Here are a few of the online travel resources that we like and use all the time. We hope some of them come in handy for you.
We started managing our air miles and hotel points years ago. However, about four years ago we stumbled onto The Points Guy. This site is invaluable for information on how to get the most miles/points for your dollar and how to get the most bang for every mile. Mona reads The Points Guy virtually every day.
It doesn’t matter if we’re driving, cruising, flying or walking; we use TripAdvisor to check out fellow travelers’ opinions of restaurants, hotels and attractions. We read the reviews, paying particular attention to the most recent reviews, and take them with a grain of salt. We also write reviews on virtually everyplace we go using the name tag of MNM1011.
As soon as we know where we’re going we check out the tours on Viator. They have some of the best tours at the best prices and they cover virtually the entire world.
The first travel blogger we ever started
following was Adventurous Kate. She’s a solo female traveler who quit her job to travel the world. She’s an inspiration to us and we love her honest portrayals of her travels. It seems as though Kate has traveled everywhere so we always check her blogs to see if she’s been where we’re planning to go.
Another travel blogger that we follow is ZigZag On Earth. We stumbled upon this blog when we were planning our trip to Australia and thanks to Claire’s posts we got to see kangaroos and a koala in the wild on a Sydney Boutique Wildlife Tour. Claire has developed destination guides for several countries including: Australia, Iceland, France and Morocco.
When it comes to stretching your travel dollar we highly recommend Nomadic Matt. Matt has hundreds of tips that can save you real cash. He also has a newsletter that you can subscribe to for almost daily tips. Also, be sure to check out his post on how to pick a good travel insurance policy.
We take three or four big road trips each year in the United States and a major component of each trip is the cost of gas. We use an app on our smartphone called Gas Buddy to help search out the cheapest gas. We’ve saved up to 25 cents a gallon by using this app and driving around the corner or to the next edit.
Another smartphone app we use on road trips is Inrix. This app helps us avoid traffic jams and road construction along our route. These days I can’t imagine traveling through a major city without Inrix!
There is so much to see and do in Key West and it’s always a favorite for us. We always use fly-keys.com and Key West Attractions for the most up-to-date information on all the activities and fun.
If you’re going to Africa then we highly suggest you contact Diane at Africa Direct USA for assistance and a quote. She helped us design our dream trip that stayed within our budget. Here’s a link to their Facebook page: Africa Direct USA – Facebook
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NOTE: We routinely use all of the resources listed above and recommend you try them. Two of them (Viator and Key West) have provided sponsorship to us. However, like all the other sites listed, we use them as key resources in our travels regardless of whether or not they are sponsors.