Using Internet for Travel Research

Posted by Donna Dailey Feb 15, 2008

How did we ever book our vacations or find travel information without using the internet? We just arrived from England to our home in Arizona, where we're not yet online. In a few days we're traveling again, on a research trip for a guidebook to Orlando and Central Florida. The final details aren't quite in place, and we're starting to wonder how on earth we ever made any travel arrangements when we only had the telephone.

We booked the cheap flight from Tucson to Orlando from England with Southwest Airlines – through their website, of course. But what time's check-in? What's the baggage allowance? It's those bits of essential travel information you realise you don't have at your fingertips, and which you could look up in a few seconds online... if only you were online. How do people with no PC at home ever get anywhere?

We didn't have our accommodation confirmed for the first few days, so needed to have a back-up ready. Sure, we've got the AAA Florida TourBook listing hundreds of hotels and motels near Orlando International Airport, but how do you find the best deal without going online and checking with Expedia or the Days Inn or Ramada websites? What do you do – ring a dozen hotels, get put on hold, make notes of every conversation, then ring back your first choice only to find there's no room at the Days Inn?

Luckily we got our car rental organised but it's the same thing. Is there a better way of comparing deals and then booking the best one instantly than on the internet? We've been spending a lot of time going back and forward to the library, or using our neighbor's wireless signal when we can pick it up. With his permission, of course!