With summer quickly approaching, it's time to start planning those vacations. Whether it's a cross-country road trip with the family, a romantic weekend getaway, or an intercontinental voyage, you're probably already booking your flight, hotel, rental car, and activities online with the usual suspects—Kayak, Expedia, Priceline, TripAdvisor. Maybe you're even organizing all that information into one easy-to-access place by simply forwarding your confirmation e-mails to a dedicated travel-planning website like Tripit.
What you may not know is that there's an entire world of niche travel sites that go that extra mile to help you arrange your next vacation. If you want to go camping and become one with nature but you don't actually want to sleep or go to the bathroom in the great outdoors, there's a site that can help you plan the glamorous camping experience you long for. (And yes, there's a term for it; it's called glamping.) Want to make sure the hotel you're checking into isn't infested with bed bugs? There's a website for that, too. How about skipping the hotel altogether and staying in someone's lovely vacation rental? You guessed it; there's also a website for that.
Though there are hundreds of websites out there for every kind of vacation experience, we rounded up 10 niche travel websites we think will make your vacation planning a little easier. Let us know if you have any other favorite travel websites that you use to plan your trips.
And for more on vacation planning, check out Jill Duffy's Get Organized piece.
Bon voyage!
Plnnr
Planning a trip to a destination you've never been before is a lot of work. You must wade through guidebooks, recommendations from friends, newspaper and magazine articles, and travel sites and blogs. Plnnr helps organize all those resources, collecting up-to-date information and creating an itinerary for your trip, taking into consideration the amount of time you'll need at each attraction. Simply answer a few questions about your preferences, including the location, date, duration, theme ("outdoors," "best of," "culture," "with kids"), the intensity ("wake up late, here to rest" or "wake up early, see everything"), and level of luxury. Within seconds, Plnnr’s itinerary engine generates a trip plan complete with a map of the scheduled attractions. You can then customize your itinerary, removing places you don't wish to see and adding places that Plnnr left out. Plnnr also locates in-budget lodging. Right now, vacationers can get itineraries for 20 locations, most of which are outside of the United States (New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. are the three U.S. locations currently available), but the company is working on adding more.
TripIt
One of the hardest things about planning a trip is keeping all your travel plans organized. TripIt organizes all your plans in one place. Simply forward any confirmation e-mails you receive (flight info, car rental, hotel confirmation, etc.) to plans@tripit.com. TripIt then collates them and builds an itinerary for your trip—accessible online or from your mobile device. The site will compile flight numbers, gate info, and other important items so you're always in the right place at the right time with the right confirmation number. TripIt also lets users check in online, get flight status updates, check the weather, and get driving directions. The basics are free, but you can pay $49 a year for a Pro account, which sends mobile alerts about flight changes, delays, cancellations, and gate changes; finds the best alternate flights if your flight is cancelled; and gives you VIP privileges at a number of car rental agencies worldwide.
Tripping
The best travel tips come from locals, whether it's a restaurant that's not so promising on the outside but serves the best food around or a great wine bar that's not listed in the guide book. Tripping aims to make the world a better place through cultural exchange by connecting travelers with locals' travel tips. Tripping also works as a social network, pairing people for casual meetups and even free home stays. According to Tripping, the site aggregates and offers the widest selection of local home rentals on the planet.
Users (known as Trippers) make a profile to help the community learn about them and to help other Trippers connect with them. Trippers can rate other Trippers anonymously, so they can be sure they're staying with or hosting a trusted Tripper. They can also write testimonials to serve as references. To get a "Validation icon" on their profile, Trippers can confirm their identity and address through a face-to-face video chat with someone from the Tripping team.
Users (known as Trippers) make a profile to help the community learn about them and to help other Trippers connect with them. Trippers can rate other Trippers anonymously, so they can be sure they're staying with or hosting a trusted Tripper. They can also write testimonials to serve as references. To get a "Validation icon" on their profile, Trippers can confirm their identity and address through a face-to-face video chat with someone from the Tripping team.
Wanderfly
Since everyone's looking for something different from their travel experience, a general guidebook may not always cut it. Wanderfly combines elements of Pinterest with those of review-based travel websites. Users can select what kind of things they're looking for in a trip, such as "trendy," "food," "off the beaten path," "adventure," or "authentic," and Wanderfly will provide suggestions of 24 cities it thinks you'll like. Click on a suggested city and you'll have the option of searching for hotels and airfare. Users make Pinterest-like boards for cities they live in, have travelled to, or are interested in visiting. They can bookmark favorite restaurants, parks, attractions, and shops onto a particular city's board. For example, if you have a trip to Portland coming up, you can start pinning places you want to visit, like Voodoo donuts, to your Portland board so you'll be sure to remember to visit that sweet spot. Users can follow other users to view new content as they recommend it.
