100 Top Websites
INSIDE INFORMATION
www.fco.gov.uk/travel
The latest official travel advice. An essential first port of call to stay safe around the world — and check that your insurance will be valid. Links to the Department of Health for information on vaccinations.
www.gridskipper.com
This "urban travel guide" has up-to-the-minute advice on how to spend your city break like a local, and not like a tourist. The quirky tips on restaurants, shops, parks and nightlife are fresh and eclectic, and the site makes good use of images and maps.
www.thebigproject.co.uk/news
News from around the world — find out what’s happening in destinations you are thinking of visiting. Plus links to travel websites.
www.whatsonwhen.com
Exhaustive global events guide that covers just about all conceivable forms of entertainment, from opera in Italy and major European rock festivals to the tiny and obscure.
www.ahedonistsguideto.com
Well-researched guides to London, Paris, Rome, Lisbon, Tallinn, Prague, Madrid, Marrakesh, Stockholm, Beirut, Miami, Moscow, Berlin, Istanbul and Milan.
www.inyourpocket.com
With so many central and eastern European cities now within easy range of a low-cost airline flight, this website is a (literally) priceless first stop before your holiday. The guides are free to download and print off as pdfs and have information on where to eat and stay and what to see on European city breaks, including more obscure destinations like Tirana in Albania and Minsk in Belarus.
www.itravelishop.com
Keep up with the latest shopping trends around the world along with reviews and information about destinations and luxurious places to stay when you are jetting off to splash the cash. A stylish website to match its content.
www.comebackalive.com
Robert Young Pelton is your guide to the most dangerous destinations. Some interesting information — and plenty of disclaimers.
www.travelwatchdog.com
An independent site that logs complaints and problems with travel companies, from hire cars to timeshares, and has advice on things like insurance and legal issues. Warning: If you want advice from the site because you believe that a travel agent, tour operator or other travel related company has failed you, the site requests a £5 fee before it will issue advice promptly (except where your case involves accident or illness abroad).
FLIGHT ESSENTIALS
www.kayak.co.uk
Kayak searches will find airfares between any airport pair, as well as finding flights for multi-city trips. We love the clean site and lack of ads; the fact that you can search for flights from multiple departure and arrival airports; the Buzz tool, which allows you to search for flights when you don’t have a specific place in mind and want to be inspired; the fact that prices includes taxes and fees; the slider tool that allows you to change flight times; the fare history graph. Another US site that has launched in the UK is www.sidestep.co.uk, which has similar tools and searches multiple websites to compare airfares.
http://news.cheapflights.com
One of the original flight comparison and holiday offer sites, Cheapflights searches a number of different airline and travel agency websites, but also has this useful news section listing new routes and seat sales.
www.seatguru.com
Book the seat you prefer after consulting this site, which has seating plans of most of the world’s major airlines.
www.dohop.com
Now part-owned Cheapflights, but still operating independently from its parent, this brilliantly quick flight comparison site includes major airlines, their prices and destinations around the world, and unlike Cheapflights, you can start your journey outside the British Isles. Snapping on its heels is www.foundem.com, which has a flight search that is similar in look and feel to SideStep.
www.skyscanner.net
Searches hundreds of budget, scheduled and charter airlines for the best deals and times to travel on any route. The design is basic, but the search is fast and the month-wide date search will generate a graph showing when flights are cheapest - handy if your departure dates are flexible.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/flightchecker
Searches budget airlines and tells you when to fly to get the best prices. Also has advice on getting cheaper package holidays and changing currency. Note however, that some airlines are not included, and prices don't include tax, which can add up to £50 onto the cost of a return flight.
www.airlinequality.com
Surveys and rates airlines around the world on food, service, comfort and so forth, with details on seat pitch (distance between seats), as well as an active forum of frequent flyers.
www.flightstats.com
Flightstats has more information than you could ever need on flight statistics, from average delays on a specified route, to airport security wait times; but there are some disgruntled passengers and data demons who obviously contribute extensively this site.
www.airline-network.co.uk
Hard to beat for long-haul bargain flights, Airline Network has all major airline offers and an e-mail newsletter that will make you want to drop everything and fly.
www.flymycase.com
Flymycase is a courier delivery service that forwards your luggage from your home to your arrival address so you don’t have to lug it to and from the airport, worry about it turning up on the carousel or pay such high excess-baggage charges. Also see www.firstluggage.com and for similar services.
www.oag.com
An exhaustive database of travel information that has a free trial service before subscription (£99 a year). Frequent travellers would no doubt benefit from the interactive CD information and real-time flight details, but there is plenty on offer on the site without having to log in.
