Do your holiday research

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If you are to have a successful, enjoyable and affordable holiday it is essential that you do your research first before you book or depart to pastures new. Here are a few of our favourite websites:

Travel Discussion Sites

Trip Advisor - www.tripadvisor.com - this is a brilliant travel discussion site that gives excellent advice where you can benefit from other travellers experiences. I particularly like the reviews of hotels. You can read candid reviews of the hotels in any town or city virtually anywhere in the world. People speak their mind for good or ill. The hotels are listed in order of popularity, the price is indicated and you can also check out several websites for the cheapest deals. There is a lot more to the website so have a look. Also join in and add your own experiences to the melting pot.

Virtual Tourist - www.virtualtourist.com - this is the original travel community on the web. You can join and build your own travel page. Here you can also research your trip, explore destinations and interact with other members. Ask any question about any destination and someone is sure to know the answer. An excellent resource.

Air Travel

Easyjet - www.easyjet.co.uk - this is still our favourite low cost airline to Europe. We have never experienced any problems when flying with them, and the prices are excellent. Sign up for their emailed newsletter and you will be the first to know about any sale that is on, also when the latest seats are released. Book up as soon as you can to get the cheapest seats, the longer you wait the dearer they get. Only etickets are issued and seats are not pre-bookable. New destinations are being added all the time.

Opodo - www.opodo.co.uk - This site is owned by eight major airlines and will check all of them for good deals on flights. The flight prices offered are almost always cheaper than on their own websites. It also offers good deals on holiday hotels.

SkyScanner - www.skyscanner.net - this is an excellent flight search engine for flights to Europe. It searches a range of budget and scheduled airlines and displays the prices for each flight, saving you time checking the individual websites. It will also display flights and prices over any given month as well, enabling you to see where the bargains are.

That is all for now, but more suggestions will follow.

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