mediajunk

My girlfriend and I regularly go on short city breaks. Once or twice a year, we'll go on a longer holiday. For both of these, we use the web (of course).

We've done this so often that we now have a tried-and-tested method for creating our own package holidays online, which I'd like to share with you:

Finding and Booking Cheap Flights

For US or international travel, meta-search sites like kayak.com or mobissimo.com are useful. In Europe, however, you'll rarely find better prices than Ryanair's.

Tip: use Ryanair's find lowest fares option if you want to book a dirt-cheap flight to a destination and you're really flexible with dates (i.e. you don't care when you go, if you can get a return flight for less than 80 euros!).

Finding and Booking Great Accommodation at the Best Price

I never stay in any hotel without checking it out on Tripadvisor.com first. In fact, here's the way I normally use Tripadvisor to find a hotel in any given city:

1. Look up the top 10 hotels in the city (or the top 20, if it's a big city).

2. For each of these hotels, identify those within your price range.

3. Starting with the top-rated hotel in your budget, read the reviews and look at the candid photos (pictures taken by visitors who have actually stayed in the hotel). If you feel you need more information about the hotel, try Venere.com -- which also has the best hotel location maps.

4. If you like a hotel, find its own official website. DON'T book directly through Tripadvisor. Avoid generic hotel booking sites such as hotels.com, expedia.com, hotels-in-city-x-generic-website.com, etc.

These days, hotels tend to have the best prices on their own websites, and they may also have special offers. Its also useful to email the hotel directly (sometimes this is the only option anyway, as they won't have a booking engine) as they may offer you a better price than the ones advertised, particularly if you're staying more than two nights, or if you're booking for a group of six or more people.

Tip: A hotel's own website usually has a quirky home-made look-and-feel, and it won't offer bookings at any other hotels. You may have to go to page 2 on Google or beyond to find it.

If the room rates on the official hotel website are much higher than the average price for that hotel as displayed on Tripadvisor, THEN try Venere.com, expedia.com or hotels.com (usually in that order) to find a better price. Remember, however, that generic booking sites are all taking a commission, so chances are they won't have the lowest rates, despite their claims.

Okay, so this process takes several hours, but effectively you are acting as your own travel agent. In our experience, you'll make huge savings this way, and get great accommodation.