Searching for the best hotel deals in town is one topic we have discussed at length on MUO. We still like to put out the information now and again because hotel search engines are essential traveller tools to be used before you pack your suitcase.

Here are ten of the best hotel search engines that fetch you the best deals when you travel.

Google Hotel Finder

We start with the usual suspects and Google with its experimental Google Hotel Finder is one for the top billing. Head over to our directory mention for a brief introduction. Google Hotel Finder could go from an experiment to a full-scale assault on the other hotel and travel websites out there because it brings in a few conveniences. For instance, you can compare hotel prices (the price slider is a big help) and put them in a shortlist and track them over time. Tracking is a big help when you want to grab the best deal in town. You can use filters and the Google map to search out hotels in a selected area; select them by travel time; and pick the ones which are near the urban hot spots.

Bing Travel – Rate Indicator

Bing Travel goes head to head (or is it the other way around) with Google Hotel Finder. The Rate Indicator here is a great help when you are trying to find whether the hotel tariff is a good deal or not. You can also do a historic search for specific dates. It is only available for 30 U.S. cities at present. The Rate Indicator shows yellow, green, and red legends on a Bing Map to indicate the ‘hotness’ of a deal.  The usual Bing Travel search engine though gives you a comparative search with Hotwire, Hotels.com, Travelocity, Expedia, and Priceline. These are few of the top notch travel and hotel websites.

Hotels.com

Hotels.com is one of the most comprehensive hotel booking websites around which covers 140,000 hotels worldwide. It is a one-window solution to all your search and booking needs. It gives you localized information plus great deals and rewards programs. Hotels.com claims that it gives you the cheapest rates and if you find anything cheaper they will match it. Hotels.com also does not charge cancellation fees. Download their free iPad, iPhone, Android app.

Laterooms

This is a Europe and U.K centric site which covers properties worldwide too. Laterooms lists a total of 33,000 properties. Sign-up to receive best deals by email or periodically visit the Special Offers section on the site. The hotel search engine uncovers deals like – Extra special discounts; Added value extras; Free hotel nights; and package deals when you stay for more than one night.

Tripadvisor

Tripadvisor is one of the most well-known search engines for travel and hotel deals. We mentioned it when we saw 5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel and it certainly deserves another mention here. The site suggests reviews and advice on hotels, resorts, flights, vacation rentals, vacation packages, travel guides, and lots more. One of the features you might use most often is the filter that lets you sort the hotels by the amenities on offer.

Booking.com

Hotel search and booking websites are usually choc-a-bloc with information. I like the relatively uncluttered layout of this hotel search engine which is also aided by the large and clear fonts that are used. You can use the search engine to locate and hotel reservations.  Their tag line says – 187,784 hotels in 163 countries worldwide. So, that’s quite a sweep. Subscribe to the email newsletter for flash deals.

Hotels Combined

Hotels Combined and its hotel search engine too covers the world. The site says that its Verified Reviews (a trademarked service) accepts and quantifies reviews from verified, paying customers only. The hotel search engine compares prices across a bunch of hotel pricing sites. You can view the list when you search for the best hotel by destination.

Hotwire

The discount travel site negotiates the best hotel deals (along with other travel related ones) and presents them to you as Hotwire Hot Rates. You can also use the site’s Tripwatcher tool to watch out for price drops. The results are compared with other sites like Expedia, Kayak, Tripadvisor, and Orbitz. Check out the site’s Planning Tools section for a few more travel aids which help you plan your trip.

Venere

104.000 hotels and listing of other accommodation types in more than 130 countries makes this best hotel search engine holds its own against the best of its ilk. Also includes Bed and Breakfasts and vacation rentals. The site gives you a colorful map-based search tool for finding out the best hotel deal in town.

Roomkey

Six of the largest hotel companies in the world (Choice Hotels International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotel Group) collaborated to start up Roomkey.  The hotel search engine is specifically tailored for their clientele and aims to – offer travelers direct access to a broad network of hotels around the globe, provide accurate and comprehensive information, make it easy for travelers to discover what’s right for them. And in one word, the interface is superb.

