Travelers need information when planning their adventures -- or are in the thick of a tricky misadventure they need help getting out of.
Not too long ago travelers dragged along volumes of heavy guidebooks and waited days to get their hands on a soiled copy of the International Herald Tribune just to see what was going on in the world -- both of course delivered dated old news! Then Ted Turner bravely began broadcasting CNN live worldwide. Now of course, we have the ubiquitous Internet that we take for granted and over 17,000 smartphone travel apps; which have made travelers more informed and confident than ever.
Over the last few months we polled some of The World's Greatest Travelers and compiled their list of favorite travel websites. We have cut to the chase here and identified what we have selected as the 101 stars. Among the websites are: passionate blogs, travel news exaggerators, useful research and booking sites, traditional weekly travel sections and excitingly irreverent takes on 21st century travel. We prefer an exhaustive and essential 101 list of useful, fun, fresh, informative and entertaining websites, rather than the usual short-list of just 7, 10 or 12 highly commercial sites. Yes, it was a lot of work!
Listed A-Z is the 2014 edition of the 101 Best Travel Websites™.
ABC News Travel - Mainstream travel coverage.
About Travel - Budget Travel's website chalk full of useful info.
The Adventurists - Certainly not boring.
Airbnb - It is the 21st Century.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
BBC Travel - England's best travel section?
Bloomberg Travel - News from the wire.
Borders of Adventure - One woman's quest to bring enlightenment to travel.
Boston Globe Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
BreakingTravelNews - A daily barrage of travel PR pieces that are actually very telling.
Business Travel News - Well, business travel news.
CBS News Travel - Filtered headline travel news.
Chicago Sun-Times Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Chicago Tribune Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Conde Nast Traveler - The magazine online.
CNN Travel - Up to date travel news.
Consumer Traveler - Know your rights...all three of them!
Eat Your World - Dedicated foodie travelers will rejoice.
Elliott - Christopher Elliott's consumer-oriented travel website.
Fest 300 - Might as well do a local festival when you get there.
FlightStats - A great way to find alternative airport routes.
FlyerTalk - For road warriors and mileage geeks alike.
Fodor's Travel - The guidebook online.
Frommer's - The online guidebook.
Frugal Travel Guy - Helping regular travelers travel at their own speed.
Frugal Traveler - NYT's resident travel blogger Seth Kugel.
FT Travel - England's Financial Times travel section.
Gadling - Always interesting travel tidbits and more.
The Global Scavenger Hunt Blog - An always interesting and fascinating look at the world.
Globe & Mail Travel - Canada's largest newspaper's weekly travel section.
Gogobot - A fun and useful site that you need to try to understand.
Google Flights - Reliable research tool that is poised to take over the world...of travel.
Google Maps - Never get lost, ever.
Great Circle Mapper - Fun travel site to map out all your travels.
Guardian Travel - England's The Guardian newspaper weekly travel section.
Gulliver - England's Economist magazine travel blog.
Hipmunk - Keeps Kayak honest.
HomeAway - To see like a local you have to live like a local.
HomeExchange - To see like a local you have to live like a local.
Houston Chronicle Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Huffington Post Travel - Interesting lists from both established and aspiring travel writers.
Independent Travel - England's The Independent newspaper travel section.
Intelligent Travel - National Geographic's travel blog site.
International Travel News - Information for high-frequency travelers.
In Transit Blog - NY Times daily travel blog.
Jaunted - Mostly always interesting travel pieces.
JohnnyJet - The true Travel Insider.
Kayak - Still the best way to check out all your options in one site.
Lonely Planet Blog - Always motivating.
Lonely Planet Thorn Tree - A place to chat about places you want to go.
Los Angeles Times Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
The Man in Seat Sixty-One - When getting there is still half the fun.
MapQuest - Tried and true, gives you the options you need.
Miami Herald Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
The Middle Seat - Scott McCartney's always interesting travel blog.
National Geographic Travel - Old yellow.
Naughty Nomad - Politically incorrect travel.
NBC News Travel - Mainstream travel coverage.
New York Times Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Nomadic Matt - He's come a long way from dancing Matt.
Nowhere - Travel site for arty folks.
Perceptive Travel - Canadian travel blog.
The Points Guy - If you're going to travel, you might as well maximize it.
Rick Steves Travel Blog - When he gets political--we like it a lot!
RoadJunky - The drugs, sex and rock n' roll of travel.
Rome2Rio - How to get from here to there.
San Francisco Chronicle Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
San Jose Mercury News Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Scribol Travel - Breathtaking stuff.
SeatGuru - Helps you pick a good seat.
Skift - Real travel intel for real travel geeks
Skype - Still the place to go for free international conversations.
Smarter Travel - Lists and travel articles.
Times of India Travel - For another look at global travel.
The Times Travel - England's The Times travel section.
Timeout City Guides - I saw my first one in 1985 and fell in love.
Today in the Sky - USA Today's Ben Mutzabaugh's daily travel takes.
Tony Wheeler's Travels - Lonely Planet founder's website.
Travel Detective - Peter Greenberg's travel website.
Travel Independent - Everything you might need to know.
Travel Mail - England's Daily Mail dedicated travel section.
Travel News & Deals - LA Times travel blog.
Traveller - Australia's Sydney Morning News take on travel news.
TripAdvisor - Who doesn't still check these (mostly) user-generated reviews?
Uncornered Market - Travel wide on sabbatical
USA Today Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
Vagabonding - Rolf Potts keeps writing...
View from the Wing - Road warrior frequent points guru Randy Peterson's website.
Wall Street Journal Travel - Not even Rupert Murdock could screw up travel.
Wanderlust & Lipstick - An amazing collection or regular travel bloggers.
Washington Post Travel - One of the dozen dedicated travel sections still around.
WikiTravel - Crowd sourced travel info.
WikiVoyage - Crowd sourced travel destination info.
World Hum - Irreverent travel pieces.
World Travel Guide - Just a great source of city data.
XE - An always reliable ballpark currency converter.
Yahoo! Travel - Getting better every day.
Yapta - This site will save you money after you book a flight.
YouTube Travel - Unending supply of great travel videos.
12 HRS - A Euro-sensibility to traveling urban zones.
48 Hour Adventure - We like 48 hour adventures.
The 101 Best Travel Websites™ are the sites used by The Global Scavenger Hunt which is known internationally as the annual world travel championship event that crowns The World's Greatest Travelers™. The 2015 is schedule to take place between April 10-May 2, 2015.
Hope that helps. Did we miss any?