Travelocity's Fare Watcher will monitor up to five routes of your choosing and alert you by e-mail when the fare goes below your designated level. SmarterLiving.com compiles airfares from Expedia, Trip.com, SkyAuction.com, and Hotels.com, as well as individual airlines and hotels, and sends e-mail notices tailored to your departure city. All you need to do is wait for your destination of choice to show up.
You want something completely different.
Adventurous sorts should head to iExplore.com, which promises more than 3,000 trips worldwide from more than 130 tour operators. You can search by destination, price, length, activity, and level of difficulty. After specifying two weeks in September in the Caribbean, we were offered four trips, one monitoring turtles in Barbados, another a cultural-exchange trip to Cuba. The broader your parameters, the more selection you'll have.
It's Tuesday and you already know you're going to need a weekend away.
Site59.com supplies Travelocity and Orbitz with last-minute deals, so it's no surprise that all three sites recently had the same package on offer: a four-night stay for two at the Sonesta Beach Resort on Anguilla, including airfare from New York, for $1,459. (Booked separately, the airfare and room would have set us back an additional $400.) However, Site59's choices are concentrated in North America and the Caribbean. The last-minute sales on SkyAuction.com are more varied but generally require a seven-night stay.
At RCIHolidayNetwork.com you can do a Resort Quick Search by specifying the month, location, and length of stay. Success will depend on the season: in summer, you're more likely to find something for the coming weekend in the Caribbean than in the Mediterranean.
Is there anybody out there?
For all its functionality, the Web will always lack one thing: human contact. But recognizing the occasional need for interference—if a user gets lost on a site or has complicated vacation plans—both Travelocity and Expedia have 24-hour help lines. These will aid you in navigating the site and purchasing your tickets (Travelocity charges $5.95 for air bookings). Orbitz's operators offer only customer service. None of the sites is reliable in a crisis, such as a canceled flight. Bottom line: if you crave personal interaction—or someone to assist you in an emergency—use a travel agent.
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