Booking Your Next Trip Online (Cliffs Notes)

8629-7 Book.F 7/25/00 8:54 AM Page i Booking Your Next Trip Online By Laurie Ann Ulrich IN THIS BOOK ■ Planning your...

Author: Laurie Ann Ulrich

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8629-7 Book.F 7/25/00 8:54 AM Page i

Booking Your Next Trip Online By Laurie Ann Ulrich

IN THIS BOOK ■ Planning

your trip’s itinerary and preparing for an international trip

■ Booking all modes of travel — from airlines and trains to

rental cars and buses ■ Using auction sites to bid on vacation travel ■ Finding great accommodations, special package deals, and cruises ■ Reinforcing what you learn with CliffsNotes Review ■ Finding more travel-planning information in the CliffsNotes Resource Center and online at www.cliffsnotes.com

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. An International Data Group Company Foster City, CA • Chicago, IL • Indianapolis, IN • New York, NY

8629-7 Book.F 7/25/00 8:54 AM Page ii

About the Author Laurie Ann Ulrich is the author or co-author of nine books, including the best-seller, Special Edition: Using Excel 2000. She is also a trainer and consultant, specializing in the computerization needs of small and mid-size businesses. She is president of Limehat & Company, Inc. (www.limehat.com), a firm that offers training, technical documentation, and Web site design/hosting services.

Publisher’s Acknowledgments Editorial Senior Project Editor: Nicole Haims Acquisitions Editor: Laura Moss Copy Editor: Jerelind Charles Technical Editor: Robin Drake Production Indexer: York Production Services, Inc. Proofreader: York Production Services, Inc. IDG Books Indianapolis Production Department

CliffsNotes® Booking Your Next Trip Online Note: If you purchased this book without a cover you Published by should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and An International Data Group Company neither the author nor the publisher has received any 919 E. Hillsdale Blvd. payment for this "stripped book." Suite 400 Foster City, CA 94404 www.idgbooks.com (IDG Books Worldwide Web site) www.cliffsnotes.com (CliffsNotes Web site) Copyright © 2000 IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book, including interior design, cover design, and icons, may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Control Number: 00-103360 ISBN: 0-7645-8629-7 Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1O/QY/QY/QQ/IN Distributed in the United States by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. Distributed by CDG Books Canada Inc. for Canada; by Transworld Publishers Limited in the United Kingdom; by IDG Norge Books for Norway; by IDG Sweden Books for Sweden; by IDG Books Australia Publishing Corporation Pty. Ltd. for Australia and New Zealand; by TransQuest Publishers Pte Ltd. for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Hong Kong; by Gotop Information Inc. for Taiwan; by ICG Muse, Inc. for Japan; by Intersoft for South Africa; by Eyrolles for France; by International Thomson Publishing for Germany, Austria and Switzerland; by Distribuidora Cuspide for Argentina; by LR International for Brazil; by Galileo Libros for Chile; by Ediciones ZETA S.C.R. 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For information on licensing foreign or domestic rights, please phone +1-650-653-7098. For sales inquiries and special prices for bulk quantities, please contact our Order Services department at 800-434-3422 or write to the address above. For information on using IDG Books Worldwide’s books in the classroom or for ordering examination copies, please contact our Educational Sales department at 800-434-2086 or fax 317-572-4005. For press review copies, author interviews, or other publicity information, please contact our Public Relations department at 650-653-7000 or fax 650-653-7500. For authorization to photocopy items for corporate, personal, or educational use, please contact Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, or fax 978-750-4470. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVE USED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK. THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. THERE ARE NO WARRANTIES WHICH EXTEND BEYOND THE DESCRIPTIONS CONTAINED IN THIS PARAGRAPH. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES REPRESENTATIVES OR WRITTEN SALES MATERIALS. THE ACCURACY AND COMPLETENESS OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREIN AND THE OPINIONS STATED HEREIN ARE NOT GUARANTEED OR WARRANTED TO PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULTS, AND THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY INDIVIDUAL. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR ANY LOSS OF PROFIT OR ANY OTHER COMMERCIAL DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR OTHER DAMAGES. Note: This book is intended to offer general information on Booking Trips Online. The author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, tax, accounting, investment, real estate, or similar professional services. Although legal, tax, accounting, investment, real estate, and similar issues addressed by this book have been checked with sources believed to be reliable, some material may be affected by changes in the laws and/or interpretation of laws since the manuscript in this book was completed. Therefore, the accuracy and completeness of the information provided herein and the opinions that have been generated are not guaranteed or warranted to produce particular results, and the strategies outlined in this book may not be suitable for every individual. If legal, accounting, tax, investment, real estate, or other expert advice is needed or appropriate, the reader is strongly encouraged to obtain the services of a professional expert. Trademarks: Cliffs, CliffsNotes, and all related logos and trade dress are registered trademarks or trademarks of Cliffs Notes, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks, or registered trademarks of their respective owners. IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. and Cliffs Notes, Inc. are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. is a registered trademark under exclusive license to IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. from International Data Group, Inc.

Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Why Do You Need This Book? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 How to Use This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Don’t Miss Our Web Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Chapter 1: Planning Your Itinerary Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Using Trip Planning and Itinerary Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Finding the site that’s right for you . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Building your itinerary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Finding travel advice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Saving and printing your itinerary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Online Research for Your Travel Destinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Local information: Cities and towns have Web sites, too . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Need a passport? Government sites to check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Seasonal travel: Choosing the best time to go . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 Researching weather online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12 Checking currency and exchange rates at your destination . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Ouch! Vaccination information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 When Things Go Wrong: How and Where to Complain . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Chapter 2: Your Online Travel Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Popular Travel Web Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 Airline Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Finding hotel Web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 Booking lodging online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Evaluating a Travel Services Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Chapter 3: Going, Going, Gone: Online Auctions and Price Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Using Auction Sites to Bid for Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Evaluating an Auction Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Getting Registered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33 Searching an Auction Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Bidding for Travel Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Avoiding bidding shock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 Using auto-bidding services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 Cutting a Deal with a Pricing Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 Chapter 4: Getting There by Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Finding the Best Airfares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40 Going Directly to Airline Web Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Working with Travel Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 Schedule carved in stone? Finding the cheapest fares for your dates . . . . . .45

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online

Scheduling around the price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 It’s not who you know, it’s from where you go: Airport codes and options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Accumulating and Using Frequent Flyer Miles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Booking Your Flight Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Deciding on e-tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50 Listing special requirements and choosing seats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Paying for tickets with your credit card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51 Getting to the Airport: Limo and Car Service Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . .53 Chapter 5: Securing Ground Travel to your Destination . . . . . .55 Booking Train Reservations Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Finding convenient stations here and there . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Sleeping and eating on the train . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Cheap and Easy: Taking the Bus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 Going It Alone: Car Rental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Selecting a rental car company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60 Choosing the right type of car . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Getting the best price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Risky business: Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 Changing or Canceling Ground Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Chapter 6: Booking your Accommodations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 What Kind of Accommodations Do You Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Hotels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 Suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66 Extended stay options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Bed-and-breakfasts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67 Hostels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .70 Booking Your Accommodations Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Making Special Arrangements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73 Altering Hotel Reservations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Chapter 7: Getting Around at your Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Traveler’s Aid: Directions and Support After You Get There . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Finding out about trips and tours . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77 Going as a group: The guided tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Do you need a rail pass? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81 Entertainment and Cultural Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Locating Great Restaurants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84

Table of Contents

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Accommodating Special Dietary Needs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86 Booking Concert and Show Tickets Prior to Your Trip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 For Safety’s Sake: Renting Cell Phones in Foreign Countries . . . . . . . . . . .88 Chapter 8: Finding and Booking Package Vacations . . . . . . . . .90 Package Deal Pros and Cons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Lower prices — extras included . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Restrictions? What kind of restrictions? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 Finding Great Package Deals Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93 Traveling to Resorts and Clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94 Getting Senior Citizen Savings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98 Chapter 9: Two if by Sea: Booking a Cruise Online . . . . . . . . . .99 Choosing the Cruise Line and Destination for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .100 Locating and Learning about Cruise Vacations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101 Getting to the Ship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Researching the Perfect Cruise Vacation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .104 Using Expedia to Reserve a Cruise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .105 CliffsNotes Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .108 Practice Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .109 CliffsNotes Resource Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .110 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111 Send Us Your Favorite Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .113 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .114

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INTRODUCTION No matter what your interests are, you can plan your trip online to make the best use of your time and interests. Cliffs Notes Booking Your Next Trip Online explains the online options that are available to you, helps you find the sites that offer the best services, and shows you the tricks and shortcuts that at one time, only travel agents knew.

Why Do You Need This Book? Can you answer yes to either of these questions? ■

Do you want to save money the next time you travel?

■

Have you ever wished you could be your own travel agent?

If so, then CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online is for you!

How to Use This Book Whether you’re the cover-to-cover type or the poking around type, this book contains the information you need in an enlightening format that’s easy to read and easy to navigate if you’re looking for something specific. Check out these features: ■

An intuitive Table of Contents and index help you find what you’re looking for.

■

Chapter titles and section headings let you flip through the book quickly to find your topic. Or skim the list of items “In This Chapter.”

■

Look for additional information in the Resource Center or test your knowledge in the Review section.

■

Or nose through the book until you find what you want — we organize the book in a logical, task-oriented way so you can find what you need.

2

CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online We also include these icons throughout the book to help you find information: If you see a Remember icon, make a mental note of this text. If you see a Tip icon, you know that you’ve run across a helpful hint, uncovered a secret, or received good advice. The Warning icon alerts you to something that can be dangerous, requires special caution, or should be avoided.

Don’t Miss Our Web Site Keep up with the dynamic world of the Internet by visiting the CliffsNotes Web site at www.cliffsnotes.com. Here’s what you find: ■

Interactive tools that are fun and informative.

■

Links to interesting Web sites.

■

Additional resources to help you continue your learning.

At www.cliffsnotes.com, you can even register for a new feature called CliffsNote-A-Day, which offers you newsletters on a variety of topics, delivered right to your e-mail inbox each business day. If you haven’t yet discovered the Internet and are wondering how to get online, pick up CliffsNotes Getting On the Internet, new from CliffsNotes. You learn just what you need to make your online connection quickly and easily. See you at www.cliffsnotes.com.

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CHAPTER 1

PLANNING YOUR ITINERARY ONLINE I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Choosing and using a travel site to plan your itinerary

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Checking out weather and seasonal travel considerations

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Obtaining passports and vaccinations needed for some destinations

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Checking exchange rates for foreign travel

Before the Internet and the Web were accepted into millions of homes and businesses, it was rare that an individual planned a trip without the help of a travel agent. Even if you knew where, when, and how you wanted to travel, you still would call a travel agent to purchase airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, and make train or car travel arrangements. More and more people, however, are using the Web when they travel — not just to research great prices and book their airfare, but also to plan and execute their entire trip itinerary. Your itinerary is more than what day you leave and what time your flight arrives. Your itinerary is what you do after you get to your destination — seeing plays and concerts, visiting museums, and figuring out how many places you can go in how many days. You can use the Web to plan every step of your trip — from obtaining a passport to finding out what clothes to pack, to renting a car that gets you around after you arrive. You can plan your trip down to whatever level of detail you need or want to, whether you’re a traveler who likes to play it by ear or someone who prefers to have activities planned ahead of time. Travel Web site features exist for every type of traveler.

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Using Trip Planning and Itinerary Sites If you’re using the Web to do more than just book a plane ticket, you need to know what experience is behind the Web sites you visit. Anyone can create a Web site that connects to airline and hotel reservation databases — but can the site forecast your traveling needs at various destinations? If experienced travel agents and consultants run a site, the answer can be a resounding “yes!”

Finding the site that’s right for you Searching for a travel site to assist you in developing your itinerary is just like searching for any Web site — you use a search site, such as www.yahoo.com or www.iwon.com, and use keyword and exact-phrase searches, such as travel itinerary or planning a vacation. Be prepared to have a lot of results to such a keyword phrase. You can substantially reduce the number of sites if you get even more specific. For example, add the destination, such as Key West to planning a trip, to see how different your results can be. After you find a batch of sites that you think can help you plan your trip, you need to figure out which one is the most effective for your needs. Some features to look for: ■

Easy access to information. Poke around. See if you can easily find how to get started. If the site’s home page isn’t intuitive or friendly, click your Back button and try another site.

■

Lots of information. The site should have a lot to offer. While you shouldn’t feel overwhelmed by options, you should hear yourself thinking, “Wow! I can do that, too?”

■

Experience. The travel knowledge of the site’s designers should be obvious, and you should also have the ability to chat or share messages with other users. Suggestions from people who’ve been where you’re going are invaluable. Look for chat rooms that you can access through the site.

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Chapter 1: Planning Your Itinerary Online

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Building your itinerary Of course, you have to do some planning before you use a Web site to book your trip — only you know when you can take a vacation from work, what kinds of places you like to visit, and the stuff you like to do. With a few dates and places in mind, however, you can get a lot of the groundwork covered early so that when you’re ready to book the trip, things go smoothly. After you settle on dates and the destination, you can begin organizing your trip. For example, you can use the Create Your Own Miniguides link at Fodors.com (or a similarly worded link if you go to another site) and follow these steps: 1. Click the geographic location you’d like to visit. A list of

cities appears on the right side of your computer screen. 2. Click a city you’d like to visit. 3. Select either the Quick-Click Miniguide option (which

lists Fodors-recommended activities, dining, lodging, and more) or the Custom Miniguide option (which allows you to pick and choose the categories you’d like to find information about). After you select the option you want, click Go. 4. If you selected Quick-Click Miniguide in Step 3, an

overview of the city you’re researching appears onscreen; on the left side of the screen is a list of the other areas in the Miniguide that you can go to for more information. See Figure 1-1. If you selected Custom Miniguide in Step 3, a description of the categories you chose appears. You can customize these categories a bit more to refine your search and then click Create My Miniguide. A screen appears with overview information of the city; a list of the other areas you can go to in the Miniguide appears on the left side of the screen.

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Figure 1-1:

Fodors.com allows you to create your own Miniguides, which allow you to find out about lodging, dining, and fun activities in destination cities.

You can search Dining options by name, price, or cuisine, and you can search Lodging options by name and price. You can also find out what other people have to say by clicking the Rants&Raves link. After seeing a list of lodging and dining options, plus a list of fun activities, you have a better idea how much time you may need at your destination. Some people whip through museums, castles, and other tourist sites, while others prefer to linger. You know which type you are, and you can now plan accordingly. If you’re headed to several spots, create a miniguide for each one — then you can choose which place you want to visit first, and in what order you plan to attack the rest of your target destinations. If your research is fruitful, the next phase of planning your trip will be substantially easier — when you’re ready to book planes, trains, and automobiles at a Web site specializing in booking services, you have all the information you need at your fingertips.

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Finding travel advice Most sites that help you research your itinerary also offer tips and advice. Get in the habit of reading this information (and printing it) wherever you find it — you never know when this information will come in handy. From the Fodors home page, you can click the Smart Travel Tips link to find a list of general topics that include a wide variety of travel concerns, such as traveling for the disabled, ecotourism, car rentals, and vacationing with your pets. Just click a link to see a list of invaluable information on the topic you choose.

