2. Researching Travel Opportunities

In this chapter, you discover what it takes to start planning a trip and find out how to use technologies to help you make important decisions. You’ll learn

How to perform research about travel destinations using your Internet-enabled computer, smartphone, or tablet

Which online resources to rely on for the most timely, accurate, and relevant information

How to use AARP Travel

How to use Travelzoo

How consumer review sites, such as TripAdvisor and Yelp!, can be extremely helpful when planning your travel itinerary

Even if you’re the most frugal traveler who invests a lot of time seeking out the very best travel deals, taking a trip can be costly. There are a lot of expenses and fees to consider. For example, it’s important to determine

• How much you have to spend, and how you’ll pay for the trip

• Where you want to travel, when you want to go, and how you’ll get there

• How much transportation will cost

• Where you’ll be staying, and the cost of accommodations

• What you want to experience during the trip, and what those activities will cost

• How much you need to budget for additional trip-related expenses, such as travel insurance, care for your pet while you’re away, meals, and the cost associated with using your smartphone or tablet abroad (if applicable)

By making important decisions early during the trip-planning process, you can better cater to the wants, needs, and expectations of everyone you’ll be traveling with (including yourself), and then use the technology that’s at your disposal to research various aspects of your trip, which lets you make intelligent choices that will ultimately save you money without compromising your travel experience.

For example, the first few decisions you need to make while planning any trip include

• Where do you want to travel?

• What do you and your fellow travelers want to get out of the trip?

• When do you want to travel?

• How will you get there?

• How long will your trip last?

• Where will you stay?

• How will you get around?

If you don’t already have an answer to where you want to travel, using any of the online travel services that offer travel guides and travel-related articles can be very helpful.

After you determine where you’re headed, you might then use the same travel guides and articles to help you develop realistic expectations about what that destination offers, so you can begin planning an itinerary based around the types of activities you and your fellow travelers will enjoy. For example, you can seek out adventurous activities, informative tours, details about spas, restaurant reviews, information about local attractions and historical sites you’d like to visit, facts about the local culture, and the weather forecast at your chosen destination.

Deciding when you want to travel is also an important decision, and one that affects cost. In general, you’ll find lower airfares if you depart and return on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday and if you travel during the destination’s off-peak or shoulder season.

Next, determine how you’ll get to your destination and how long you’d like to stay. For domestic travel, you can drive, fly, or take a train (Amtrak) or a bus. Based on the distance and cost, which you can easily determine through online research, it’s possible to find the fastest or most economical way to travel. For most international travel (unless you’re going to Canada or Mexico from the United States or traveling around Europe), you’ll probably need to fly or take a cruise ship, both of which offer their own benefits and perks, based on how you like to travel and what you want to experience during your trip.

The length of your trip is often based on your budget and the cost of travel, accommodations, meals, activities, and other travel expenses. Once again, by using some of the travel tools you’ll soon be reading about, you can seek out low airfares, discounted accommodations, and/or complete package deals that allow you to save money and potentially extend the length of your trip while still staying within your budget.

When deciding where you’ll stay when you reach your destination, you also typically have a wide range of options so you can pick one that best suits your personal preferences and budget. Each option offers advantages based on the services and amenities you’re looking for. As described in Chapter 7, “Finding and Booking Accommodations,” the following are some of your accommodation options:

• Brand-name hotel

• Boutique hotel

• Bed & breakfast

• Motel

• Timeshare property

• Airbnb

• Home or apartment rental

Another factor to consider is how you’ll get around after you reach your travel destination. Many people immediately think they need a rental car. In some cases, though, a rental car is a costly nuisance. In addition to the daily cost of a rental car and frustration at navigating unfamiliar territory, you have to pay for gas and often rental car insurance and parking. In major cities, overnight parking at a hotel can cost an additional $30.00 to $75.00 per night. Plus, each time you arrive at a tourist destination, nearby parking often costs an additional $10.00 to $25.00 (or more).

Many cities offer public transportation systems, which are much easier to navigate when you use your smartphone with the Google Maps app (Android and iOS devices) or Maps app (iOS devices) or a specialized mobile app, which is covered in Chapter 10, “Mobile Apps to Use at Your Destination.”

