Top 5 Best Travel Websites
Everybody loves to travel and enjoy the wonderful experience that various destinations globally offer. You plan your vacations either during the holiday season like Christmas or just anytime of the year when you feel like you really need a break from the normal activities.
It is deemed convenient and time-saving to use travel websites to explore different destinations to visit. Travel websites enable you to gather more information about a place, especially if you have never visited that place. You will weigh the pros and cons involved with visiting certain destinations and making reservations on transportation. You will also book day tour services, and hotels from the comfort of your home while making travel plans depending on your times’ schedule.
Travel websites also enable you to work within your budget and still get quality services, this saves you from the embarrassment you could get when you have arrived at your destination and you cannot afford anything they are offering.
Many travel websites have been set up to offer a platform to various companies to advertise their travel packages, make themselves more popular to the consumer and build a brand while still ensuring that the consumers realize a greater value for their money.
Globally, thousands of travel and leisure websites serve different purposes. They offer great deals to ease the travel experience and make it more memorable for their clients, and some of the best have been sampled below.
Expedia
Founded in October 1996, Expedia has grown over the years to what is now a leading American travel website. Today, Expedia is found in as many as sixty countries globally. Although at times competitors may have slightly better deals, Expedia can still compete well in the market and offers a diverse range of hospitality services. The company has customized its features to fit every type of vacation depending on the consumers’ preference by providing many sets of options. It also makes it easier to plan a trip where a large group will be involved and is thus convenient for large families or large workgroups traveling together.
The website is very easy to use, and the deals are always updated. It is preferred by many people because, besides offering credit cards that do not charge a foreign transaction fee, the payment methods are flexible. After all, Expedia accepts bitcoin, thus helping international travelers have an easy time making payments with different currencies. A rewards program with several membership benefits and no annual fee also makes the website common among tourists. It also allows for one to make monthly installments payments towards your vacation if you do not want to pay for the whole trip at the time of booking.
Travel insurance policies are also available on the website, whose options include flight cancellation plans, cruise insurance, flight protection plan, and car rental insurance, which make this website even more convenient. Check out our recent article about travel insurance here.
Priceline
This is an online travel agency founded in 1997 by Jay S. Walker and is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, United States. Priceline is among the most recognizable brands in the travel and leisure industry, offering and facilitating travel services from its suppliers to consumers. Even though many Priceline bookings are non-refundable, only two people per room are guaranteed occupancy, and that there are major differences between the app and the website.
Priceline is largely known for accuracy in travel details even when plans are made last minute because of its huge focus on accurate booking information. The website gathers deals globally and gives customers as much freedom as possible by allowing them to bid for their trip accommodation and name their preferred price as per their budget.
The website stays updated and is user-friendly for all devices, including Android phones. It also provides travelers with hotel guidebooks to help them know and understand the features and types of services they will receive from each hotel they consider staying in during their travel.
Saving money is another perk because, as a Priceline VIP, you can access VIP discounts and great benefits through their loyalty program, which is free to join. Using the Priceline application, one can get deeply discounted rates that pop up at the last minute but only via the app.
Kayak
Kayak is an American online travel website owned and operated by Booking Holdings. Despite not being quite convenient to use on older android and IOS devices, not being able to book directly on the website, and no loyalty program because it is only a search engine, Kayak is widely known for its solid search engine and fast search results where most if not all of the deals contain accurate information.
Kayak can provide deals that most travel and leisure websites cannot match and allows one to book almost any travel method depending on the consumers’ needs.
The lowest prices are highlighted in green, helping you know which travel booking website is the most affordable to book with, even when those prices are not their own. Kayak’s prices are quite competitive, especially during heavy travel times such as holidays.
The website also has predictive algorithms on where prices are going, enabling one to know whether they will buy tickets or book hotel accommodation at that particular time or hold off for a while until the prices are convenient. Kayak is also convenient to use because it allows you to search using a range of dates depending on your intended date of arrival or departure to secure the best deals.
It also sends alerts to one’s email if a good deal pops up, enabling you to monitor prices of travel accommodations weekly for your intended destination, making it quite reliable to use. The Kayak trip planner saves your searches and all the other information you gather over time and keeps it all in one place, making it easily accessible.
Skyscanner
Skyscanner is a metasearch engine and travel agency based in Edinburgh, Scotland. It was founded in 2001 by Gareth Williams, Barry Smith, and Bonamy Grimes and has Skyscanner Holdings Limited as its parent organization. With time, the website has grown and currently boasts of over thirty languages, making it quite marketable to consumers.
Skyscanner is mostly known for its great offers on buying plane tickets and is rated the best website in comparing airfare prices.
The meta-search engine allows the site to make comprehensive searches of over 1200 airlines and travel websites without displaying unnecessary information that could confuse the consumer and make the whole searching process tiresome. In addition, the search engine also sources data from multiple and diverse online travel agencies allowing its uses to have multiple options to choose from.
The website is quite flexible and user-friendly because it is easy to use and navigate. Skyscanner also ensures that the clients get value for their money and is thus highly recommended for travelers who wish to fly to their destination. Although it is largely known for offering cheap flight deals, it also offers other services such as accommodation bookings and car rentals.
Trip Advisor
Trip Advisor is a worldwide American online travel agency originally founded in February 2000 by Stephen Kaufer and Langley Steinert. It is the world’s largest travel guidance platform. It is well equipped to manage a wide range of inquiries and potential problems and is largely known for its collection of reviews and articles that come with real images from real travelers.
From these reviews and articles, one can decide on places to visit or not visit based on the impartial reviews given by people who have been to various travel destinations.
Trip Advisor is the best place to get a general idea of things to do or activities to take part in while visiting a particular destination and also what to expect. Other perks of using this website include the fact that rental options are provided, booking options are solid and secure for casual or luxury travel, and getting their answers from other travelers in Trip Advisor.
Another reason why this website is quite popular is that it allows one to make changes to canceled tours and bookings without extra charges.
It also enables a customer to compare the prices of air tickets and discover special deals and offers with flights and also has recommendations on top places to have meals, get accommodation, and must-do experiences while visiting specific travel destinations.
What Do We Think is Best?
Our pick for the best site would be Expedia. It provides consumers with a reason to explore new destinations due to its incredible offers irrespective of the currency that one wishes to use to make payments because it accepts payment in bitcoin. Its global presence in about 60 countries makes it capable of offering its services and providing information on the many travel destinations that one would wish to visit.
The fact that the website has updated deals ensures that the clients get correct information on the most recent deals and realize value for their money. Many sets of options from all types of vacations are provided for the client to choose from as per their preference.