Saving and printing your itinerary Of course you can print your browser’s screen at any time, so printing any step in your itinerary-development process isn’t difficult. Choose File➪Print or click the Print button in your browser window. Certain Web sites print better in landscape mode than in portrait mode. To reset the printing mode, choose File➪Print Setup and change the orientation. Also, some pages are really a collection of contiguous frames, and your printing options may include frame-printing options. The options depend on your browser. If you want to save your information, you can copy the text to a word processing program (such as Microsoft Word) and paste it into a blank document, which can then be saved for reading and printing again later. Follow these steps: 1. In your browser’s Edit menu, choose Select All or press

Ctrl+A. The entire Web site’s text content is selected. If the page is made of frames, all the content in the active frame is selected, and you may have to repeat this step to copy all the frames, one at a time.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online 2. Choose Edit➪Copy or press Ctrl+C. 3. Switch to or open your word processing software and

open a blank new document. 4. Choose Edit➪Paste in the word processor window or

press Ctrl+V. The text that you copied from the Web site is pasted into the document. 5. Save the file by choosing File➪Save or by pressing

Ctrl+S. The Save As dialog box opens. 6. Give the file a name, such as “London Guide,” and

choose a folder in which to save the file. 7. Click Save to save the file and close the dialog box.

Online Research for Your Travel Destinations You can take your vacation in July, and you’d love to go to Rome. What’s the weather like then? Has your passport expired or did you never have one to begin with? What’s the exchange rate right now? These are the kinds of questions you’re likely to have for any type of foreign travel, and with the exception of money and passports, you may wonder about weather for locations in the United States as well. Knowing what the climate is like at your destination is important — in terms of weather, politics (you don’t want to go somewhere that’s about to have a military coup, right?), and money. You can find online resources for all of this information and more.

Local information: Cities and towns have Web sites, too If you want to find out about life in your destination city or the smaller towns around it, try searching for local Web sites. For example, if you’re headed for a small town in England,

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see if that town has its own Web site. Many tourist-friendly towns have Web sites specifically designed for travelers. In the United States, look for Chamber of Commerce sites for the city or town you’re heading for — type “Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce” for example, and go to that city’s chamber site for a wide variety of information of use to travelers and business people alike.

Need a passport? Government sites to check If you’re going to any country other than Canada and Mexico, you may need a passport. If you don’t have one, or the one you have has expired (passports are only good for ten years), you need to get one, and you shouldn’t wait — passports can take up to six weeks to arrive. You can expedite the process, but it costs extra, and you have no guarantee that your passport will arrive before you have to leave. To find out more about U.S. passports, including whether you need one for your destination, go to the U.S. State Department’s passport site (www.travel.state.gov/passport_ services.html). Passports aren’t required for all international trips — some countries require only documentation of your citizenship. If you’re traveling with children, don’t forget that U.S. passports for children ages 15 and under must be renewed every five years. The sets of four bulleted lists of links, as shown in Figure 1-2, can take you to any information you require, saving you countless phone calls to get the same information. Many foreign countries also require that you have a visa (a passport stamp) in order to enter the country. Visas can take months or even longer to obtain. Visit travel.state.gov/ foreignentryreqs.html for further information about how these regulations could affect your travel plans.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Need a copy of your birth certificate? If you know the name of the city or town where you were born, you may be able to contact or find the phone number for that city or country clerk’s office online. Simply do a search on the Web for the name of the city or town. You have to send the office a small fee for an official, notarized copy of your birth certificate, which can take a few weeks to arrive, adding to the overall time it takes to get a passport. Don’t delay!

Seasonal travel: Choosing the best time to go As any sports fan can tell you, winter, spring, summer, and fall aren’t the only seasons. And just as the sports world has a baseball season, a football season, and so on, the travel world has seasons, too, and they vary depending on where you want to go. The peak season is the most desirable time to visit the destination — typically because of the weather. No matter where in the world you live, you can guess that any destination (from Florida to the Mediterranean) experiencing spring or summer conditions is at its peak. European destinations are at their peak in summer, if only because so many of their attractions require walking tours, and walking in the warm sunshine of summer is more pleasant than the rainy cold of winter. On the other hand, if a destination is known for its skiing, winter may be the true peak season, even if the location is scenic and pleasant in warm weather as well. Peak seasons are also determined by traveler demand — because school is out in summer in most parts of the world, families travel during the summer. Destinations with very little difference in their weather throughout the year, therefore consider the summer their peak — and charge you accordingly.

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Chapter 1: Planning Your Itinerary Online Figure 1-2:

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The U.S. State Department’s site is worth a visit if you need a passport.

Before and after the peak seasons are the shoulder seasons, or times of the year when the destination is still pleasant enough, but the season is not the best time of year to go — in terms of weather and activities. Seasons are winding down from or have not yet wound up for the peak. These shoulder seasons are the cheapest seasons to go, other than the absolute worst times, such as during the rainy season at a place that’s known for its beaches. Airfare and hotels are much cheaper when fewer people want to go somewhere. You also find more and better package deals during shoulder seasons. Therefore, choose your destination and check its weather, find out when the activities you want to do and the places you want to see are open (especially if places close at certain times of the year), and then plan your trip accordingly.

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Researching weather online Warm isn’t always a good attribute. If you wilt when it’s hot, you may prefer the shoulder season (such as late spring or early fall in Italy, rather than summer), or you may want to avoid any place when the temperature gets over 70 degrees. If you don’t like the cold or hate rain, knowing what the weather is like at your destination during the time of year when you’ll be traveling is a good idea. Check out the sites listed in Table 1-1 for more information about weather (Yahoo! Weather is shown in Figure 1-3). Table 1-1: Web Sites with Weather Information Site

URL

Features

Yahoo! Weather

weather.yahoo.com

U.S. weather listed by ZIP code or region, international weather listed by region

Weather Underground

wunderground. dogpile.com

U.S. weather listed by ZIP code or region; international weather listed by continent; language picker

National Weather Service

www.nws.noaa.gov

U.S. weather listed by region; English and Spanish; storm aviation and marine weather information; links to international weather

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Chapter 1: Planning Your Itinerary Online Figure 1-3:

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Most weather sites allow you to click maps or enter the name of your destination in a text box to see weather conditions for that location.

Checking currency and exchange rates at your destination If you’re going to a foreign country, you should find out about the country’s currency. The formation of the European Union (EU) has cleared up currencies a bit (with the creation of the Euro Dollar), but many countries that are part of the EU, such as the countries in the United Kingdom, still maintain their own currency. The sites listed in Table 1-2 are great resources for currency information.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Table 1-2:

Exchange Rate Web Sites

Web Site

URL

X-Rates

www.x-rates.com

Equivalence

forex.equival.net

International Monetary Fund exchange rates

www.imf.org/external/np/ tre/sdr/drates/8101.htm

Use these sites to see the exchange rate as of today’s date. Figure 1-4 shows you how the German mark is doing on X-Rates site. At the time of this writing, if you have four Danish kroners to convert, they’d be worth about 27 cents in Germany — not the best exchange. But if you’re going to Denmark from Germany, then four marks are worth about 15 kroners. Compare rates for different times of year to see if you notice any trends that can save you money. Figure 1-4:

Find your destination country and check exchange rates in the table.

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Although it doesn’t make much difference whether you exchange your money before you go or after you get there, it’s a good idea to have some negotiable funds ready when you arrive — for taxis, food, or any kind of quick expense that makes using a credit card impossible or inconvenient. Also, avoid using the little booths and kiosks at the airport for exchanging money — they often charge a fee. If the booth is hosted by a bank, however, and current rates are posted and verifiable, then you’re safe to use them to exchange some of your cash.

Ouch! Vaccination information Although most travel destinations don’t require any special medical treatment or vaccinations, some do. If you plan to travel to countries with poor or non-existent water treatment and low-level health care, you may be more susceptible to certain diseases than the people who live in these countries. In such countries, you’re required to have a vaccination before you can safely travel. At the very least, you need to be aware of the risks you face, even if you’re not required to take action. The World Health Organization’s Web site (shown in Figure 1-5) contains a list of diseases and where they’re prevalent. You can find out about vaccination requirements and health-related travel risks at www.who.int/ith/english/ index.htm. If you’re headed anywhere that has low or substandard medical care for its own citizens, seeing your own doctor before your trip is a good idea. Get all your prescriptions refilled at home. Also, get a good general physical to make sure you’re at least starting out in good health before heading off to somewhere that won’t offer great medical care should you become ill. If you have any chronic health problems, carefully consider any locations that may compromise your condition.

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Figure 1-5:

Make sure your intended vacation spot isn’t a health risk.

When Things Go Wrong: How and Where to Complain Complaining pays. Letters to the manager or owner of a hotel can result in a discount on your next stay or a free night during your current stay, assuming you make your complaints known while you’re still a guest of the hotel. Complaints to the airline can result in a bump in your frequent flyer point status, an upgrade in seating to first class, or a free seat on an upcoming flight. If someone out and out defrauds you, you can take legal action, or at the very least report that person to any organization or association to which he belongs or by which he’s certified. You always have the Better Business Bureau, too. If you purchase tickets from an online company that misrepresents itself, check the BBBOnline Web site (www.bbbonline.com), which concentrates solely on monitoring Web businesses.

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Most hotels and restaurants, and some airlines, have customer comment cards that you can fill out. If you have a complaint, fill out the card, and mail it to the owner or manager, or to the company’s headquarters in the case of airlines and hotel chains. Why mail the card? You don’t want to hand it to an employee who may throw out the card out for fear it may get him in trouble. If you have a serious complaint about a product or company, you can make sure that you aren’t left in a lurch by keeping a paper trail of your complaints. The people you’re complaining to (or about) can’t claim they never heard from you if you have a copy of your e-mail, a written record (including dates and times) of phone conversations and voice mail messages, or written correspondence. Send important complaint letters — in which you ask for reimbursement or discuss pending legal action — via registered or certified mail so you have a receipt and can receive notice when the letter was delivered. You can also send letters via FedEx and require a signature. Table 1-3 lists Web sites that you can visit if you want to lodge a complaint about any aspect of your travel experience. Table 1-3: Consumer Complaint Web Sites Site Name

URL

Nature of Complaint/ Problem

Consumer Complaint Resolution Center

www.cemptor.com

Any consumer product or service complaint. This site also provides analysis of fine print — the terms of deals and contracts before the consumer commits. (continued)

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Table 1-3: Consumer Complaint Web Sites (continued) Site Name

URL

Nature of Complaint/ Problem

Alexander, Hawes, and Audet

www.alexanderlaw. Lodge a complaint in com/nccc/ any number of cb-intro.html categories, including Internet Fraud and False Advertising. If a travel deal turns out to be too good to be true, you can report it here. This is the place to go if you’re thinking of etting litigous about your complaint.

Better Business Bureau

www.bbb.org

You can register a complaint about any company or commercial organization — airline, hotel, resort, car rental company — with the Better Business Bureau.

Better www.bbbonline.com If you have a complaint Business about a business Bureau Online organization whose chief domain is the Internet, try the BBBOnline site. Same Bureau, different focus. You can also find a lot of good online privacy and safety tips. Federal Trade Commission

www.ftc.gov/ftc/ complaint.htm

Lodge a complaint against any company with the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC can’t act on individual complaints, but if a company is found to be outside the law, the FTC can take action.

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CHAPTER 2

YOUR ONLINE TRAVEL OPTIONS I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Reviewing popular travel, airline, and hotel Web sites

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Choosing the best site for your needs

■

Protecting your online purchases

■

Evaluating a site’s extra services

No matter how much of your trip you want to research and book online, using the most effective Web sites in the process is important. Just as finding a site with expert information is essential to planning your trip, having that expertise available to you is important as you book your flight, make hotel or other accommodations, reserve seats at concerts, or rent a car. In addition to expertise, you want your online travel site to be secure. You need to know that you can use your credit card with confidence and that your personal information and travel plans are kept private. With these two important features in mind, you can sit back and set up your dream vacation or perfect business trip, finding the most up-to-date and reliable information available.

Popular Travel Web Sites The most popular travel Web sites are those that allow you to do it all — book your travel, lodging, and entertainment options — through one Web site. While one-stop shopping is convenient, these sites may not always be the best approach. Don’t place convenience over price, unless convenience is

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online worth more to you and money is no object. Checking prices at several different sites before making a purchase pays off — be it the purchase of airline tickets or hotel reservations. If you end up making all the purchases for your trip from one Web site, that’s fine — just be sure to do your homework first so that you feel comfortable with the prices you’re paying. To find travel sites online, go to your favorite search site, such as www.yahoo.com or www.hotbot.com, and type travel in the search box. And many sites have links to travel directories. For example, Yahoo! has a link devoted to travel under the larger Recreation & Sports. Some popular sites for the vacation version of one-stop shopping: ■

Figure 2-1:

www.trip.com: This site, shown in Figure 2-1, offers RewardTRIP miles for members who book a flight through the site and has a link to special travel help designed for businesses (companyTRIP). The site also offers a message board, called TRIPTalk, devoted to travelers who want to share their stories, experiences, and advice about travel and TRIP.com. RewardTRIP, TRIPTalk, and IntelliTRIP are just a few of the specialized services for members of TRIP.com.

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Chapter 2: Your Online Travel Options

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Expedia.com: Becoming a member of this site is a snap. Just create a user name and password and provide some other information, such as your e-mail address, and you’re on your way to creating flight itineraries you can save for future reference or turn into your dream vacation. Expedia’s Flight Price Matcher service (see Figure 2-2) allows you to choose a location, date, and price you want to pay for a ticket. The service finds the closest match with an actual flight.

■

PreviewTravel.com: Preview Travel and Travelocity

(see the following bullet) have recently merged forces to form a new, improved Travelocity site. Preview Travel’s planning assistance and traveler’s message board are now part of the Travelocity site. Current Preview Travel members can use the same login names and passwords to access the Travelocity site. Figure 2-2:

Do a quick search for a flight by entering your departure location and your destination.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online ■

Travelocity.com: This site is a creation of Sabre, the

company that created the software that has long been the proprietary software of travel agencies. With its recent merger with Preview Travel, Travelocity offers more outstanding features than ever before. Shown in Figure 2-3, Travelocity lets you book air travel, hotel accommodations, rental cars, and cruise vacations. The site also has a Destination Guide link, through which you can access general information about countries and cities throughout the world. Like most travel sites, you must register (give the site a user name and password so you can log in) before you can book anything. Web sites change their layouts and offerings frequently. The sites shown in this book may not look the same or have the same services and programs when you visit them. Figure 2-3:

Check out special deals and locate the best fare between your departure and arrival locations.

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Airline Web sites If you prefer to deal directly with a particular airline, you can go to its site and make your arrangements there. To find the Web site for any airline, simply go to a search site and type airlines in the Search box. If the airline you’re looking for doesn’t come up in the list, try guessing the airline’s Web address and typing it directly in your browser’s address bar. Most companies use their name as their Web site domain name, such as www.usairways.com. You can find a pretty thorough list of airlines by visiting a search site, such as AltaVista (www.altavista.com), and clicking links that can lead you to a more selective list of Web sites. To find a list of international airlines from the AltaVista home page, follow these steps: 1. Click the Recreation & Travel link. 2. From this list of links that appears, click Aviation. 3. From the list of links that appears, click Airlines. 4. A list of airlines appears on-screen. Click the link to the

airline that interests you. After you arrive at the site for a particular airline, you can search for available flights for your preferred dates and destination. You can also book a flight as well as select a seat and indicate your meal preferences.

Finding hotel Web sites Just as airlines have their own Web sites, so do hotel chains, such as Holiday Inn and Marriott. Also, many small hotels have their own sites, as do bed-and-breakfasts. If you elect to book your flight and lodging directly from the service providers, you can find the hotel Web sites by doing a Web search for hotels through any search site.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online You can also find hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and other lodgings by playing with a Web-search site, such as HotBot (www.hotbot.com). To find hotels from the HotBot home page, follow these steps: 1. Click the Travel & Recreation link with your mouse. 2. From the list of links that appears, click Travel. 3. From the list of links that appears, click Lodging. 4. The list that appears offers you as many travel options as

you can think of, including Castles, Hostels, Spiritual Retreats, and Vacation Rentals. Click Hotels to see a list of regions, or click Hotel Chains to see a list of hotel chains. Table 2-1 provides a list of Web sites with lodging information. Table 2-1: Lodging Web Sites Web Site

URL

Information

AccommoDATA

www.accomodata. co.uk

Accommodations information for Europe

All Hotels Global Directory

www.all-hotels .com

Lists hotels by region, internationally; offers discount information

Bed&Breakfast Inns www.bbonline.com

Lists bed-andbreakfasts, inns, mainly in the U.S.

