Most useful Travel Sites - By Cowen
http://home.netcom.com/~rcowen/most_useful.htm
Click above for latest update
SuperStar Site means a "must have"
Monitor & Notify and predict prices
- Orbitz Deal Detector SuperStar Site (date specific, total price quoted)
- Fare Watch from Kayak
- TripStalker (download to monitor air fares, hotels & cars)
- FareCast
- FlySpy
- AirFareWatchdog
- FareReport (average fares between each city, newsletter)
US departures
- ITA air pricing software SuperStar Site (inventors of the matrix pricing display for airfares, engine behind Orbitz & Kayak)
- Kayak searches many other web sites (included JetBlue & "web only" fares), also does cars & hotels.
- SideStep searches many other web sites directly (includes JetBlue & "web only" fares), also does cars & hotels.
- Orbitz
- American Express Travel
- Internet Air Fares Watch (what is the lowest published fare to/from any city)
Within Europe & UK
- OpenJet
- SkyScanner (searches major European & UK budget airlines)
- Momondo (searches major European & UK budget airlines)
- DoHop (European discount carrier search engine)
- Cheap0 (a very comprehensive guide to budget flying within Europe)
- foundem (searches many discount airlines)
- LowFareFlights (UK to/from Europe)
- easyJet (England to/from Europe, like Southwest Airlines)
- Ryanair
- Virgin Express
- TravelSupermarket
- Which Budget (Which budget airline flies where in Europe)
Air Passes
- EuropeByAir
Airline Consolidators
- FAQs from travel-library.com (everything you ever wanted to know about consolidators)
- ASAP Tickets
- Air Travel Center consolidator listings and links
- Flights.com
- AirFare
- Consolidator listings from DMOZ (includes hotels, cars, etc.)
- Cheap Seats
- Cheap Tickets
- Justfares consolidator
- Airline Consolidator.com
- Air Brokers International (specializes in Round-the-World, Circle-Pacific, and other multi-destination international flights)
- BiddingForTravel message board (go here first before you touch Priceline/Hotwire)
- BetterBidding (another source to check for winning and losing bids)
- BidOnTravel (more good advise & travel guides)
- Priceline.com (you don't know the price)
- Hotwire (you know the price before you buy)
- eBay Travel
- SkyAuction (vacation auctions, do your homework and know what the prices have been)
- LuxuryLink (vacation auctions)
- Site 59 (spontaneous escape and entertainment )
- SmarterTravel e-mail newsletter of weekend specials (air, hotel & car) by city (great web site and newsletter)
- Southwest Airlines e-mail Click 'n Save special fares (more flexible than most others')
- Dine.com SuperStar Site Excellent site for restaurant reviews (US & Canada).
- Travelaxe SuperStar Site (hotel search engine; if there is a discount available, they'll find it)
- Hotel web sites and toll-free phone numbers
- Express-Reservations (specialists in NYC, Los Angeles & Chicago hotels & good local information)
- Vacation Rentals By Owner SuperStar Site (excellent US & Caribbean listings + very complete "links" to others)
- OwnerDirectVacationRentals (Canada, Hawaii, Florida and Italy)
- HotelShark (reviews)
- Quikbooks (hotel search engine)
- National Parks hotel guide (US & Canada)
- Vacation Rentals (worldwide properties)
- Rentalo (30,000 properties)
- Places to Stay
- TravelWeb
- Informed Travel with reviews
- Hotel Search Engine Hotel, Lodging, B&B... Guide - Directory
- Last Minute hotel accommodations specializing in Australia, New Zealand and Asia (Wotif.com)
- All-Inclusives message boards:
- Trip Advisor
- Debbie's Caribbean Resort Reviews
- Kayak
- Travelocity
- Car rental express (independent companies, many on and off airport locations, some specialty cars)
- Mobil Travel Guide (trip planning, food, lodging, etc.)
