People always ask me what travel sites I use. Here are my favorites:

Airfare Search Engine:

itasoftware.com – ITA Software is the search engine used by travel agents and professionals and I like it because it shows airfares in real time. There’s nothing more annoying than finding a good fare on Kayak or Orbitz only to be told it’s “no longer available”. You can not book flights on ITA, so once you find the fare you want, you’ll have to book on the airline’s website directly.

Deal Alert Newsletters:

Airfarewatchdog.com – Sign up with your home airport and you will get the best flight deals e-mailed to you daily, weekly or 2-3 times per week.

Travelzoo Top 20 – A weekly newsletter sent out on Wednesday of the top 20 travel deals. I’ve found many of my trips here. The site itself is updated with flight deals daily so I visit regularly.

Flight Information:

Seatguru.com – This site will tell you the best (and worst!) seats on over 50 different airlines with information they collect from travelers and flight staff. When you have to fly for 10 hours or longer in coach, you are going to want to be sure you get the best seat possible!

Hotels:

Tripadvisor.com – Still the best resource for hotel information out there. Travelers like you and me review hotels all over the world and tell us the good, the bad and the absolutely horrifying. I use this site every time I travel to find the best hotel in my price range.

Miles/Points Information:

FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com – This site will tell you everything you need to know about earning free travel with various miles and points programs. It’s updated constantly so visit often!

Frequent Flyer Bonuses – Another great one that makes it super easy to find mile and point bonuses by airline or hotel.

Flyertalk – The BEST forum for finding miles/points information. If you have a question, someone there has an answer….and both are probably already posted!