Airbnb
If a hotel's penthouse suite is too pricey, you can stay in an actual house (or apartment). On Airbnb, people can list their homes, and also discover and book accommodations around the world. The kinds of accommodations range from flats to tree houses to castles and even to entire countries. Most of the reasonable properties are listed for less than the average hotel room, and in many cases, the owner of the rental is happy step in as a local guide, pointing guests to the best spots in the area. Rentals are available in more than 19,000 cities in 192 countries, and more than five million nights have been booked since Airbnb's start in 2008. The site is free to use for both hosts and guests, and hosts can be assured that their property will be covered for any loss or damage due to theft or vandalism with a $50,000 guarantee. The site also has an Android and iPhone app, making it easy to book while on the go.
Jetsetter
Jetsetter, Gilt Groupe's presence in the travel industry, gives users a peek into the world of luxury and adventure travel at a fraction of the normal cost. Jetsetter uses the same "flash sale" concept as Gilt's other sites, offering Jetsetter-verified properties or experiences at a discounted rate (usually 50 percent off). A verified property is a place that has been visited by a member of the Jetsetter team of editors and correspondents and receives a positive review. Users can use the trip planner on the homepage to search for vacations by destination, interest, or hotel name. Along with hotels, Jetsetter also features "once-in-a-lifetime adventures," as well as weekend getaways. And if you'd rather stay in a rental property like an apartment, ski lodge, chateau, or villa instead of a hotel, you can also book that through Jetsetter.
Hipmunk
Searching for a flight is sometimes the most time-consuming part of vacation planning. Thankfully, there's Hipmunk. The site, which is also available for Android, iPhone, and iPad, lets users choose flights through a very intuitive visual timeline. Users look at flights in terms of departure and arrival time and can sort by "agony," price, duration, and number of stops. They can also filter to exclude early-morning departures, morning departures, and red-eyes. To adjust the date or destination without losing the original search, Hipmunk lets users open a new tab within the site. Additionally, it has a hotel search, which works in the same way as the flight search but shows the results on a map so that users can see the proximity to landmarks and other points of interest.
Zicasso
If planning and booking every detail of your trip sounds too overwhelming, you can turn to a company to save you time and maybe even score you deals. Zicasso is a free luxury travel referral service that connects travelers with travel agencies and tour operators. To get started, describe your dream trip by filling out a brief online questionnaire with basic info, such as the date, destination, number of adults and kids in the group, age group of the adults, quality of hotel, type of travel (explore on your own, be led by a tour guide), budget per person, and anything specific you have in mind. Within two business days, you'll receive a price quote and sample itineraries from up to three Zicasso-approved travel agencies. There's no obligation to purchase a trip, and you don't have to hand over any credit card information. If you decide to go with one of the suggested trips, you'll pay the travel company directly.
Glamping Hub
Toasting marshmallows, hiking, and sitting around the fire are just a few of the reasons why people enjoy camping. What many people don't enjoy, however, is going to the bathroom in the woods; forgoing showers; and sleeping on the cold, hard ground. With glamping, those who yearn to leave the city and become one with nature can do so, just in a more glamorous way than typical camping. Glamping Hub offers a variety of luxury campsites around the world. Glamping is a great eco-friendly alternative to a hotel since, in most cases, the construction of the abode is designed to take advantage of surrounding elements of nature. Most glamping sites also feature composting toilets, solar power, and working gardens. Glamping Hub lets users search by location, date, and number of guests to find a glamping site fit for a king.
Raveable
Before you book a hotel, make sure to check its rating. Raveable collects user reviews from sites like TripAdvisor, Yahoo! Travel, and VirtualTourist and aggregates them, highlighting the hotel's pros and cons. It also points out any special features like free breakfasts, pools, and airport shuttles. You can search for hotels by categories like romantic hotels, kid-friendly hotels, and special features like an in-room Jacuzzi or fireplace, lazy river pools, rooftop pools, and even topless pools. So far, the site has more than 70 million reviews of more than 165,000 hotels worldwide.
Click a hotel's review page to find helpful information, like whether or not you're getting the best bang for your buck and, if not, alternatives that are either a better quality for a bit more money or are cheaper and a higher quality. Raveable also pulls data in from BedBugRegistry.com and informs users whether there has been a report of bed bugs within the past 12 months.
Click a hotel's review page to find helpful information, like whether or not you're getting the best bang for your buck and, if not, alternatives that are either a better quality for a bit more money or are cheaper and a higher quality. Raveable also pulls data in from BedBugRegistry.com and informs users whether there has been a report of bed bugs within the past 12 months.