What travel resources do you use the most (and why) before you go on a Europe trip? I’d love to know what your go-to online tools are when traveling for research, finding hotels and restaurants, scouting for transportation information, etc.
Comments
I’m 30 years old and I use hostelbookers.com for nearly all of my lodging for the trips I’ve planned to Europe and beyond. It has a nearly complete listing of hostels in the selected area, and also gives plenty of options for private rooms or B&Bs and inexpensive hotels for when I’m traveling with my significant other. I find that this site is the easiest way to find clean budget accommodations wherever I’m going.
They’re not specifically travel websites, but Google Earth and Wikipedia. On Google Earth with the photo option enabled, you can get a preview snapshot (literally) of almost any city, town, village, forest, field or stream and a representation of the surrounding landscape. Want to know something about that town that’s not in any of guidebooks but lies along your route of travel? See what it looks like on Google Earth, then learn more about it on Wikipedia.
Along the lines of a picture being worth a thousand words… feratel.com, for nearly-live webcam images throughout the continent.
Before visiting a major sight, I always check their own website to make sure about opening times, special exhibits, where to go, etc., no matter how current my guidebook is. In fact, the internet has made guidebooks far less important than they were 15 years ago (though Rick’s stay useful because of such unique and specific tips. Lonely Planet? I can do better with my wits and an internet connection.)
Aside from that it’s Google Maps, transportation companies (ferries, buses, bahn.de, etc.), and whatever pops up from searches.
I like bing.com when I am booking flights both international and domestic. I used hostelworld.com for my eurotrip back in 2008 and I found the reviews there to be helpful on the most part, with a few exceptions. If a review begins with “paid for a room, got a dirty coffin…” then it will probably not be a realistic representation of the place. And I also like tripadivsor, frommers, fodors, and, of course, rick steves!
TripAdvisor is great for evaluating hotels. For other information, I like to find natives or expats from the country I intend to visit who enthusiastically blog or have a website devoted to their region. You often get a “where the locals go” flavor on these sites. To find them I just google “blogs on travel”
oops that should be…
“I just Google “blogs on (insert country, region, city here) travel”
Ditto Trip Advisor for evaluating hotels, I have used it a number of times and has been a great help in determining if a bargain really is a bargain. I like Kayak for finding flights and they have an alert that emails you when the price drops. I check your blog, Frommers and Fordors before I leave for vacation. Best of all I try to find a book of fiction set in the country I am going to visit. I will always remember Rome after reading Dan Brown’s novel set there.
We use your website, of course, but also Trip Advisor. After we choose accommodations from your books, we read the Trip Advisor reviews and if all the accommodations are booked, we may choose one from their website. We also get ideas in the Fodors Travel Forum and share ideas with readers there.
TripAdvisor and Google Earth — it’s so helpful to look at the street view of your hotel to get a sense of the neighborhood. I’ve also found Kayak and the ITA Matrix search engines to be very reliable for flights.
While we’re devoted Rickniks, I always check the New York Times’ Frugal Traveler blog for suggestions on the places we’re going. And Frommers has self-guided walking tours of most major cities that I download in case we run out of RS walks to do.
It’s not travel-specific, but we also use Google docs to hold a working copy of our itinerary and packing list that anyone in our group can edit as ideas come to mind.
Trip Advisor , hostelworld or boots n’ all for hotel/hostel reviews.
Have had great success with using tripadvisor.com.
Ditto the comments re Trip Advisor – – over the past years, time after time we have found TA invaluable with regards to up-to-date and very accurate feedback on hotels and restaurants – – on the other hand, Rick Steves is our favorite guide re what to see, and travel planning strategies in general – – that is a strength that TA is not designed to address – – for future Rick Steves books I would recommend focusing on your strengths and providing more tips on how readers can use the Internet to find the most up-to-date info on the balance of their travel info needs (including but not limited to references to TA for hotels and restaurants).
I like tripadvisor especially for the reviews and comments about hotels and restaurants. For flights from the US to Europe I will use kayak but will always check the airline sites as well. For flights within Europe I like skyscanner and will also check the sites for the specific discount airlines and for trains I like seat61.
Some of our favorite sites are Tripadvisor, Kayak, Raileurope, Skyscanner, Booking.com, Hostelbookers, Hostelworld, Couschsuring, Ricksteves.com and then the local train or public transportation websites for the countries we are going to.
