Travel sites can help save you time and money booking your next trip online.
These websites will help you to easily make your travel dreams a reality — whether your plans include a weekend getaway, business trip, or international honeymoon. Don’t waste your time spending hours on the phone with travel agents or get stuck searching through dozens of individual airline, hotel, and car rental websites to compare prices. You’ll be amazed at how these handy travel sites can simplify the booking process for your next vacation.
With just a few clicks, you can compare airline tickets, choose the best hotel accommodations, and even book car rentals.
An Easy Way to Check Thousands of Travel Options
Discount travel sites use algorithms to compare the pricing and availability of thousands of flights, hotels, cruises, and other travel options. They filter the results based on your preferences including travel dates, destinations, and pricing.
These websites work much like automated travel agents, scouring the Internet for the best available options. Booking with a travel site can save you time and money, especially if you’re not used to traveling abroad. Notably, the biggest advantages of using these sites are:
- Price comparison. Planning a trip used to mean long, tedious hours combing through individual deals from airlines and hotels and seeing who offered the best rates. But now you can let these travel sites do the work for you by entering details about your trip and letting them aggregate all of the options available to you in one place. If you are traveling on a budget, you can filter your results by the lowest price.
- Package discounts. Travel websites often include discounts on vacation packages that aren’t offered through each individual hotel or airline. For example, booking your hotel, flight, and car rental through the same travel website will often be your cheapest option rather than booking each one separately. Algorithms aren’t swayed by brand loyalty, so the cheapest package deal could easily include offers from three or more different companies.
- Avoid travel agent fees. Working with a travel agent could cost you as much as $100 to $200 in extra travel agent fees. Using a travel site eliminates that cost and often provides additional discounts that a travel agent may not be able to get for you.
- Information in one place. Booking your next vacation through a travel site shows all of your options in one place. Just specify your destination, travel dates, and any additional requests like excursions or car rentals, and the website will do the rest of the work.
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10 Best Travel Sites for Finding the Cheapest Possible Vacation
Consider trying one of these travel sites when planning your next adventure.
1. TripAdvisor
What makes TripAdvisor unique is that it’s part travel booking site, part social media. When you follow other users, such as friends, travel experts, or brands, you’ll see their reviews, photos, links, and tips in your feed. You can also share your own posts with friends and followers.
There’s a Trip feature that allows you to keep all of your travel plans in a single location. When you find a hotel, restaurant, or activity you like, click “Save” to add it to your Trip.
TripAdvisor generates a map of your saved locations, and you can add notes for each one. Use Trips to plan your itinerary for an upcoming vacation or save future places of interest.
TripAdvisor also has forums where users can ask questions and share travel experiences. For example, if you’re planning a trip to Maui for your honeymoon and want some insight on the must-do activities in the area, you can use the forums to source ideas from the TripAdvisor community.
There are also non-location specific forums for topics such as solo travel, honeymoons and romance, and traveling with pets.
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2. Booking.com
Selling more than 1.5 million hotel room reservations per day, Booking.com is the site to visit for up-to-the-minute availabilities at destinations all over the world. There are no booking fees, and you don’t pay anything in advance, only when you arrive.
Booking.com’s lodging offerings don’t end with its list of worldwide hotels. It offers travelers an array of places to stay from bed and breakfasts to remote cabins, five-star resorts, and even tree houses. You can find any type of lodging you want using Booking.com.
You can customize your hotel search by filtering the results by price, star rating, review score, and more. And if your vacation dates are flexible or a few months away, sign up to receive Booking.com’s secret deals. These could help lower your travel costs even more.
3. Skyscanner
If you have your smartphone location services turned on, you can use Skyscanner for its automatically-generated list of hotel and flight recommendations based on your specific location. The site’s goal is to alleviate the stress of travel planning. It will suggest to you the cheapest flights from the closest airports to you before you fill out a single search field.
This is a good site to visit if you know that you want to take a vacation and aren’t sure where to go. Skyscanner keeps an interactive running list of the most affordable destinations available over the next several months.
For example, the cheapest vacation deals for the month of August will take you to New Delhi, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The site will filter these recommendations for you based on your preferences and prior searches.
Like other travel sites, Skyscanner offers customers competitive rates on flights, hotels, car rentals, and more. However, it also offers last-minute deals, sends out alerts when it’s the best time to book flights and hotels, and even has a free app that will make on-the-go vacation planning a breeze.
If you want extra savings, download and install the Honey extension on your browser. Honey will automatically find the rewards that are available to you for booking through Skyscanner.
4. Agoda
While this unique travel site offers a myriad of hotels and other traditional accommodations, it also finds unique and unusual lodging options.
Agoda lists houses, hostels, apartments, and properties available to rent from private owners who can become hosts without paying any commissions or fees. This arrangement keeps costs down for all parties, including you. This way, you could possibly pay the same price for a whole house that you might have paid for one hotel room.
The Agoda home page includes a regularly updated list of daily deals on its best air, car, and lodging prices. Travelers who participate in the site’s PointsMAX program can redeem their points for future hotel bookings or discounts on flights. The more you book through Agoda, the more your travel points will accumulate for future credits.
If you make a booking through Agoda but find a cheaper deal somewhere else, the company promises to either match that rate or beat it.
