Travel sites on everyone's list

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Travel sites on everyone's list
I took six "Best Travel Sites" lists and analysed them to try to get a " Best of the best" list.

First off, this didn't turn out to be a "Top-10" thing - oh no - nothing as simple as that.

The Guardian had a very constrained list of 7 best sites, while Kiplinger though 35 was about the right number but the Times had a whopping 131. (Is that really being selective?)

So in no particular order...

Tripadvisor.com was more or less on everyone’s list. With its often quoted figure of five million user-generated reviews it can usually be relied upon to give a fair approximation of how good a hotel or resort actually is. One criticism leveled at it though was that the quality of reviews perhaps doesn't match the quantity.

Kayak.com too seemed a firm favourite. Kayak is what they call a "meta-search" engine or more simply put it’s a search tool that sends your query to many other search tools at the same time . It scours over 120 different websites and then compares their prices so it can save you a lot of time and effort. The UK site though only does flights while the US version does the lot.

Priceline.comNaming your own price is what has made Priceline famous. You name your price and they pick the flight, hotel or rental car. Today, with the abundance of airline travel sites, most online travel veterans use Priceline.com for one thing and thats hotels. Their latest offering called Pricebreakers provides access to last-minute travel deals hand-picked by their travel experts who they say are tough and only accept the absolute best deals on the market for that day.

Seatguru.comListing 40 commercial airlines, SeatGuru.com provides seating maps and colour codes the seats - green is a good seat, yellow means be aware, and you don’t want red.. Once you select your airline and aircraft, you’ll be able to see just where each seat is on the floor plan, as well as which in-flight amenities are available (including video, AC power and Internet access - wow! - did you know that was possible?).

Wayn.comAn acronym for "Where Are You Now?" a travel and lifestyle social networking community website in the UK. WAYN is present in 220 countries and membership has grown from nothing to 1.5m members in the UK (and 8m globally) in just four years. Wayn helps you to keep track of all your contacts from around the world and make new friends based on where you are now, where you have been and where you are going!

Igougo.comLaunched in June 2000 Igougo has 350,000 members, 300,000 reviews, 200,000 photos and boasts several travel site awards. Igougo guides write detailed journals about recent trips so its a good place to browse if you're seeking inspiration for your next holiday. Anyone can sign up to write a travel journal, and writing earns you points that are redeemable for gift cards and frequent flier miles.

More info:Kiplinger • ConsumerSearch • Luggageonline • TimesOnline • Guardian.com • Travolution