Travel Sites: Reviews

Updated February 2011

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Best travel search engine

By a large margin, most reviewers identify Kayak.com as the best site to begin researching travel options. After entering your search parameters, Kayak.com scours service providers, booking sites like Orbitz.com and… expandinternational sites to come up with the best offers on flights, hotels, rental cars and cruises. Like other search-only sites, Kayak.com links you directly to the site offering the travel option you select. For flights, Kayak.com provides historical fare information to help you pick the right time to fly. Additionally, Kayak's system will send email alerts about changes in flight and hotel prices relating to your specific travel plans. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Travel and Leisure: Tom Samiljan's update of best travel sites for Travel and Leisure covers 28 categories.

PC World: This review picks Kayak.com and three travel sites among a list that also includes shopping and dining sites.

DailyFinance.com: Jason Cochran, the travel expert at this consumer finance information site, picks Kayak.com and five other sites for finding cheap hotels.

Kiplinger.com: This article selects 28 travel sites in six categories.

Budget Travel: Kayak.com is one of five sites recommended by Budget Travel, which has extensive experience with travel search sites.

TriponaDeal.com: Trip on a Deal isn't a mainstream site, but it features videos in a news format relating to various travel topics.

Time magazine: Brad Tuttle and Erik Torkells say to search for flights at Kayak.com, rather than a booking site like Expedia.com, Orbitz.com or Travelocity.com.

Time magazine: Adam Fisher includes Kayak.com on this list of top 50 websites.

PCMag.com: Kayak.com is the only travel site that makes the cut on PCMag.com's extensive list of top 100 websites of 2010.

ABC News: Writer Scott Mayerowitz uses Kayak.com and nine other travel sites to search for the lowest airfare on the following five routes: New York to Denver, Chicago to London, Nashville to Omaha, San Francisco to Houston and Minneapolis to Miami.

The New York Times: Writer Michelle Higgins compares flights found on Kayak.com to Bing Travel and Fly.com.

The Washington Post: Kayak.com earns a listing here as one of five best overall travel sites.

Lifehacker.com: At this community site, members nominate Kayak.com, Yapta.com, Farecast.com (now Bing Travel), Priceline.com and Sidestep.com as the top five travel sites for finding cheap tickets.

Viewpoints.com: Kayak.com receives mostly favorable ratings from 40 users.

Best airfare tracking

Yapta.com

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Although Yapta.com is limited to searching for flights and hotels, it earns attention for doing something no other search-only site does -- tracking flights after the tickets have been purchased. If the price drops enough… expandto cover any re-ticketing fees, Yapta.com sends out an email alert. This site uses the same flight search engine as Kayak.com, but it has a different twist on tracking airfare prior to booking. You can request an email alert if the price drops for a specific flight on a specific airline, whereas Kayak.com sends the lowest fares based on travel dates and cities. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Travel and Leisure: Travel and Leisure's Tom Samiljan lists the best travel sites in 28 categories.

Yapta.com

Best for booking hotels

Hotels.com

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Reviewers agree that no other travel booking site comes close to matching the sheer number of properties worldwide available at Hotels.com. This site also makes it possible to search for hotels by a particular landmark or… expandaddress, which other sites don't permit. Owned by Expedia Inc., the site makes it easy to filter its more than 130,000 listed properties by location, price, hotel rating, guest rating and other criteria. In addition to the hundreds of guest reviews available for many of the properties, the site offers a 24-hour price match guarantee. If you must change or cancel your reservation, Hotels.com doesn't impose its own fees, though you are still liable for any cancelation or other fees imposed by the hotel itself. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

PC World: This article focuses on travel, shopping and dining sites.

Kiplinger.com: Known for personal finance advice and business forecasts, Kiplinger.com offers its recommendations for the 28 best travel sites.

Viewpoints.com: Like some other booking sites that are reviewed by users at Viewpoints.com, Hotels.com gets good marks, except from users who needed customer service.

PracticalHacks.com: This article identifies 60 travel sites in 12 categories.

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Best for discounted rooms

Priceline.com

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Experts say Priceline.com's model of bidding below published prices often yields the best prices, especially for last-minute luxury accommodations. Although you can specify neighborhoods and hotel class, the catch is you… expandwon't know precisely where you are staying until after bidding on and booking the room. This uncertainty seems to be a minor inconvenience to business travelers and vacationers who are thus able to afford more upscale accommodations. We didn't find expert recommendations on Priceline's air travel bidding, as odd flight times and sometimes long layovers lead to more user complaints. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Travel and Leisure: Travel and Leisure magazine provides a comprehensive list of travel sites in 28 categories.

Kiplinger.com: Kiplinger.com publishes personal finance advice and business forecasts.

Budget Travel: BudgetTravel.com, which continuously tests travel sites to find the best ones for booking travel, includes Priceline.com in this list.

TriponaDeal.com: Videos from the news-style online show, TriponaDeal.com, cover a variety of travel topics.

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Best for traveler reviews

TripAdvisor.com

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With literally tens of millions of user-written reviews, TripAdvisor.com is a great resource for learning about hotels and activities before you book. Maps and user-submitted photos are available for many locations. Some… expandusers complain that the site isn't well organized, but stress that searching by destination will usually net you the information you seek. TripAdvisor.com is also a search engine for flights, hotels, restaurants and rental properties; however, it doesn't receive the same attention for that as it does for its traveler-written reviews. collapse

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Expert & User Review Sources:

Travel and Leisure: A recent review of travel sites in 28 categories at Travel and Leisure magazine identifies TripAdvisor.com as the top site to "find out what a hotel is really like." Writer Tom Samiljan says the sheer number of reviews at this site outweigh the occasional fake recommendations.

Kiplinger.com: Kiplinger.com is a source for personal finance advice and business forecasts.

Budget Travel: This article briefly discusses the five travel site recommendations of the editors at BudgetTravel.com, based on their experience doing thousands of searches a year.

The Washington Post: This older compilation of travel sites focuses mainly on sites that offer special discounts or bargains, although some other types of specialty sites are included.

Viewpoints.com: Viewpoints.com is a user-review site. In the travel category, TripAdvisor.com receives one of the highest averages; users typically cite the number and general quality of reviews available, though a few suggest taking some reviews "with a grain of salt."

PracticalHacks.com: TripAdvisor.com is noted as a top travel-oriented social networking site in this older listing.