My main objective in life is to see the world. I love to travel, and when I say I love to travel, I mean it. I love to travel because of several different things: I love the feeling I get when I choose my destination at random or when I am scouring my closet trying desperately to pack my suitcase appropriately for the weather and local customs, but also keeping in mind I cannot go over the weight limit (baggage fees are scary). I also love doing research on hotels, finding the really cheap flight, or planning on seeing all of the cheesy tourist attractions. I am painfully aware that all of these things a true “seasoned” traveler would just roll their eyes at the thought of someone actually enjoying these seemingly annoying, time consuming, minute detailed chores. However, even more than this I love arriving at the airport, traveling on a crowded plane, trying new foreign modes of transportation, smelling the smog filled air of an over populated bustling city, sleeping in hotel rooms, converting my dollars to local currency, walking leisurely though they city (shoulder to shoulder of course), meeting new people, tasting new exotic dishes and learning the local language. I know. I know. Seriously, I love it.
There aren’t many things that I dislike about traveling. I have to say that I do credit my love of traveling, somewhat to my obsessive need to research, research, research, however I try carefully to make sure not to plan, plan, plan (I’m more of a free bird, I’m not so much the organized tour kind of girl). So, this had me thinking, I’ve had lots of practice using different online tools to help me plan some great trips and I should share my knowledge or as some of you may think, lack thereof…
My first tip or tool that I go to when planning a trip would be Bing. I love Bing for two very simple reasons. One, you can set travel fare alerts and two you can search all of the major carriers/travel sites in one very small click. This is an amazing little site especially if you’re on a budget and you have to stick within a certain spending limit. You can set your alert and have Bing tracking the highs and lows of the ticket you’re trying to purchase. Amazing.
My second tip would be the website Booking.com. Now, I have first hand personal experience using this site as well, in fact, I used this site to book hotels for my entire HONEYMOON! It was also my first time using this site to book a hotel room (risky I know), but I must say it was smooth sailing! We were able to pick hotels based upon their location and proximity to different attractions within the city, their star rating, as well as cost. We also entered into the comments section that we were on our honeymoon, which I believe was the reason that at every hotel we visited we were upgraded for free! There was also very little risk in booking on Booking.com in terms of money, because there was a no cancellation fee if you cancelled within 24-48 hours of your stay for every hotel that I viewed.
This then brings me to my third tip. Use the TripAdvisor.com website if for nothing else then to look at real images posted by real people of the potential hotels you are booking. I did this with each of the hotels that I had narrowed down in my search. I didn’t want to rely on the hotels posted photographs so I did this as a safety check, especially since I wasn’t booking 5 star hotels. I also used TripAdvisor for their reviews, because even though a hotel says it is within walking distance of the Coliseum in Rome, walking in Europe and walking in the US are two very different things. I wanted to make sure that everything the hotels were posting about themselves was accurate from real people.
My last tip would be to use Insurance Services of America, to purchase your travel insurance. Because, after spending so much time researching and daydreaming about your dream vacation, the last thing you want to worry about is something going wrong on your trip and you not being prepared. ISA will be able to provide you with insurance for possible trip cancellation, emergency medical evacuation or emergency medical expenses. These are just a few of the coverage’s that can be the security blanket you need when away from home.
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