TripAdvisor, Frommers, SNCF.com, RailEurope; and venere.com for hotels, esp. in Italy..
Trip Advisor, Rick Steves Helpline, many blogs especially for specific countries offer more informal insight from a local point of view. I love reading a US ex-pat’s experiences and impressions in a country.
I’m a frequent poster at Fodors, although I also check Lonely Planet’s thorntree for more “off-the-beaten-path” destinations, plus the NY Times’ travel section for more mainstream places.
For flights: kayak, airfarewatchdog, onetravel, airtreks, whichbudget, skyscanner and the airlines themselves
For trains: bahn.de, seat61.com
For hotels: fodors, frommers, eurocheapo (which picks up venere and several other useful sites), agoda, tripadvisor, but with caution (it’s better for more frequently visited countries like France and Italy, and should be approached with great care in countries like Morocco)
Another vote for Tripadvisor. I’ve used it to find hotels from Budapest to the French countryside. Also I Google particular tour sites to get the latest on hours, buy or reserve tickets in advance, etc.
It’s amazing how much travel has changed, even in the last five or ten years. It use to be you’d review Lonely Planet before you got somewhere then search out the one that had a reasonable bed. Now like so many others who have posted here I search TA first, book a room well in advance and have the rest of the time to enjoy a new place. I will also use some of the good apartment sites such as VRBO, Holiday lettings and Air BnB, particularly if I’m staying somewhere for 3 or 4 days or more. What I look for for as a RS fan is usually a family run hotel, hostel or BnB that can accommodate our small family. It’s our instant immersion into local culture. For me it’s worth paying a little more for a good bed, breakfast and nights sleep. For airfare I generally go straight to the airlines website for booking. I case you have problems you deal directly with the source.
Aside from the usual suspects already mentioned here, I like to check out Slow Travel (www.slowtrav.com), which not only has trip reports and writeups on many European destinations but also has classifieds for private guides or local classes (cooking, art, etc). And it never hurts to track down a few blogs (for example, Paris Restaurants and Beyond just to name one) for some on the ground suggestions – many are written by locals or expats who know their territory and might even be willing to give you a personal scoop if contacted directly.
We used the website venere.com to find a hotel in Venice. We were very pleased with it. Great accommodations, not too far off the beaten path and reasonably priced for Venice.
I use booking.com, traveladvisor, fodors and book my airline tickets using the airlines website. I am a rick steves helpline junkie and read it everyday. I have been to europe every year for the last 13 years so I am not looking for much help.
Tripadvisor.com and VRBO.com
Trip Advisor is my #1 website after reading Rick Steves. I use Rick Steves to help me decide where I want to go, i.e. which towns to viist and what to see while I am there. Then I compare hotel and restaurant info, using Rick Steves, Trip Advisor, and another paper guide book, either Fodors or Frommers or Michelin. I really rely on the maps of the towns in Rick Steves. I can find them no where else! Especially for instructions on where to park the car when we get to a town. And no one else tells me about the laundromats in each town. (A great place to meet locals and try out the local language!)
We did a trip to New Zealand and I really missed having a Rick Steves guide to help me out with that one! A great opportunity for someone out there! How about it Rick?
I also look at reviews of things to do on Trip Advisor. Sometimes they will tell you which things are real tourist traps and not worth the time and money and which are the gems you don’t want to miss.
We also often look for local vacation rentals if we are staying in one place for 3 nights or more. Having our own place and living like a local adds so much. Shop at the local markets; eat the local food; meet the neighbors etc. We use To-Tuscany for rentals in central Italy; VRBO and HOme Away; and Trip Advisor to find rentals. You have to give up daily maid service and clean towels every day. But I don’t have that at home so it is no loss. And we save money by cooking breakfast and dinner at the home or apartment and eat out for lunch each day. Lunches at the top restaurants are usually cheaper at lunch, so we can have the best for less. And usually no reservations are needed at lunch.
We love to do wine tours and I use the web to find a local wine guide. The wine guide keeps us out of legal trouble from driving after sampling the wines. The wineries usually welcome us so graciously when we show up with the guide and pull bottles out from under the counter or from the back room to share with us. We often end up in the vineyard with the winemaker looking at his soil, his pruning methods, and his trellising. Really cool. Then we buy the wines we drink with our dinners at our home/apartment.
The web really makes travel planning fun. I look for the best for my dollar, even when I decide to go upscale. But I start with Rick Steves.