Best Western

www.bestwestern .com

Gives you access to the international chain of hotels, providing easy booking

Hilton

www.hilton.com


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Web Site

URL

Information

Marriott

www.marriott.com

Search for Marriott hotels around the world, and book your stay

Holiday Inn

basshotels.com/ holiday-inn


InnSite

www.innsite.com

Lists inns all over the world; provides links to newsgroups; one click away from reserving a room, viewing a map, or checking the inn’s local weather forecast

Booking lodging online The process of booking a hotel, motel, inn, or room in a bedand-breakfast is simple. Follow these steps: 1. Locate your destination city. 2. Indicate your arrival and departure dates where appro-

priate in the online reservation form. 3. Choose a room. 4. Enter credit card and billing address information. 5. Most hotel chains supply a confirmation number. Print and

retain this number in case you need it when you check in at the hotel. Figure 2-4 shows the reservation screen at the Holiday Inn site (www.basshotels.com/holiday-inn).

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Figure 2-4:

Provide your reservation information and book your room directly with the hotel.

While you can’t count on it, some hotel chains offer a discount (as much as 10 percent) for booking your stay online. It’s a good idea to call the hotel or inn and confirm your reservation after having booked it online. While most online booking systems are reliable, you wouldn’t want to show up and find that your room was never booked or that the online booking process somehow mangled the reservation. Better safe than sorry! If you’re looking for a specific inn or bed-and-breakfast in a particular area, you can search for inns, B&B, or bed-andbreakfasts with your Web browser. You can find sites that specialize in helping you find these smaller, cozier accommodations throughout the United States and Europe. Figure 2-5 shows Bed&BreakfastInns Online, which features accommodations in North America. To search for sites pertaining to European bed-and-breakfast inns, use search criteria such as Bed and Breakfasts+Europe through any popular Web search site.

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Chapter 2: Your Online Travel Options Figure 2-5:

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Click the Locate a B&B link to search for bed-and-breakfasts and inns in the continental United States by state.

Unlike airline flight reservations, which are usually nonrefundable, you can cancel hotel reservations booked online at virtually any time. A hotel may charge a fee for canceling within less than 24 or 12 hours, depending on the hotel.

Evaluating a Travel Services Site The travel sites listed in Table 2-2 meet my criteria for what an all-inclusive travel services Web site should provide. You may come up with your own criteria as you continue booking trips, but I recommend that you be leery of travel sites that boast the ability to help you plan and purchase your entire trip. Also steer clear of any Web sites that do not offer the following: ■

Ease of use. If you feel overwhelmed by the screen layout when you go to the site’s home page, the site owners and designers obviously don’t have your comfort at heart. Find a site that’s laid out logically and simply, where you have no doubt which links to click, and what will happen when you do.

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Security. If you use Internet Explorer, you want to see a solid Key symbol in the lower-right corner of your screen while you’re at the travel site, especially on the page where you enter your credit card information. If you’re a Netscape user, a closed padlock in the lower-left corner is the sign of a secure server.

■

Privacy. Most sites require you to join or sign up for a membership. This is to enable the site’s marketing people to send you e-mail about travel, usually pertaining to the type of travel in which you express interest while visiting the site. For many people, this marketing is acceptable, and the odd e-mail advertisement isn’t offensive. The site should, however, offer the option not to be contacted, and the site should tell you outright if it shares your information with other direct-mail marketers (see Figure 2-6). If the site does share your data, you should have the option to have your name excluded from the list.

Figure 2-6:

Look for the site’s privacy link to find out more about how and if the site uses your personal information for marketing.

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■

Trip planning. The definition of planning and the resulting itinerary vary from site to site. If you need help planning your trip — figuring out where to go and what to do after you get there — look for a site that offers real assistance.

■

Chat with other users. Many sites offer a message board where you can post your questions and get answers from other board participants.

■

Accessible and savvy customer service. Some sites provide customer service by allowing you to send an e-mail, which the site promises will be answered promptly. Others offer an 800 toll-free number to call for help. Avoid any site that doesn’t offer at least one of these options.

■

Relationships with airlines and hotel chains. Although relationships can be a double-edged sword. While using a site that is well networked with airlines, hotel chains, and other tourism companies is great, you don’t want a site that’s a slave to them, either. Make sure that you’re getting a list of flights from all of the available carriers and not just the one or two who advertise on the site.

■

Flexibility. You don’t want to use a site that seems to favor one hotel chain or airline over or to the exclusion of others. It’s also nice to be able to specify which airlines or hotel chains you want to search when you’re looking for travel arrangements. With whom you fly or stay is often as important as when you travel, and you want to use a site that’s sensitive to that.

Table 2-2: Full-Service Travel Web Sites Web Site

URL

Expedia

www.expedia.com

Travelocity

www.travelocity.com

Trip.com

www.trip.com

Yahoo Travel

www.yahoo.travel.com

Travel.com

www.travel.com

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CHAPTER 3

GOING, GOING, GONE: ONLINE AUCTIONS AND PRICE SITES I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Bidding for travel bargains on airfare, hotels, and vacation packages

■

Finding and purchasing great travel deals at a pricing site

The Web has changed the way many of us shop. For example, the advent of online auctions has made bidders of people who’d never set foot in an auction house. Web sites, such as Priceline (which started out with the inventive approach of letting the customer negotiate a great price on airline tickets), are now helping to bring the price of groceries down to the bargain basement. For many an online shopper, the deals these Web sites offer for goods and services have come none too soon. If price is one of the most important aspects of your vacation or business trip, you’ll like auctions and pricing sites. If you’re a natural-born haggler, you’ll like the idea of setting a price and seeing if anyone goes for it. Paying top dollar for something makes no sense if you can find an item or service for less money, and if you’re willing to take the time, you can reduce the price of your trip significantly. In this chapter, you learn how to find auction sites that deal in travel products and services, how to navigate these and how to buy airline tickets from pricing sites, potentially saving you hundreds of dollars on your next adventure.

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Chapter 3: Going, Going, Gone: Online Auctions and Price Sites

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Using Auction Sites to Bid for Travel Unlike an auction that you attend in person, an online auction can take days or weeks to run its course. Interested bidders must first become registered members of a site, accepting the site’s rules and regulations before they can place a bid and see if it’s accepted. Then they wait a prescribed period of time, during which other registered members of the site are free to bid, too. At the end of the auction (which usually lasts a couple of days), the person with the highest bid gets the item or service. At a travel or airline Web site, you enter your travel arrangements and see which flights and accommodations are available. Conversely, at an auction site, you pick from a list of available flights, package vacations, cruises, and tours, and bid on the one that most closely matches your travel dates. For this reason, auction sites probably aren’t the best place to find travel deals for a business trip, because the dates of the trip are probably somewhat inflexible. However, if you know you want to take a vacation sometime in June, an auction can be an ideal way to save some serious money. Auction sites can save you money on a fun vacation, but the fun ends if you don’t take their rules seriously. Registering with the auction site can serve as the equivalent of a signed agreement or contract, in which you agree to pay for anything you win through the bidding process. If you’re not absolutely sure that you can take the vacation or use the tickets somehow even if you don’t personally go, don’t bid on them in the first place. To find an auction site, go to your favorite search site and type travel auction in the Search text box. The result is a list of sites that specialize in auctioning travel services and products, as well as general auction sites that include travel items in their list of items up for bid.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online You can also find a list of auction sites by using the directory listings on your favorite Web search engine. Look for an Auctions link and click away.

Evaluating an Auction Site As with any Web site, ease of use is key. If you went to a bricks-and-mortar auction house, you wouldn’t go back if it took you three hours to find the guy with the gavel. Similarly, if the Web site is difficult to navigate and doesn’t provide adequate instructions for placing bids and checking on items up for auction, you need to go elsewhere. Figure 3-1 shows the TravelBids Web site and its very helpful links for new users. Figure 3-1:

A good auction site helps you find what you’re looking for.

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A travel auction site, such as www.travelbids.com, is a good example of a simple and effective layout. Bear in mind, however, that Web sites are often redesigned — to give the site a marketing shot in the arm, or perhaps simply on a whim. In either case, be prepared for sites to change in the future.

Getting Registered After clicking the New Travelers Start Here button (look for a similar button in any other site that you’re visiting), the next page requires that you register. Try some travel auction Web sites listed in Table 3-1. Table 3-1: Travel Auction Web Sites Web Site Name

URL

Special Features

GoingGoingGone

Going GoingGone .com

Associated with Travel Clearinghouse, this site offers quick access to online travel auctions for a variety of travel products and services. An island tune plays when you go to the site.

Bid4Travel

bid4travel This site has a very user.com friendly home page and offers a wide variety of travel auctions, plus a page with valuable insights into the world of travel auctions.

Auctions at Yahoo!

Auctions. yahoo.com

Flightbirds

Flightbids The site specializes in .com return flights from the United Kingdom.

Bid1Travel

bid1travel An auction site offered by .com the group who also brings you www.1travel.com.

This arm of Yahoo! uses familiar Yahoo! search tools to help you find airline tickets, accommodations, and cruises.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Registering is more than a marketing ploy to get your name and e-mail address. The site’s owners need to know who you are so that if you bid and actually end up with the item, they can bill your credit card and send you what you bought. When you register, be sure to read the fine print about the site’s bidding rules and regulations. Some sites, such as the TravelBids site, bill a one-time fee for registering with their site, which isn’t a prohibitive amount of money, but you should be aware of the fee before you start. If this concept offends you, keep looking for sites until you find one that doesn’t charge a fee. Also, if you intend to list an auction of your own, be prepared to pay a Web site to do so. Figure 3-2 shows the GoingGoingGone Web site. Without having to register, you can see a list of current auctions, both open and closed. You can also enter your e-mail address so that the site can get in touch to tell you about travel bargains.

Figure 3-2:

Choose your type of auction, a region, and then click Go to see the list of auctions meeting your criteria.

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Searching an Auction Site Searching a travel auction Web site can be as simple as using a traditional Web search engine. You can search all available travel services, or you can use keywords, such as Paris Roundtrip or Lima, Peru to narrow your search. If you have an idea of what you want, the key to saving yourself precious time and preventing unnecessary frustration when you search an auction site is to use specific keywords. Otherwise, you can get to know the site’s search features by browsing all the auctions and then get more fancy with your searches when you plan your next trip online. There is one big difference between searching an auction site and searching a traditional search site: You can often let time be the main focus of your search at an auction site. Many online auction sites allow you to search auctions by how close they are to closing. Who knows? An auction for your dream vacation may be closing in an hour, so don’t miss your opportunity to sneak in a last-minute bid.

Bidding for Travel Services If you see a travel service on which you’d like to bid, simply click the link for that listed item and enter the information requested — normally your name, e-mail address, phone number, and perhaps your address. You also enter your bid, as shown in Figure 3-3. If the person offering the item for auction has a minimum bid that he or she will accept, that’s the minimum bid. You can keep checking back to the site over the next day or so to find out if you were outbid. You are notified by e-mail if your bid is accepted. If you win the auction, your name probably will appear on the site for the specific auction in which you participated.

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Figure 3-3:

Most sites require a minimum bid, some as low as one dollar.

Avoiding bidding shock What makes auctions so fun is that the monetary values of items and services are weighed against personal values — namely what it means to you if you win. Many people get so caught up in the thrill of bidding in and winning an auction that they can’t see the forest from the trees. If you have money to burn, then by all means, have at it! But if you’re trying to save money, then you have to decide how much you’re willing to spend and cut yourself off (even if it means losing the auction) when you reach your limit. Other points to consider: ■

Treat every bid as if you intend to pay that amount and never expect to lose. If you win the auction, you’re obligated to pay for the item or service, even if you don’t have the money. In many states, a bid is a contractual agreement.

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■

If the auction item is being sold by an individual, thoroughly check out the person and ask all your questions about the trip before you place your bid. You don’t want to find out later that the seller is a scam artist or that the tickets, package deal, or other travel service isn’t what you expected; your ability to return a travel service is limited by the famous words Buyer Beware.

■

Check out the Web site. Make sure it takes privacy seriously and has an anti-fraud policy. Find out what the site does to protect members who end up with lemons.

You can’t return your auctioned item, but you can try to auction it off yourself if you realize you can’t take the trip. Remember, running an auction takes some time, which can be a problem if the trip dates are coming up very quickly. Also, you may not make all your money back. Be sure you can take the trip or be sure you can find someone else who can use the tickets before you place your bid.

Using auto-bidding services Many auction sites offer auto-bidding services. Here’s how they work. 1. You decide how much you’re willing to spend on the

travel product or service. As you do so, think about what’s most important to you — getting the item at any cost, or getting a really good deal. 2. Enter your maximum bid in the appropriate box when

you place your minimum bid. The bidding mechanism will automatically bid on your behalf incrementally until you are either outbid or win the auction. For example, if the minimum bid is $1 and your maximum bid is $300, you’ll be outbid the second someone else bids $301. However, if you outbid your competition at $259, you only pay $259 at the end of the auction, not $301.

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Cutting a Deal with a Pricing Site Priceline is a pioneer Web site, and if you want to name your own price for travel, this site is nearly the only game in town. Most travel sites that list any sort of Name your own price for travel text within their site send you to www.priceline.com via a hyperlink. Priceline works like this: 1. Enter your point of departure and destination and the

number of tickets you want, as shown in Figure 3-4. Figure 3-4:

Choose to purchase airline tickets or hotel rooms and then specify your destination and departure city.

2. Just as with most other travel sites, the next step is choos-

ing dates. You also have to choose your departure and arrival airports. As you scroll down on the page, Priceline gives you tips for saving more money — flying at off-peak times, making as many as two connections per flight, and flying in “non-jet aircraft.” Depending on your real desire to save money, you may be willing to make these concessions. 3. At the bottom of the screen, you set your price by typ-

ing in what you want to pay for the travel you describe.

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4. After entering the price, click Next to move to the next

step in the process — acceptance or rejection of sponsor dollars, offered as a marketing tool by Priceline advertisers. If you select one of the sponsors from the list, the sponsor “helps” you get the tickets you want at the price you specify. You can choose not to add any sponsor dollars to your request. If you do click one of the sponsor options, be aware that an intervening screen appears before you find out if your price was accepted. You are asked to fill out an application for the credit card, video club, or long distance service (whichever one you picked) so that the sponsor can market to you directly. This is the possible drawback (depending on your feelings on direct marketing) to accepting the sponsor’s help in getting you the price you want. 5. After clicking Next, the site tells you if your price was

accepted. If it was, you can enter your mailing and billing information to confirm the sale. The process of determining if anyone accepts your price can take a long time, so prepare to wait. While Priceline is basically the only game in town when it comes to price sites, you can also try www. budgetraveler.com. Click the site’s Name your own price link, which takes you to a page where you describe the travel you’re seeking and set a price for it.

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CHAPTER 4

GETTING THERE BY AIR I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Getting the best airfare you can find

■

Working with airline Web sites

■

Gathering frequent flyer miles

■

Booking your flight online

I can’t think of one person (regardless of whether he or she has thousands of dollars to burn or a few hundred) who likes to pay more than necessary for anything. Making travel plans online can definitely save you money on every aspect of your trip, but the best savings come when you book your airfare online. By carefully selecting the right airline, travel class, departure date, departure location (yes, that can make a difference!), and return date, you can save as much as 50 percent on air travel. You don’t need to be a seasoned haggler or an aggressive bargain-hunter. All you need is a little time and patience to test different travel scenarios and check different travel sites and airline sites for the best rates.