You might also discover it’s less expensive to rely on taxis, Lyft, or Uber for transportation. The focus of Chapter 6, “Finding Ground Transportation,” is using technology to discover and manage your local transportation options after you reach your destination.

Some popular travel websites, online services, and mobile apps serve you better than others in certain situations, so you’ll benefit the most if you’re willing to use a handful of different tools and resources during the trip-planning process and throughout your journey.

The following section describes the types of tools and resources that are available for travel-related research; Chapter 3, “Getting to Know Some Popular Travel Tools,” focuses on teaching you about 12 of the most popular travel-related tools and resources and offers tips on how to best use them.

To find these digital publications, launch the app store app that comes preinstalled on your mobile device, and in the Search field, enter the phrase travel magazines.

The search results will include apps for popular travel magazines and publications that offer a digital edition, such as Budget Travel, Condé Nast Traveler, Cruise Travel, Golf & Travel, Lonely Planet Traveller, Luxury Escapes, National Geography Traveler, Romance Travel, Travel + Leisure, and World Travel. In addition, you’ll discover the digital edition of destination-specific magazines, such as Escape! Asia, Hawaii Traveler, and Ontario Travel, as well as city-specific editions of Where magazine and digital editions of airline magazines, all of which feature articles that can help you plan and experience an awesome trip.

Travel magazines are typically monthly publications written by professional travel journalists that you can read on your smartphone, tablet, computer, or eBook reader’s screen. One great feature of the digital editions of these publications is that in the articles, you’ll often find hyperlinks that you can tap or click to access additional relevant information. Plus, with a few extra taps or clicks, you can access past issues of the publication.

Interactive travel guides are available online and via proprietary mobile apps. They’re typically written by professional travel writers and published by highly reputable travel publishers. Examples are Fodor’s, Frommer’s, and Lonely Planet.

These guides are also city- or location-specific and include information about all aspects of that destination that’s of interest to visitors, such as details about hotels, restaurants, tours, activities, tourist attractions, historical sites, and local transportation options.

All these agencies have websites, and in many cases mobile apps, that offer information about flights, hotels, accommodations, restaurants, activities, historical sites, tourist attractions, and other information for that destination. The information is typically comprehensive, but it’s important to bear in mind that the goal of a department of tourism or CVB is to attract tourists, so the content can be biased.

Despite possible bias, the website for a department of tourism or CVB can help you choose a travel destination, learn about what that destination offers, and then help with every aspect of your trip and itinerary planning process. Best of all, these resources are free of charge, and there’s typically a toll-free phone number you can call to get your specific questions answered.

In addition to providing an interactive map and real-time navigation assistance, these apps contain vast databases that include informative listings about millions of points of interest, local businesses, restaurants, tourist attractions, historical sights, and other services.

These listings often include ratings and reviews about businesses, restaurants, and services, their hours of operation, and other pertinent details. So, if you’re looking for a good pasta restaurant while exploring Venice, Italy, or want to find a highly rated steak restaurant in New York City, these apps can be extremely useful. Likewise, if you’re looking for information about a specific museum to visit and need to know when it’s open and how much the admission fee is, one of these apps can provide this information with a few onscreen taps.

In addition, as long as your mobile device has cellular Internet access, map apps can help you navigate, in real time, to your desired location by car, on foot, or using public transportation.

Enter travel.aarp.org in the address field.

Click the Destination Guides option.

Scroll through the options in the left sidebar and click on the one you want. The available guides are sorted by location, activity, environment, and alphabetically.

Scroll through each section of a destination’s guide or, when applicable, click the Restaurants, Shopping, Places to Explore, Hotels, Sights, Nightlife, Activities, or Travel Tips link to access more specific information about a location.

Scroll to the Things You Can’t Miss heading and click the Read More button that’s associated with any of the listings.

Use the search window near the bottom of the Destination Guide page to shop for flights, a hotel, car, cruise, or activities related to that destination.

Type www.travelzoo.com in the address field.

Click the Destinations option that’s displayed along the left margin of the screen.

Select a specific destination.

In some cases, you will see one or more relevant articles, written by Travelzoo’s experts.