These ten hotel search engines are at the forefront of the pack, and there are more of them. Most of the websites in the hotel search category are quite similar…offering a mix of hotel reservations, reviews, and great deals. Here are a few more you can throw into the mix:

• 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip
• How To Find & Reserve Right Hotels From Your Android Phone
• 10 Sites For Budget Travel & Backpacking Trips Across The World
• The Best Travel Deals Sites To Save Cash On Your Next Vacation
• The 10 Best Free International Travel Guide Websites

Having a few of these hotel search engines bookmarked helps you to cross-check the best deals and plan your trip with low overheads. Where are you planning to travel to next? Do you use any of these hotel search engines, or do you depend on your travel agent?

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Backpackers as the name suggests, carry nothing more than what they can hoist on their shoulders. From hostels to dormitories, from camping out to eating street food, from washing your clothes in the sink to catching a bath in the stream, the backpacking jaunt is a test of the free spirit.

Are you a backpacker? If you are planning to backpack to some far corner of the world, check out these ten budget travel websites.

Backpacker

Backpacker.com is the online face of the magazine. The site is neatly divided into sections that look at destinations, gear, skills, nature etc. One of the more unique features of the site is that a lot of the direction waypoints carry GPS data. You can download the information to any GPS enabled device. Step-by-step guides help the backpacker plan out his trip in minute detail. Backpacking gear gets reviewed, and you can also use the cool interactive Gear Finder search tool to find retailers. The Skills section is a must read for both backpacking fitness and survival tips.

Backpack Forever

The site has a community feel to it as backpackers across the world share their travel stories and tips. In fact, you can also join in and help others discover some cool backpacking trails in your part of the world. The site gives you a chance to earn money (via ad-revenue) as you write about your first-hand backpacking experiences. Every backpacking story gets categorized and linked through a map, so that readers can discover them according to region and country.

The Backpacker

The site has a nice compact section for the beginner backpacker. Trails Database – a collection of user submitted reviews, and Trail Talk – the very active backpacking forum are good resources for the backpacking enthusiast. Also, check out the The Backpacker’s database of backpacking, camping, hiking, and outdoor gear reviews.

Trails.com

Trails.com is a backpackers and outdoorsman’s site with free and paid services. You can browse trails by kind of activity. You can search for trails on a large U.S. map. There is a complete section on travel with a map-based hotels, motels and lodging finder. Also, there’s an active discussion board on the site. Register and upload your own trail stories for other outdoor thrill seekers.

ExploGuide

If you are looking for off-the-beaten-track travel spots, then this site could give some hints. A neat Google Maps mashup narrows down most of them, and you could find some unknown locations (as I did in my own country). You can write your own alternative travel stories and meet other explorers through the site.

Gorp.com

The site covers 50,000 destinations worldwide. If you are looking for a short trip at the end of the week, the Weekender Guide could be the one for you. The Hiking, Camping, and Gear sections should cover most of your backpacking needs. The Practical Advice and Trips of The Month sections are a must read. If you are still unsure where to go, check out the Adventure Finder  and Quick Escapes pages which also connect you to travel deals.

Every Trail

Every Trail is again not a pure backpacking site, but it’s more about hitting the trail with geo-tagged user-generated travel content. You can seek out road trips along with sightseeing tours, sailing trips, hiking, cycling, flying, hang gliding, geocaching, skiing, kayaking trips and more across 80 countries around the world. You can download the mobile apps and map a route with GPS while on the go.

Travel Independent

I liked this page for two reasons – it is ad-free and the clutter freeness helps me get to the information which is arranged very simply. The site makes no bones about being a great site, but it is definitely an informative one. If you are looking to grab some backpacking information quickly, check this out. Also, the Links and Resources page are jumping points for more reading resources.