HOT PLACES TO STAY
www.i-escape.com
If you are looking for a stylish hideaway you won’t find a better site than this. It even has affordable hotels too.
www.travelintelligence.com
Much more than a standard booking service. This online hotel site carries thousands of hotel reviews, written by a team of 130 travel writers, plus other contributors, so some properties have writer and user reviews. The site also has an interactive map plotting recommendations for restaurants, sights, attractions and activities, although these are quite sparse.
www.mrandmrssmith.com
The colloquial style of this site, produced by the boutique hotel guidebook publishers, means it reads like the recommendation of a trendy mate, who'll not only tell you about the best hotels to stay in, but also recommend the best room and top restaurants and bars nearby. If you become a member you can get hotel discounts. Another hotel guidebook publisher to try for trendy hotels and remote gems is Alastair Sawday, whose recommendations are plucked from his Special Places to Stay series of books.
www.tablethotels.com
Stylish hotels for the design-conscious; particularly good on city break properties and not a chain in sight.
www.myvillarenters.com
Voted the best travel website by Web User magazine in 2005, it has 6,000 properties of every size — with instant booking confirmation the big bonus. Rivals Holiday Rentals is another good self-catering holiday accommodation site - it has effective mapping technology and good pictures of featured properties, with a sound coverage of Europe, the Med and the US.
www.chicretreats.com
Like i-escapes.com (but nowhere near as good-looking). A fun site to visit if you’re looking for a boutique hotel or villa.
www.organic-holidays.com
Collection of organic farms, B&Bs and hotels that has grown from being UK-based to cover Europe and beyond.
www.historichotelsofeurope.com
This attractive site acts as a portal to a group of websites based in 14 European countries, each featuring special places to stay.
www.rarebits.co.uk
Lovely site listing, and an agent for hotels “of distinction” in Wales, with selections and ratings in association with the Wales Tourist Board. Other UK regional gems are www.chictreats.co.uk for gorgeous Isle of Wight hotels; packages include ferry travel with Red Funnel. For English country inns and pubs-with-rooms www.english-inns.co.uk is pretty good, although the od stinker sinks through the net so best to verify your choice by checking out user reviews - see our Travel 2.0 listings.
www.japaneseguesthouses.com
Daunted by Japan? This English-language site has 500 ryokans (inns) all over the country, is easy to use and hugely reassuring. Another great regional site is www.boutiquesrilanka.com - the number of attractive photos and useful country and event guides is quite an achievement for a site that provides accommodation. The hotel information pages are in-depth, again with good pictures and ratings.
www.parador.es
Beautiful rural and unusual bolt holes in excellent locations in Spain, all run by the government tourist board and most converted from grand old properties. Or for a rustic Spanish country hotel try www.rusticae.es, which also has a handful of properties in France, Portugal and Argentina. www.agriturismo.com/englisch.htm has similar listings for rustic Italian accommodation.
TOP-VALUE ROOMS
www.europefamoushostels.com
Europe's highbrow hostels are all listed here to make sure your stay is not blighted by poor service, bumpy beds or a 30 mile round trip into town.
www.hostelz.com
Alternatively, you could rely on the views of your fellow travellers, thousands of whom post uncensored reviews of hostels in countries the world over on this handy, simple and effective site.
www.couchsurfing.com
Excellent independent travel website. Sign up and find people to stay with around the world, or host them where you live.
www.sleepinginairports.net
Or if you can't find a couch, find a row of seats at this site, and possibly even clean toilets and a shower.
www.hostelbookers.com
Budget travel about as cheap as it gets - thousands of hostels worldwide, all rated by customers and bookable online. No login in or registration required, no booking fees, and a decent travel guide and events section to research your trip.
www.hostels.com
Fabulous resource for hostels worldwide that are bookable online. Finding bargain accommodation in advance, even in off-the-beaten-track locations, has never been so easy.
www.lowcostbeds.com
The name says it all. A simple, yet useful, guide to low-cost hotel rooms across Europe that has moved into holiday packages with charter flights driving the costs down.
www.hostelworld.com
Thousands of options for cheap hostels and hotels at destinations around the world.
www.holidayhotels.com
Formerly Medhotels.com, this site was bought by Lastminute and revamped to look like the Holiday Autos website. Simple idea - cheap Mediterranean hotels of the type used for package holidays... if that’s what you want.
