25 Best Travel Sites

Editors note: This story has been updated since it was published in October 2006.

You can satisfy your wanderlust wi thout overspending -- and these top Web sites will help you find the best values in travel bargains. We've personally used each of t hese sites to research and book travel and found them superior to others.

For airfare, lodging and car rentals, we identify wh ich links are best for three different types of traveler. So whether you're pressed for time, looking for the best deal or traveling internationally, you'll find a site to fit your needs. We also identify the best sources to find bargains on cruises and vacation packages.

• Airfares


• Lodging


• Car rentals


• Cruises


• Vacation packages
• Other resources

Airfares

TIME-PRESSED TRAVELER
Kayak.com fetches fares (plus hotel rates and other travel products, if you ask) from more than 140 sources. Click on the best deal, and Kayak.com will send you to a site where you can buy the ticket. If your itinerary is flexible, you can boost your chances of finding a deal by searching for dates up to three days before and after your ideal travel dates. (One flaw: While Kayak.com offer s international flights, we've found other sites offer better international selections .)

Fares for Southwest and ATA aren't shown on Kayak.com and most other Web sites. But at Southwest.com, you can check fares for both Southwest and its partner airline ATA. Use this site as a back stop search if Kayak.com doesn't return a low fare.

BEST-DEAL TRAVELER
Farecast.com predicts whether fares on most domestic routes will go up or down. Enter your itinerary and the site will say if you should buy your ticket now -- or if an even better fare is probably on the way. To make its forecasts, the site anal yzes past fare trends in airline databases and other factors. Farecast also offers predictions for hotel rates in 30 cities.

F rom time to time, airlines will offer unbelievably low fares on selected flights or itineraries. These "fire sale" fares, "blooper f ares" and "price war" fares are unpredictable. In our experience, Airfar e Watchdog posts these bargains faster than other Web sites. To take advantage of these time-sensitive flukes, you must book them right away. This site specializes in deals for flights departing from hundreds of cities and includes fares from Southwest, Je tBlue and small airlines you may never have heard of.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVELER
LowesTravel.com offers international tickets on more than 60 airlines and gener ally a broader selection than rival sites. (The site also offers rental cars and hotel reservations.)

When flying overseas, you'll be sitting in your airline seat for an extended time. Make sure you pick the best seat by reading reviews of seat quality at SeatGuru.com.

Traveling to Europe? Note that trains are often the f astest and cheapest way to travel within and between European countries. Our favorite English-language Web site for checking timetab les and booking one-way, round-trip and multi-stop tickets on European train lines is RailEurope.