- Gemütlichkeit (The Travel Newsletter for Germany, Austria and Switzerland), good prices & service for cars
- RentalCars (quick comparison of 5 rental companies, major US & Canadian cities only)
- Kemwel (Europe & UK consolidator)
- AutoEurope (consolidator)
- easyRentacar (England & Europe)
- MasterCarsDirect - (pre-paid cars, includes fees, taxes & insurance in quote, except cancellation insurance)
- Car Hire 4 Less - (car rental consolidator for Alamo, Hertz, Budget, Europcar)
- RentADeal Consolidator for major cities
- European driving info from Michelin (directions, maps, hotels, food, etc.)
- Univ. of Texas Library map site SuperStar Site (check their Other Maps Sites link)
- Google Maps
- Google Earth
- Multimap (best for Europe & the UK)
- TerraFly from Florida International University
- Yahoo! Maps and Driving Directions
- Mappy Searchable maps and driving directions - best for France and continental Europe
- MapQuest.com
Message Boards, Forums and Clubs
- Free Traveling (pricing mistakes)
- Digital City - Travel (great info for most US cities) SuperStar Site
- Fodors.com Forums
- Trip Advisor
- IgoUgo (good comments & reviews)
- BoardReader (reads many message boards, but not all)
- Virtual Tourist (reviews and comments)
- Frommers Travel Message Boards
- European guide info & links for independent travel (excellent links and book)
- Guide for Europe with message boards
- Yahoo! Clubs and RecreationTravel
- Travelocity Destination Guide (Message boards)
- Caribbean Travel forums by island
- National Geographic Travel Web site (great info + a newsletter)
- About.com travel
- Concierge.com Forums
- Travel.Org -Pick Your Destination!
- Outdoor & Cultural Travel for Women over 40 by Debbie Jacobs (also publishes a newsletter)
- Rick Steves European vacations (good messages & tips)
- TravelTalk on-line (Caribbean forums)
- Caribbean On Line forums
- Hawaii (local links)
- Travel Channel -- Home Page
- Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory
- Epinions.com - Travel (find out about any negative reports before you buy)
- PlanetFeedback (look for bad reviews of airlines, cruises, hotels, etc.)
Newspapers, Magazines & News Groups
- USA Today's daily travel section (plus e-mail newsletter)
- The Paper Boy (world wide newspaper links)
- Newspaper sites from AJR Newslink
- Travel Magazines by AJR Newslink
- OnLineNewspapers
- NewsDirectory
- NewsDirectory of Travel magazines worldwide
- WorldNews
- Kiosken
- Google.com News Group
- you can track the history of someone who posts messages by following the author across all messages posted (in Advanced Groups Search)
- CruiseOpinion reviews
- CruiseCritic (go to their boards and reviews, includes singles section)
- Cruisemates.com (section for singles)
- CruisePage
- Cruise Talk Forums from TravelPage.com
- TravelPage.com directory of cruises, etc.
- CRUISE @DDICTS
- Ship health inspection reports (Vessel Sanitation reports from CDC)
Phone and electrical guides from Steve Kropla
mailing list removal (from the Direct Marketing Association)
- SeatGURU SuperStar Site (honest seating charts and excellent advise about what seats to get and to avoid)
- UpgradeSuccess (what are your chances for upgrades)
- MileMaven (every possible way to maximize your frequent flyer miles)
- WebFlyer (frequent flyer seat success or failure rates for each airline)
- FlyerTalk SuperStar Site (Randy Peterson's excellent message board web site about frequent flyer programs)
- Johnny Jet (excellent links, fun weekly newsletter)
- Airport & Airline links worldwide (Aviationworld)
- TRAVEL LINKS
- Links, tools & tips for Business Trips (Biz Trips)
- Flight Tracker from Flight View (neat graphics)
- FAA flight info (updated every 5 minutes for most major US hub airports)
- Train Travel in all parts of the world from "seat 61"
- SmarterTravel (excellent e-newsletter)
- MyBusinessTravel (by the SmarterTravel folks)
- TravelScience Worldwide Languages: free, commercial and on-line resources
- TravelProblem (resources to resolve travel problems)
- CDC Travelers' Health requirements
- Bob Cowen's web travel site