Discount airlines may -- or may not -- be going your way
January 21, 2007
ONE of the cheapest ways to get around Europe these days is aboard one of the growing number of low-fare airlines. A recent count by FlyCheapo.com (www.flycheapo.com), a website that helps travelers find low-fare airlines and the routes they serve, lists 47. Of those, I was familiar with only six and have flown on three — bmibaby, RyanAir and EasyJet.
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Remember that trip to Maui? Soon your travel site will too
March 19, 2006
I visit my favorite travel website, ExpOrbelocity.com, in anticipation of planning a long weekend. My personal electronic travel agent at ExpOrbelocity.com greets me by name and asks me where I'd like to go. "Somewhere warm," I say.
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Price guarantees: Marketing gimmicks or the real deal?
March 5, 2006
HERE'S a puzzlement: Can every travel website really offer the lowest price for your hotel or airfare? That's what many guarantee. They can do that partly because rates and fares don't differ much from site to site.
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Those little orange buttons mean a new way to get news
February 19, 2006
LIKE me, you may have witnessed in the last few months the proliferation of little orange buttons emblazoned with the letters "RSS" or "XML" on travel websites. Although I knew in theory what kind of information these buttons might bring to my computer desktop, in practice I just didn't get it. Knowing that the acronym RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication didn't make it one bit simpler to understand.
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Time to meet? Sites help get e-daters from here to e-ternity
February 5, 2006
IF an artist painted a portrait of Cupid today, the little guy's quiver would surely hold websites instead of arrows.
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Hop on a bike and throw passive sightseeing out the window
January 8, 2006
BICYCLE touring vacations are a growing travel segment, catering to active travelers who want to experience more of a country than can be seen through the windows of a speeding tour bus or car.
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Planning to see Europe by rail? Get rolling online first
December 25, 2005
RESERVING train tickets for travel within Europe has always presented a challenge. Not only are there numerous options on destinations, but the rules also vary from country to country and train system to train system. For example, you can book 120 days or more in advance on some trains; on most, it's only 60 days.
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No room at the inn? Maybe, but keep banging on the door
December 11, 2005
BEFORE booking my airplane ticket, I carefully researched the availability of a hotel room in Barth, a small town on the Baltic Sea in Germany. In early November, the Ringhotel Speicher, the only hotel in this town of 10,000, had plenty of rooms when I checked on Expedia.
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Expedia glitch proves that the Web is one powerful grapevine
November 27, 2005
EARLY this month, some astute travelers noticed that Expedia was selling hotel rooms at two Hiltons in Japan for the fire-sale price of less than $4 per night.
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Click, pick and park: How to steer clear of airport-lot chaos
November 13, 2005
YOU arrive at the airport the day before Thanksgiving. You've made all your plane, hotel and car-rental reservations online. You're feeling mighty smug knowing you have saved your family a bundle by doing it all yourself.
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Sure, that e-mail looks legit, but is it from a 'phisher'?
October 30, 2005
THE e-mail in my in-box looked official. It had the familiar E-Trade Financial logo across the top. The return e-mail address was a legitimate financial document delivery website. The e-mail informed me that my statement was now available online and that I could click a link embedded in the e-mail and log on.
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A feast of hotel guest reviews, but watch out for bad apples
September 18, 2005
YOU too can be a travel writer, thanks to a growing number of travel websites. Now the average traveler can post thoughts on and reviews of hotels on sites that draw millions of readers.
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On a high-tech hunt for fall's most glorious displays of color
September 4, 2005
FALL in New England conjures images for many travelers of quiet walks through quaint villages under leafy canopies of brilliant displays of yellows, oranges and reds, smoke curling from a nearby chimney or pile of burning leaves and iPods plugged into ears tuned to the latest podcast to help determine the next leaf-peeping stop.
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Some sites zoom in on the lucrative gay tourism market
August 21, 2005
GAY and lesbian Americans are a traveling bunch, piquing the interest of some websites that view them as a lucrative niche market.
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Audio tours on iPod that could be music to a tourist's ears
July 24, 2005
MP3 players and Apple iPods, those electronic darlings that are transforming the way we listen to music, are finding some travel-related uses beyond merely giving airplane passengers a personalized concert at 500 mph.