www.roomauction.com
A great idea for saving money by booking online. Roomauction.com is a portfolio of hotels around the UK open to offers. A fun alternative to phoning and haggling or surfing the many online travel websites.
www.laterooms.com
Lists hotels by location with dates weeks in advance, showing last-minute rates regularly updated with up to 70 per cent off.
www.priceline.co.uk
Great value options with plenty of reader reviews to back up your choice.
www.homebase-hols.com
An active home exchange website, established in 1985 and a founder member of the First Exchange Home Alliance. Membership starts at £29 but this guarantees you only receive genuine offers. Well worth it if you intend to home swap on a regular basis.
www.venere.com
Hotels, apartments and B&Bs can be searched by map or keyword on this accommodation site, which covers the US and Europe, and has a growing number of user reviews.
BEST FOR INSPIRATION
www.aito.co.uk
The Association of Independent Tour Operators website includes more than 150 operators and a database of holidays of all types, searchable by destination and/or interest. Also see www.aitoagents.com.
www.thecoolhunter.net
Trend spotting website that tips the hottest bars, hotels, restaurants, spas, architecture and gadgets around the world.
www.antor.co.uk
A tourist board website is a good place to start your holiday search, but finding the official website of the tourist board can be frustrating using search engines. Antor links to its member tourist boards, and if the one you want isn't there try towd.com, the Tourism Offices Worldwide Directory.
www.family-travel.co.uk
Comprehensive destination reports, including attitudes to children, eating out, where to stay and a forum, at a cost of £14.95 a year. The subscription is charged to fund the site's policy of no advertising and no commission on bookings, hence it should be 100 per cent objective. While we're on the subject of travel, babygoes2.com and mumsnet.com are free and have great tips and forums for ideas on family holidays.
www.holidayaccessdirect.com
A clean and easy-to-navigate site offering links to special-needs flight services, disabled-friendly accommodation, car rental, insurance, taxis, resort support and mobility equipment suppliers. Also check out www.tourismforall.org.uk for hotel bookings and to order its UK hotel guide.
www.photographysites.com
When you've exhausted Times Online's Travel Images section, check out the large travel listing on this index of photography sites. Links to dozens of sites where you can be inspired by travelling the world in pictures and learn how to improve your technique.
BEST FOR HOLIDAY BARGAINS
www.travelzoo.co.uk
Cherry-picks the best of the bargains online. Uninspiring design, but it’s great for bargain hunters who can sign up for a weekly e-mail of Top 20 deals.
www.travelsupermarket.co.uk
A great comparison site for everything from car hire to flights. Particularly strong on travel insurance (it's part of the moneysupermarket group) and also searches extras including airport parking.
www.traveljungle.co.uk
Works like travelsupermarket to search for flights, hotels, car hire, insurance and holidays across a number of different travel suppliers and agents.
www.ebay.co.uk
For obsessive bargain hunters. Bidding for a holiday online sounds a risky business, but if you’re careful, you can save a packet. Companies sell off last-minute stock and individuals sell flights they cannot use. Better-known travel companies also auction off unsold holidays - try www.auctions.lastminute.com and www.thomsonauctions.co.uk
TRAVEL ESSENTIALS
www.pc2paper.co.uk
Hearing a ping from your inbox versus a rustle through the letterbox - it's no competition: letters beat emails hands down. Or perhaps you want to contact a granny who isn't on the internet. Whatever your reason, this site allows you to send a letter without putting pen to paper - it transfers text and images to a letter and sends it worldwide (30p-86p per letter). It also has a free address book so you don't need to travel with your little black book.
www.biba.org.uk
Get advice on precautions to take before travelling, get in contact with a registered travel insurance broker, or seek advice if you're having difficulties making a claim.
www.ehic.org.uk
You shouldn't travel in Europe without registering for a European Health Insurance Card, which will entitle you to free or reduced cost medical care if you become ill or have an accident while travelling in Europe.
www.metcheck.com
My personal favourite of the weather sites. Check 48-hour forecasts for any destination in Europe. But the real winner is a 14-day forecast for postcode locations in the UK split into three-hour blocks.
www.goodbeachguide.co.uk
A Marine Conservation Society site with in-depth information on recommended beaches. Easy to use with interactive maps and plenty of advice on the best beach for you.
www.climatecare.org
Busy trying to be a green traveller, but concerned by the amount of air travel to get to those eco-destinations? You can donate money — which is given to projects that reduce emissions — to offset the effects of your trip. Also see www.puretrust.org.uk, which is a registered charity and www.co2balance.com, which has a rail calculator as well as road and air.
