Planning Travel on the Web

Course Outline by Joel May

On the web at www.ewingsnet.com (click on Presentations)

There are six major travel-oriented web sites -- Kayak (www.kayak.com), Sidestep (www.sidestep.com}, Travelocity (www.travelocity.com), Expedia (www.expedia.com), Orbitz (www.orbitz.com) and Yahoo Travel (travel.yahoo.com) referred to in this course outline as the "big six"-- that offer "full-service" travel planning, transportation booking and destination review services. In this presentation we will focus on the "boutique" travel planning sites.

  1. The Four Most Important Travel Questions

    1. Where to Go
    2. How to Get There
    3. What to Do There
    4. Where to Stay/Eat There

  2. Where to Go

    1. Deciding where to go may be the most difficult of the four steps, after all you have an infinite number of possibilities

    2. Start by asking yourself

      1. What activities do I like to do on vacation?

        1. Sightseeing
        2. Learning
        3. Physical activity
        4. Living well
        5. Relaxing
        6. Etc.

      2. What physical limitations do I have?

        1. Can’t do lots of walking
        2. Can’t handle high altitude
        3. Can't sit for long periods of time
        4. Tire easily
        5. Etc.

      3. What sort of climate do I like?

        1. Warm in winter
        2. Cool in summer
        3. Doesn’t matter

      4. How do I like to travel?

        1. Just us in the car with no fixed day-by-day schedule
        2. Just us in the car with a plan for each day
        3. Go directly to a destination and stay there until it’s time to go home
        4. Self-driving tour (Hint: Google “self driving tour" + destination name)
        5. Group guided tour. Reviews of many tour companies and information on what they offer can be found at Vacations to Go (tourvacationstogo.com)

    3. Also get information from dedicated travel information sites

      1. Discovery Travel (travel.discovery.com)

        1. click on Travel Ideas to start to get some idea of where to go
        2. click on Destination Guides to choose a geographic location
        3. Scroll down to Travel Forums to obtain personal opinions tips about various destinations

      2. Other great travel information sites include:

        1. Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com)
        2. Trip Advisor (www.tripadvisor.com)
        3. Concierge (www.consierge.com)
        4. Rick Steves (ricksteves.com) Note: Europe only
        5. Rough Guides (www.roughguides.com)
        6. And a brand new one, WikiTravel (wikitravel.org)

    4. "Google” the name of a location you think you’d enjoy and read about it

      1. Try phrases like
        1. New York sights
        2. Seattle vacation review
        3. Cancun guide
        4. France travel
        5. Vienna highlights

    5. Another good place to start is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.com). Just type the name of your preferred destination into the search box on the left side of the screen.

  3. How to Get There

    1. Getting there by car (Rental Cars) (www.carrentals.com)

      1. Use a mapping program
        1. Google Maps (maps.google.com)
        2. MapQuest (mapquest.com)

      2. With these maps sites you can
        1. Zoom in and out using the + and – controls
        2. Move the map around by dragging it with the mouse
        3. Get printed driving directions

      3. There are many web sites devoted to automobile travel, including

        1. Free Trip (www.freetrip.com)
        2. Roadtrip America (www.roadtripamerica.com)
        3. Mile by Mile (www.milebymile.com)
        4. National Scenic Byways Program (www.byways.org)
        5. Roadside America (www.roadsideamerica.com)
          6. and, most important of all
        6. Speed Trap Exchange (www.speedtrap.org)

    2. Getting there by train or bus

      1. Amtrak (www.amtrak.com) and Greyhound (www.greyhound.com) have their own web sites where you can reserve space and purchase tickets

    3. Getting there by plane

      1. When flying, there are usually multiple airlines available to you. Hence it is to your advantage not to book flights with individual airlines. Instead use one of the big six or, for discount tickets purchased at the last minute:

        1. Priceline (www.priceline.com)
        2. Cheap Tickets (www.cheaptickets.com)
        3. Lowest Fare (www.lowestfare.com)
        4. 30 Places to Find Cheap Airline Tickets (snipurl.com/1wtc6)

      2. Additional sources of information:

        1. Airport information including maps, parking and other facilities
          (www.amadeus.net/home/airports/en/index.htm)
        2. Average waiting time in the security line
          (waittime.tsa.dhs.gov/index.html)
        3. Aircraft seating charts (www.seatguru.com)
        4. Transport to and from the airport (www.airportservice.com)
        5. Long-term airport parking (www.longtermparking.com)
        6. Prohibited and Permitted items
          (tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/prohibited/permitted-prohibited-items.shtm)
        7. Tips to make air travel more comfortable
          (www.remote.org/jochen/travel/tips/airtravel.html)
        8. Air Travelers' Rights (www.pueblo.gsa.gov/cic_text/travel/flyrights/flyrghts.htm)

