Online Tools to Help You Organize Your Summer Getaway

Now that you know where you’re going for summer vacation, you want to find the easiest and cheapest way to get and stay there. You want an online vacation planning experience that will take you beyond the well-trod Expedia/Travelocity/Orbitz route.

Have you ever pondered just exactly how you might get from your Davis apartment to, say, Kathmandu? We love the fun web site Rome2Rio.com. It tells you how to get from anywhere in the world to anywhere else (no matter how obscure), by any method of available transport with links to the relevant web sites. It’s a hoot to rove through.

If you need broader information, we suggest this list of travel sites from travel expert Pauline Frommer. She reviews Kayak.com, BestTripChoices.com, and TravelZoo.com.

Choosing where to go on vacation – it’s one of the most difficult travel decisions most of us make. When I polled friends on how they decide, budget was always the first concern, second was finding places that would make their children happy (or destinations their significant others could stomach). Beyond that, nobody seemed to have hit upon a method for making the choice any easier. But as with many conundrums, there are Web whizzes who want to help out (and/or get our business).

Here are some more sites with recommendations for online travel tools: GeekSugar.com, AARP (yes, we know, but those seniors get around a lot and we can learn something from them), ConvinceAndConvert.com and TripIt.com.

And Mint can help you save for your vacation.

Bon voyage!