Did you know that if you Google "Top Ten Travel Websites," the results are in excess of  15,000,000?!  Ay caramba!  So, the question is: How does one decide upon which to rely?

Besides the obvious choice of Travel with Teri B., I thought I would decipher some of the myriad results (really good, fair and awful) because time is always of the essence.  Of course, no single site can be totally comprehensive and may not appeal to certain travelers.  I personally have never been a fan of Priceline, but know others who swear by it.  I like Frommer's a lot, and almost always invest in their guides to countries I'm visiting.  At the same time, I have stayed at some very great hotels that are not even listed on their site for a particular city. The Mandarin Oriental in Geneva is a recent example. 

The upshot is:  it takes a village -- and a variety of sources -- to plan a trip!   At the risk of being declared brain dead from research, following are some of the sites I found and would love to know your thoughts and preferences as well.

1.  Budget Travel:   Right away I'm liking this one alot -- they also list Bing Travel for their Price Predictor tool where you can search flights and buy or wait according to the information provided.

2. Hipmunk:   I don't think I'm hip enough for this site.  But I do like that you can scroll over dots on a map for a preview of a hotel.  For instance, I'm still vetting prices for an upcoming NYC stay over Labor Day weekend, and the site offers a ton of choices.  But, unless you are a fan of Trip Advisor, on which they seem to base their rankings, you probably won't like this site too much.

3.  Smarter Travel: This site was ranked #1 by TechMediaNetwork, as a provider of "unbiased" travel information.  Sounds good to me. I put in my NYC criteria and it directed me to a choice of about a dozen different bookings sites where I could compare.  Good for bargain hunters and lovers of options.

4.  AirGorilla:  This is a well-established site offering discount airfare; i.e., they are a consolidator (buying blocks of seats from airlines that would otherwise go unsold).  Since they have been around for a long time (in the annals of online travel-planning, that is), they have access to lots of discounts; more than some other well-known sites.  Part of their profits go to saving gorillas; hence, the name!

5.  Kayak:   I've mentioned this site before but it is well worth including again.  This is a no-frills website and very easy to navigate.  It has been very helpful in my learning about internal flights in China/So. Korea while planning next year's vacation.

So I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted from all this research!  Time to take a vacation.  Look forward to the next blog, where I'll be sharing the sights and sounds of Tampa-St. Pete's in Florida. ..