Hotels
Check out Booking.com, our newest travel partner:
Just to set the ground rules, we want you to use this site as we do - a resource for as many of our travel needs as possible. We enjoy writing about the places we love, and we will continue to do so both on this site and on our travel blog. But when it comes time to go, we want to be able to see as many choices as possible for booking all the mundane parts - the flights, hotels and cars that we all need to make our trips that experience of a lifetime.
There are all sorts of options for booking hotels, from the small "boutique" sites all the way to the big booking engines. We have our favorites, and we will list them here so you can compare until your heart's content. Since we focus on and spend a lot of time in Europe, a really good European site is a must, and we have two for you. Booking.com is a part Europe's leading online hotel reservations agency by room nights sold. Another good choice is Venere, an Italian company with availability for hotels, apartments and even B&B's. We particularly like both these choices because there are no hidden fees, and your credit card is only used as a reference. It is only charged by the hotel depending on their rules - it is not charged beforehand. Note that this is not true for many of the large "booking engines", so compare carefully!
What could be better than to have lots of choices choices when planning your travel? Everyone likes choices, especially in travel, so we thought it was important to put enough choices here to to be useful both to you and to us. If you don't find it here, chances are there may be another listing on our Resources page, elsewhere on this site. Just one note: Some special offers, and they can be time-sensitive, so if you click on one that has expired before we got around to changing it, would you please contact us. So, here we go:
Some of our favorite hotels:
The most interesting place to find hotels, flights and cars may very well be the fastest one to use. Kayak is the granddaddy of all the travel search sites. And, the easiest to use...see for yourself:
 
Here is a reservation site that specializes on the UK and Europe:
One of the best travel sites to emerge in the last few years is Orbitz . It started as more of a "comparison" site, but it has quickly grown to rival all the biggies. They offer a wide range of options and often have excellent hotel deals. Here is a current deal: Orbitz Hotel Mega-Sale: save $100 on any destination!![]()
And, a link:
 
Then, there is Globe Travels. Globe at first glance looks like an Orbitz wannabe. In fact, we suspect they use the Orbitz engine. However there is one significant difference: consolidator fares. Let's say you are looking for a flight from Atlanta to Shannon, and you want to go Business Class. You do your search, but above the Orbitz-like results are a couple of odd looking flights that are about 75% less than the others. What's up with that? Globe actually gives you the opportunity to do consolidated fares. You have to fill out a form, and you are sent a quote with an opportunity to accept or decline, but the results can be a good value in certain situations.
TravelNow owns "Hotels.com", and they have just completed a project to "normalize" their hotel data base with that of Expedia. This means that almost every property found in Expedia is also available from TravelNow, usually at the same or better prices. Search for hotels on TravelNow/Hotels.Com.
Finally, as mentioned above, Venere is an Italian hotel booking company offering unique properties throughout Europe and beyond. If you are looking for lodging in Europe, be sure to check them out. Here is a booking engine:
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