by P Vandegrift

Created on: November 02, 2009

There are less and less independent online vacation sites nowadays as the larger companies fight to buy them out. However, they keep popping up and soon you can find yourself pulling your hair out trying to find the best online vacation deals.

Hotwire, Hotels.com, Expedia, Travelocity and Priceline all search those hundreds of little sites for the best deals and vice versa. Expedia owns Hotels.com, Priceline owns Travelocity so they double up their search. Much of your time planning a vacation will be spent doing price comparisons. You can end up with ten different windows open at once. It is easy to forget which one had the best price. If you have a particular destination in mind and want to stay in one hotel, check out the hotel's website for the same packages. Some hotels will price match what you are seeing online; it is worth asking the sales representative when you call. Some hotels can not.

Websites such as Lonely Planet and Frommer's both have terrific resources and articles for travel packages. They are less cluttered than the larger sites. With gorgeous photos, videos, and personal recommendation articles by long time members and the site's owners, you will feel at home planning a trip through Lonely Planet's trip planner services.

Frommer's offers Trip Ideas, Trip Deals and a helpful forum for travelers just starting out on their journey or even those who are seasoned professionals. Reading recent articles from folks who have traveled and experienced the same area where you are shortly headed can be a real vacation saver.

Budget Travel has all of the above plus updated travel news and trip suggestions such as girlfriend getaways, adventure, solo traveling, and handy 'how-to's for airports, booking on foreign websites, and dealing with travel emergencies.

Going on a camping trip? Don't forget to check out the US National Park sites. They have really come a long way in catering to the tourist. Yosemite has a very accessible website as does Yellowstone.

If it is a cruise you are interested in, these major websites, Expedia, Hotwire, and Priceline are also partnered with most all of the cruise lines. Again, it is well worth contacting the cruise sales line directly to see if they can match a price you are seeing online or offer you something better.

Many of these websites offer specialty coupons on local attractions once you are there. It is also highly recommended to stop in at the local information bureau or chamber of commerce to find further information

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