Whats the best way to book a trip?
Replies: 15 - Last Post: Aug 25, 2012 9:24 AM Last Post By: marichel1981
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Whats the best way to book a trip?
Hey Guys,Sorta a newbie here but I am starting to travel a lot more now that I have started working and all. I was wondering what is the most affordable way to travel, while still getting a detailed trip?
Any advice would be AWESOME.
Would everyone still recommend sites like Orbitz or Travelocity and Expedia? Or would you still recommend Travel Agents... or perhaps a hybrid of both through Tripcanza?
Just trying to plan something for myself and my family but just being a newbie just wanted to see what your opinions were. Thanks!!!!
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When you say ''book a trip''....you mean just flights or everything else?If its just flights you need to look at a few different sites(like those above) and compare prices.Skyscanner will often (but not always) give you the cheapest prices for any given route on a particular day.
Don't forget that the cheapest long-haul often have long stopovers or leave/arrive at unpopular times....and the very cheapest tickets should be booked some months in advance.
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I wrote a guide on finding cheap flights, SS is one of the best but try and use multiple flight search engines as there may be blind spots. Travelsupermarket, CheapFlights and Fly24 are all fairly good.Also if you know the airport you are flying from check its Wikipedia page and look for airlines that fly to where you want to go to. Some of the LCCs are not on the flight comparison sites you so you have to go find out if they exist and how much they charge.
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Also keep in mind that one search engine might be the best for Europe and not too good for South America. This is why you have to check a few and compare.7
It depends on what do you want to book (only transport, only accomodations, only entrances to museums and other attractions...), where are you traveling, your budget, your travel style...Perhaps, the first question you should answer yourself is if you really need to book the trip. I mean all what you book beforehand involves a lost of flexibility. The most you book beforehand, the most flexibility you lost. Nothing wrong with it but is that what you want?
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Hey guys thank you all for your replies!! It is much appreciated.. To answer some of the questions I was looking for something that would allow me to just simple look over a intinerary really... I am not the greatest at planning things out and with my full time job its pretty tough at the end of the day too. I dont have any preferences to plan my own trip.I;ve been meaning to go to a travel agent as well but im not sure whether or not im going to get ripped off or not either!
I've been using Tripcanza -- it seems like a rather new site with a few travel agents on there. A few of them have got back to me after I put out an initial trip request simply stating I wanted to go to Cancun. At the end of the day they are still travel agents I'm still wondering if I am getting the best deal or not....
Has anyone here ever had experience wth Tripcanza? They seem to have a nice website and all... just wondering if anyone else has tried it and how it matches up with my other options?
THanks !!!
11
Hey guys thank you all for your replies!! It is much appreciated.. To answer some of the questions I was looking for something that would allow me to just simple look over a intinerary really... I am not the greatest at planning things out and with my full time job its pretty tough at the end of the day too. I dont have any preferences to plan my own trip.I;ve been meaning to go to a travel agent as well but im not sure whether or not im going to get ripped off or not either!
I've been using Tripcanza -- it seems like a rather new site with a few travel agents on there. A few of them have got back to me after I put out an initial trip request simply stating I wanted to go to Cancun. At the end of the day they are still travel agents I'm still wondering if I am getting the best deal or not....
Has anyone here ever had experience wth Tripcanza? They seem to have a nice website and all... just wondering if anyone else has tried it and how it matches up with my other options?
THanks !!!
12
If you want to go to Cancun (i really wouldn't,but if you must ;-)You can....go to Skyscanner,put in your dates and it will tell you the price/time of available flights.Choose and book with credit/debit card.
Then go to Hostelworld.com (if you want a hostel) or Hotels.com (if you prefer a hotel).
Look through what they have for those dates,click on the one you want,pay by credit/debit card.With hostelworld you only need to pay 10% up front...the rest when you get to the hostel.
If you prefer you can look at the reviews on Tripadvisor.com first......
Then all you need to do is take a bus or taxi from Cancun airport to the hotel on arrival/departure.
You have just done everything that a travel agent will do for you,but paying several hundred dollars less.....
14
Last road trip (Norway) was thought up, researched and booked and done in 6 wks.Used a mix of internet and books for research then net and phone calls for booking, fact checking (there wasn't a hotel at Rygge Airport after all), advice and complaining that one website's English version wasn't working for online bookings...