www.googleearth.com
Satellite imagery allows users to zoom in on streets in photographic quality, and overlay onto a map. Links to search listings for restaurants, bars, hotels and now Street View, giving you a virtual tour of an expanding list of cities including New York and San Francisco.
www.stanfords.co.uk
Buy online from the UK’s best-known map and travel bookshop.
www.timeout.com
Website of the London listings magazine that includes potted online city guides and events.
www.expodition.com
Website with “podcast” guides to parts of Britain. Download a guide by postcode. Only problem - you have to register first. For cheesy but insightful podcasts from a travelling salesman check out Gary Bembridge's www.tipsfortravellers.com.
www.surf2travel.com
Marketed as the “travel Google”, this site provides listings of travel websites based on keyword searches.
http://world.altavista.com
This is the address for Babel fish, a translation tool, so you can surf sites in other languages and pick up basic phrases if you're trying to converse online with non-English speakers.
www.mobycards.com
Use your mobile phone to take a picture and send a postcard of the picture so if you rarely find time when away to buy, write and post cards you can - and send a personalised picture to boot. Simply send picture with text to the alloted number and they do the rest - printing and posting first class in the UK. It costs £2.50 per card.
www.travelturtle.com
Travel health advice, by contrary, by disease and by vaccination. The site has gleaned information from its sister site, Pulse, an online resource for GPs, so its advice has been provided by certified medical practitioners.
ROAD, RAIL, FERRY, CRUISE
www.carrentals.co.uk
To compare car rental deals from a number of suppliers and brokers on one screen, try this site.
insurance4carhire.com
This site is a gem if you want to avoid getting stung by car rental firms for excess charges. For an annual premium you can get cover for the total amount of excess for which you are liable if the car is damaged or stolen, and also for damage to the roof, undercarriage, windows and tyres.
www.nationalexpress.com
Connect to Europe's largest coach network for affordable travel across the continent. And for coach travel in the US try www.gotobus.com.
www.transportdirect.info
Enter your A to B route and the search returns a range of options, including public transport and travel by car, comparing journey times, and sometimes prices, but this function is unreliable. There is also a live-travel news feed, highlighting road and rail incidents, although similar services from TrafficEye and the BBC are more regularly updated.
www.viamichelin.com
The best of the online route planners gets you from door to door the quickest way with interactive maps of Europe, some former Soviet states, Turkey and the US.
www.deutsche-bahn.co.uk
Very informative site that has everything you need to know about train travel in northern Europe. Although the site focuses on Germany there are rail card offers for a selection of European countries and the train booking service is comprehensive and hassle-free. Anything you can't find here will feature on www.raileurope.com
www.seat61.com
Travel comfortably by train or ship with this enthusiast’s guide, including a worldwide journey planner, and inspiring information on unusual rail journeys.
www.nationalrail.co.uk
Simple website allowing you to book train journeys in Britain, with links to the various UK train operators, network maps and trainspotter stats.
www.cruisecritic.com
Big and bold website that offers both in-house and member reviews of cruises all over the world. Not afraid to criticise the cruises and ships it reviews, it also points members towards decent deals and has a regularly updated news page. Also check out www.cruisebruise.com, for alleged statistics on the darker side of cruising, from kidnappings to strandings.
www.sailanddrive.com
The website of the Passenger Shipping Association, which offers advice on travel by ferry, has an interactive map showing routes, frequencies and sailing time and has links to ferry operators. Also check out www.ferrybooker.com for short breaks by ferry and car. Dynamic packaging allows users to compare deals with different ferry operators, plus there's useful port information.
SPECIALIST TRAVEL
www.companions2travel.co.uk
Excellent resource for pairing up people who are travelling on their own and want some company. Post a profile if you don’t want to go it alone. Lone travellers should also try www.singulartravel.co.uk, which has negotiated deals with tour operators to scrap single supplements.
www.foodvacation.com
A garish and scruffy, but enthusiastic site that covers all things foodie. There's culinary guides by destination, links to websites such as Slow Food, and links to cooking holidays.
www.blacktomato.co.uk
A sumptuous website that's so well presented it's almost unnecessary to go on holiday at all. An intuitive menu system helps you find the right holiday, whether your passion is cooking, painting or skydiving. Two rival sites, which also inspire with their experience-led breaks, are isango.com and whydontyou.com.
www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure
So gorgeous looking you feel like you can jump through the screen, this website has some of the most interesting adventure trips around, plus reader competitions galore.
