Travel Recommendations

I've had a couple people ask me recently about where I get information and do research when planning a trip, so I thought I would share some of my favorites here. As a disclaimer, I don't pretend to be an expert at this - although the tips below have worked well for me.

Airlines:
By far the best place to look for plane tickets is kayak.com. It's an aggregator, so you're searching fares from dozens of other sites. I love it because it has the best sort/filter/refine capabilities so you can really find the flight you want and see who has the best price.

After you've found your flight and are buying your ticket, go to seatguru.com to get insider info about which seats are the best - and worst - on a particular aircraft. Great info. I never pick a seat (or buy an upgrade to a "premium economy" seat) without consulting seatguru first.

Hotels:
Although plenty of other sites exist, I've always had the best luck using tripadvisor.com to get reviews on hotels. Actually read the recent reviews, don't just look at the numbers. Some people will give bad reviews to great hotels for things you don't care about ("smoking not permitted," or "overpriced breakfast").

After you've narrowed your hotel choices, it's back to kayak to find the best price. Kayak doesn't always find small, independent hotels, so if one of those is on your list you should check that hotel's website directly.

Destination Info:
I never go anywhere without first reading that city/state/country's article on wikipedia. Yes, the info isn't specifically oriented to travelers, but knowing general things about your destination will make your trip that much more enjoyable.

Next go to wikitravel, wikipedia's cousin, which has info specifically oriented towards travellers. Warning: not all destinations - especially smaller places - have a very complete entry.

Next, check out the New York Times' online Travel section. They contract with Fodor's to get overview info from the books, but that's not what you're here for. For almost any major destination, there will be articles from the newspaper over the past several years. Read them - I've gotten some of my best travel tips from these articles.

Lastly, go to the library or bookstore. Of course a general guidebook is fine (Lonely Planet, Fodor's, etc.); my favorite is the "Not For Tourists" series. In particular look for specific, narrow-scope books about your destination like "The Hidden Gardens of Paris," "London's Best Pubs," or "Northern California Tapas." I made those up but you get the idea. Bring a post-it and a pen and jot down some quick notes. I've gotten great recommendations this way.

I love to travel and enjoy the planning process also. If you've used other resources with success and would like to share, please leave a comment...