Finding the Best Airfares You may be surprised at which aspects of your air travel plans affect your price. Most people think that the class you travel is the most significant cost — first, business, or coach. You can save money in every class by keeping the following tips in mind and remaining flexible in your plans:

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Chapter 4: Getting There by Air

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Book as far in advance (at least 30 days) as possible. When you have less than 30 days between your date of booking and date of flight, the prices tend to go up.

■

Don’t fly out on a weekend. Flying on a Saturday or Sunday costs more than flying during the workweek, so try to leave during the week, preferably Wednesday or Thursday.

■

Stay over a weekend. Come home the following week, again on a weekday. Whether you’re flying for business or pleasure, weekends are premium times to fly because the demand to fly when it’s convenient drives airline prices. For example, a businessman who flies on Thursday evening to attend a meeting that ends on Friday afternoon doesn’t want to wait until Tuesday to fly back home. Similarly, most people don’t think of starting their vacations in the middle of the workweek. If you don’t think a couple of days makes any difference in the overall price of your airline tickets, visit an airline’s Web site, shift your optimal dates slightly, and check the price differences. While you’re at it, compare a 6 a.m. flight with a noon flight on the same day. Are you convinced yet?

■

Be willing to make connections. Non-stop flights are the most desirable, so flights with connections can be cheaper.

■

Check different airports. If more flights leave from one airport than another, chances are that you can find better deals on those flights.

You can use all of these tips to save you money whether you’re booking your flight online or through a bricks-and-mortar travel agent. When you check out different flight options online, however, you have more control over the variables, and you can set your flight criteria based on these options as well as any preferences you may have, such as what time of day you leave and which airline you choose.

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Going Directly to Airline Web Sites If you have an airline preference, go directly to its site, as shown in the following Table 4-1. If you’d like to see a more comprehensive list of airlines, check out Chapter 2, which shows you how to use AltaVista to see a list of airlines that fly internationally. Table 4-1: Airline Web Sites Airline

URL

American Airlines

www.aa.com

British Airways

www.british-airways.com

Continental Airlines

www.continental.com

Delta

www.delta-air.com

Southwest Airlines

www.southwest.com

TWA (Trans World Airlines)

www.twa.com

US Airways

www.usairways.com

Often, you can type the exact name of an airline into the address box of your Web browser. Most airlines use their company name for their URL. After you’re at an airline’s Web site, you can go right to booking a flight by entering departure dates and times, or you can poke around and check out the site’s specials. Figure 4-1 shows American Airline’s Web site and a drop-down list of special deals that were available at the time this was written. Many airline sites offer you the ability to become a member of their site or to join a frequent flyer plan. Signing up is a good idea if you want to hear about special travel deals and inexpensive flights. If you tend to travel with one particular airline most of the time, joining a frequent flyer plan is a great way to save money. Provide some simple information, such as your name, postal address, e-mail address, and phone number — and you’re signed up. You have to choose a password, too, so that no one else can use your account.

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Chapter 4: Getting There by Air Figure 4-1:

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Airlines offer package deals and special flights to entice you to try their airline.

Working with Travel Sites Travel Web sites enable you to access a database of all the flights to your destination, regardless of airline. If you have no airline preference, using a travel site can be a time and money-saving approach because you can search a greater number of flights and flight options with dates, times, classes, and connections. Some travel sites to try: ■

www.expedia.com

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www.travelocity.com

■

www.yahoo.travel.com

■

www.travel.com

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www.1travel.com

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online After you find a travel Web site, you may feel visually inundated with information — special deals, travel packages, airfares, cruises, hotels — all in the form of colorful graphics and text. Front and center on the Travelocity Web site (shown in Figure 4-2) is the Find/Book a Flight link.

Figure 4-2:

Look for a Web site that allows you to find flights directly from the home page.

After you find the area or link on the home page that takes you to a page where you can enter your flight specifics, you can begin searching for a flight that leaves when you want to leave and headed where you want to go (see Figure 4-3). Just enter the following information: ■

The day you plan to leave

■

The name of the city from which you’re flying

■

Your destination city

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The search engine supporting the Web site does the rest. You may find that the first flights that come up in response to your search criteria are much more expensive than you anticipated. Don’t despair; search again! Change your departure time or stay one day more or one day less; see if that makes a difference. To help you do this, some sites give you the ability to search for alternative flights by clicking a button or re-searching to look for cheaper flights on dates close to your original choice. Figure 4-3:

Going from Philly to London in mid-April? Check out your flight options by clicking the Go button.

Schedule carved in stone? Finding the cheapest fares for your dates Sometimes you can’t change your dates. Maybe your hotel is already booked, or your vacation dates have already been arranged at work and you can’t change them. If your schedule cannot be changed, you can still find the best fares for the dates you have to come and go:

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Change your departure times. Undesirable times (such as very early morning or late at night) are often cheaper.

■

Try different airlines. Go directly to their sites and enter your schedule criteria.

■

Lower your standards. Business or first class may be too pricey on the dates you want to go, but coach (or the equivalent) can be much less expensive. For short flights (four or fewer hours), sitting with your knees under your chin won’t kill you.

■

Be willing to connect. Non-stop flights are often much more expensive than flights with one or more connections. Layovers can be a pain, and getting on and off planes can be unpleasant (and you always worry if your luggage got on and off with you), but enduring connections can save you a lot of money.

Scheduling around the price If you have the freedom to depart whenever you want, or simply to adjust your departure or return by a few days in either direction, you may be able to save a lot of money. Sometimes, just changing your departure date by one or two days can result in more flights that meet your criteria, and cheaper flights as well. To change your departure or return dates, use your browser’s Back button, which may appear as a left-pointing arrow, to go back to where you entered your dates. Enter new dates and see what you get!

It’s not who you know, it’s from where you go: Airport codes and options Sometimes entering your flight request is easier if you know the lingo. Each airport in the world has a different three-character designation, some of which aren’t terribly obvious. Table 4-2 lists some of the major United States and European airports and their codes:

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Chapter 4: Getting There by Air Table 4-2: Major Airport Codes Airport Name and Location

Code

Aeroporto Internacional, Galeo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

GIG

Cairo International Airport, Cairo, Egypt

CAI

Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris, France

CDG

Chicago O’Hare Airport, Chicago, USA

ORD

Grand Central Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa

GCJ

Heathrow Airport, London, United Kingdom

LHR

Houston International Airport

IAH

Jakarta/Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia

CGK

John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City, USA

JFK

Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

YYZ

Los Angeles International Airport, Los Angeles, USA

LAX

Miami International Airport, Miami, USA

MIA

Milano Airport, Milan, Italy

LIN

Moscow (Moskva) Sheremetyevo 2, Moscow, Russia

SVO

Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan

NRT

Philadelphia International Airport, Philadelphia, USA

PHL

Roma Airport, Rome, Italy

CIA

San Francisco International Airport, San Francisco, USA

SFO

Schoenefeld Airport, Berlin, Germany

SXF

Ronald Reagan Washington (DC) International Airport, Washington, D.C., USA

DCA

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online If you can’t find the code for the airport you’re seeking, try the Web site at www.airportcitycodes.com, which lists airport codes alphabetically.

Accumulating and Using Frequent Flyer Miles The first step in acquiring frequent flyer miles is to sign up. You can sign up through any airline’s Web site. Some travel sites offer their own clubs, where travel arrangements that you book through any airline accumulate points in your favor, as long as you book through that particular travel site. You may also be the recipient of a special deal just by changing your long-distance telephone carrier or by using a particular credit card. Get as much information as you can about any frequent flyer plan when you sign up. Print out the site’s information about rules, accumulating points, and redeeming points. Keep this information on file and be aware that these rules can change. Check back with the site before you redeem your points to make sure you aren’t surprised by any changes. To get the lowdown on frequent flyer programs, check out www.frequentflier.com. This site evaluates frequent flyer programs and distributes a variety of newsletters and other publications to keep you informed about programs you may want to avoid, as well as updates you about changes in various programs’ rules and features.

Booking Your Flight Online After you find a flight, either through an airline’s Web site or a travel site, the process of booking your flight is fairly consistent. The following steps to book a flight are based on the US Airways Web site, but you won’t have any trouble applying these procedures to other airline Web sites. When you’ve figured out your approximate dates and your destination, visit

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a travel Web site or the Web site of a particular airline and follow these steps to get started: 1. Click the Search Flights button in the Reservations area

of the page. 2. A list of the departing flights meeting or closely match-

ing your criteria appears (see Figure 4-4). Click the Select button next to the flight option that you want to book. Figure 4-4:

Pick the flight that meets your schedule for departure.

3. After you select your departing flight, you can book your

return flight from a list that matches your previously entered return-flight information. Click the Select button to choose the return flight that you want to book. The following sections run you through the rest of the airline-booking process.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online 4. When your itinerary appears, you see buttons that indi-

cate your option to either hold the tickets (usually for 24 hours) or to purchase the tickets now. Click the Buy button to purchase tickets online immediately. Click Hold to reserve the flight for 24 hours. 5. If you decide to buy the tickets immediately, the screen

that appears next displays the final pricing for your tickets. If the price is too high, click the Back button to go back to select a different departure date or class, and then repeat Steps 1 through 4. You may end up with a different price if you move to economy/coach or pick a different date for your departure or return. 6. To accept the ticket prices for the specific flights, click

the I Agree button. Print this page for your records. Then move on to the next step — deciding how you want to receive the tickets for your trip.

Deciding on e-tickets If you’re new to the Internet, you may be a little squeamish about using an e-ticket or about using a credit card to purchase your tickets. E-tickets are the electronic equivalent of the paper tickets you’re probably used to using. Here’s how they work: The airline stores all of the vital information (including your name, your seating arrangement, and your destination) in its database. You remember the vital information about your flight, show up at the airport with your I.D., check in, and receive a boarding pass. E-tickets can save paper, time, and money. (With this paperless process, you don’t have to wait for tickets to arrive in the mail; if you’re in a hurry to get paper tickets, the airline can use an overnight service to get the tickets to you, but you end up absorbing the cost.) E-tickets are not a substitute for the long line in which you need to stand to check in on the day of your flight. And they aren’t as paperless as they could be — I still recommend that

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you print out all the information you need to have about your flight, if only to jog your memory later. Depending on the particulars of your vacation plans (taking 15 friends or relatives with you?), you may want to go the old-fashioned route and buy paper tickets. In either case, click the appropriate button (Get Ticket Electronically or Receive by Mail button) to continue booking your trip.

Listing special requirements and choosing seats After you decide how you want your tickets to appear, a screen appears asking for still more information. Follow these steps: 1. Enter the required information about yourself and the

other passengers in your party. This information includes special meal requirements. Click the drop-down list to see the list of available meal options. 2. When you’ve finished entering the details about all the

passengers, review the information for accuracy and click the Information Is Correct button. 3. Some airlines allow you to select your seats by using a

map of the airplane, as shown in Figure 4-5. If you’re allowed this option, go ahead and select your seat(s). You can enter seat numbers next to each passenger’s name, enabling you to choose who gets an aisle seat or a window seat, assuming either or both are available. When you’re done, click the Continue button with your mouse.

Paying for tickets with your credit card The next screen asks you the dreaded question — how are you going to pay for this? If you get squeamish at any point, you can obtain the airline’s toll-free number and book the trip by telephone — but remember, your credit account information isn’t automatically safer going out over telephone lines.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online 1. Enter your credit card number and billing address infor-

mation. If you’re worried about privacy and security, click the Shop Safe Guarantee link (or a similarly named link) to find out about the site’s security for purchasing online. Also read the Web site’s privacy policy and make sure that you’re sending your information over a secure connection. 2. After you enter your billing information, click Continue. Figure 4-5:

Want an aisle seat close to the lavatory? The seats that are available appear in color with a seat letter.

3. After your purchase is confirmed, a detailed receipt

appears on-screen. Print this confirmation for your records. Most airline sites and flight purchasing pages on travel sites follow these steps. Be prepared for slight variations in the order of steps, the names of buttons, and the layout of the pages themselves.

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Getting to the Airport: Limo and Car Service Arrangements Most travelers try to avoid driving their own cars to the airport, and I recommend that you avoid driving yourself to the airport whenever possible. First, the cost of paying for long-term parking can be very expensive. Second, your car is subject to theft and damage, depending on the location of the lot and its management. Finally, leaving your car at home in the driveway can help give the illusion that you’re not away, which can prevent a burglary while you’re on your trip. This may sound silly, but police departments suggest leaving your car at home when you aren’t using it to get to your trip’s destination. All that still leaves you with the unanswered question: How are you going to get to the airport? You can ask a friend or family member to drive you, but depending on the distance to the airport, that may not be feasible. Also, if your flight is leaving midday, your potential rides may all be at work. The solution — an airport limousine or car service. While the “limo” is likely to be a bus or minivan, it’s a convenient alternative to your own or a friend’s car, packed with luggage. Most metropolitan areas have several limo services to choose from, and they usually service the suburbs of those cities, picking you up at your house or at some designated spot, such as a hotel or conference center. To find a limousine service near you, type Airport limousine + City name in a search engine’s search box. Choose the city closest to your home if you live in a rural area. A list of limo services appears, and you can check these Web sites to see which ones service your area. If you have a lot of luggage (more than two bags per traveler), or have a pet crate or other large item, it’s best to warn the limo service at the time you make your reservation. Advance notice helps ensure that the limo company doesn’t book too

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online many other travelers on the trip with you, which could result in not enough room for everyone’s luggage. You may be charged a fee for excess or oversize baggage, so it’s go to know that up front. To determine when to pick you up (and on which limo to book you), limo services ask you which flight you’re on so they can look up your departure time on their computer. Don’t let them force you onto a particular limo or shuttle that risks your missing the flight. Even if it means getting to the airport much earlier than you need to, let the limo service know you want to arrive at the airport at least two hours prior to the flight for international flights, and at least an hour ahead for domestic travel. Get the pricing up front and find out what form of payment the driving service accepts. Some companies let you pay the driver in cash or with a check, but only accept credit cards over the phone when you book the trip. Also, call ahead to confirm that you’re really booked — although reputable companies will call you to confirm, you want to be proactive and call them first. If you’re not booked properly, you want to have enough time to fix the problem. If you don’t have anyone to pick you up from the airport at your destination, you may want to book your ride from the airport to your hotel as well. 1. Using Yahoo!, click the Travel link. 2. From the list that appears, click the Transportation link. 3. From the list that appears, click the Limousine and Shut-

tle Services link. A list of national and international shuttle services appears.

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CHAPTER 5

SECURING GROUND TRAVEL TO YOUR DESTINATION I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Finding the right train

■

Booking train tickets online

■

Saving money by traveling by bus

■

Renting a car

You can find as many reasons not to travel by air as there are ways to do so. Cost is probably the biggest reason to seek alternate modes of transportation, especially if you don’t plan on traveling too far from home. Perhaps you don’t like to fly, or maybe you want to take your time and see some scenery on the way. Maybe you have family halfway between home and your destination, and you want to stop by. Whatever your reason, you can get there from here, and you can do it by train, bus, car, or any combination thereof. This chapter introduces you to some of the Web sites that provide information about ground travel alternatives. I show you how to find a train that’s headed where you are, how to book a ticket on a clean and comfortable bus, and how to reserve an affordable rental car for your trip.

