Which travel website is best???
 

Hi I am going to be booking some travel plans and their are so many sites out there. Which one is your favoite and which has the best offers. My friends all swear by hotels.com.
Help! Thanks in advance.

Download Travelaxe and use it compare the best prices from a whole assortment of travel sites (the best known of which are Hotels.com & Orbitz.com). Easy to install and very easy to use. It's a real eye-open to see the prices offered on the various travel sites for particular hotels all laid out side-by-side in a spreadsheet-like-format. Missing a couple of the largest travel site, but still, a pretty darned cool.

Travelaxe site:
http://www.travelaxe.com/NewSite/Inf...n_Overview.asp

Travelaxe recommendation on PC World website:
http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/artic...09,pg,1,00.asp

Ken

I like sidestep.com It shows the various hotels w/prices etc.

There are already a couple of good suggestions and you'll get more, but it's important to remember this: there is no single best site that will consistently produce the best deals in all circumstances for all destinations. I've used hotels.com at times and booked decent deals. Other times, I've saved a lot of money over that site's offerings using quikbook.com or the hotel's own website. Sometimes packaging in airfare produces savings on the overall trip (and sometimes it doesn't). You need to check various sources and the more, the better.

As flyboy says, there is definitely no best site. If saving money is important to you, be prepared to check several web sites. If your time is more valuable, and you're willing to pay more to not have to check multiple web sites, then you can probably do fine with any of the big ones that offer all services.

For me, saving money counts a lot. So, I check many web sites when planning a trip:

For almost all trips I would check

travelocity
expedia
orbitz
northwest airlines (because my local airport is detroit - one of their hubs)
any smaller, discount airlines that fly out of my airport
any airline whose hub airport I might be flying to

I sometimes look at www.travelzoo.com, www.smarterliving.com, www.bestfares.com

I also like to use priceline for hotels, and I use www.biddingfortravel.com for preparing my bidding strategy.

For hotels only, there are many sites that are specific to only one or two cities, so I may use those if that's where I'm flying.

Do be aware that travelaxe and sidestep are software that you download, and many people do not like what they do to your computer system. You can search for both here to get more information.

Bottom line - spend the time exploring various web sites to find the ones that you are comfortable with the interface, etc. and that serve the markets that interest you. You'll be able to narrow down a few of them that you don't like, and it becomes quick to check the others after you get used to it.

You've gotten great advice so far. If you'd care to share what travel plans you're making (city, air, hotel etc.), you may get more specific advice because some sites are better based on location(ie Hawaii) package etc.

Thanks to all of you for the great advice. I wanted to know for a variety of stays. First -we are going to Hawaii, second we may be going to New York in the fall. Third we do not live to far from Vegas and thought I could get a decent room deal on the internet instead of calling. When we are there we do not gamble we shop, so staying at a big fancy hotel is not a big deal to us. We use it as a weekend shopping get away. Thanks again I will be checking all these sights.

You can get lots of quotes by using the tool on Tripadvisor.com. It can give you a quote from all the travel websites. It was a way for us to compare our price with the best rates. Also for last minute getaways we use site59.com

I recently booked thru hotels.com. They told me they had a "brand new" hotel in the location I wanted. It cost me $30 to get from the airport to the hotel to find out that not only were there no rooms available but the place was a dump!!! WORD TO THE WISE: After you book thru any of these services, call the hotel directly to confirm your reservation.

For New York, for hotels, Priceline is a great way to get a bargain. You can only be guaranteed for 2 in a room, but the prices are often so good, it pays to get 2 rooms if you need them. Read biddingfortravel.com if you're unfamiliar with the process & to see what others have paid.

Otherwise, for selecting a hotel (vs bidding) many people here like quikbook.com Also, the Park Central Hotel (parkcentralhotel.com) seems to have very good packages that can include theater tickets, meals etc. on their own website.

For Hawaii, you might consider an air/land pkg. unless you're using ff miles for air.