How To Use The Web To Plan
For Your Summer Vacation
Now the snow is finally melting and you don't need to put on 17 layers just to stay warm, we can finally turn our thoughts to warmer times, to summer, when the days stay open longer and the night smells like the organisms of earth (Can you tell we're writing this in the dead of winter?). Summer is a time for fun, for barbecues, for family gatherings and for vacations. The kids are out of school, the beaches and the amusement parks are crowded and the highways are filled with cars loaded of suitcases and intertubes. But summer is not the time for planning. That's what winter and early spring are for. And you don't even have to go outside to do it.

The Web, as you might expect, offers a treasure trove of sites and information that will help you plan the perfect summer vacation. Indeed, you can do pretty much everything on the Web but take the actual vacation (and if you think virtual worlds provide some kind of escape, you can even take a vacation via the Web using a site like Second Life). Since its inception, even before it with services like Prodigy, the Web has been a great place to make travel plans. For years, you've been able to bypass the ticket counter and buy your plane tickets online. Today, doing it any other way seems silly. You can book exactly the times you want, pick the seat you desire, print your boarding pass, make changes and cancellations, all without picking up the phone or visiting a counter. It is so common today, it's hard to remember those days when you had to call each airline to compare prices. The same can be said for car rentals, hotel reservations, and cruise bookings. Planning is just easier because of the Internet. If you use the right sites, you can avoid the surprises that can make trip planning stressful. With good research, you can all but assure a quality trip.

Where Do You Want to Go?
Most of us have a good idea of the places we might want to visit in the summer - the beach, a woodland cabin, Disneyland. But if you have an open schedule, you might consider using the Web to explore some new options. There are a ton of sites - often attached to traditional travel publishing groups - that feature articles and suggestions about new places to visit. Looking for a hot new nightlife scene or an isolated beach? You can probably find what you are looking for online.

For domestic travel, the New York Times travel section online (travel.nytimes.com) has a great database of articles on destinations all over the country. Their "36 Hours in X City" feature offers great suggestions for long and fun weekends in cities across the US. Plus, you can quickly and easily search for other nontravel articles on your destination. You can also looks at Frommers.com. While Frommers has a great international section as well, its detailed information on popular domestic sites is a great launching pad for preparing any summer trip.

If you are looking for something more international, a good place to start is the Lonely Planet Web site. The makers of the highly respected and comprehensive travel guides, the Lonely Planet site is broken down geographically, so it's very easy to narrow down your choices by region. If, for example, you are looking to take a European vacation but are not sure which countries you should visit and why, Lonely Planet can provide some answers. The sites breaks down each country by highlights, cultural issues, food, and potential dangers and annoyances. The information is clearly presented with little superfluous material. It's not comprehensive (they need to see books after all), but it's enough to get you started.

Travel + Leisure Magazine recently upgraded their Web site and it's one of the most beautiful travel sites on the Web. With, tons of huge color photographs and high quality articles, it's a great place to start dreaming of your international trip. Travel + Leisure, as the name suggests, specializes in more leisurely trips  beaches, spas and cruises. And while many of the destinations they highlight are high-end, they do have a very user-friendly "deals" section with low airfare prices and some good hotel bargains.

Avoid Surprises
Everyone has their vacation nightmare stories. And nothing is worse than the old bait and switch. You get sold one bill of goods by a travel agent or a brochure only to arrive at your destination to find the pool is full of algae, the towels have holes and the service is a mile short of attentive. Before the Web, this was often the risk you took. You had to rely on either word of mouth or brand names to ensure a good stay. But today, you can find hidden gems using the world's greatest recommendation engine - other people's stories.

If you haven't been to TripAdvisor, you haven't done all your research for a good trip. Started in 2000, TripAdvisor is the most comprehensive travel review site on the Web. While it's reach is based solely on the will of unpaid contributors, it is massively comprehensive. Almost any hotel or attraction in the world that is worth reviewing has been by someone who experienced it firsthand. A word of caution about TripAdvisor though: the comments tend toward the extremes. Folks don't usually spend time writing and submitting reviews if they only had a so-so time. They write reviews usually because they want to praise or complain. That's why you will often see hotels with such widely divergent ratings. One bad experience - a uptight clerk or a dirty glass - can ruin the whole place for some people. It's usually easy to judge though who the major complainers are. And in the end, it often evens out. Those hotels, for example, that get mostly great reviews are, in fact, usually great hotels. And the opposite can be said. With TripAdvisor, you can search for specific hotels and or areas to find out which hotels are the highest rated. You can also get tips on attractions, restaurants, and much more. If you are willing to put in a little time, TripAdvisor will be your best friend (or at least the millions of people that contribute to the site). And remember, don't be stingy. If you read and use TripAdvisor, you should contribute as well.

If you think TripAdvisor is too bias, you might want to take a look at Boo.com. Operated on the "collective wisdom" of its users, Boo, like Travelocity, is as expansive as the reviewers make it. However, unlike Travelocity, Boo does a really good job incorporating photos and other media. Some users may find that Boo's layout  clean and open  is easier to manage than Travelocity as well. But what about the content you ask? After a slow start, Boo is now full of quality reviews and photos for destinations around the world. Plus, Boo makes it easy to explore nearby destinations without doing a full new search. While it still has some growing up to do, Boo could one day challenge Travelocity in the travel review market.

Be Your Own Agent
As we said before, everyone knows that booking travel via the Web has been nothing short of revolutionary for would-be travelers the world over. And most people know how to find the popular travel booking sites. Expedia, Orbitz and Travelocity remain by far the most popular travel booking sites, and with good reason. They are well designed, reliable and often can provide you with the best deals available on the Web. Those sites are especially good for car rental comparisons.

But here are a few sites you may not have tried that could help save you money and hassle, and may even point you to some travel options not available on those big sites.

First, if you are looking for the lowest airfare, Sidestep.com is tough to beat. Unlike the major travel sites, Sidestep is an aggregator for all sites, including the airlines themselves (with one important caveat). Sidestep, which was originally distributed as it's own software program, is very fast. In addition, because it leads you to other booking sites, you don't actually purchase anything though Sidestep itself. The important caveat mentioned above is that Sidestep and no other travel booking aggregator like Kayak.com has access to Southwest Airlines Web site. So a good rule of thumb if you are checking for domestic flights is to check both Sidestep and Southwest (especially if you plan on checking baggage).

Lots of people try Hotels.com and Priceline for hotel bookings. Those sites can be fantastic. But if you're not married to the idea of staying at a particular hotel, give Hotwire a try. Hotwire, like Priceline, sells overstock rooms at a discount. But you do not know the actual name of the hotel until after you book and pay. For some folks, that may seem like a major gamble. But you get enough information about the hotel, including relatively specific location and star rating, that you can make a pretty safe bet what type of hotel you will be getting. Plus you can save 30-40% of normal prices. That's enough to make anyone a gambler.

Finally, if you are looking for quality boutique hotels in an area, try TabletHotels.com. Tablet Hotels features just cool and trendy boutique places, usually in major cities and resort areas. Like many of the Web 2.0-type travel sites, it's heavy on media with lots of nice photos and some video. Most importantly, you can find hotels on TabletHotels that you may not find elsewhere. And when you get back from your summer trip, you can brag to all your friends that you found the best hotel in the city that they have never heard off. And then maybe you can post a review online.