Adioso

Adioso (beta) is a search engine that can help you catch the cheapest flight from your point of origin to a landing spot for a backpacking trip. I haven’t tried out the price alert, but the search engine (though, in beta) works well enough to dig out cheap air fares. Interesting filters and graphs help to narrow down the lowest cost for each date. A search engine that looks out for travel deals is a must for a budget conscious backpacker.

Hostel Bookers

If you need a search engine for the best budget travel deals, then you also need a place to stay if you plan to backpack across the globe. The search engine and the Google Maps mashup help you find cheap hostels (and hotels) where you can put up. The currency displayed is in Euros and you can book through the site after comparing the deals available. The site offers a secure payment gateway, but do read the fine print when comparing hostels and booking through the site.

Of all the travel websites we have highlighted so far on MakeUseOf.com, the selection below could be of use to the budget conscious backpacker:

• 5 Ways To Save Money When You Are Travelling On Vacation
• Research, Plan, & Organize All Your Travel Information At TravelMuse
• 3 Ways To Take Advantage Of The Travel Network CouchSurfing
• 5 Ways To Save Money When You Are Travelling On Vacation
• The 10 Best Free International Travel Guide Websites

Is your backpack all packed up? Where do you plan to go? If you are a backpacking buff share your tips below in the comments.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Gogobot is your complete travel companion. It is like having your own travel agent who is available 24/7. Their website allows you to seek advice from other members and plan out a complete trip. Their iPhone app allows you to make virtual postcards from anywhere in the world and view the trip you made on the computer. No matter what you are looking for in terms of traveling, Gogobot can oblige.

Registration

You can create an account in any number of ways with Gogobot. First, you can sign up through the iPhone application via Facebook, or by creating an account using your email address. If you would rather sign up through the website, you can use a Twitter, Facebook or email account.

Creating A Trip

To create a trip simply click the button towards the top of the screen called “Create a Trip Plan” and type in the location of your choosing. Once you select a location, you will see a new page with some of the more popular destinations in the location you just chose. If you see a place you like, simply click “add to trip.”

The site also has a search box that allows you to find places that are not listed on the recommended page. If a place you are looking for is not listed, fear not, because you can easily create a new place right from the website. Simply type in the name and click on the option to create a new place. The site will ask for some information about the place you are trying to create and then you will be all done.

Other people will be able to add this place to their trips as well.

While creating a trip if you cannot decide what to do or you have a question, you can jump right into the next great feature of the site called…

Get Advice

Gogobot is like a traveling social network, and a huge part of social networking is getting advice and recommendations from others. On Gogobot, you can pose a question about pretty much anything and about any place. Simply click the get advice tab at any time to ask a question. Enter the location where you need advice  and your question. You can choose to share your question with other social networks, or just put it on Gogobot.

You can also answer questions on Gogobot. If you look at a place and see an interesting question that you know the answer to, click the “Add a Comment Instead” button and enter your answer. If you have something in particular to recommend click the “Add Recommendation” button.

Reviews

Gogobot also offers user reviews. Users can rate a place 1-5 stars and leave a brief write-up on their experience.

Of course, you can also leave reviews on a place. Simply go to the page of a location and click the big green “Write a Review” button. A box will pop up asking you for a score of the place and brief description of your experience.

iPhone App

As I mentioned in the beginning, Gogobot also has an iPhone application that is designed to expand on the experience of the website. To get the app, head over to the App store and download it.

The application allows you to view the trips you’ve created on the computer. This way, while you are actually out on the trip, you can check all the things you planned to do.

The iPhone app also allows you to create and share custom postcards. Simply search for the place under the create tab and click on the name. The application will automatically bring up your iPhone camera for you to snap a picture that will be your postcard.

After you take the picture, you can choose from a number of effects to make your postcard pop. Click next and you can choose to rate the place, add it to the Gogobot gallery and share it on any of your linked social networks.

Conclusion

Gogobot is a great website and application that meets all of your travel and social networking needs. It allows you to seek advice from other travelers and completely plan your trip. With the addition of their new iPhone app, you can take your entire trip with you so you never miss a beat.

Have you tried traveling with Gogobot? Did you find any cool places? Let us know in the comments.

