The Handy Reference Guide to Travel Sites and Resources

I gave a talk to a handful of people recently and gave them these as sites to be aware of.

Organizing sites:

Trip It: Organizes your flight, hotel, and transportation into single trip itineraries. An App is also available. This is probably the current industry leader for organization.  

Mileage Manager: This site does charge a nominal fee to keep track of all the mileage and discount programs.  But worth it for those who travel a lot, particularly if you book your own.

Travel news and blogs

http://elliott.org/: This is a GREAT site. If you run into a customer service issue/scam, this guy will go to bat for you and help you fight. There is an e-newsletter you can sign up for too. 

http://www.travelindustrywire.com/: Subscribe to their free weekly e-letter to keep up on travel industry news. 

Budget Travel: Though mainly designed for vacationers, they have an e-letter that has really useful information. 

http://www.johnnyjet.com/: I like this site because it has fun things and helpful tips. 

The Air Travel Rights You Aren't Aware of (and How to Get Them): An article to bookmark with helpful links, particularly if you need to file a complaint.

Airports

Travelnerd.com:  Terminal maps, fee calculator, parking and ground transportation info, rates, and coupons, 

Smart Layover: http://smartlayover.com/  If you get stuck, this site (and app) tell you where to find a spot to nap, gate info, layover details, and day-use hotels. 

Gate Guru: http://gateguruapp.com/  This app has detailed info on more than 200 airports and will tell you where to go and what is near your gate, help with layovers, etc.

Air Booking

Yapta.com:  Connected to Kayak, this site lets you search flights and track the ones you like before or after you book. You get an email when a fare drops. Some airlines refund fare drops in the form of credits; I collect money easily because of this site.  If you use a travel booking software, you can use Fare IQ. 

Kayak: Basically Yapta with a fare predictor and a few other features Yapta doesn’t have.  

Bing.com/travel:  I’m not a huge fan but I will often check their fare predictor.

Hipmunk: I don’t LOVE this site but it is a favorite with many.

Hotels

Tingo.com: Hotel-booking site that automatically refunds price drops. 

The Suitest: One to keep an eye, it still has a way to go in usability but a great way to find if you are getting a good deal on a room and particularly helpful when you are looking for a particular type of room, i.e. suites.

Google.com/hotelfinder: Works so nicely with Google maps, though I often just plug a meeting address into Google.com/maps and then do a search nearby. 

Car Rental

AutoSlash.com: Finds the best discount code and applies it

Avis Business:  The best  business program I work with. Works with all size companies, in most situations other employees can drive without signing on or paying fees, and always an upgrade coupon for any length of rental. And you can book with a preferred driver number for others (unlike Hertz which requires you to have their password).

Food and Beverage Guidelines

Per diem rates: The US General Services Administration sets guidelines for food and beverage allowances by region/city. Very helpful if you are operating on a per diem basis for travelers or simply want to set a ceiling for allowable expenses.

Travel Coordinator Education programs

The Travel Institute: Low cost certification with online education. A caveat: a friend who has traveled for years and started her own travel agency says she hasn't been impressed with the knowledge of those who seek certification from online programs.

Social Conscience

ECPAT-USA: I’m a huge fan of ECPAT (End Child Prostitution and Trafficking) and have spoken with Carol Smolenski, President. Support those in the travel industry who have established protocols for dealing with the travesty of child prostitution and trafficking. Marriott and Disney have refused to sign this code. Hilton, Delta, Carlson and Wyndham are huge supporters.

Keeping Track of Awards Can Be Simple

I was recently trying to book family travel and couldn't remember where I had filed the kids frequent flier numbers. They aren't really frequent fliers but I get them numbers anyway. At the least I keep them in free magazine subscriptions from expiring miles. Now a new website makes it a lot easier to keep track of all your miles and points in one place. AwardWallet.com sends you an email when your miles are expiring or when your balance changes. Disappointingly, American, United, and Delta have all forced AwardWallet to quit displaying their info. But if you use hotel rewards, smaller airlines or credit card points, this site will still provide a valuable service.

Happy Birthday Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower opened to the public on March 31, 1899, and 113 years later, still attracts long lines of visitors from all over the world. If you are planning a trip to Paris soon, be sure to plan your visit to the Eiffel Tower. The official website has information about tours, discounts, and how to avoid waiting in a long line. And if a visit isn't in your future, you can take a 360 tour on the website.

Photo credit: Schnuffel from morguefile.com

Best Car Rental Service: Book Once, Get the Best Deal with AutoSlash

I just discovered Autoslash.com. I tried it a couple of weeks ago, booking a car rental for an upcoming trip. Two days after booking the best deal I found there, I received an email that Autoslash had found a better rate with the same company and had canceled and rebooked my car at the better rate. No work for me, just $34 savings.

Fly or Drive? Now a Calculator to Price the Difference

If you've ever sat down and crunched numbers to determine if it was cheaper to fly or drive, BeFrugal.com's Fly or Drive Calculator is for you.