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5. Expedia
Expedia is one of the most well-known travel sites, and with good reason. With its savings alert tool, the site will find you ways to save on flights, hotels, vacation packages, cruises, car rentals, and excursions. And you won’t have to sift through the offerings to compare prices and find the best deals; Expedia does all of the work for you. It’s also known globally for its quality car rental deals.
Expedia regularly posts information about the best times to plan vacations or book airfare. For example, the site claims that waiting until a week before your travel time could save you more than 15% on your hotel costs. As for air travel, it advises travelers to book on Sundays and to try to find flights that leave on Thursdays or Fridays.
Thanks to the volume of hotel, airfare, car rental, cruise line, and excursion company partners, you can find a vacation that fits your needs and your budget.
6. Kayak
Kayak offers the opportunity to search hundreds of travel sites all at once. If you have a specific destination in mind, Kayak can find flights, accommodations, and rental cars to fit your budget and desired experience.
You can also check out the site’s list of hot deals and discounts to spark new vacation ideas and help you save even more money. If your plans are flexible, consider using Kayak’s patented search tool to suggest which days to travel so you can make the most of the available discounts.
You can also sign up for free to become a Kayak member. Members receive additional discounts of up to 35% as well as personalized help with trip planning.
One of the best parts of Kayak is its travel guide section. Travelers can research their destination cities ahead of time to learn about the local culture and history, find out what to do and where to eat, and book fun activities and excursions.
For example, if you’re planning a trip to Seoul, Kayak says you can’t miss a visit to the Northern Palace or Namsan Park. If you’re heading to Cusco, Kayak suggests visiting Machu Picchu, of course. But it also suggests checking out the architecture at the Plaza de Armas or taking a Peruvian cooking class at the local market.
7. Priceline
No matter your budget, you should be able to find an affordable deal with Priceline’s best-price guarantee, whether it’s for vacation bundles, car rentals, hotels, flights, or cruises.
As with any traditional travel search, you can plan your trip by entering your trip dates and destination into Priceline’s booking search engine. If you find what you’re looking for somewhere else at a better rate, Priceline will refund you 100% of the difference.
Another option is to use the site’s trip builder, conveniently featured on the main page, to create your own ideal vacation package. When you go this route, you can manage your entire trip from one location, and potentially save hundreds of dollars in the process. You can include multiple destinations, book a hotel for all or part of your stay, and add travelers to only a portion of the trip if you so choose.
There’s also Priceline’s famous “Name Your Own Price” tool available for hotels. Simply tell the site how much you are willing to pay for accommodations, and it will show you your available matches. However, you won’t know which hotel you’ll be staying at until you make the reservation.
8. Travelocity
Travelocity’s price matching guarantee, free flight cancellations up to 24 hours in advance, and waived cancellation fees mean you can travel on nearly any budget. It promises to support travelers and provide assistance in case of a canceled flight, overbooked hotel, subpar car rental, severe weather condition, and more.
If a hurricane threatens to ruin your upcoming trip to Cancun, Travelocity will work with its travel partners to help you make changes to your itinerary at the lowest possible cost.
The site will help you find the best deals available, including locale-specific packages and bundles. If you become a Travelocity member for free, you can unlock additional savings of up to 50% and snag additional deals by booking one of the site’s last-minute vacations. Simply select “travel deals” from the site menu to browse 24-hour sales, daily hotel deals, and more.
Travelocity supports users who want to give back by providing an interactive map that connects travelers to volunteer organizations located near their specific destinations. It even offers volunteers a special discount code for their next hotel, plus a donation to the American Red Cross.
Follow the site’s Travel for Good blog to find out how to plan a volunteer trip, support local charities, pack economically, and find partner organizations to connect with during your trip.
9. Orbitz
Another travel site to use for your next adventure is Orbitz.
Browse the blog (located under “inspiration” on the menu) to find out which destinations pique your interest the most. Then, head over to the main site for great travel discounts on hotels, flights, cruises, event tickets, activities, and rental cars.
You can even purchase tickets for the most affordable sports, concerts, and theater events nationwide. Join Orbitz Rewards to start earning Orbucks instantly. You’ll enjoy members-only perks like insider prices, stacked rewards, and VIP hotel benefits.
For even more savings, download the Orbitz app to take advantage of exclusive mobile-only rewards and discounts. The app is easy to navigate and provides a mobile-friendly booking option.
10. Hotwire
Hotwire provides deep discounts through its specially-negotiated online deals. These deals are made possible because of the company’s ability to sell unsold travel inventory at drastically lowered prices.
The site’s “Hotwire effect” hides hotel names so users can find four-star hotels at two-star prices, and it lets you see the original prices of the rooms next to the Hotwire deals. You can claim even more discounts by bundling your car rentals, flights, hotels, and vacation packages, making it easier for you to manage your trip from one place.
Create a Hotwire account to immediately begin earning HotDollars. Use your earnings toward hotels, flights, and rental car bookings.
Don’t Forget to Check Direct Prices
Booking your vacation shouldn’t be tedious. By using these travel sites, you can save money, find nicer accommodations at lower prices, and even discover new destinations to add to your itinerary.
That said, these sites need to generate a profit in order to operate so don’t be surprised to occasionally find cheaper prices by booking directly with an airline and/or hotel. You can always use these sites as a starting point and then book direct if you find a cheaper price.
Remember, your goal here is to see the world on your terms and at a price point that fits your budget. A little extra effort could save hundreds of dollars.