Image Source: Shutterstock

Essentially, Gowalla is now about building stories and about travel. Stories are built around your friends’ check-ins and behaviour, showing users when their friends have done something interesting together. Travel guides for top tourism spots have also evolved out of the check-in data in Gowalla. The result is that you want to use Gowalla to plan trips with friends and then to record them for your memories as you go.

Check-Ins Are Still There… Sort Of

Users can still let people know when they’ve visited a place – and are encouraged to by all means! All of your shared activities are used to build the stories with friends and travel guides for all.

On the Gowalla website or smartphone application, search for the “spot” you’re visiting and add a “highlight” about any aspect of the location, upload a photo, like the location or add the location to a list. These activities let people know what you think and where you’ve been.

If you’re a little over all these multiple check-ins, you can connect your Gowalla account with Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook so that you only have to check in once. Head to You > Settings to enable this cross-posting. However, it would be great to have the ability to cross-post the other way around as well. That is, from Facebook and Foursquare into Gowalla.

Stories

Instead of seeing a long stream of disconnected check-ins and photos you’ll now see these as a cluster of events, pieced together as a story. If a handful of your friends all went to the same event, you’ll see all of their check-ins and photos together as the one story, making it far more cohesive, interesting and readable. You’ll also see comments by friends of friends who were at the same events, making the story even more interesting and complete.

Travel Guides

Now, this is where all that information in Gowalla starts to really take shape. Travel guides are pieced together from all the public information on a venue, city or country.

If you check out the guides you’ll see the top cities grouped by country for convenience, so you can browse through them and do a virtual tour. Clicking on a city will show you top locations, recent photos, featured locations and more. It’s easy to click through to other practical traveler-focused information, such as nightlife, food venues and the best lists people have made featuring this city.

These travel guides are filled with real-life things that people have done, seen and recommended, so they’re great for getting an honest perspective on the place before you go. It’s definitely worth adding Gowalla to the list of places you’ll use to research destinations before or while you travel.

What do you think of Gowalla’s guides and stories? Let us know!

We have featured a legion of travel related websites that make every jaunt just a little easier. We now take a look at TravelMuse – another travel site which can help you thread all the information collected from those travel sites into one neatly organized package.

TravelMuse makes it easy to plan your next trip by helping you save information from any Web site offering relevant travel recommendations and also giving you the tools to organize all your research in one place.

TravelMuse Is a Travel Planning Site

Travelling anywhere calls for lots of research if you want to avail of the best deals and save money. But how do you collate and organize the information overload? TravelMuse gives you two tools that make it easier:

The TravelMuse Bookmarker: The browser bookmarklet allows you to save pages, photos and text from any web site and store it all in an online Trip folder.

The TravelMuse Planner: The interactive map comes with useful scheduling information and destination previews that help you map out your trip more visually.

TravelMuse also has other site features like Themes (more like categories of travel destinations), Destinations (just like a travel search engine), and Get Inspired (for cool travel ideas). But let’s plan out a trip and see how all these different features come together to weave a memorable trip.

Let’s Plan a Trip to…Paris

I want to go to Paris for a romantic honeymoon. Doesn’t everybody! So, let’s see how we can organize a trip using the planning tools on TravelMuse.

Start off by gathering notes from your any website that has information on Paris. I started off with sites like LonelyPlanet.com. Clicking on the bookmarklet opens up a window where you can save the page to your trip folder (or a research folder). You can save pages, photos or snippets of text.

You can enter additional information like the address or maps coordinates, and also choose the best thumbnail to go with it. The best way to fine-tune your organization is to enter the categories and street addresses if possible. It helps later to plot it all out on the map.

This is how my trip folder (“Honeymoon”) looks now:

You can straightaway schedule your travel by attaching the sights of Paris to the dates you have on hand. I am leaving one entire day for the Louvre! You can check out your schedule on the tab reserved for it.

Click on the tab marked as Map and see how all the sights and sounds of Paris come together. You get an idea of the distances you need to cover across the city. The importance of adding addresses is revealed here. You can plan out the trip so that it becomes easier to explore nearby places in one go.

