Bing.com/travel – I like searching for flights on the bing.com travel site. For domestic fights they give you a flight predictor which tells you if you are better off waiting to book (if they think prices will be drop) or if you should book immediately (if prices are likely to go up). They don’t have this feature for International flights yet, but still I find it a good place to start looking for reliable fares. Of course, like any good shopper, I can’t rely on just one site, so I often click through to Kayak.com and Travelocity.com just to compare prices and flight schedules.

TripAdvisor.com – my go to sight for reviews on lodging world-wide. I’ve not done a particularly good job of posting my personal reviews, but I plan to be more diligent about that this year. Luck for me, thousands of other people are far more on point that I am so I have pages of good feedback on places I’m interested in staying. Of course, like any user content driven site, you’re going to get some “questionable” feedback, but the more you read through, the better you get at recognizing the true reviews.

Airtrek.com – I’ve just begun using Airtreks this month as I plan for my RTW trip, but so far their customer service has been top notch, their prices relatively low and their routes flexible. What more could I ask for?

AirBnB.com – another site that’s newer on my fav list. I’m still a bit leery of couchsurfers.com since free can be a bit scary for a girl who thinks that you get what you pay for (though I do know plenty of people who have had amazing experiences). Instead I like the idea of Air BnB because you do pay something for the room/apartment/house but it is at a rate much lower than most local hotels. Plus you get to live like a local instead of like a tourist. 

SeatGuru.com – I’ve learned that you just can’t trust those seating charts that the airlines give you when you’re booking your flight.  That aisle seat may not be quite as desirable as it looks. I put my trust in seat guru, the website that gives you a review of each seat on every aircraft.  Now if only they could tell me which seat was going to be next to the screaming baby or in front of the kicking toddler.