Booking Train Reservations Online Amtrak is the only game in town if you want to book a train ticket to travel around the continental United States and

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Canada. For smaller trips, you may be able to use local transit companies, or use them to connect with an Amtrak train that begins its journey too far from your home. To find out about Amtrak trains, you can go directly to the Amtrak Web site (www.amtrak.com). Another site, www.amtraktrains.com (not affiliated with Amtrak), provides information on Amtrak’s trains, routes, food service, comfort, and schedules. This site can be very useful if you’ve never traveled by train before — it offers photographs of some of Amtrak’s trains, including dining cars, sleeper trains, and train stations (see Figure 5-1).

Figure 5-1:

Get a glimpse of what’s in store for you as you plan your train travel.

Check out www.trainweb.com, www.ustraintravel. com, and intercity.Amtrak.com for more train travel information online.

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Finding convenient stations here and there If you’re going right to the source, the official Amtrak site at www.amtrak.com provides schedules and fares, and you can book your train tickets online. In order to have access to all of the site’s features, you need to register, which is simple — just enter a user name and password. After registering, you can enter departure and arrival information (locations and times) and see a list of trains that fit your plans. On the Amtrak site’s Schedules & Fares page, you can enter your starting and ending points to find a train that comes close to one or both points. The site’s search engine checks all of the Amtrak trains for the date and locations you specify (and dates near those you asked for) and lists the results in a table. As you review the results, watch the train’s departure and arrival times — trains run overnight, and you could unwittingly select a train that gets you to your destination in the middle of the night, which might not work with your connecting travel arrangements. Each train (some have connections, some don’t) is listed in a row in the table; the train number and schedule are both specified. You should note that many areas in the United States don’t have an Amtrak station anywhere near, which can be a nuisance if train travel is your preferred mode of travel between two points. You may have to take a local train or bus to get to the closest Amtrak station for departure or to get from the Amtrak station to your final location.

Sleeping and eating on the train The duration of your journey by train really dictates what, if any, special services you need en route. If your trip takes only a few hours, you don’t need to worry about sleeping on the train (other than dozing in your seat as nearly everyone does), but you may want to eat. Unlike many European trains, no one comes around with a cart full of snacks and beverages —

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online no such amenities are found on an Amtrak train. However, the train has dining cars and cars where you can find light fare and something to drink. Trains that go a great distance usually have a dining car, whereas trains that are going just a short distance usually don’t. I suggest that you check into the dining amenities when you make your reservation. After viewing the details of the selected train, click your browser’s Back button. On the Train Selection page, scroll down and click the Accept Selection button, which takes you to a page where you can reserve your seat(s) on the selected train. As you proceed to book your seat(s), you can click the Add Accommodation button (see Figure 5-2) to reserve a First Class or Sleeper accommodation, if these choices are offered on the train you select. If you are traveling overnight and you can afford to upgrade, reserving a sleeper is a good idea — you won’t arrive feeling and looking like a paperclip.

Figure 5-2:

If you’re traveling overnight, reserve a sleeper so that you can get some rest.

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If the accommodations are sold out or the train simply doesn’t offer first class or sleeper accommodations, you have to book coach class. Coach class on trains isn’t as cramped as airplanes tend to be, and you can get up to walk around, amble down to the dining car, or use the restrooms as needed. The final steps of reserving your seat require you to enter credit card and billing address information.

Cheap and Easy: Taking the Bus Some people may not consider traveling by bus to be chic, but this isn’t necessarily a fair assessment of bus travel. Many bus companies work very hard to provide a comfortable ride to your destination. Some offer onboard movies and more comfortable seats than several years ago. Some bus company sites to try are ■

www.busonus.com

■

www.greyhound.com

■

www.coachusa.com

Booking a bus ticket is much like booking a seat on a train. You indicate your departure and arrival destinations and use a credit card to confirm and purchase your seat(s). Many bus companies can serve you throughout the United States and Canada, so you’re not restricted to one main carrier that may or may not have a station near you. Chances are that you live a lot closer to a bus station or a picking-up/dropping-off location (such as a designated hotel or train station) than you realize. How do you find a bus that’s going where you want to go? You can search online for bus trips or bus tours. A search finds sites of bus companies that offer bus travel to tourist locations. You can also find Web sites by playing the directory game. For example, by using Direct Hit (www.directhit.com), you can click the Travel link, and, from the list of links that

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online appears, choose and click Transportation. From the list of links that appears next, click Buses. The page that appears has a short list of subdirectories offering exciting bus tours all over the world. I discuss European bus tours in Chapter 7.

Going It Alone: Car Rental You want to leave and arrive on your own schedule, stop when and where you want to stop along the way, and you want to play your CDs at top volume and keep the windows open. You need a rental car. If you’re traveling with your family, you may want to rent a minivan or a sport utility vehicle that can comfortably seat you and your passengers.

Selecting a rental car company To find rental car companies on the Web, search for rental car or simply type the name of the company that you want to check out, such as Enterprise Rental Car. Some rental car company sites to visit are listed in Table 5-1. Table 5-1: Major Rental Car Sites Rental Car Company

URL

Alamo

www.alamo.com

Avis

www.avis.com

Budget

www.budget.com

Dollar

www.dollar.com

Enterprise

www.enterprise.com

Hertz

www.hertz.com

National

www.nationalcar.com

You should choose a rental car company based on price and convenience. Here are some other things to look for in a rental car company:

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■

Is the company’s office near you?

■

If the company isn’t close to home, will a representative pick you up at no extra charge? (A charge may be built into the rental fee, so be careful.)

■

Are the rates reasonable?

■

Is there a convenient place for you to drop off the car when you’re done with it?

■

Is the company’s Web site easy to use and search?

Choosing the right type of car Cars are like shoes. Buying shoes that look great is tempting, but if the shoes pinch after a few hours on your feet, you wish you had the pair with the lower heel and the wider toe. If you’re big or tall, don’t get a compact just to save money — you’ll be sorry in no time. If you’re not a confident driver or you’ve never driven a big car, don’t rent a van or a sport utility vehicle. If you’re traveling alone, rent a car that’s similar to the car you drive every day. If you’re traveling with your family or a group of business associates, rent something comfortable with room for everyone’s legs, hips, and luggage. No need to be uncomfortable in a crowded car on a long trip. The more cramped everyone feels, the more stops you need to make to stretch your legs. Of course, larger cars cost more per day and per week. But if you’re going with a group of people or have a lot of luggage, you may be able to share the costs or, at the very least, justify the cost in terms of comfort and necessity.

Getting the best price Rates among car rental companies are pretty much the same, but a difference of $10 per day or $100 per week can make the choice easy — you want to rent the best car you can get

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online for the least amount of money. The best way to compare companies is to compare the same rental duration and the same model/type of car at different sites. You can rent a comfortable four-door car with unlimited mileage for under $200 per week, not including the extras — insurance or extra seats for kids or babies. Renting by the day is more expensive than renting by the week, so renting for a whole week even if you only need the car for three or four days may be cheaper. If you’ve been thinking about buying a particular car, consider renting that model so you can really put it through its paces before making a future purchase. You can ask for a particular model when you rent your car, too. Some car dealers rent cars as well, and may cut you a break on the rental rate if they know you’re shopping for a car.

Risky business: Insurance Before you pay for any insurance through the car rental company, find out what coverage your own car insurance company gives you on a rental car. Many policies cover your use of rental cars, making the extra insurance that the rental company offers an unnecessary expense. On the other hand, if your insurance company doesn’t offer coverage or you don’t have time to find out about your coverage, getting the extra insurance can be worth the peace of mind. Just knowing that the extra insurance can absorb some (or all) of the cost of any potential repairs may be a relief. You have less pressure choosing insurance online than when you’re standing across the counter from a salesperson dedicated to selling you insurance for your rental car. Pay for only what you need and want.

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Be sure to go over the car with the rental agent after you pick up or accept delivery of the rental car. The agent should have a checklist on which he or she notes any existing body or interior damage so that you’re not held responsible for damage that was already done to the car. If you see a scratch or dent that the agent doesn’t spot, speak up! Take the time to become familiar with the car before you pull out of the agency’s lot. Find out where the wiper and defroster controls are, where the hand brake is, and adjust your seat so you can see and reach everything. Adjust your mirrors, too!

Changing or Canceling Ground Transportation Sometimes, no matter how carefully you plan, something beyond your control comes along and changes your plans. If, for some reason, you have to cancel or change your plans, you can also change or cancel your car rental arrangements. However, you have to give the rental car company enough notice, normally 24 hours before you’re scheduled to pick up the car. If you don’t give the rental car agency enough notice, you may be liable for some or all of the cost of the rental. Trains and buses are another story. If you purchase Amtrak or Greyhound tickets, you can’t return the tickets. You may be able to sell the tickets to someone else (when was the last time a conductor or driver asked you for ID?), but you can’t return or exchange the tickets. Local transit companies’ tickets are also non-refundable, but they also don’t have your name on them, so that you can easily sell or give the tickets to someone else who may be able to use them.

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CHAPTER 6

BOOKING YOUR ACCOMMODATIONS I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Choosing the right accommodations for your trip

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Your online options for booking hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, hostels, and other accommodations

■

Making arrangements for any special travel needs you may have

If you’ve ever stayed in a terrible hotel — where the staff was rude or invisible, the rooms were dirty, or you felt unsafe — you know how important finding comfortable, pleasant accommodations is. You can find great lodging in virtually any price range if you do your online shopping carefully. This chapter helps you find reasonably priced accommodations at hotels, motels, bed-and-breakfasts, and inns of virtually any description. You can normally locate and book your reservations online, although some places still rely on phone reservations even if you find their hotel, B&B, or inn online. Where you stay on vacation or on a business trip can be as, if not more, important as how you get to your destination in the first place — so take your time and do your homework. Where you stay can mean the difference between a relaxing stay at a place you’d happily return to and a harrowing experience at a place you’d rather forget.

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What Kind of Accommodations Do You Need? Cost, personal preference, location, and availability are the biggest influences on your accommodation choice. If you have a budget for your trip, you know how much of it can be spent on lodging. If you have special requirements, such as wheelchair access or a restricted diet, you may have to book a particular type of accommodation, regardless of price. If you’re headed to a relatively out-of-the-way place, your choices may be limited to small inns or motels. Don’t underestimate the value of a comfortable, clean room even if you’re “only” on a business trip. While a vacation should be relaxing and fun, a business trip requires that you feel rested and ready to do your best. Your hotel choice, even if your employer is picking up the tab, can make all the difference.

Hotels Hotels offer consistency. If you’ve stayed at one Holiday Inn, you’ll recognize the next one you visit by its décor. Similarly, you can expect a certain level of consistency in terms of service and amenities. While some travelers find that sort of consistency to be boring, others find it comforting — chain hotels take one more piece of guesswork out of the planning and executing of any trip, be it for business or pleasure. Hotels also have more amenities to offer, such as a gym or spa onsite, business services at or through the front desk, and sometimes a free breakfast or special pricing for children — a real benefit to traveling families. Depending on how many of these amenities the hotel has and that you take advantage of, you can normally find a hotel in your price range. You can find hotels in every price range, from $50 a night to $2,000. By using the Web to research your options, you can find a room that’s worth whatever you’re paying, and eliminate surprises.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online To find a hotel in virtually any city, anywhere in the world, try the Hotel Discounts Web site (www.hoteldiscount.com). Hotel Discounts allows you to search by location and lists several hotels and inns that match your search criteria. Figure 6-1 shows a search for hotels in London. If the hotel has a Web site of its own, check out the site to see what amenities the hotel offers and what rules it imposes on guests. Does it allow pets? Is there a pool? Can you get a non-smoking room? The more you know ahead of time, the more relaxing your stay will be.

Figure 6-1:

Click the Book Now button to book a room in the hotel you choose from the list.

Suites Suites are great if you’re staying for more than just a few nights and if you won’t be traveling alone. Even if you’re taking a trip with someone with whom you like to spend time, traveling

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can be a stressful experience. Consider a suite for you and your travel-mate so that you both have some space to spread out — couches on which to read or nap, a TV that isn’t right next to the bed, or even a relaxing hot tub or spa to soak in. The difference between a hotel room and a suite is the size and the amount of furniture — and the price. Suites are, as you expect, more expensive, at least double the price of a double room in the same hotel. Some hotel chains now have allsuite hotels in various spots throughout the United States, and others have just a few suites amongst the regular rooms in the hotel. If the hotel Web site has a Search text box, type Suite to find out if the hotel offers them.

Extended stay options Are you going to be in town for an entire month? Usually booked by people traveling on business, extended stay hotels offer the equivalent of studio apartments that you can book for as short as a week to as long as several months. If you’ll be in the area for a year, renting an apartment is probably cheaper than using an extended stay hotel option. To find extended stay hotels, type “extended stay hotels” into your favorite search site’s Search text box. Use the quotes as shown to avoid a lot of unrelated matches in your search results, or you can follow the directory system — HotBot (www.hotbot.com) lists these accommodations under Corporate Lodging.

Bed-and-breakfasts To get the local flavor of a place, stay with the locals. Bedand-breakfasts (often simply called B&Bs) are normally part of someone’s house or a large home converted into separate rooms. You have the benefit of staying with someone who knows which restaurants are good and where the best sightseeing or other activities are. More importantly, the innkeeper

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online and/or staff can help you steer clear of tourist traps that aren’t worth your time or money. Just meeting someone who lives and perhaps has spent his or her entire life in the area you’re visiting is worth the extra effort to find a B&B and maybe live without some of the amenities provided at a hotel. You may have to share a bathroom, and usually the “breakfast” in the bed-and-breakfast should be taken literally — no other meal or service is provided. Table 6-1 lists some bed-andbreakfast sites to visit. Table 6-1: Bed-and-Breakfast Sites Web Site

URL

Special Features

Bed&Breakfast Inns Online

www.bbonline.com

Specializing in bed-and-breakfast lodging, this site allows you to search by location, enter contests to win a free stay at a featured B&B, access a recipe database of B&B food, and even find inns that are for sale if you want to run a B&B yourself.

Travel Pick

www.travelpick .com/ bed_breakfasts .htm

This site specializes in all types of lodging, but the bed_ breakfasts.htm part of the URL takes you to the site’s B&B dedicated page where you can search by location for B&Bs all around the world.

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Web Site

URL

Special Features

InnSite

www.innsite.com

Boasting over 5,000 listings throughout the world, this site also features a particular B&B each day, providing a picture of the inn. You can join a discussion group and talk with other travelers about their B&B experiences.

111 Travel Directory www.triple1.com/ find.htm

Bed and Breakfast Network

www.Bedand breakfast network.com

Scroll through several links to regions all over the globe to find your destination state in the United States or country anywhere in the world. This site also features special B&B’s and inns, with links to specific information about them. Explore 15,000 bed-and-breakfast listings at this very comprehensive site.

Unlike a hotel, where your stay is likely to be rather impersonal, staying at a bed-and-breakfast is like staying in someone’s home. Do take the time to look at photographs of the inn and rooms, if available, and call the inn directly if you

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online have any questions that the online content doesn’t cover. Figure 6-2 shows a featured inn from the Bed&Breakfast Inns ONLINE (www.bbonline.com) Web site.

Hostels For some travelers, the fact that hostel sounds like hostile is no coincidence. Not that hostel owners are grumpy — they’re usually very pleasant. Hostels are just not luxurious. Hostels are very bare bones, very inexpensive, and usually filled with school and church groups, traveling on a tight budget and carrying backpacks. Figure 6-2:

The close quarters and home-like atmosphere of a B&B makes it important to get a feel for the place before you arrive.

If that sounds like just what you need, then check out the sites in Table 6-2 to find a hostel for you or your group.

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Table 6-2: Hostel Web Sites Web Site

URL

Special Features

Hostelling International

www.hiayh.org The Hostelling International Web site contains information on hundreds of U.S. hostels and links to hostel sites all over the world. A true resource for youth hostels and school/church travel.