You can do a few things more from this section of TravelMuse like book hotels, flights, and cars. But the most important thing you can do is to print out a neat PDF guide with all the travel itinerary and research notes you created here. You can pick and exclude the items you want in the PDF guide that you can print and carry with you.

Enrich Your Trip with Some Inspirational Travel Tips and Ideas

The Destinations section is a travel search engine in itself. You can enter your destination and explore the interactive map to get a bird’s eye view of the places you can visit. In fact, I found it to be the easiest place to start planning for my trip as I can add the attractions to my Trip folder with a click on the map.

You can also browse through what others have planned for the destination of choice. You can create a perfect itinerary thanks to the hard work and experience of others.

The Get Inspired section is more like an advanced filter for your travel needs. The screenshot below speaks for itself as it shows how you can match your travel needs to activities and travel times.

I wish I could ramble on just like the favorite desires of a longstanding traveller. But brevity demands, that I let you discover some parts of the site by yourself. Check out the Themes and Activities section for fine tuning your jaunts. And when your plans all come together, just click on Book to finalize all the lodging and commuting details.

Traipse through TravelMuse and give us a feedback on the site. Do you think it really helps you to plan out your getaways in finer detail?

Without a doubt, traveling can be pricey. However, if you know a few tricks and are not afraid to wait, bargain, network, and socialize, you could save a lot of money. It’s never too late to plan the greatest vacation of your life, even if you’re forced to travel on a shoestring.

Getting to the desired travel destination and getting around tends to be the most expensive item in the budget, unless you’re happy to travel in your home state or country. If you do want to get far away, you might have to do some research for the cheapest place to go or be patient and catch a great offer for your dream destination.

1. Track Fares On Yapta

Yapta allows you to track flight prices and receive alerts when the price drops. If you buy too soon and find that the the price dropped below what you ended up paying, Yapta will even help you get a refund for the difference, if possible.

We have previously profiled Yapta in the MakeUseOf Directory.

2. Follow Companies On Twitter

Every airline and rental car company out there has a Twitter page. If you want to get a great deal, find your target companies and follow them to catch their best offers. In case you’re still not sure where to go, you should check out these Twitter travel tips - How To Find Travel Inspiration With Various Twitter Accounts.

For more tips on how to find cheap flights or good deals, check out these articles:

• The Best Travel Deals Sites To Save Cash On Your Next Vacation
• Flying on a Dime: The 3 Best Websites To Find Cheap Flights
• 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip

The second biggest dent in your travel budget will be accommodation and all the amenities this includes. My advice is to not travel alone and share a room with up to four people. If you can imagine going camping, you can save even more money. Or if you are a social traveler, you could stay at someone’s house.

3. Compare Ho(s)tel Prices

Whether you’re going to stay at a hostel or a hotel, the price differences can be huge, so you must compare. Fortunately, there are several websites out there, that will do the math for you and you will merely be spoilt for choice.

Check out these posts for the best resources to find affordable and suitable accommodation:

• 3 Best Websites To Find & Book A Bed Online
• 5 Review Sites To Help You Find The Perfect Hotel

4. Socialize Using Travel Networks

Socializing can enrich your travels in more ways than just saving money. Meeting people, sharing some time with them, and learning their story can change your life and in the best of cases make you a better person.

To be honest, I hesitate to recommend sites like Hospitality Club or CouchSurfing because I don’t want to create a misunderstanding. To be very clear – these sites are not about finding free accommodation! Rather they are social networks for travelers who wish to help each other. This means you are supposed to pay it forward or return the favors you receive. That said, they are a great way to meet people, find a place to sleep, get good advice, or a city tour from a local, and admittedly it’s all free.

Learn more from this article: Couchsurfing Lets You Find a Place to Stay Over When Travelling.

5. Share Rides

In some parts of the world, public transport is abundant and you will get mostly everywhere on a bus or train. There are places, however, you can only see if you have a car (I’m looking at you, North America). Whether you’re planning to rent a car or grab a cab, share your ride and the costs. An added bonus is that you will be able to use the carpool lane!