I checked out the cost difference to fly or drive our family to Disneyland next spring. The site factors in a few variables such as the kind of car (year, make, model) you will be driving, and if you would have a friend pick you up at the airport or have to take a shuttle.

I loved this tool so much, I'm including it on my side bar.

For Control Freaks Everywhere: Room 77

If you hate being too close to the elevator, want to be on the top floor, and want a good view, Room 77 is for you. Room 77 has floor plans for more than half a million hotels in 32 cities and will give you room recommendations based upon your personalized preferences. You can link straight to hotel websites to make reservations. Keep in mind that while you can always request a specific room, most hotels will not guarantee you will get it.

Where's Your Favorite Place to View Fall Colors?

Every fall, I long for New England. A former job took me to Maine during the last week of September three years in a row and I've never gotten over it. Each time, the locals told me I had missed "peak." But it was lovely.

So when fall rolls around I have a serious case of nostalgia for other places.

So it brought me up short to see that AAA's Top Ten Places to Enjoy Fall Colors included three Northwest spots: SunRiver, Oregon, Leavenworth, Washington, and Penticton, British Columbia. These three are wonderful places. But with all the buzz about New England fall colors, I have never given the Northwest its proper due in my rank of autumn leaves.

Where is your favorite spot to view fall colors?

Breaking the Hotwire Code: How to Make Blind-Booking Not So Blind

Love a good getaway? But a little scared to blind-book a hotel?

Try cracking the Hotwire code by using Bid Goggles. Bid Goggles has you enter the Hotwire amenities and other info and then gives you an idea of what the hotel will be. I tried it for a Labor Day getaway to Vancouver, BC and it gave me two possible hotels. Then I took a minute to determine if these hotels charged for parking and were in a good area for the sites I want to see.

There are other sites out there that will do the same thing. Better Bidding is one; Hotwire Revealed is another. Better Bidding is so complicated I didn't even bother. Hotwire Revealed doesn't include Canada, but is a good place to firm up the info you've received from Bid Goggles. (A second opinion is always a good idea.) Try it. And take an impromptu Labor Day getaway.

Google City Tours

Remember the old days when you had to plan a trip before you left? Those days are gone. If you are vacationing or have a few hours on a business trip, check out Google City Guides.

Simply enter your starting address and Google will show you all the available tours, when they are offered and for how long, and show you a star rating. And it is done in real time so you can know you have 23 minutes to catch the next tour. Check it out at http://citytours.googlelabs.com/.

Book Lovers Day

Last week I watched a woman sitting on her deck at the beach reading a book. I was managing my three children but I thought how lovely it would be to read by the sea. Someday.

August 9 is Book Lovers Day. And to celebrate, here is Budget Travel's 25 Greatest Travel Books of All Time.

I have to say that I'm shocked A Room With a View did not make this list.

What book(s) would you have included? What books gave you a picture of faraway places and made you want to get there anyway you could?

Around the World in Three Years

Warren and Betsy Talbot dreamed of traveling the world. Someday. Then a young friend suffered a brain aneurysm and a 30-some year old family member had a heart attack. And the Talbots decided to live their dream now.

The couple had already embarked on a journey of simplifying their life by moving from the East Coast to Seattle and moving from a large home to a townhouse. Now, they got serious and set a date to leave on a 3-year world trip. They sold a car and paid off their credit cards. They started selling their things to friends and on Craigslist. In April 2010, they sold their townhouse and rented a couple of rooms from a friend. Friday, October 1, 2010, they departed for South America on the journey most of us will only dream about.

The Talbots have budgeted to spend $100 a day during their three-year trip. They know they will need more in some places (Europe) and less in others (Asia). They have used social media to find great deals on travel and to connect with the wisdom of other travelers. And they incorporated a month-long volunteer vacation on a nature preserve in Peru into their journey. "We'll spend $590 each for food and lodging, which is well under our $100/day budget, and the savings will allow us to go to Machu Picchu afterward," Betsy said when I interviewed her last September.

Betsy admitted to some fear as they embarked on their journey. They don't have a "plan" for their return. They may not even return to Seattle. Warren blogs: "Our desire now is to explore new areas, leave ourselves completely open to new experiences and be open to the possibilities." You have to love that.

The Talbots are in Europe currently and are a couple of months from celebrating a year on the road. A recent blog post comments and links on seven of their favorite posts so far. Don't miss it! Follow them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/betsytalbot), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/MarriedwithLuggage), and read as they blog their adventures at http://www.marriedwithluggage.com.




(I originally wrote a version of this article as the Seattle Budgets Examiner but retained rights to my material.)

If She Asks to Nurse Your Baby in Australia, Please Don't Slap Her

A good friend of mine blogs about being an expatriate. She's an Oregonian married to an Aussie living in Hong Kong.

Here's a recent post about foreign spouses in America.