Find the Best Airline Fare, Hotel & Cruise Deals

Remember the time when making travel arrangement was a chore? You have to call a travel agent to search for ticket pricing and travel options. You are also at the mercy of the travel agent. If you are lucky, you'll get a nice travel agent who is willing to search the best deals and travel options for you. Get a travel agent who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and you'll get lousy service. Pain no more. Thank you Al Gore for inventing the internet. Today your travel agent works 24-7 and she resides in your computer. You get to choose your travel options, find the best deals, book a ticket all within minutes without having to deal with travel agents with bad attitudes. No wonder many travel agencies have downsized or shut down.

I typically use three web sites to search for the best airfares, hotel or cruise deals.

1. Sidestep.com
This is the first online travel search engine web site I use. It's excellent for domestic and international airfares.  Sidestep searches over 200 major airline and travel booking online sites. It also allows you the option of compare pricing from Expedia, Travelocity, Hotwire, and Priceline.

2. Farecast.com 
Farecast.com is also an excellent web site. I have been using it since it started in 2003. Farecast was bought by Microsoft in 2008 and it is now integrated into Microsoft's Bing.com search engine. With Microsoft's endless money pit, this web site is destined to be the #1 travel booking web site. I love Farecast because it is able to predict and forecast airfares or rates by using its proprietary airfare and hotel data it process every day. When you find an airfare, it tells you whether to "buy Now. Fares will rise" or "Wait. Fares will drop." For hotels, the Rate Indiator shows you whether the rate for the hotel is a deal by comparing the hotel's historical rates to current rates. The slider bar options to narrow your options (such as time of departure or arrival) is better than sidestep.com.

3. Farecompare.com
If you're still not happy with the search results from sidestep and farecast, try farecompare.com. Like the two sites above, it also searches multiple web sites including the major booking sites such as Priceline.com, travelocity and Orbitz. It also searches tripadvisor and travelzoo.com. I also like the site's airfare listings when you click on the departing and returning dates calendar. A window pops up showing the airfare on different dates graphically. This is useful as it shows you the price options on different travel dates. For example,  the calendar may show a lower airfare for a Tuesday departure and a higher airfare for a Friday travel date. If you can afford to travel in style, try its unique discounted first and business class fare search feature.

Online booking resources
BiddingforTravel - Priceline bidding tips on priceline.com
Seatguru.com - Find out the best and worst seats on major airlines and aircraft
JohnnyJet - Toll-free numbers for all airlines
Tripadvisor - Best independent hotel reviews and booking web site