Depending on where and how you’re planning to travel, there will be various ways to find people to share the ride with. One way would be to post your plans in a travel network like the ones mentioned above. You could also try your luck in the CraigsList travel discussion forum or the kijiji ride share category for the respective area. Or you could look up local ride share networks on Google. If all planning attempts fail, stay at a hostel close to where you want to go, chat up people, and you will almost certainly find a ride – although it might not be where you wanted to go originally.

We have profiled ZimRide in the MakeUseOf Directory. You can also try eRideShare for destinations in North America and some other countries worldwide.

Take Home Message

To have a great vacation it helps to be flexible, open-minded, and inventive! It’s quite simple to travel on a budget, but you may have to step out of your comfort zone and make some compromises. The right mindset helps tremendously. Just be courageous!

We have published many more awesome articles for travelers on MakeUseOf:

• The 10 Best Free International Travel Guide Websites
• Make Social Travel Plans With Gtrot Via Facebook
• Plan Your Next Vacation Itinerary To One Of 20 World Famous Destinations With Plnnr
• Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation
• 10 Travel Websites that should be Bookmarked
• 6 Sites To Make Flying A Whole Lot Easier

How do you save when you travel? Please share your best tips and tricks with us!

Image credits: Oxlock, iQoncept, robert mobley

No matter where you want to travel in 2010, preparation is key. You should know what is expecting you, pack the right gear, and bring enough funds to spend an enjoyable vacation. On Amazon or your local book store, you’ll find a huge selection of international travel guides.

To save some money for your trip, skip the expensive guides and begin to research online, where most material is available for free. I have compiled the best free online international travel guides that will provide inspiration and comprehensive information to prepare your trip.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the biggest commercial online travel websites. Pick a region from the Destinations tab and dive into the introduction. The sidebar on the left provides a menu, the top picks, eventually fast facts, related groups, and possibly blogs.

The menu leads to in-depth information about places in the area, its history, the climate, getting around, and much more. The map opens from the top and all other destinations are marked with a little flag.

If you have found an interesting place that you would like to keep in mind, you can save the destination, provided you are logged in.

Lonely Planet makes it to the top of the list because not only does it cover a vast amount of destinations with comprehensive articles, it’s also easy to navigate, contains stunning pictures, lets users save their personal highlights and they can contribute to the site through participating in various groups, blogs, and more.

Lonely Planet was also mentioned in my article Cool Online Resources to Plan Your Next Vacation, along with Spotted by Locals, InfoHub, and World Travel Guide.

NileGuide

If you enjoy interactive websites that let you compile information your way, and play with the content, don’t miss out on NileGuide!

To “Get Started”, search for your desired destination. The first thing you’ll see is a “Snapshot“. You’ll notice that the “Overview” provides guides to download. All available guides are listed under the respective tab.

To start customizing your own guide, head over to “Things To Do”, “Restaurants“, or “Bars, Clubs & Nightlife” and play with the filters for the types of things you want to see or do. For example you could set your personal preferences, such as outdoors, off the beaten path, or must-see. You can also select neighborhoods and types of activities. If there is something you must do or see, click “Add To List” and it will appear in a little list in the sidebar on the left.

You can organize your trip and produce your own custom guide. Create a schedule, attach items from your list to each day, and share the result with your friends or other users. The most popular guides appear in the Snapshot Overview. However, the best is, you can print your personalized Guide-to-Go or create a PDF from it. Simply click the “Print My Guide To Go” button on the top right, while in the customize section.

A major draw of the site is its speed. It’s rather laggy and thus requires a bit of patience. Also, at this point the destination archive isn’t very big compared to other free online guides. Nevertheless, the flexibility and interactivity it offers is a killer argument in its favor.

Arrival Guides

These free travel guides are maintained by professional journalists. All information is available online, but each guide can be downloaded as a PDF for free. Some guides are available in several different languages, which is a huge plus of this site.