www.nationaltrail.co.uk
Site dedicated to the 15 designated National Trails in England, Scotland and Wales for walking, cycling and horse riding, with photographs and interactive route maps. Also check out www.ramblers.org.uk for its extenxive routes across the UK, accommodation finder and walking forum.
www.factivities.co.uk
Information and booking facilities for all kinds of activities from orienteering to model plane flying. If you're looking specifically in Pembrokeshire, check out www.preseliventure.com for activites in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, from kayaking to surfing, and including coasteering.
www.worldsnowboardguide.com
News, views, resort guides, events features — all a boarder’s needs covered. Pages can take a while to load though, owing to the weight of rich content. Also worth checking out www.welove2ski.com for resort guides, and news from the slopes.
www.gapyear.com
Exhaustive guide to gap-year travel. Advice, features and a range of options to help with that big trip. There's an active forum and also opportunity to meet other travellers and join volunteer projects. Also see www.yearoutgroup.org, formed in 1988 to “promote the concept and benefits of well-structured year-out programmes”, this not-for- profit organisation will help you to choose the right volunteer project.
www.bootsnall.com
Guide to independent travel with useful information on destinations, and plenty of forum and community action.
www.worldsurface.com
Attractive online magazine promoting sustainable tourism. Register to join and submit travel diaries. For eco travel news and tips, also see www.greentraveller.co.uk
www.responsibletravel.com
Get tips on sustainable travel and research and book eco trips around the world.
TRAVEL 2.0
www.tripadvisor.co.uk
User reviews of hotels, but watch out for spammers — occasionally reviews suffer from contributors who praise their own hotel or criticise a rival. Look out for Traveller Network, a social networking function that allows users to share recommendations on where to go and where to stay. A smaller, but more quirky version is www.hotelchatter.com - you can relay or read a hotel review and book if the price is right.
www.virtualtourist.com
Virtualtourist has almost a million members who regularly post fresh and informal reviews of worldwide travel spots. The multilingual forums, threads and deals pages are testament to the website's international membership, as are the regular member meets that take place all over the world.
http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com
Travellers heading to far-flung corners can ask the advice of those on the ground, previous visitors or locals, and should receive an answer from one of the most vibrant travellers communities on the net. The main section of the website also provides maps, guides and booking services.
www.tripup.com
Another social networking site, Tripup.com has less user content but good features including Locate-a-Mate, which allows you to enter the dates and destinations of your next trip and see which members live there, or will be there at the same time. Members are asked quirky questions so it’s fairly easy to see who you’re likely to get on with.
www.gumtree.co.uk
Perhaps you don't want to go on holiday with a stranger, but you don't mind sharing a lift. This site will hook you up with people who are making the same journey and want the comapny and/or some help paying for the petrol. UK-only options for regular or one-off journeys are www.carshare.com and www.car-pool.co.uk.
www.travellersconnected.com
Similar to www.wayn.com, this allows you to contact people travelling in the same part of the world as you. Find a travelling companion or share stories online. Also valuable advice on safety and other gap year issues.
www.meethalfway.com
Enter your address and that of someone you want to meet from another location, and the site will calculate the halfway point and lists possible places to enjoy eachother's company. You can search by restaurants, bars and even Wi-fi hotspots in case you have the mistfortune to be meeting for work reasons.
www.travelblog.org
Popular site hosting blogs for travellers free of charge. Use it to create your own site and post pictures as well as text. Every country is covered through interactive maps. Also try www.travelpod.com, which calls itself the original travel blog website, and is a well-presented alternative.
www.bugbog.com
A scruffy but sound travel guide written by a keen alternative traveller, with lots of sections, from world festivals to exotic sites.
www.igougo.com
A “travel Google” based on user contributions, this search engine has 350,000 members. One of the original flight comparison and holiday offer sites, Cheapflights searches a number of different airline and travel agency websites, but also has this useful news section listing new routes and seat sales.
www.airline-network.co.uk
Hard to beat for long-haul bargain flights, Airline Network has all major airline offers and an e-mail newsletter that will make you want to drop everything and fly.
www.flymycase.com
Flymycase is a courier delivery service that forwards your luggage from your home to your arrival address so you don’t have to lug it to and from the airport, worry about it turning up on the carousel or pay such high excess-baggage charges. Also see www.firstluggage.com and for similar services.
www.oag.com
An exhaustive database of travel information that has a free trial service before subscription (£99 a year). Frequent travellers would no doubt benefit from the interactive CD information and real-time flight details, but there is plenty on offer on the site without having to log in.