning ahead, you can find the right hotel at the right time every time. These websites are a lifesaver to me, and I know they can be to you too if you’ll be your own travel agent.