This page lists the continents and the countries featured on the site. When you click on “View destinations >>” next to a country, you will reach a page that lists its destinations and the available guide languages.

Curiously, there are three different download buttons: one for girls, one for boys traveling with girls, and one for boys. I compared a few of them and wasn’t able to spot a difference. Maybe it depends on the destination or it’s for statistical purposes.

Wikitravel

Wikitravel is a user-driven project. At this point the site comprises over 22,000 destination guides and articles maintained by Wikitravellers from all over the world. If you feel inspired, you yourself can update articles and help keep Wikitravel the most complete and reliable worldwide travel guide.

Wikitravel resembles the structure of the well-known Wikipedia, as it is also powered by MediaWiki. From the Main Page you can search for your travel destination, select a region, discover one of the featured destinations, or load a random page from the navigation menu on the lefthand side. In the toolbox, found at the bottom of the sidebar, you can open a printable version for each page.

The basic organization of the articles is similar to what you will find in commercial guide books. Wikitravel’s edge is the wealth of information, the amount of small places covered, and of course the chance to add your own experience and instantly correct mistakes. All for free!

Wikitravel was featured together with Dopplr in an article by Anthony on 3 Must-Check Traveller Websites Before Your Next Trip.

In Your Pocket

In Your Pocket focuses on destinations throughout Europe. Besides providing free online city guides, the site features articles that highlight various topics of interest to travelers, for example where to ski in Eastern Europe, what souvenirs to bring from Slovenia, or a guide to the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece.

While all of the information is available online, buttons in the upper right corner of a destination indicate other means of access. Over 50 comprehensive city guides can be downloaded as PDF’s for free. Many of them can also be viewed as iPaper or you can download an Instant (brief overview) PDF.

MakeUseOf has previously published travel information and advice.

If you’re planning a lengthy trip, check out my article on How To Stay Digitally Charged and Connected On The Road. Before you go, also be sure the Create A Free Travel Packing Checklist With Packwhiz. My post about Hello Backpacker introduces a website with travel information tailored to backpackers and Dean wrote A Quick Road Trip Planning Guide For Techno Geeks.

Aibek’s post on 10 Travel Websites That Should Be Bookmarked includes a travel itinerary planner, a global ATM locator, a guide for camping at an airport, and a website concerned with clean bathrooms. Guy wrote about TripSay, a social travel guide that connects you to people that share your interests, in order to find travel recommendations that match your taste.

Are you searching for great deals? James explained on How To Find The Best Hotel Deals Online. David introduced 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites, and John covered Top 5 Sites To Search For Cheap Online Car Rentals.

Are you going to use public transport? Karl wrote about MetrO, the ultimate public transport guide for your phone. Ellie compiled 6 Subway Map Tools To Navigate Your Way Through NYC.

What did we miss?

Image Credits: rolve

To instantly share my whereabouts, detours, experiences and some photos with family and friends, I was looking for a one-in-all tool that could easily be updated while I’m on the road.

What I found was a website called EveryTrail. The original idea for it is to provide outdoor fans with a platform where they can manage and share their tour data or browse the tours of others to find inspiration. For me it will serve as a small travel diary.

The way it works is straightforward. There are three steps to creating a record of your own trip. First you can upload a GPS file or hand draw your trip on the map. Next you add details about the trip including title, date, type of activity, location, trip story, tips for others, and edit the statistics and the map view that will be shown.

Finally, you can add your photos. If both your camera and the GPS device were set to the same time, the photos will be automatically placed on the right spot of your route, based on their date and time setting. If that is not the case you can manually place them yourself.

Once it’s all done it will look something like the following example, depending on which information you included.

Top left: summary with trip story to the right.

Middle left: map with photos to the right. You can also switch to see the full map or the stats instead of the photos.

Bottom: strip of all trail photos. Here you can initiate a sort of slide show and photos next to the map will cycle through the respective trail positions. Below the photo strip are the tags and GPS data downloads, joined by comments to the right. At the very bottom you’ll find share options and a picture summary.

