Best money saving sites
With new travel portals flooding the market, there is no dearth of planning and booking tools. Here are some websites that break through the clutter and help you save time, effort and money
FOR BOTH DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL TRIPS
D O M E S T I C T R I P S
Incredibleindia.org
Packing 238 destination guides, this should be your first port of call when it comes to holiday planning, especially if you can’t make up your mind about where to go. It outlines everything, from how to get there and where to stay to what to do, not to mention a detailed festival calendar. Be warned that the site takes time to load, but patience is sure to be rewarded.
RESEARCH
Tripadvisor.in
If you have figured out your vacation kitty, the next step is to match hotels to allocated budgets. One can’t do much about air fares, so this step becomes all the more important. Most travel/destination guides suggest hotels in various price brackets, but to be sure that your preferred hotel is a safe bet, you need to fall back on peer reviews. This is where TripAdvisor, boasting more than 35 million user-generated reviews, takes the cake. Here is a tip from the top man at TripAdvisor India, Nikhil Ganju: “Don’t go blindly by the most glowing or most damaging reviews; those are outliers.”
FLIGHTS
Ixigo.com
Look at it as the Google of all travel-related information be it flights, hotels, packages or trains, though it is regarded the best for flights. iXiGO trawls other travel sites in real time for available flights, timings and fares, and in under a minute, aggregates the results on one page, saving you the time and effort of conducting your own research. The single-page format also makes comparison and shopping a breeze. What’s more, iXiGO Fare Alerts keeps an eye on fares and e-mails you the minute they fall within your budget.
Another strong emerging contender in the meta search space is Chaklo.com. Note that these sites are infomediaries, not intermediaries, so you can’t book directly with them. You will be directed to the relevant service provider’s site if you click on something you like.
HOTELS
Expedia.co.in
This portal comes with a ‘best price guarantee’. So if you find a better online price for the same hotel on an Indian travel site within 24 hours, Expedia will not only refund the difference, but also offer a travel coupon worth 2,500 for future bookings. We checked this claim and found that though the site can’t match the number of hotel search results thrown up by MakeMyTrip or Travelguru, it beat rates every single time. The handy weekend getaways tool that segregates results by ‘this weekend’ and ‘next weekend’ rates is also good.
You can also try Bid2Travel.com, which promises discounts of up to 60% on hotel tariff. Over 2,500 Indian hotels participate in its open bidding model, where you name your price and see if your bid is accepted. The best bit is that unlike similar models in the West, the portal clearly shows the name of the hotel, the facilities and location before you make the bid.
I N T E
R N A T I O N A L T R I P S
Bootsnall.com
The site claims to be a ‘community of online resources and travel guides that connect and inspire independent travellers, reaching over 3.6 million travellers per month’. However, it does so much more. Travel guides? Check. Trip planning tools? Check. Online hostel booking? Check. In fact, from drawing inspiration for a budget holiday destination and figuring out the best possible itinerary with approximate air/rail fares, to booking a journey that is off the beaten track (with Intrepid Travels), it’s all here.
RESEARCH
Seatguru.com
When you are taking a long-haul flight, legroom is possibly just as important as the flight safety equipment. Did you know that legroom for the same seat on the same type of aircraft can vary by as much as six inches from airline to airline? That’s where SeatGuru comes into the picture. With more than 700 detailed seat maps covering nearly 100 airlines, this site is a must-visit if you want to make sure you bag the seat that offers the best value for money.
When it comes to travelling by train, one of the best online resources is Seat61.com. Though the origin point of all itineraries on the site is invariably London, the site packs a lot of information about train travel within some of the popular destinations across continents.
HOTELS
Airbnb.com
From small studios to castles to private islands, this website connects people to diverse dwellings, at any price point, in more than 19,000 cities across 192 countries. The site’s USP is that since these are private homes, they will be invariably cheaper than similar-sized hotels in the same city.
Bootsnall.com
The site claims to be a ‘community of online resources and travel guides that connect and inspire independent travellers, reaching over 3.6 million travellers per month’. However, it does so much more. Travel guides? Check. Trip planning tools? Check. Online hostel booking? Check. In fact, from drawing inspiration for a budget holiday destination and figuring out the best possible itinerary with approximate air/rail fares, to booking a journey that is off the beaten track (with Intrepid Travels), it’s all here.
RESEARCH
Seatguru.com
When you are taking a long-haul flight, legroom is possibly just as important as the flight safety equipment. Did you know that legroom for the same seat on the same type of aircraft can vary by as much as six inches from airline to airline? That’s where SeatGuru comes into the picture. With more than 700 detailed seat maps covering nearly 100 airlines, this site is a must-visit if you want to make sure you bag the seat that offers the best value for money.
When it comes to travelling by train, one of the best online resources is Seat61.com. Though the origin point of all itineraries on the site is invariably London, the site packs a lot of information about train travel within some of the popular destinations across continents.
HOTELS
Airbnb.com
From small studios to castles to private islands, this website connects people to diverse dwellings, at any price point, in more than 19,000 cities across 192 countries. The site’s USP is that since these are private homes, they will be invariably cheaper than similar-sized hotels in the same city.
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