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The rise of travel sites on the internet has brought with it a whole array of possibilities. Gone are the days when you had to go to a travel agent to book your holiday. These days you can do it all online, all by yourself, at any time of the day, all from the comfort of your own home. There are literally thousands of travel sites out there offering flight and hotel bookings, travel guides and online travel planning; even travel gear. There is now so much information that it can all get a bit overwhelming. This guide will help you filter out the good sites from the bad and help you to book and plan your holiday easily and efficiently, saving you money in the process. Read on for my guide to online travel planning.
Booking your flight
One of the first steps to online travel planning is your flight. Flights are generally the most expensive part of a trip, and therefore you should definitely do some shopping around to find something that suits you. Every airline has its own website where you can book flights directly with them. This is great if you know what airline you want to go with or if you’re a loyalty member, but if you’re just trying to find the best deal, a flight search engine is the best way to go, and there are a lot of these.
The first fight search engine I use is Skyscanner. You can put in your destination and preferred dates and it will scan lots of airline sites as well as giving you the option to search other popular flight search engines. This gives you a lot of options and shows you every flight that is available on that date, listing the cheapest first. You can also set it to sort the flights by flight time or number of stop overs.
Other popular search engines to try are Expedia, Kayak or Webjet. They all generally work the same way but each may have special deals on certain airlines or destinations. Once I find a flight I like, I also then go and check on that airline’s website to see if they offer it at a cheaper price. For budget airlines, you’ll have to book directly on their sites. If you’re after a last minute flight, Last Minute Flights is the place to go.
When looking at prices for your flight, remember to take note of what the flight includes, as some (particular budget airlines) don’t include check in baggage or meals in the fare. If it does include baggage, take note of how much is included in the fare as excess baggage fees can be quite a lot. If you think that you are going to have a lot of excess baggage (maybe you went a little crazy with the shopping on your trip), you can use a service such as World Baggage to send your excess luggage to avoid those costly airport fees.
Booking your accommodation
Booking a hotel online is very similar to booking a flight. In fact, many of the flight search engines that I mentioned above also include a hotel search engine, and you can even combine the two into the fare. Personally, I prefer to book my accommodation separately as it gives me more options and better flexibility. My favourite sites for booking hotels are Agoda and Booking.com. Each site has a large variety of hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs and even resorts, and for a whole range of budgets. For budget accommodation I also like Hostelbookers. All you have to do is enter your destination and preferred dates and you will get a list of a whole range of accommodation that you can book. You can try the Booking.com search below:
Booking.comPlanning your trip
I’m a big fan of just turning up to a destination without a plan and seeing what happens, but not everyone is like that, and sometimes, especially if you only have a limited amount of time, it is good to have some sort of a plan or itinerary. There is a lot of information on the internet about just about any destination. A Google search will usually come up with plenty for you to choose. I like to look at sites such as Tripadvisor which gives real reviews from travellers about destinations, things to do, tour agencies and even hotels. For a good travel guide, you can’t really beat Lonely Planet. Their site has plenty of info, plus you can either purchase a guide book or download a digital copy for your Kindle, eBook reader, laptop or smartphone.
Booking attraction tickets
Many attractions such as museums, theme parks, tours etc. allow you to book your tickets online these days. This is often beneficial as it means that you don’t have to queue up for tickets on the day and you can ensure you have tickets if it is a limited entry attraction. Booking your tickets online can also save you money, as many attractions will give you a discounted ticket price if you book online. Most attractions will have a unique website with a ticket booking system, or you can search on ticket booking websites such as Viator or one of my favourites, Tiqets. I often find that I get a great deal on tickets with perks such as skip-the-line privileges, or discounted prices by combining several attractions into one pass or ticket.
Travel gear
That’s right, you don’t even have to go to the shop to buy all of your gear for your trip. You can do it all online and have it delivered to your door. You can literally buy anything online. Most brands have their own online shops, but for variety you can shop on Amazon or Ebay for just about everything, and usually at pretty good prices.
So there you have it. You can arrange your whole holiday online, without even leaving your house. All you have to do is pack, print out your reservations and head to the airport. We hope you enjoyed this guide to online travel planning.
