On my Radar :: New Travel Websites

Here are a few travel websites creeping into the mainstream.  Let me know your thoughts! Travel never costs what you think.  Like renovating, my general rule is always expect to pay 20% more. One new site that helps to determine extra flying fees is True Price.  Developed by industry professionals and frequent flyers,  you choose your airline, enter the flight's fare, and select the automatically-generated extras you plan on purchasing to get the true price of your flight.

There are extensive rating programs for hotels, but what about airlines?  Other than the fare class you book, flying seems to fall into two categories: legacy carriers and discount airlines.  Change is coming. InsideTrip calls itself the only airline search engine to compare 12 important factors like legroom, airplane age, on-time performance, etc... and assigns a TripQuality score out of 100. Testing the site, I did a search for a flight from YVR (Vancouver) to SYD (Sydney) and found the site basically works like a Kayak flight search, with the addition of a quality score. According to the website, the rating for flights on that route ranged from 53 for a Delta multi-connection to 91 for a direct Air Canada flight.

Operating as the Yapta for car rentals, Auto Slash car rental search engine allows you to book your vehicle, notifies you if/when the price drops and scours the web for coupons or discount codes. Why thank you! Bonus: if your quoted price goes down, the site will alert you so you can rebook and lock-in the savings. This all sounds good, but is it good in reality? To test it out, I put in the same dates and car type into Hotwire and Auto Slash. Hotwire's rates were $20 less. I wonder if that's because Auto Slash hadn't yet found applicable coupon codes or price drops?  I love the concept of Auto Slash and look forward to the business developing, but for now I'll stick with the major car rental sites online.

Google City Tours

[trip style = sightseeing]

Google City Tours, a DIY Traveler’s Dream Come True? Do-it-yourself travelers of the world rejoice, moonlight as a tour guide with Google City Tours.  Launched last summer, this map-based, itinerary planning service allows you to search, find and refine sightseeing options for the city you're visiting.

Whether you have one or five days to explore, Google’s attempt at a DIY tour application can help pinpoint major tourist attractions, their distance from one another, how much time it will take to walk from one to another, how long you should stay at each, as well as the attraction's hours and star-rating.  According to Google, City Tours “helps you identify points of interest and plan multi-day trips to most major cities. You just specify the location of your hotel and the length of your trip and City Tours will map out an itinerary for you.”

Forget about booking with Tour companies? Not so fast. At this point, City Tours only indexes major cities, so if you fancy a getaway off the beaten track, conduct your research elsewhere or talk to a tour company specializing in the region.

Putting Google City Tours to the Test With high hopes, I tried to get a one-day, walking guide for a city I know well. Entering “Vancouver, Canada” into the search box produced the following results: - Granville Island Model Ships Museum 09:16, for 60 minutes - walk about 24 minutes - Vancouver Museum 10:40, for 60 minutes - walk about 3 minutes - Vancouver Maritime Museum 11:43, for 60 minutes - walk about 38 minutes - Roedde House Museum 13:21, for 60 minutes - walk about 9 minutes - AldrichPears Associates 14:30, for 60 minutes - walk about 23 minutes - Canadian Craft & Design Museum 15:53, for 60 minutes

After reviewing all the results listed, you learn why the application is still in within lab mode---Google’s testing ground for any application that makes it to the mainstream. For instance, the second last result in my one-day Vancouver itinerary suggests I go to Aldrich Pears Associates. Strange, I've never heard of this tourist attraction even though I’ve lived in the city my whole life.  Clicking the link takes me to a company who does planning and design for museums, science centers and zoos---oops, an incorrect assessment of attraction.

And what about major tourist areas like Stanley park or Yaletown?  In order to add these sights, you need to click Add/Remove Sights. One pitfall to be aware of is Google’s current definition of attraction. If the location is not listed as a museum, exhibition or the like, it will not show up in the itinerary. I can’t imagine a tourist coming to Vancouver without seeing our oceanside parks, vibrant markets and chic neighborhoods.

It’s not a perfect science, but Google City Tours is an excellent tool to keep in your travel planning arsenal as a means of comparing and contrasting the info you gather from other sources.  If Google decides to develop the application more, it will become a DIY traveler's dream come true.

Travel Trend :: Visual Flight Search

Need visual inspiration for your next trip?  Want to browse flights leaving from your home airport within a specific price-range? The geniuses at Kayak have done it again. I already love and use their meta travel search engine, and recently they've come out with a new feature called Kayak Explore that visual learners will l-o-v-e.

Using Kayak's travel search technology superimposed on google maps, means finding a flight to your next destination just got easier. But it's the travel web application's suggestive nature that I love.  It's like a web-based version of going to the airport with no destination in mind and asking a check-in agent to show you options for the next flight out.

How it Works The level of customization offered in Kayak Explore is nuts (see a full list below). When you enter your preferences, Kayak advises what areas match your request. One nice feature I call show me the money intuitively indicates how far you can fly from your home airport based on your budget preference.  It helps to keep the budget in-check.