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Sharing vacation photos is as easy as aim, shoot and upload
May 29, 2005
My Kodak Brownie camera traveled everywhere with me in my youth. It would return from family vacations and summer camp loaded with pictures. Once home, I'd run to a family-owned drugstore and drop off the film to be developed, always eager to see the results.
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Alcohol figures into some young Americans' European plans
May 15, 2005
For many young Americans traveling to Europe this summer, the continent's allure is more than historic and cultural attractions. It's also the booze.
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Idealist.org can help you arrange for a vacation from apathy
May 1, 2005
For some socially conscious travelers, vacations are best spent contributing time and energies to nonprofit projects that benefit humanity.
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Students: Do your homework to get European summer deals
April 3, 2005
Even though spring-break tans are barely starting to fade, now is the time for college students to start planning for summer travel, especially if Europe beckons.
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Looking for a place to pitch the tent? Start the search online
March 20, 2005
If you are thinking about a weekend of camping and surfing at, say, El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara, you'll want to start planning with a little Web surfing.
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Is that great offer legit? Before buying, do some research
March 6, 2005
A reader writes: "My husband just booked hotel rooms in Mexico with a website offering 'discount hotels and vacation resorts.' I just looked at the site and there is no contact information, no 'about us,' no explanation of who they are or how they work, and I am now worried."
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Mouse cliques may help you maximize your Disney dollar
February 20, 2005
Loading the family into the SUV and trundling off to Disneyland for the day on the spur of a moment is so, well, Frontierland.
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Hotels' special offers sometimes outdo their own 'best' rates
February 6, 2005
So you're shopping around on the Web for the best deal on a hotel room and you find one on the hotel's official website that suits your budget.
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Baggage check: In search of better luggage prices on the Web
January 16, 2005
My Samsonite carry-on wore its scuffs, tears and even a small cigar burn with an air of well-traveled dignity. It had been my trusty travel companion for seven years, efficiently hauling my clothing and other essentials to five continents, logging thousands of air miles snug in the overhead bin.
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Read the fine print before booking on overseas websites
January 2, 2005
Shopping foreign travel websites on the information superhighway can be as fraught with risk as driving the German autobahn in a Pinto.
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It's getting easier to find that perfect home away from home
December 19, 2004
Renting vacation homes is, for many families, a practical, even preferred alternative to staying in hotels. Thanks to the Internet, access to information about homes away from home is available at the click of a mouse.
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Websites take the hassle out of researching, booking hostels
November 7, 2004
It's a romantic image that many of us still carry in the back of our minds: A backpack-clad American student clutching euros arrives at a train station somewhere on the Continent and sets out in search of an inexpensive place to stay for the night.
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New search tools help bargain hunters cut their shopping time
October 24, 2004
For bargain-minded travelers, the Web may be a great place to save money — but it can be an equally great place to waste time in the pursuit.
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For good deals on cruises, your main port of entry is the Web
September 26, 2004
Getting customers to book a cruise is perhaps the last hurdle facing online purveyors of travel. About 4% of all cruises are booked that way, compared with about 27% of airline tickets for leisure and unmanaged business travel (not booked through a corporate travel agency), according to a study by Connecticut-based travel research firm PhoCusWright.
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'Dynamic' packages allow versatility while they save money
September 12, 2004
Package vacations have long been a mainstay in the brick-and-mortar world of travel. Pleasant Holidays, Funjet Vacations, Apple Vacations and similar companies sell as much as $15 billion in vacation packages annually, according to PhoCusWright, a Connecticut-based travel research firm.
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Decoding hotel ratings: What's a star-crossed traveler to do?
August 29, 2004
So you're thinking about a luxury getaway to New York, and the four-star Plaza Hotel and Waldorf Astoria are on your wish list. But why not the Your Stay Broadway Apartments?
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To get the best rates, use all the resources at your fingertips
August 15, 2004
The debate over getting the best hotel rate seems to center these days on three words that form one question:
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Short of cash and need a free place to flop? Try couch surfing
August 1, 2004
If the high price of hotel rooms has got your get-up-and-go down, if you're looking for a more meaningful interaction with cultures than the occasional bonjour or "g'day, mate" or if you're curious about other people and are willing to open your home to near-strangers, http://www.couchsurfing.com may be just the website for you.