International Youth Hostel Federation

www.iyhf.org/ A fact-filled site iyhf/ehome. containing articles html about what hostelling is, what to expect at a hostel, and links to hostels throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. There are several links also pertaining solely to hostel accommodations in China.

Fédération Unie des Auberges de Jeunesse

www.fuaj.org/ Headed to France? eng/index. This site covers html the hostels throughout France, and offers both a French and English version of the site.

Type hostels in any search engine, such as Yahoo! (www.yahoo.com), or use the directory system at Yahoo!, where you can find links devoted to Hostels under Travel and Lodging.

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Booking Your Accommodations Online After you find lodging, you can usually make reservations online. Bear in mind, however, that some smaller inns may not accept online reservations, and you have to call to book your room. Having to call shouldn’t dissuade you from booking with that hotel — many small establishments are more concerned with providing comfort to their guests than with maintaining a Web presence. If the hotel does have its own Web site, you may find that it offers a discount for booking online, often as much as 10 percent. After you book your room, it pays to call and confirm that the reservation was booked properly, “just in case” — no sense risking your vacation or business trip on the stability of the Web site’s reservation software! If you go to one of the travel Web sites, such as Expedia (www.expedia.com) or Travelocity (www.travelocity. com), you can search for hotels at your destination, and book them directly online — most travel sites don’t maintain information on hotels or inns that won’t accept online reservations. To book a hotel with Travelocity, for example, you enter your home ZIP code, a nearby airport, or a nearby tourist spot to find a conveniently located place to stay. As you scroll down the Travelocity page, you can choose a particular hotel chain, specify any personal or business needs you may have, such as wheelchair accessibility, a fitness center, or hotels that accept pets. You can enter a frequent flyer program name and user number if you’re part of a program that can save you money on your accommodations. If the resulting room is too expensive, use your browser’s Back button and remove some of the amenities you may have chosen — reducing the number or type of extras can reduce the price of the room. You may also find that changing your arrival or departure time/date can affect the price. It pays to explore the options, especially if your schedule is flexible.

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Check out the Frommer’s Web site, a great resource for just about all your travel needs. If you’ve ever read one of Arthur Frommer’s travel books, you know he has the travel savvy to host a useful Web site. Go to www.frommers.com for airfare, hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, cruises, and a variety of special travel deals. If you’ve already visited the Web site of the lodging provider you want to use, then you may have noticed a Make Reservation link or something similar. You may notice that upon clicking the hotel’s reservations link that you are taken to a different Web site — perhaps a travel site or a site that functions purely to allow you to book a room with the hotel from whose site you started. The reason that some sites transfer you to a separate booking site is because many smaller hotels and inns don’t have the staff or funds to create and maintain their own functioning e-commerce Web sites.

Making Special Arrangements Although you can make sure that the hotel or inn provides the amenities you want when you make your reservation online, you may or may not be able to make certain special arrangements online. For example, if you need a nonsmoking room, you can book the room that way online. If, on the other hand, you’re a woman traveling alone and are concerned about your safety, you usually can’t make sure that you book a room on an upper floor if you’re making your reservation online. You may need to call the hotel to make sure that you don’t end up on the first floor. People with disabilities have special travel needs. Check out the MossRehab ResourceNet Web site at www. moss resourcenet.org to find out what kind of travel help you or someone you know may need, and follow links to find hotels that cater to the special needs of the disabled. Figure 6-3 shows the Moss Rehabilitation travel site.

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Figure 6-3:

For a safe and enjoyable trip, make sure that your hotel accommodates your needs.

Altering Hotel Reservations If your travel plans change, you can usually change your lodgings, as well. Hotel reservations are just reservations. You can change or cancel them, but only up to a prescribed period of time before the date/time you are to arrive and take your room. Most hotels allow you to change your arrival date, room type, or the duration of your visit up to 24 hours before the reservation date, but you always need to check with the hotel directly. Don’t wait to find out the hard way — a charge on your credit card statement — that your hotel was the exception to this rule.

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CHAPTER 7

GETTING AROUND AT YOUR DESTINATION I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Finding out what to do and where to go before you get there

■

Locating sources of help in case you get into trouble

■

Booking tickets to shows and cultural events ahead of time

■

Finding tour groups

■

Staying safe and in touch by renting a cell phone

When you arrive at your destination, be it by air, sea, or ground (or some combination of the three) and check into your hotel, you probably want to go somewhere, such as a museum, a park, or a local attraction. How do you get around so that you can see everything you want to see? Depending on where you are, your options for getting around and finding fun stuff to do vary. If your travel destination accommodates tourists, you won’t have much trouble, because these places already know how to cater to tourists. If a popular attraction that you want to see is far from the center of town, a bus or train most likely stops there. You can find information at a variety of Web sites to help you either arrange transportation before you go, or to give you phone numbers to call after you get to your destination, if advance booking isn’t possible. Planning your vacation to include your particular interests (from finding the nightlife to finding something to do with the kids) is the key to creating a memorable, successful trip.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Research ahead of time if you want to purchase concert or theater tickets. You may not be able to purchase advance tickets for kid-oriented activities, but you’ll be glad you found out where the activities are so that you’re not scrambling for diversions at the last minute. This chapter gives you a head start on planning your activities after you get to your destination — guided tours by bus, by bike, or on foot, and rail packages that guarantee to get you from point A to point B for a fixed price. You can also find out how to stay safe by lining up a cell phone that works — if you leave your home country, remember that you won’t be able to use yours.

Traveler’s Aid: Directions and Support After You Get There Depending on your hotel, a concierge may be able to help you figure out train schedules, find a doctor if you feel sick, or locate a restaurant that caters to your particular dietary requirements. If you’re staying at a bed-and-breakfast, the innkeeper is probably a wealth of information. If you’re on a budget and choose to stay at a bare-bones establishment, you may have to seek other help, and doing some research before leaving for your trip helps. Some sites to check out are listed in Table 7-1. Table 7-1:

General Travel Sites

Web Site

Site Name URL

Special Features

Fodor’s

www.fodors.com

Choose a location and print a Miniguide that lists all the places to go, people to see, and things to do, including hotels, restaurants, tourist sites, and obscure but interesting places off the beaten path.

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Web Site

Site Name URL

Special Features

The European Tourist Information Center

www.iol.ie/ ~discover/ europe.htm

The European Touristravel Information Center is ideal if you’re destined for anywhere in Europe.

Japan National Tourist Organization

www.jnto.go.jp

Headed for Japan? Check out this site to find out where to go, what to see, and how to get around.

To find a complete list of online sources, type “tourist information” (in quotes) into a search site, such as HotBot (www.hotbot.com). The resulting links connect you to sites that provide information on virtually any vacation or business trip destination, from New York to New Guinea and thousands of places in between. Try typing the name of your destination city into your browser’s search box — if your destination has an official Web site, it should appear in the search results. With a little poking around within the site, you may find useful maps and information about places to go and things to do, as well as discount coupons offered by the city’s Chamber of Commerce.

Finding out about trips and tours Traveling with people of similar backgrounds and interests can be a lot of fun. Group trips and tours can also save you money because hotels and airlines tend to charge less if you purchase in bulk — a block of seats on a plane or a group of rooms in a hotel. You may be lucky enough to belong to a church group or another organization that is already planning a group tour. If you’re not part of a group, however, you’re not destined to travel alone. You can join group tours anytime, going anywhere.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online To find out about group tours, search any travel Web site, such as Travelocity at www.travelocity.com or Trip at www.trip.com. Most travel sites offer package vacations and tours, where you can join a group and take advantage of the savings and fun of traveling with a group of people. Figure 7-1 shows the Expedia site (www.expedia.com) Tours page. If your church or school group is planning a trip, check out the GroupSource Travel site at www.groupsource.com. This site specializes in planning tours for established groups.

Figure 7-1:

Search for Tours & Excursions on the Expedia home page and then select a location to tour, such as New Orleans.

Going as a group: The guided tour If you’re a free spirit, tours have some drawbacks. You have a set schedule and a list of places that the tour is going, and if you want to see those places, you need to go with the group at a prescribed time. The positive side of scheduled tours is that the tours are normally guided, which means someone

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with at least a good general knowledge of your destination accompanies the group, pointing out important sites and providing historical or cultural context. Guided tours generally fall into two categories: ■

Escorted tours provide a tour guide who stays with the group throughout the entire trip, guiding you and your fellow travelers to each stop on the tour, and providing information about each place you visit.

■

Hosted tours are a little less structured than escorted tours, providing a little more freedom to deviate from the plan each day. Instead of a single guide staying with the group from start to finish, the group meets a different guide at each spot in the tour. The guide normally helps you create your own private itinerary if you want to escape the group for the day and head off on your own.

Companies specialize in guided tours, and Table 7-2 lists some tours you can check out. Table 7-2:

Tour Companies

Tour Company

URL

Central Holidays

www.centralh.com

Contiki Holidays

www.contiki.com

Insight Vacations

www.insighttours.com

The Insight Vacations Web site makes finding a tour easy. You start by choosing your home country from a list (see Figure 7-2), and end by selecting your destination to search for tours that will be starting out near you and ending up where you want to go.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online After specifying your country of origin, click the Go button. The next page shows your touring options, the Mediterranean, First Class Tours of Europe and Britain, or a more budget-minded High Value Europe and Britain. Click the one that you want to explore, or type an exact location in the Search For text box at the bottom of the page. Click the tour links (the underlined text) to find out more about individual tours, such as pricing and schedules. From there, you can proceed to book yourself onto the tour. Figure 7-3 shows the Country Roads tour.

Figure 7-2:

No matter where you’re headed, if you want to go with a group, you need to find one that’s local or at least one that you can get to easily.

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Chapter 7: Getting Around at Your Destination Figure 7-3:

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This particular tour offers 19 days all over Great Britain, as far south as London and as far north as the Scottish Highands.

Do you need a rail pass? If you’re heading for Europe and planning to do any traveling after you get to your main destination, consider getting a rail pass. You can’t buy a rail pass after you’re in Europe; you can only purchase rail passes in North America. Obviously, you need to make your decision before you leave! How do you know if a rail pass will be cost effective? First, make a list of all the places you intend to visit while you’re in Europe. For example, if you’re going to stay primarily in London, many of the places you’ll want to go — day trips to various towns, castles, museums, and other tourist sites — require either a rental car or the train to get there. If you don’t want to learn to drive on “the wrong side of the road,” which

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online is troublesome for many people, the train is your best bet. Based on where you want to go, you can then decide if purchasing a rail pass is a better buy than purchasing individual train tickets for each of your small journeys. Table 7-3 lists some rail-pass pricing, using British Rail as an example. Table 7-3:

British Rail Pass Pricing

Days

First Class Adult

Second Class

8 days

$400

$265

$340

15 days

$600

$400

$510

22 days

$760

$505

$645

1 month

$900

$600

$765

AdultFirst Class Senior

As you can see, even if you’ll be traveling for only a week, $400 is very reasonable for unlimited train travel, assuming you’re planning several day trips or even overnight trips from your main location to other areas. Having the pass also saves time when you get to the station. You don’t have to queue up and buy a ticket — you can just get on the train and grab a seat in the class dictated by the pass you purchased. Europe’s trains are generally clean and well staffed, and keep to their schedules. To find out more about the cost of rail passes in Europe, try these sites: ■

www.britainbybritrail.com

■

www.railpass.com

You can price and purchase rail passes from either of these sites. Figure 7-4 shows the Britain by BritRail site, which lists the various rail passes and pricing and provides links to make a purchase.

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Planning a lot of day trips? A rail pass makes it easy and cost effective to take the train.

Entertainment and Cultural Options Not every traveler wants or needs to plan activities. Some vacations are purely meant for relaxation — a towel, a drink, and the beach are all you need. If you’re traveling on business, you may not have time for side trips or fun outings in the evenings. If, however, you like to stay active and want to experience the culture and nightlife at your destination, finding concerts, movies, plays, and other events to attend is a good idea, and planning them ahead of time is an even better idea. The quickest way to find activities to do at your destination and the surrounding area is to find a travel or tourist site dedicated to that location. If, for example, you’re headed for Paris, you can search for sites pertaining solely to travel and

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online activities in Paris. By typing the name of your destination, such as “Paris Nightlife” (using the quotation marks), you can find sites, such as these listed in Table 7-4 that represent a sampling of specific activities and locations. Table 7-4:

Finding Activities for Children

Web Site

URL

Special Features

Paris-franceguide

www. parisfrance guide.com

This site contains anything and everything you can do for fun in and around Paris.

Parks.TheLinks

www.parks. thelinks.com

Amusement parks, national parks, roller coasters, safari parks — if it’s a park, or in a park in the United States, it’s probably listed here.

USA Citylink

www.usacity link.com

If you’re looking for something to do in just about any city in the United States, this site is invaluable.

FunGuide

www.funguide .com

This site boasts information on anything fun to do anywhere in the United States and the rest of the world, and it delivers.

Locating Great Restaurants Having dinner at a good restaurant is always fun. If your vacation or business trip takes you to a place known for its cuisine, trying a restaurant or two for dinner or even lunch

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is as important as going to any museum or famous tourist attraction. To find restaurants in your destination city, type the name of the city into the Search box at your favorite search site, followed by +restaurants for a list of restaurant Web sites and Web sites that list restaurants in the specified city. Table 7-5 lists some sites to check for restaurant listings and ratings. Table 7-5:

Restaurant Web Sites

Web Site

URL

Special Features

CuisineNet

www.cuisinenet .com

The restaurants in 16 U.S. cities are listed, including menus, customer comments, and pricing information.

Restaurants.com

www.restaurants .com

Click the U.S. map or choose a country or city from the drop-down lists on the right to see a list of the restaurants in that location.

Yahoo! Restaurants restaurants. yahoo.com

Twenty-four different U.S. cities are listed, plus a drop-down list that allows you to browse by state (not all states are listed, however). Find the city you’re visiting, select a type of food, and see a list of the restaurants in it, including price information. (continued)

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Table 7-5:

Restaurant Web Sites (continued)

Web Site

URL

Special Features

MenuHunter.com

www.menuhunter .com

Search by city, state, or ZIP code to find just about any restaurant in the United States.

Zagat

www.zagat.com

Famous for providing succinct, useful restaurant reviews, the online equivalent of the Zagat Guides offers useful information for anyone who likes to eat.

Accommodating Special Dietary Needs Do you keep Kosher? Are you a vegetarian or vegan? Need salt-free food? Just about any dietary need can be accommodated by at least one restaurant at your destination. Search for kosher restaurants, health food restaurants, or vegetarian restaurants to see a list of sites that fit your needs. Vegetarians can also try these sites for lists of restaurants that serve meat-free food. These sites all list restaurants that cater to vegetarians and vegans, and solicit new listings — so if you know of a great vegetarian restaurant, let them know, which is how useful lists grow and help more travelers: ■

www.vegdining.com

■

www.vegeats.com

■

www.veg.org/veg/guide

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Some Kosher restaurant guides to check out: ■

www.mazornet.com/jewishcl/kosherfd.htm

■

www.kosher.co.il/rest

The concierge at your hotel can help you find a restaurant that caters to your dietary needs. Don’t hesitate to ask.

Booking Concert and Show Tickets Prior to Your Trip To find out about any cultural activity — concerts, plays, art galleries — that you can attend while on vacation, try these Web sites: ■

www.culturefinder.com

■

www.tickets.com

Figure 7-5 shows the CultureFinder site at www. culturefinder.com and a list of ballets coming up in the New Orleans area. To buy tickets to one of the events, click the link, and follow the site’s directions. The process varies slightly by site. The booking process is simple. Click the event of your choice, and follow the directions to select tickets, choose a seat (where possible), and give your credit card information and address. Thinking of a theme park? Try the Disney World Web site at disney.go.com/DisneyWorld/intro.html and the Six Flags Web site at www.sixflags.com. You may be able to find special deals if you purchase tickets through these official Web sites.