Click Top Deals for the selected destination to learn about money-saving offers from airlines, hotels, and tour operators and to get information about discounted travel packages, when available.

Alternatively, from the Travelzoo.com homepage, type your desired destination in the Search field (shown), or click the Last Minute option (when it appears) to find last-minute travel deals for specific destinations.

Launch the Travelzoo mobile app by tapping its app icon.

The first time you use the app, tap the Allow button to allow the Travelzoo app to access your location. If you’re using an iPhone or iPad, tap the OK button to allow the app to display notifications on your mobile device, when applicable. (Tap Don’t Allow to prevent app-specific notifications from being generated and displayed.)

Enter the desired travel destination to search for destination-specific deals. You can use a city, or a city and state, and/or a country.

Tap the This Week’s Top 20 option to display the week’s 20 best deals from Travelzoo, or scroll down on the app’s main screen to view nearby deals, based on where you’re currently using the app.

More than 340 million unique users access TripAdvisor each month. The service can be a powerful tool for making intelligent decisions about where to stay, what to do, and where to eat when you’re planning or experiencing a trip.

In general, the reviews published on TripAdvisor are unbiased and based on customers’ actual experiences. However, never put too much emphasis on one single review. Instead, when looking up a particular hotel, attraction, or restaurant, read a handful of reviews to get a more realistic idea about what you should expect.

You can access TripAdvisor from any Internet-enabled computer by pointing your web browser to www.TripAdvisor.com. If you want to access the same content from your smartphone or tablet, download and install the official TripAdvisor mobile app.

Type www.tripadvisor.com in the address field.

Type a city, state, and/or country in the Where Are You Going? field. Click the Search button to continue.

Alternatively click the What Are You Looking For? field. From the menu that appears, click what you’re looking for, including options such as Overview of [location], Hotels in [location], and Vacation rentals in [location]. You can also type something specific, such as Sheraton Hotel.

You see a listing of what’s available in the category you selected. From here, you can enter your desired check in and check out dates.

Sort the listing by various criteria by clicking on the appropriate tab.

Click a specific listing to read customer reviews of that location. In the listing title, you can also see its average rating. Click the Show Prices button to display rates for that hotel.

Find reviews about a specific hotel, attraction, or restaurant by entering the name and location, such as Sheraton Universal, Universal City, California in the What Are You Looking For? field. Click the Search button to continue.

You see the average TripAdvisor rating as well as details about the hotel.

Click the Overview tab to learn more about the specific hotel, or click the Reviews tab to see how many reviews have been posted about that hotel by travelers, and then read those reviews. Click the Photos option to view photos taken and published by TripAdvisor users.

From the Home screen, launch the TripAdvisor mobile app and sign in or create an account. (Not shown.)

Enter the name of a hotel, attraction, or restaurant followed by a comma and the city and state (or city, state, and country) in the Search field displayed. For example, type Sheraton, New York Times Square.

You see an overview of that hotel, attraction, or restaurant, which includes its average TripAdvisor rating. Tap the Map icon to see a detailed map of the location where you requested is located. Tap the Call icon (if you’re using a smartphone) to call the hotel, attraction, or restaurant. Tap the Been button to indicate you’ve been to that location, or tap the Save icon to save that listing.

Swipe up to see more details about a location’s TripAdvisor ratings and, when applicable, sort the ratings and reviews by relevant criteria.

Keep swiping up to read individual text-based reviews and see ratings created by TripAdvisor users. Tap any review to open and read it.

From the app’s main screen, tap the Hotel, Dining, Attraction, or Flight Search icon to locate specific information relating to a destination you select, or tap the Near Me Now option to view a listing of reviews for hotels, attractions, and restaurants that are located near your current location (which is determined using your smartphone or tablet’s built-in GPS).

If you’ll be traveling abroad and won’t have Internet access from your smartphone or tablet, tap the Download Cities option. (Not shown.)

Tap the Download a City button and select the city where you’ll be traveling. Doing this before you leave will allow you to access location-specific content within TripAdvisor without requiring Internet access.

Once you set up a free TripAdvisor account, you’re encouraged to write and publish your own ratings, reviews, opinions, and travel photos. To do this from the mobile app, tap on the Write a Review option, and follow the on-screen prompts.