Customizations The level of granularity offered in Kayak's Explore is impressive. I suggest starting your visual flight search with fewer customizations, then narrowing your search from there. If you try to over-customize at the get-go, you may find the results too specific. The available customizations are: - Home airport - Budget range - Where you want to fly - When you want to fly - Activities of interest - Temperature range - Preferred language spoken - Flight duration and stops

Kayak Explore is already a game-changer, but it could be even more amazing if search parameters like vacations and cruises could be added.  We'll wait and see!

Reposition Me

[trip style = cruising]

I recently saw a repositioning cruise that made me salivate: a 43-day adventure from Vancouver to Sydney, stopping in the Hawaiian Islands, Fiji and New Zealand before ending up in Oz. What a way to get from Vancouver to Australia - a trip I'm planning on taking in the fall! But alas, I won't be booking because... a) the wireless charge for the month-and-a-half voyage would probably cost more than the cruise (and it would likely be slow), b) the Holland America ship doesn't have a flowrider - an on-board amenity that made me particularly fond of Royal Caribbean, and c) 43 days is a long time on a ship.

Repositioning Pluses & Minuses Many people see repositioning cruises as the cruise industry's 50% off sale rack with oversized shirts and ill-fitting pants, or a lesser excuse for cruise itinerary. But it's not, and it's become a big business. If a ship is going to reposition anyway, take advantage of its discounted price tag, unique voyage and interesting ports.

Pluses - an fun alternative to flying - can be economical considering on-board amenities, food and destinations - visit places you might never plan to see - can take you off the beaten path

Minuses - you're not going on a round-trip, so you'll need to book additional travel - sometimes the unique itineraries offer fewer to no ports of call - communication with the outside world is expensive and challenging for longer journeys

Repositining Cruise Booking Resources RepositioningCruise.com Owned by the vacationstogo.com - one of the largest cruise discounters on the web - repositioningcruise.com is the most comprehensive repositioning resource online, offering a long list of cruise options to and from interesting destinations. What I like about the website is the ability to sort its list based on ports, dates, cruise lines, etc. Here are a few neat repositioning itineraries I found (to access the list of cruises, you must join their website by clicking on "show me the deals"):

• Vancouver to LA: 4 days. Departs Sept 26. No stops. $249 (that's the same price as flying, and you get to eat 3 meals a day)
• Amsterdam to New York: 19 days. Departs Aug 19. Stops in Scotland, Denmark, Iceland, Greenland and Canada. $1,899.
• Anchorage to Beijing: 16 days. Departs Sept 18. Stops in Japan, Russia, South Korea and China. $1,299.
• Buenos Aires to Barcelona: 20 days. Departs Mar 15, 2011. Stops in Uruguay, Brazil, Cape Verde, Canary Islands and Spain. $2,299.

Go Direct Another way to reposition yourself at sea is by visiting your preferred cruise line's website and searching for repositioning cruises. Most cruise companies offer these special itineraries themselves, and one bonus of booking directly with the supplier is loyalty. If you're already part of their program, cha-ching, you'll just be adding another reason for them to appreciate your patronage.

Have you ever done a repositioning cruise?

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Mancations

[trip style = adventure]

In honour of Father's Day this Sunday, I'm dedicating this post to men. And since this is a travel blog, let's talk about mancations, one of the fastest-growing segments in the luxury travel market, according to the CNBC video referenced below. There's even a facebook group devoted to it. Sadly, only 12 people "like" this.

Definition Mancation: When 3+ guys who've know each other for years take a trip involving beer, steak dinners, hiking & biking, several rounds of golf and never reading a map or asking for directions [pulled together by a mish-mash of the cleanest mancation entries into the urban dictionary].

The Prep

• find a like-minded group of guys who understand the gentlemen of leisure [GOL] concept
• go for an activity that's drenched in masculinity like skiing/boarding, bbq'ing, golfing, surfing, kite-boarding or fishing
• take the mancation to the next level by
  • indulging in beer, pretzels and lederhosen at Oktoberfest in Germany
  • visiting the Ferrari factory and test driving Enzo's latest in Maranello, Italy
  • taking in sporting events like UFC, World Cup, Stanley Cup, NBA playoffs or Superbowl
  • traversing the serengeti in a Land Rover on safari in Africa
  • dude ranch-ing [enough said]
  • manning-up at a guy-centric spa like Scandinave (featuring a Scandinavian bathing ritual)
• choose a manly trip style that will foster "a bonding experience," which according to spike.com is "the nature of a mancation"

Mancation Resources

• yep, there's an entire site dedicated to man-tripping and there are even articles about man-friendly B+Bs
• get inspired by movies like: city slickers, sideways, a river runs through it and ironman 2 (your lady will love the river runs through it idea...)

Video

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[photo by mil8]