You don’t have to be a member of the site to enjoy exploring. There are over sixty thousand trips to be discovered. You can search the public trips by location, activity, keyword, trip date, all-time or recent popularity, and follow in the footsteps of previous hikers, geocachers, backpackers, skaters, drivers…

Aren’t detailed maps, GPS devices and the developments they have brought us a blessing for the outdoor lovers? On the other hand, true adventurers will find it ever more challenging to discover the unexplored. Are you encouraged to follow the trails they have left for us?

Picture credits: arinas74

The internet makes it easy to find out about various destinations, great deals, attractions, local customs and curiosities that might otherwise have escaped your attention or become an unpleasant surprise. But there is almost too much information to make up one’s mind. So where should you start?

Here is a small selection of websites that will hopefully help you filter for the best available deals and sights.

Spotted by Locals

Spotted by Locals covers 20 European cities and promises that you will experience cities like a local.

The articles are short and cover everything from art & culture, bars and music, to relaxing, shopping and theaters. The attractions of each city can be browsed by category or area / district.

New spotters are hand selected by existing contributors and a face to face meeting is a must before you can write for Spotted by Locals, representing your own city. They are currently looking for new spotters, maybe that would be you?

trivago

On trivago you can compare prices for hotels, browse the site for attractions, reviews and photos.

When comparing hotel prices in a given city on a specific date, you’ll be presented with a list of hotels on the right. To the left you can refine your search, for example by reducing the price range on a meter bar. When switching from Hotel to Attractions you’ll see a list of attractions for that very city and in the sidebar you can filter for bars, restaurants, museums etc. or pick specific places from the “browse box”, where all available attractions are pulled together and listed kind of like in a tag cloud.

The site operates based on member contributions. Each review is accompanied by a detailed rating and eventually photos. So whenever you return from a trip with novel experiences and great discoveries, this is where you can show off your travel expertise.

InfoHub

InfoHub describes itself as “the ultimate source for out-of-the-ordinary and inspiring travel ideas” and I must say they have a point.

This speciality travel guide is indeed a great resource for finding all sorts of professionally organized tours around the globe. Of course these offers are not free, but using the site and looking for options is totally free and absolutely recommended.

You can browse by country or popular vacations, such as eco tourism, hiking & trekking, photography & videography, scuba diving or sports. A more detailed selection is available in the quick vacation search or you simply search the site for keywords.

World Travel Guide

Although this page loaded a bit slow when I tested it, it appeared to be the most thorough, informative and easy to use travel guide site for locations around the world.

First you pick a destination from the map, and then you select the type of guide you’re looking for to the right. Your options are country, city, airport, attraction, cruise and weather guides.

If there is anything you need to know about a destination, like key facts, public holidays, climate, top things to see & do, getting around by air, water, rail or on the road, this is where your inquisitiveness will be served with details, details and more details, packed in excellent articles, decorated with nice photos.

Lonely Planet

When embarking on an exciting vacation, how could anyone miss out on the Lonely Planet?  This is the ultimate and meanwhile mainstream information resource to help you plan your trip.

The archives are huge and you’ll find tons of useful information, reviews, beautiful photos, and recommendations. Like on trivago you can search for hotels, but also for hostels and within the Travel Services you can find out about available insurances, tours, car & rail, view travel checklists (tips & tricks included) and much more.

As a signed up member of the site you can contribute to discussions in the forum. The forums are what really make the Lonely Planet homepage most unique. Here you can discuss your experiences, expectations or find company for your next adventure tour.

Although the Lonely Planet appears to cover it all, I found that World Travel Guide was more easy to use for tracking down information and InfoHub provided a much better selection of available trips. The point is, different sites are good for different purposes and each site has its pros and cons.

So are you serious about booking your vacation now? Last year Varun wrote about 5 Review Sites to Help You Find The Perfect Hotel and recently David covered 6 Useful Last-Minute Booking Sites For Your Next Trip.

Which resources do you turn to for the perfect trip?

Picture credits: Zela