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Figure 7-5:

Narrow your search to the city and typeof event you’re most interested in.

For Safety’s Sake: Renting Cell Phones in Foreign Countries It’s hard to remember what life was like before cell phones, and when you’re on vacation, the last thing you want to do is find correct change to use a pay phone, or use an expensive calling card. Depending on your location, an overheated car on a deserted road can turn an aggravating delay into a dangerous situation if you can’t phone for help. After you leave your home country, your cell phone won’t work, and thus you won’t have the convenience and safety of a phone to use in the event of an emergency. What to do? Rent a cell phone. You can rent a cell phone through car rental companies and some organizations devoted solely to cell phone rental, and you can find them almost anywhere in the world. Check out the Web sites listed in Table 7-6.

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Cell Phone Rental Sites

Web Site

URL

Special Features

World Roam

www.worldroam .com

Rent a cell phone for use in over 133 countries around the world. You can even get translations of the phone’s instructions into English to help you use your phone in foreign countries.

Dollar WorldWide Cellular Phone Rentals

www.dollarworldwide.com

You can phone this company for information, or click the FAQ link to find out more about renting cell phones for use around the world. After you understand the process, click the Order Your Phone link.

Using a cell phone away from home is very expensive, as much as $2 per minute. Remember that the cell phone is for emergencies, not for chatting — unless money is no object for you!

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CHAPTER 8

FINDING AND BOOKING PACKAGE VACATIONS I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Locating package vacations

■

Evaluating the package deal

■

Booking your stay at a resort

■

Special deals for senior citizens

We’ve all seen the ads in magazines and on TV — a couple, romantically splashing around in crystal blue ocean water, and a price for the package vacation beckons us. Airfare is included. Lodging at a luxury hotel. Meals. Nightlife. All included? Let the buyer beware. Most package vacation deals are nearly everything they’re cracked up to be, but you need to know all the details before you whip out your credit card and make a non-refundable purchase. Choosing a package vacation that suits your personality and your vacation goals is also very important. This chapter helps you find information about package vacations on the Web and clues you in so that you can save time, money, and aggravation by booking your dream vacation online. If you’re booking a package vacation online, be sure to read all the fine print, and don’t hesitate to call the agency offering the deal.

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Package Deal Pros and Cons The positive and negative aspects of a package vacation are easy to define: ■

Pros: You get to go to a tropical location, ski resort, or theme park — you can find a package deal for just about every popular destination if you look hard enough. And your airfare and hotel decisions are made for you.

■

Cons: I have just one word for you — restrictions. You find restrictions and rules at nearly every turn.

One reason that package deals are popular products for the airline and hotel industry is exposure. If you go away for a fast four-day trip to Jamaica this year, you’ll probably want to go back. You may book a longer trip next year, and maybe you’ll even stay in the same hotel, assuming you enjoyed your stay. If you enjoyed your flight on whatever airline is part of the package, why wouldn’t you use that airline again? The following sections outline more pros and cons of package deals.

Lower prices — extras included What makes a package vacation attractive to the consumer is what’s included. Usually a package deal includes the following: ■

Airfare and hotel are a given — a package just wouldn’t be a package without both of those components as part of the deal.

■

Meals, tours while you’re at your destination, and nighttime or family activities are other potential perks, but you shouldn’t expect them automatically. Read the fine print to make sure these extras are really part of the deal before you book the trip.

■

If the package trip includes skiing, the lift tickets may be included, as may tickets to rides and amusements if your trip takes you to a theme park.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online If the details are sketchy, you can assume that the package isn’t really as all-inclusive as it claims to be. Check out Travel Navigator (www.travelnavigator.com), which offers five tabs containing information about the package, and clearly lists what’s included.

Restrictions? What kind of restrictions? Some of the terms and restrictions you may face in a typical package vacation offer include the following: ■

The airline, hotel, restaurant, or travel agent that you can choose are limited.

■

Prices and dates are subject to change without notice.

Dates are the biggest restriction. The reason that hotels and airlines agree to participate in package vacations is to boost business at times of the year when people aren’t as likely to travel. You usually have a month or two window of time in which you can take the trip, and you have to choose a departure date within the prescribed range of dates. The prospect of restrictions may not bother you, especially if you’re looking for a quick getaway that doesn’t require much planning. If, on the other hand, you aren’t a natural conformist, you may not like someone telling you which hotel or restaurant you have to go to, in order to get what you paid for. Figure 8-1 shows the list of package restrictions for a Caribbean vacation.

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Look for Terms and Conditions on travel Web sites.

Finding Great Package Deals Online The Web is the perfect place to book a package vacation because nothing beats the speed of the Internet for finding a good travel site and being able to follow the links to browse hundreds (or thousands) or potential vacations. Check out the sites that specialize in or include package vacation deals and information. Table 8-1 lists just a few. Table 8-1: Web Sites Specializing in Package Vacations Site Name

URL

Special Features

Vacation Package Net

www.vacation- Interested in package.net cruising the Rhine? This site focuses on vacation packages to Germany. (continued)

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Table 8-1: Web Sites Specializing in Package Vacations (continued) Site Name

URL

Special Features

Travel Navigator

www.travel This site offers a navigator.com wide variety of vacation packages, from the standard tropical locales to European destinations.

Online Vacation Mall

www.online vacationmall .com

Another diverse site, this one has special deals through airlines, resorts, and family vacation spots like Disney World.

Tropical Island Vacation

www.tropical island vacation.com

Specializing in vacations to tropical locations, this site lists resorts and clubs, such as Club Med, Couples, and Castaway Island. Click the links to find out about yacht charters, cruises, and other package deals.

Traveling to Resorts and Clubs Resort packages are very attractive because of the activities and the atmosphere. Many resorts and clubs create the look and feel of a spa — everything aimed at making the travel buyer feel relaxed and pampered at all times. Most travel Web sites have a Resorts or Clubs link, or you can search within the site for any such vacations. You can also search the Web for resort and club Web sites, through which

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you can book directly. Your search can include a location name — try searching for Mexican resort vacations, European Resorts, or Ski Resorts to see what kind of interesting sites appear. Some sites to try are listed in Table 8-2. Table 8-2: Club and Resort Web Sites Site Name

URL

Special Features

Club Med

www.clubmed. com

The one that started the resort craze, Club Med’s Web site gives you access to over 100 Club Med locations, from Mexico to Marrakech.

Sun Valley

www.sunvalley. com

Sun Valley’s site contains links to information about weather, lodging, and activities, and directions to the resort.

Seabrook Resort

www.seabrook resort.com

Combine your love of golf with an interest in the environment. This resort in South Carolina has an Audubon Society Certified Bird Sanctuary on the grounds, plus activities for adults and children.

Search your favorite search engine for All-Inclusive Resorts to see a list of travel sites that specialize in resort package vacations. Figure 8-2 shows the www.all-inclusives.com site, where you can choose from a wide variety of resorts for your next vacation.

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Figure 8-2:

Meals and entertainment are part of the plan on an “all-inclusive” vacation.

Visit the sites in Table 8-3 to see other all-inclusive sites to find a resort vacation that meets your needs: Table 8-3: All-inclusive Resort Vacation Sites Site Name

URL

Special Features

Vacation Hotline

www.vacationhotline.com/ resorts.htm

Check out a wide variety of resort vacations — geared toward romantic couples, families, sports enthusiasts, and those simply wanting to sip a drink on the beach.

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Site Name

URL

Special Features

All-inclusive Resorts

www. allinclusive resorts.net

Follow this site’s links to find out about weather and shopping, and for maps of resorts. You can’t book these trips online, but you can find out about them before you call the 800 number.

All-inclusive Jamaica

www.allinclusivejamaica.com

Jamaica and other Caribbean resorts are represented here.

Honey-moon Mall

www.honeymoon mall.com

As the name implies, this site specializes in honeymoon vacations.

4All-inclusives

www.4all inclusives .com

Check out this site if a Caribbean package interests you.

Even if a resort vacation promises that you don’t need to bring money because everything is included, do bring travelers checks for emergency purchases — clothes, food, or gifts for the folks back home. To find out about obtaining traveler’s checks, go to www.americanexpress.com. You can also search the Web for traveler’s checks to find out about other banks and financial services companies that offer them. Anything you do outside of the package deal, such as eating at restaurants outside of the resort or taking sightseeing trips to spots beyond the resort itself, will cost you. Check out what else there is to do, if anything, beyond the resort’s boundaries before you go, and bring money or traveler’s checks to cover your expenses.

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Getting Senior Citizen Savings With age comes wisdom — and a chance to save money on everything from movie tickets to hotel rooms. If you’re over the age of 55, don’t miss out on the information, advice, and great deals available online just because you don’t feel old. Visit Senior Pages (www.seniorpages.com). Click any link on the site to find out about vacations designed and priced just for active senior citizens. Check Table 8-4 for more travel information especially designed for the traveler over age 55. Table 8-4: Travel Sites for Seniors Site Name

URL

Services for Seniors

4 Seniors

www.4seniors. Tons of information on com travel deals for seniors, plus links to recreation, retirement communities, and tips for healthy living.

Florida Tour Connection

www. floridatour connection. com

This site is run by a tour operator specialzing in bus tours and cruises for senior citizens throughout the United States and Canada.

Elder Hostel

www.elder hostel.org

Educational travel for seniors is the focus of this non-profit organization’s Web site.

Senior Pages

www.senior pages.com/ travel.htm

Click the Travel link on this site’s home page for information just for travelers enjoying their retirement years.

out www.smarterliving.com/columns/ edsenior/20000331.html for travel tips written by a sen-

Check

ior traveler — Ed Perkins — on a Web site designed for traveling senior citizens.

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CHAPTER 9

TWO IF BY SEA: BOOKING A CRUISE ONLINE I N TH I S CHAPTER ■

Discovering cruise destinations and choosing the right one

■

Evaluating ports of call and on/off-board activities

■

Selecting a cruise line that offers an enjoyable vacation

■

Getting to the ship from home inexpensively

At one time, the only way to get from North America to the European continent was by boat. It was during those days that cruise vacations got their start. Reaching a destination was the goal of the trip, but getting pampered by a courteous staff, dining formally, and lounging on deck chairs along the way certainly didn’t hurt. Eventually, someone even came up with the “Cruise to Nowhere,” which is a trip that consists solely of a ride on the ship, out into the sea and back. And that’s the appeal of a cruise. Often, cruise ships stop at one or more ports of call along the way, serving as your moving hotel as you experience more fun on land. For many travelers, the cruise ship itself is more important than the final destination. This chapter shows you where to find information on cruise vacations, how to choose the right cruise for you, and how to book a cruise online. Between general travel Web sites and the Web sites of the cruise lines themselves, cruises to everywhere (and nowhere) abound.

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Choosing the Cruise Line and Destination for You Many different cruises exist for every type of person. You can find cruises for the adventurous, the athletic, or the overworked. Cruises go virtually anywhere that water goes — the Titanic striking an iceberg didn’t scare the ships from traversing the freezing waters of the North Atlantic, and the Bermuda Triangle doesn’t keep travelers from the islands. If water laps up onto the shore of a place, a cruise ship probably is headed there. The Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) has a Web site at www.cruising.org that contains valuable information on cruises, which is especially useful if you’re planning your first cruise. As shown in Figure 9-1, you can click the Cruise Questions link to see a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and their corresponding answers. Figure 9-1:

Check the CLIA site for anything and everything that you want to know about cruise vacations.

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Locating and Learning about Cruise Vacations Browse listings to see where the ships are going and what kinds of activities to expect. All of the travel sites, such as www. expedia.com, www.trip.com, www.frommers.com, and www.yahoo.travel.com, allow you to book cruises. Other travel sites focus primarily on cruising. You can find some cruise-specific sites listed in Table 9-1. Table 9-1: Cruise Web Sites Site Name

URL

Special Features

Cruise Web

www.cruiseweb. com

This site provides one-stop shopping for cruises going anywhere in the world. You can select the destination, or choose a cruise line first, to see where their ships are headed.

Cruise.com

www.cruise.com

Low prices are the focus of this site, offering a wide variety of cruises and cruise vacation packages. The site guarantees that its prices are 5 to 10% lower than anyone else’s.

CLIA (Cruise Lines International Association)

www.cruising. org

Rather than selling cruises, this is the official Web site of the CLIA, the Cruise Lines International Association. You can find cruise experts, compare the cruise lines, and read the CLIA online cruiseplanning magazine. (continued)

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online Table 9-1: Cruise Web Sites (continued) Site Name

URL

Special Features

1-2-Cruise, Inc.

www.1-2-cruise. Click links to pages com devoted to the big cruise lines — Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, and others — to find a cruise that’s going where you want to go.

The Only Way to Travel

www.onlywayto travel.com/ cruises.htm

This site boasts a staff of CLIAcertified agents who are poised to help you set up a honeymoon, family vacation, or even a family reunion. Click the graphic video link to order a videotape called “Prepared for Your Cruise” to help you get ready for your vacation at sea.

Many experienced travelers recommend that you speak with a travel agent on the phone when you book a cruise because getting to the ship from home can be complicated. Very few cruises include airfare in the price of the vacation, which means that you have to coordinate your airline reservations very carefully and allow yourself plenty of time. Booking your cruise over the phone won’t take any longer, and you can still do most of your research online at your leisure before calling the travel agent. For more information about specific cruise lines and to book your cruise, you can also go directly to the cruise line’s own Web site, and investigate its ships, schedules, and vacation package deals. Try the cruise line sites listed in Table 9-2.

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Table 9-2: Cruise Line Web Sites Cruise Line

Web Address

Big Red Boat

www.bigredboat.com

Carnival Cruise Line

www.carnival.com

Celebrity Cruises

www.celebrity-cruises.com

Cunard Lines

www.cunard.com

Holland America Cruise Line www.hollandamerica.com Princess Cruises

www.princesscruises.com

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines www.rccl.com Windjammer Cruises

www.windjammer.com

Getting to the Ship If the cruise isn’t departing from a port near you (or you don’t live near the ocean), you may have to get to the ship on your own. Some cruise vacations include airfare to the departure point, but many don’t. Sometimes you can get a lower airfare if you’re booking a cruise directly from a travel agent. This sort of combination deal is usually executed in person, not online. The cruises that include airfare to the departure point are called Air/Sea Cruises and are not generally found online. One of the first details that you want to find out is whether or not airfare is included; adding airfare out of your own pocket can often double the cost of your vacation. For example, if your Alaskan cruise departs from Vancouver, Washington but you live on the U.S. East Coast, you have to purchase airfare to Vancouver or somewhere in the Northwest and then take a bus, train, or rental car, just to get to the ship. If you book through a travel agent directly, or buy your cruise and your airfare from the same travel Web site, you may be able to find a better deal on the airfare, the cruise, or both.

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Researching the Perfect Cruise Vacation Reserving space on a cruise ship is still done largely through travel agents, in person, or over the phone. Unless you live very near the ship’s departure point, it can be expensive and complicated to book your travel to and from the ship and coordinate it effectively with the cruise departure and return. However because a lot of cruise information is available online, I recommend that you do your research online before meeting with the travel agent — that way you’ll know which cruise line you want to use, when you want to go, and what destinations you’re interested in. When researching your cruise vacation, consider the following: ■

Price. There are some great deals to be had, and if you take the time to look for them, you can save a lot of money.

■

The ship. How big is it? Is there a pool? Fitness center? Business services (for vacationers who can’t leave work completely behind)?

■

Stuff to do. If you like to keep busy, make sure the ship has entertainment planned and onboard activities available. If you’re bringing your kids, make sure there is a children’s activity coordinator onboard, or at least kidfriendly things planned for each day of the cruise.