    4. Most of the web sites on which you can access schedules, reserve seats and purchase tickets work in a similar way

      1. Choose One-Way or Round Trip by clicking on the appropriate radio button
      2. Enter the city and state (or the airport designator) from which you want to depart
      3. Enter the date you are departing and, if you prefer, a certain time of day (I recommend leaving the time of day open as you will have more alternatives to work with)
      4. If you’re booking for a round trip, enter the date you are returning and, if you want, a time of day
      5. Enter the number of travelers
      6. Click on Continue

      7. On the Schedules screen

        1. Verify your itinerary
        2. Click on the departure that best fits your needs as to time and price
        3. Click on Continue

      8. On the Purchase screen

        1. Fill in the Passenger Information
        2. Verify that the site is secure. It should display at least one of

          1. A yellow padlock in the lower right corner
          2. A yellow background in the Address Bar
          3. https (rather than http) and the beginning of the URL

        3. Fill in the credit card information
        4. Click on the Buy Now button (or its equivalent)
        5. A printable ticket purchase confirmation will appear on the screen
        6. Print it and take it with you, along with the credit card you used the purchase the ticket, when you board the conveyance

  4. What to Do There

    1. Use a dedicated information site to find things to do (one of the big six or one like Fodors (www.fodors.com)

      1. Click on the Destinations tab
      2. or click on the map
      3. or type the name of your destination in the search box

    2. Or use specialized sites:

      1. Cruises:

        1. Ocean Cruises: Cruise Web (www.cruiseweb.com)
        2. Theme Cruises: Cruise News (www.cruise-news.com)
        3. Yacht Cruises: SeaDream Yacht Club (www.seadreamyachtclub.com)
        4. River Cruises: Affordable Tours (rivers.affordabletours.com)
        5. ( see also) Cruise Critic (cruisecritic.com)

      2. Escorted Tours

        1. Affordable Tours (www.affordabletours.com)
        2. Tour Vacations to Go (www.tourvacationstogo.com)
          3. and my two personal favorites
        3. Tauck Journies (www.tauck.com)
        4. Vantage Travel (www.vantagetravel.com)

      3. Vacation Packages:

        1. Adventure Vacations: Gorp Travel Away (gorptravel.away.com)
        2. Educational Vacations: Shaw Guides (www.shawguides.com)
        3. Senior Vacation Packages
          1. ElderHostel (www.elderhostel.org)
          2. Senior Summer School (www.seniorsummerschool.com)
          3. AARP Travel (www.aarp.org/travel/destinations)
          4. Elder Treks (eldertreks.com)

  5. Where to Stay/Eat There

    1. Where to Stay

      1. Use one of the big six travel sites or get discounted prices at

        1. Priceline (www.priceline.com)
        2. A1 Discount Hotels (www.a1-discount-hotels.com)

      2. Use the Web site of the hotel chain you prefer or look up chain hotels around the world in All Hotel Chains (all-hotel-chains.com)
      3. Pet-friendly hotels (www.petswelcome.com)
      4. B&B's: BedandBreakfast.com (www.bedandbreakfast.com)
      5. Rentals and Time-Shares

        1. Vacation Homes (www.vacationhomes.com)
        2. Vacation Timeshare and Rentals (www.vacationtimesharerentals.com)

      6. RV Parks and Campgrounds: Go Camping America (www.gocampingamerica.com/ParkSearch.aspx)
      7. or try Googling "lodging" + the destination you've chosen

    2. Where to eat:

      1. Use a big six site or use a restaurant directory web site:

          2. Fodors (www.fodors.com/reviews/drevselect.cfm)
        1. Zagat (www.zagat.com) Note: click the Restaurants tab
        2. Chez Moz (www.chefmoz.org)
        3. or Google "type of food you want restaurant near city, state or zip code";
          e.g. italian restaurant near pennington nj or indian restaurant near 08648

  6. Additional Information:

    1. Passport, Visa and safety information from the State Department (travel.state.gov)
    2. Health information

      1. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (www.cdc.gov/travel)
      2. International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers (www.iamat.org)

    3. Information for Disabled Travelers (access-able.com)
    4. Currency conversion (www.xe.com/ucc)
    5. ATM locations:

      1. Visa (snipurl.com/visa_atm)
      2. Mastercard (snipurl.com/mastercard_atm)

    6. Travel insurance information (www.insuremytrip.com)
    7. WiFi locations (www.jiwire.com/search-hotspot-locations.htm)
    8. Cyber Cafe locations (cybercaptive.com)
    9. Clean Bathrooms (www.thebathroomdiaries.com)
    10. Expected weather (www.wunderground.com/tripplanner/index.asp)
    11. Travel Gear (snipurl.com/Travel_Gear)
    12. Travel related groups: ("Google" the group name to access the group)