For Europe, I read Rick Steves online and buy a current guidebook well ahead of time, plus a Rick Steves map because of the extra features such as the subway maps, attractions and because they’re durable even after getting wet. I’ll also check Trip Advisor, vrbo, but we usually pick one of Rick’s recommended hotels and then go to their website for current details.
For airlines, I have found the best deals on airline websites. And, if there are problems, I can deal directly with the airline instead of a third party.
whichbudget.com is great for finding point to point cheap airfares. It lists the carriers that go either to or from specific destinations.
venere.com is good when Rick Steve’s hotel picks are full.
inyourpocket.com has great local guides especially good in Eastern Europe.
and of course the grafitti wall here is great.
Trip Advisor for extra hotel opinions. Kayak, Orbitz, and Expedia for general airfare scoops, then individual airline websites for fares.
When looking at attractions and ways to get around, Google Maps.
Further, if I am going to be in a city, I try and look up the city’s transit website.
For airfare we do check out the larger travel search engines: Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak etc., but I generally book directly with the airlines. I agree with an earlier poster that if a problem arises I think it would be better dealing directly with the airline.
For lodgings we generally stay in private apartments or villas so we usually use VRBO or other such websites. We have used Venere.com and were very happy with SummerinItaly.com. The few hotels we have stayed at, again, after checking out large consolidators to see what hotels are in the area we’ll be traveling in, we generally have found that we get just as cheap a price dealing directly with the hotels and like the idea that if there is a problem it would be easier dealing directly with them.
I really like using Trip Advisor, Frommers and Rick Steves for travel ideas. I love the travel forums on these sites and find out tons of answers and ideas there. And also go directly to museum and other sight seeing places directly. That way I always (well almost always), get the correct and up-to-date information.
But I still love using paper guides and take Rick Steves w/us whenever we go.
hopstop.com for Paris subways and buses. It was invaluable in mapping point to point travel in the city, especially since one in our group had limited mobility.
I make daily visits to Slowtravel.com. I seldom use the their accomodation or restaurant recommendations (the budget is a little higher than mine), but I love following the forums. The members are very well travelled, and have lots of good advice, peppered with many “back doors”. I check out expedia and travelocity for airfares, and book them through my travel agent at the Flight Centre (they’ll match online fares). For detailed planning, I use via michelin for driving times and costs, and the local railway websites (trenitalia, sncf, renfe, etc) for schedules and fares – though I usually buy my train tickets when I arrive. And of course, I can’t leave out Rick Steves.com, which I also check out daily.
The Rick Steves Travelers Helpline. Viamichelin for driving directions. Trip Advisor. Kayak. Vacation in Paris, France Homestyle, vrbo, Homelidays for apartment/house rental. Madrid Man for Spain.
Not a website, but any time I am going to Rome I use Ron in Rome’s blog for information. His practical advice and step by step how to get there photos and instructions are very much appreciated.
My favorite travel website?
That’s easy, Delta.com. As a Charter member of their Diamond Medallion level of the SkyMiles program, with 3 million lifetime frequent flyer miles, it is a pleasure to get tickets to Europe for my wife and myself. Last June found us exploring Austria. Remember, when flying, there’s First Class and Third World!
For just about everything else, though, ricksteves.com is “one stop shopping.”
For airfare, we use Momondo.com which is a european website. You can see other people’s ticket purchase prices, and by moving the bar graph forward or backward a few days or weeks, you can lock in on the absolute cheapest fare. It now has an open jaws feature. It automatically searches Expedia, Travelocity, Kayak, etc, etc. Not only will it bring up almost all american ticket sellers, it brings up Easyjet, Air Berlin, plus a huge number of european ticket sellers.
An Atlanta to London search checks over 800 different fares.
Also, we use promotionalcode.com, which has promotional codes that can be used on a lot of airlines for discounts. Before you purchase your airline ticket, see if you can knock off a few dollars or get an upgrade for free.
And sorry about your Mom, Rick. It makes for a tough time. Hang in there.
In the many trips I have planned, my two favorite sights are VRBO and TripAdivsor.
The only way we could travel with two kids and keep our sanity, is to have two bedrooms in addition to living space. We also like the convenience of a kitchen. So far, we have not been mislead by any of the apartments and condos we have rented on VRBO.
TripAdvisor does a great job of telling us what to do when we get to our destination.