■

Time to relax. If you like to sunbathe and sip drinks in solitude as the ship sails to its various destinations, make sure the cruise isn’t going to be more activity-packed than you’d like it to be.

■

Destinations. Regardless of how many ports you’ll be visiting, make sure that you’re interested in the destinations and that any physical limitations you might have won’t make it hard for you to enjoy them.

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Using Expedia to Reserve a Cruise Reserving space on a cruise ship is still done largely through travel agents, in person. You can search for and find a cruise online, however, through travel Web sites and through the cruise lines’ own sites. The following procedure uses the www.expedia.com site, but you can easily apply the same steps to any other site through which you can book a cruise. Follow these steps to begin: 1. Click the Cruises link on the www.expedia.com home

page, shown in Figure 9-2. The Expedia site has a Cruise Wizard, through which you can select your destination, price range, and the amenities you desire on your cruise. Most cruise-related Web pages ask you where you want to go, when, and how much you want to spend. This criteria is used to find the right cruise for you. Figure 9-2:

Expedia has a significant focus on cruise vacations.

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CliffsNotes Booking Your Next Trip Online If you want to be able to swim every day or if you really love to gamble, it’s a good idea to carefully consider your choices of preferred amenities. The Cruise Wizard offers a list of 11 different ship features, and you can select as many as you like. 2. After choosing your amenities, click the Search for

cruises that match my criteria link. The cruise database is searched, and all cruises matching some or all of your choices for destination, departure month, price range, preferred cruise line, and amenities are displayed. A detailed itinerary is also displayed. Click the More Information link below the cruise you’d like to take. The details of the cruise are displayed along with a detailed itinerary. 3. Most cruises must be booked on the phone or in person.

Rather than a reservation link, you’ll find a toll-free number to call or an inquiry form that can be e-mailed to the travel company, who will then contact you to book the cruise. Figure 9-3 shows the details of one of the Cruise Wizard’s finds. No matter what kind of cruise you have in mind, you can probably find it through one of the Web sites listed in this chapter. Your travel agent can help you nail down the details, but by exploring online first, you’re more likely to find the cruise that meets your needs and matches your travel personality. Bon voyage!

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The Cruise Wizard lets you check out the details of a cruise’s itinerary.

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CLIFFSNOTES REVIEW Use this CliffsNotes Review to practice what you’ve learned in this book and to build your confidence in using the Web to plan and book your next vacation or business trip. After you work through the review questions, the problem-solving exercises, and the fun and useful practice projects, you’re well on your way to achieving your goal of becoming a savvy online travel planner!

Q&A 1. You can get up-to-the-minute travel advisories from:

a. Yahoo!. b. The postman. c. The U.S. State Department’s Web site. 2. If you bid for airline tickets at an online auction site, you

need to: a. Have your credit card ready. b. Know where you’re going on vacation. c. Know the average price for the airfare you’re bidding on. 3. True or False: If you change your mind about airline tickets after

you buy them online, you can return the tickets with no problem. True False 4. True or False: You always get the lowest prices by buying your

airline tickets directly from an airline’s Web site. True False

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5. True or False: You have to buy your European rail pass before

you leave North America. True False 6. The most important thing to consider when booking a cruise

online: a. Where the cruise is going. b. What activities are available onboard. c. Are there enough lifeboats. d. All of the above. Answers: (1) c. (2) c. (3) False. (4) False. (5) True. (6) d.

Practice Project Stopping just short of purchasing, arrange a trip that includes ■

A limo ride to the airport.

■

Roundtrip airfare to Manchester, England from Newark, New Jersey.

■

A car rental to be picked up at Manchester airport.

■

Lodging at a bed-and-breakfast in Blackpool, England.

■

A rail pass for five days of train travel in the United Kingdom.

■

Tickets to a play in London.

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CLIFFSNOTES RESOURCE CENTER The learning doesn’t need to stop here. The CliffsNotes Resource Center shows you the best of the best — links to the best information in print and online about booking travel online. And don’t think that this is all we’ve prepared for you; we’ve put all kinds of pertinent information at www.cliffsnotes.com. Look for all the terrific resources at your favorite bookstore or local library and on the Internet. When you’re online, make your first stop www.cliffs notes.com, where you can find more incredibly useful information about online travel options.

Books This CliffsNotes book is one of many great books about the Internet published by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. So if you want some great next-step books, check out these other publications: Travel Planning Online For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Noah Vadnai with Julian Smith, takes planning a trip (whether for business or for pleasure) one step further. This book includes a directory of Web sites to help you plan and enjoy every aspect of your trip. (IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.) $24.99 The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World 2000, by Bob Sehlinger, is a great book for anyone planning a family vacation to Florida. It’s sure to keep your vacation on-track before you even set foot in the Magic Kingdom. (IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.) $15.95

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CliffsNotes Resource Center

111

Frommer’s Caribbean Cruises and Ports of Call 2000, by Heidi Sarna, covers every ship that sails the Caribbean and gives you tips about when to go, where to go, and everything else you need to know before you book your ticket. (IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.) $19.95 Finding books published by IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. is easy. You find them in your favorite bookstores (on the Internet and at a store near you). We also have three Web sites that you can use to read about all the books we publish: ■

www.cliffsnotes.com

■

www.dummies.com

■

www.idgbooks.com

Internet The following is a list of travel and travel-related Web sites. We encourage you to check them out, and to tap the Web’s considerable resources for researching, planning, and booking your next vacation or business trip: ■

www.allworldcruise.com is a great site for creating a cruise vacation. Browse through hundreds of cruises to find one that meets your needs and travel desires.

■

www.awcv.com is the American Way Cruise Vacations

site, which gives you access to the major cruise lines — Carnival, Princess, Holland America, and Windstar. Check out the cruise discounts and destinations, and book your cruise online. ■

www.busonus.com is a great site for booking bus travel

anywhere in the United States, including trips that connect to interesting Riverboat tours.

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112


www.concierge.com lets you book every aspect of your trip and offers links to Fodor’s and Expedia.

■

www.eurodata.com is a Web site devoted to walking

tours of England, Wales, and Scotland. This site also provides great advice and guidebooks, maps, and other tools to enhance your trip to Europe. ■

www.eurotrip.com is the perfect site for backpack-

ers and other nonconformist travelers. This site provides everything from reviews of hundreds of European hostels to advice on packing your backpack. ■

www.flyaow.com is a site where AOW stands for Airlines of the Web. The home page has a quick and easy tool for finding and booking a flight, as well as links to pages where you can reserve a hotel room, rent a car, or sign on to a cruise ship.

■

www.hotelhelpdesk.com was also known as Tur-

boTrip and as RoomFinders at one time. This site can help you find a hotel in the United States, Canada, Mexico, much of South America, Europe, most of Asia and the Pacific, and tourist-friendly locations in Africa and the Middle East. ■

www.ebay.com auctions nearly anything and every-

thing you can think of and has a Travel category through which you can bid on airfare, hotel reservations, travel packages, and timeshares. ■

www.wheelchair-travel.co.uk.com is the site for you if you’re visiting the United Kingdom and you use a wheelchair. It offers travel assistance for the disabled who want to venture out on their own, providing vans and specially-equipped cars to get you from place to place, including airports and train stations.

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CliffsNotes Resource Center

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Next time you’re on the Internet, don’t forget to drop by www.cliffsnotes.com. We created an online Resource Center that you can use today, tomorrow, and beyond.

Send Us Your Favorite Tips In your quest for learning, have you ever experienced that sublime moment when you figure out a trick that saves time or trouble? Perhaps you realized you were taking ten steps to accomplish something that could have taken two. Or you found a little-known workaround that gets great results. If you’ve discovered a useful tip that helped you book your trip online more effectively and you’d like to share it, the Cliffs Notes staff would love to hear from you. Go to our Web site at www.cliffsnotes.com and click the Talk to Us button. If we select your tip, we may publish it as part of CliffsNote-A-Day, our exciting, free e-mail newsletter. To find out more or to subscribe to a newsletter, go to www.cliffsnotes.com on the Web.

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INDEX NUMERICS 111 Travel Directory, 69 1-2-Cruise, Inc, 102

A accessible travel, 73, 112 AccommoDATA, 24 air travel airline Web sites, 23, 42 airport codes, 46 airport parking, 53 flights, searching, 21, 23, 43–45, 112 frequent flyer miles, 48 ground transportation, 53, 54 money saving tips, 40, 41, 45, 46 name your own price sites, 21, 38, 39 reservations, booking, 48–52 reservations, canceling, 27 seasonal price variations, 11 ticket delivery method, 50 Airlines of the Web (AOW), 112 airportcitycodes.com, 48 All Hotels Global Directory, 24 All World Cruise Network, 111 AltaVista Recreation & Travel page, 23 American Airlines, 42 American Express, 97 American Way Cruise Vacations, 111 Amtrak, 55, 57 Amtrak Intercity Web site, 56 Amtrak Unlimited, 56 amusement parks, 87 auctions. See also name your own price sites bidding, 35, 36, 37 described, 31 registering, 33, 34 searching, 31, 35 site evaluation, 32

B backpacking, 112 BBBOnline, 16 Bed&Breakfast Inns Online, 26, 68

bed-and-breakfasts advantages, 67, 69 reservations, booking, 25–27, 72–74 searching, 24, 26, 68 Best Western hotels, 24 Better Business Bureau, 16, 18 Bid1Travel auction site, 33 Bid4Travel auction site, 33 Big Red Boat cruise line, 103 Britain by BritRail Web site, 82 Britain, sites specific to, 82, 112 British Airways, 42 British Rail passes, 82 Bus On Us Tours, 59 bus travel, 59, 63

C car rental, 60–63 Carnival Cruise Line, 103 Celebrity Cruises, 103 cell phone rental, 88 Central Holidays tours, 79 Chambers of Commerce, 9, 77 children, 9, 10, 83 city guides, 8, 22. See also destination information CLIA. See Cruise Line International Association (CLIA) CliffsNotes Web site, 2 Club Med, 95 Coach USA, 59 complaining, 16, 17 Concierge.com, 112 Consumer Complaint Resolution Center, 17 Contiki Holidays tours, 79 Continental Airlines, 42 country guides, 22. See also destination information Cruise Line International Association (CLIA), 100 Cruise Web, 101 Cruise.com, 101 cruises Air/Sea Cruises, 103 booking through Expedia, 105–107 booking through travel agent, 102, 103 choosing, 104 searching, 100–102, 111 transportation to/from ship, 102, 103

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Index CuisineNet, 85 cultural activities, 87 CultureFinder, 87 Cunard Lines, 103 currency, 13 customer service, 29

D deals from airline Web sites, 42 for seniors, 98 Delta airlines, 42 destination information activities, 83, 87 city guides, 8, 22 country guides, 22 Miniguides, 5, 6 Miniguides, custom, 5 miniguides, personal, 76 restaurants, 84–87 searching, 5, 7, 76, 77 weather, 12 Web sites, local, 8 Direct Hit Web site, 59 disabilities, 73, 112 Disney World, 87 documentation needed to travel, 9

E e-tickets, 50 e-mail junk mail, 28, 39 eBay, 112 Elder Hostel, 98 Equivalence exchange rate site, 14 Europe, sites specific to, 77, 81, 112 The European Tourist Information Center, 77 European Visits Online Magazine, 112 Eurotrip.com, 112 evaluating Web resources, 4, 27–29, 32 exchange rates, 13 Expedia Cruise Wizard, 105–107 Flight Price Matcher service, 21 hotel reservations, 72 Tours page, 78

115

F Fédération Unie des Auberges de Jeunesse, 71 Flightbirds auction site, 33 Florida Tour Connection, 98 Fodors.com, 5, 7, 76 frequent flyer miles, 48 FrequentFlier.com, 48 Frommer’s Web site, 73 FunGuide, 84

G GoingGoingGone auction site, 33, 34 government sites Foreign Entry Requirements page, 9 National Weather Service, 12 passport site, 9 Great Britain, sites specific to, 82, 112 Greyhound buses, 59 group tours, 78–81 GroupSource Travel site, 78

H health, 15. See also safety Hilton hotels, 24 Holiday Inn, 25 Holland America Cruise Line, 103 Honeymoon Mall, 97 Hostelling International, 71 hostels, 70, 98, 112 HotBot, 20, 24, 67 Hotel Discounts Web site, 66 hotelhelpdesk.com, 112 hotels choosing, 65 extended stays, 67 name your own price sites, 38, 39 reservations, booking, 25–27, 72–74 reservations, canceling, 27, 74 reservations, changing, 74 searching, 24, 66, 112 seasonal pricing, 11 suites versus rooms, 67

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116


I

P

inns, 25, 26 InnSite, 25, 69 Insight Vacations tours, 79–81 International Youth Hostel Federation, 71 itinerary planning, 6, 7 iwon search engine, 4

package vacations advantages/disadvantages, 91 described, 91 group tours, 78–81 resorts, 94–97 restrictions, 92 searching, 93 Paris-franceguide, 84 Parks.TheLinks, 84 passports, 9 peak season travel, 10 performing arts, 87 prescriptions, 15 Preview Travel, 21 price comparing, 19 Priceline, 38 pricing sites, 21, 38, 39 Princess Cruises, 103 privacy, 28, 39

J Jewish Celebrations Kosher restaurants listing, 87

K Kosher restaurant guides, 87

L limousine service, 53 local information. See destination information

M Marriott hotels, 25 MenuHunter.com, 86 message boards, 20, 29 Miniguides, 6 money. See currency; exchange rates; travelers checks MossRehab ResourceNet, 73

N name your own price sites, 21, 38, 39. See also auctions National Weather Service, 12 newsgroups, 25

O Online Vacation Mall, 94 The Only Way to Travel cruise Web site, 102

R rail passes, 81–83 Rail Travel in the US Web site, 56 RailPass Express, 82 resorts, 94–97 restaurant Web sites, 84–87 Restaurants.com, 85 Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, 103

S safety, 18, 73, 88. See also health Seabrook Resort, 95 search engines, 4 season, 10 security of transactions, 28 Senior Pages Web site, 98 seniors deals, 98 Seniors Web site, 98 shopping around, 19 shoulder season travel, 11 Six Flags theme park, 87 Smarter Living seniors travel tips, 98 Southwest Airlines, 42 spam, 28, 39 special travel needs, 73 Sun Valley Web site, 95

8629-7 Book.F 7/25/00 8:55 AM Page 117

Index

117

T

W

theme parks, 87 tickets e-tickets, 50 mail delivered, 51 reselling, 63 timeshares, 112 tours, 78, 79, 80, 81 train travel, 55–59, 63, 81–83 trainweb.com, 56 transaction security, 28 Travel Navigator, 92, 94 Travel.com, 29 TravelBids auction site, 33 travelers checks, 97 Travelocity, 22, 72, 78 Trip.com, 20, 29 Tropical Island Vacation Web site, 94 TWA (Trans World Airlines), 42

weather, 10, 12, 13 Weather Underground, 12 Web resources, evaluating, 4, 27–29, 32 Windjammer Cruises, 103 World Guide to Vegetarianism, 86 World Health Organization travel risks site, 15 World Roam cell phone rental, 89

U UKA’s Kosher Restaurants Guide, 87 United States Government sites. See government sites US Airways, 42 USA Citylink, 84

V Vacation Hotline, 96 Vacation Package Net, 93 vaccinations, 15 VegDining.com, 86 VegEats! restaurant guide, 86 vegetarian restaurant guides, 86

X X-Rates exchange rate site, 14

Y Yahoo! auction site, 33 Limousine and Shuttle Services page, 54 restaurants page, 85 search engine, 4 travel page, 20, 29 weather, 12

Z Zagat restaurant guide online, 86

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NOTES ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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NOTES ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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NOTES ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

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