Share your holiday planning websites

DorsetDude

DorsetDude

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Wonder if people fancy sharing what web sites or tips and tricks they have for booking trips away? Last minute hotels, cheap flights etc.

Am thinking of trying to book a long weekend in Edinburgh and fly up from Bournemouth or Southampton. Wondering where best to search for a hotel room.

Thanks all

If we get enough responses, might be a useful "sticky"?

EDIT: Updated with new info posted below :

Flights:

Skyscanner

Train info
http://www.seat61.com/

Reviews/Information:

TripAdvisor
Lonely Planet thorn tree forums

Bookings:

TravelSupermarket
Booking.com
Trivago
MakeMyTrip

Tips and tricks:

I have also heard.......but not sure whether it is true, that when booking flights on no frills airlines, clear your cache before returning to a site you have price-checked previously. As the site will register the fact you have visited before, and push the prices up.
 
Last edited:
Reviews and bookings - booking.com

Google maps has also been handy.
 
Last time we went to Edinburgh we decided that location was more important than cheapness so we stayed at the Ibis hotel just off the Royal Mile (near the Tron Kirk). The time before, we stayed in one of the Premier Inns (Haymarket IIRC) which was more of a walk to the city centre, especially for an aging MiL!
 
I sometimes find I get a better hotel deal by ringing Expedia and asking for a best price on somewhere, as opposed to using their website - though they are still restrictive on what rooms they can do offers on.

For flights, I still find it no more expensive to book with BA themselves and, again, there are better upgrades available when booking direct than using travel sites. :thumbs:
 
Rapscallion said:
Reviews and bookings - booking.com

Google maps has also been handy.
Click to expand...

:thumbs:
Can't go wrong with booking.com IMO. We used them last year for the France/Switzerland/Italy/France trip and it all went so smoothly.
We have booked a trip to the Alsace in June this year, and I doubt whether their prices could be beaten.
If you feel brave, then you can always turn up in a town and haggle, but after a long drive the novelty of that soon wears off.
 
andy700 said:
:thumbs:
Can't go wrong with booking.com IMO. We used them last year for the France/Switzerland/Italy/France trip and it all went so smoothly.
We have booked a trip to the Alsace in June this year, and I doubt whether their prices could be beaten.
If you feel brave, then you can always turn up in a town and haggle, but after a long drive the novelty of that soon wears off.
Click to expand...

That's what ive used for my France / Switzerland trip. Leaving in 10 days so can't give any feedback yet...

One thing im curious about, the payment i have made to booking.com for each of the hotels - when did this leave your account, and were you charged any additional fees for paying in a different currency?
 
I have always found the Lonely Planet thorn tree forums a valuable source of information.
For India, Makemytrip.com was a great alternative to hours and hours spent in mental train stations trying to get some sense out of someone.
A lot of people I know use trip advisor, but I can't say I have used it myself.
 
I have also heard.......but not sure whether it is true, that when booking flights on no frills airlines, clear your cache before returning to a site you have price-checked previously. As the site will register the fact you have visited before, and push the prices up.
 
Nod said:
Last time we went to Edinburgh we decided that location was more important than cheapness so we stayed at the Ibis hotel just off the Royal Mile (near the Tron Kirk).
Click to expand...

Nice central location, gets full of noisy students mid afternoon/evening/weekends though
 
Can't say we noticed any noise over what we were expecting from such a central location. IIRC, it's right on Hunter Square and since we were there soon before the festival, Reginald D H was being interviewed on the steps of the Kirk under the road sign. We didn't use the hotel bar - they tend to be fairly soulless places anyway and there's no shortage of others there!

Since our needs then were for fairly specific dates and times, we didn't use any of the cheapy options, we booked well in advance and got early bird discounts instead. From memory, we paid about a tenner extra over the cheapy prices but it was a couple of years ago and my memories of then aren't as good as they could be!
 
If ever you are up this way again give us a nudge, would be happy to meet up and I am sure we could get some of the other guys to come along as well.
 
trivago.co.uk

Used this to find the cheapest hotels for my trip to Prague, Vienna and Budapest this summer. Booking.com did come out top on most, but hotels.com came up trumps on one.

Very easy tool to use, and you can see previous customer ratings of the hotels from TripAdvisor etc.

I used Skyscanner to find the cheapest flight, and I heavily use Tripadvisor to find things to do, where to eat, and what is the best transport and where to buy it from! Saved me a lot of money going direct rather than buying through sell on companies!
 
For India:
I use IndiaMike.com forums which just about covers advice on everything from that country.
Flights, I shop around but usually end up at Tickets to India
Cleartrip in conjunction with IRCTC for booking trains in advance (recently advanced bookings has been limited to 60 days, previously 120 days)
Trip advisor/Google Earth for hotel choice & location info.
Hotel booking agent - first choice would usually be Agoda followed by Expedia The other regular booking agents I've found to be pretty crap unless you're after 5* accommodation. HostelBookers/HostelWorld are also worth considering and don't just feature hostels. I've also booked a few hotels via their own website when I've found them to be cheaper than booking agents.

Currently looking for a nice hotel in Kolkata - near the Howrah bridge but all I'm finding is something called 'Floatel'. - Floatel...really?
 
When I was backpacking the Thorn Tree forums were very useful, they've changed them since then and I don't find them as easy to use, but maybe they just got busier.

We've used priceline in the past. Basically you put in your maximum price for a hotel, minimum stars you will accept, and area. You give your cc details, and if a hotel accepts, your money is taken, no refunds. We've also used it for car hire, both times in the US. If you care massively about your hotel might not be for you, but otherwise can save time, and you can be nicely surprised with your hotel (could go the other way of course!).

Of course basic things like checking when flights will first go on sale can get you the biggest discount if you are one of the first to book, and know in advance when you want to go.
 
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