February 5, 2012

Have a good holiday

At WhatsGoodOnTheWeb we recently asked people to tell us about websites they would recommend anyone who is going away this year to use and we had lots of responses which is always great. Many of the sites we have been asked to review are independent sites that rate everything from the quality of the accomodation through to how good the food is, many of which rely on you the user giving them information and writing reviews.

One of the websites we have decided to give a quick review of is the Checksafetyfirst.com site – it aims to give travellers security about where they are travelling to and reviews hotels and resorts individually based on over 250 criteria including food hygiene and safety which is very thorough.

If you are a first time traveller or have previously been unwell whilst you have been away we’d suggest that you take a look at the site and read some of the reviews.

The downside of the site is that it only lists hotels and resorts that have been individually verified by Health and Safety inspectors so there are only about 1500 to look at at the moment but the list is growing all the time.

If you’re hotel is not listed don’t worry as Checksafetyfirst work with travel operators to ensure their hotels are to the highest standards.

You may also want to read some of the advice and tips for travellers to make sure you have a great time.

Get money back on travel insurance

www.noclaimscashback.com

If you go on holiday you should always take out a travel insurance policy and along comes a quite neat idea that some of you may be interested in. By getting your policy through www.noclaimscashback.com you get the opportunity to claim back a proportion of what you paid out if you do not claim.

Every year millions of Brits go on holiday and have accidents or fall ill and find that they aren’t covered or need to pay a fortune for medical treatment. The site give you a simple solution if you are wary of sepending money – spend some but get some back.

Working on the same principle as normal cashback sites the company pays you back some of your commission – what you get back very much depends on what you but but the policies are good and it seems a shame not to take up the offer.

The site looks fairly easy to use and the prices quoted are very similar to other insurance sites so we think the idea is a good one. All you have to do is be safe and well on holiday and then remember to claim back your cash …… simple. If you’ve got a bad memory just make sure you make a note in your diary – the cashback for insurance is not automatic.

We’re giving the site three stars as there is very little content at the moment – it’s a good idea and makes real common sense.

NEWS – Opodo add new site features

www.opodo.co.uk/airtools

The future of online booking has arrived for price-conscious and time-poor consumers, as online travel specialist Opodo launches a selection of innovative new air tools:

1.   CombiFlightTM
This tool allows customers to combine two carriers to and from a destination, to get a cheaper airfare wherever possible.

2.   EscapeMap®
This tool provides customers with ideas on where to go.  The customer tells Opodo how much they would like to spend, roughly where they want to travel, what type of trip they would like – and EscapeMap pinpoints suggestions on a map with flight prices.

3.   Opodo CheckFlightTM
These pages are designed for customers who know where they are going. They can see the cheapest flights for their preferred airport and see the best price Opodo offers.  These pages also give local weather and destination news.

4.   MyAirlineTM
Some Opodo customers are loyal to a particular airline.  Opodo has created the ’My Airline’ pages so customers can compare the price of their airline with the average price for that date across all airlines.

5.   Opodo FlexiFlightTM
This feature enables customers to look at cheaper flight options by being flexible by one day either side of the dates provided.

NEWS – Cheapflights Announces UK Site Relaunch

www.cheapflights.co.uk

The UK relaunch in Beta follows the successful full relaunch of its US site www.cheapflights.com in February this year following rigorous stress testing there. Based on the same platform as the US site, the Company will initially open the new site to a small percentage of Cheapflights.co.uk’s viewers.

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The Beta launch marks an important stage in Cheapflights’ 12 year history. Since 1996, the Company has always striven to innovate and provide a cutting edge service both to its users and to its travel advertising partners. Cheapflights believe that the very rapid response speed and the major increase in travel data available on the new site will provide viewers with a great user experience starting on the Homepage.

Whats new:

  • Deal filters
  • Easier site navigation
  • An increased library of travel-related proprietary guides
  • Links to external travel information

Things to do on holiday

www.isango.com

If you like to travel but not sitting on a beach, going somewhere new can be a problem as you have no real idea what you can do when you get there. A fairly unknown site, Isango, hopes to solve this problem for all the jetsetters out there – it lets you search, and even book things to do whilst you are away.

Just to illustrate a simple example:

If you were travelling to California on holiday what would you do – Universal Studios? Rodeo Drive? Venice Beach? A simple search using the activities search engine throws up a few solutions:

  • Disneyworld
  • Seaworld
  • Shopping
  • Nights out

You can then follow the links and book the activity. Obviously Isango is making a profit on you pre booking but it is a really nice way to find out what is going on and actually give advice on what sort of people may like the activities.

The downside -

We’d actually like to see free things listed with the activities – What about a walk on Will Rodgers Beach or a advice on a nice resturant.

Overall we like the idea – a bit less heavy sell and more a place to stop by and I would be really happy to keeep coming back to the site – even better would be personal reviews of the activities and how they were rated – good, bad or indifferent.

I’d say Isango is a good three star site – the concept works for us and with a few more bits added I think this could be the next tripadvisor. If you have used the site please let us know in the comments section.

See the next page to read the Isango’s own description:

[Read more...]

Travel guides and Tips

www.tripwolf.co.uk

TripWolf is a recently launched online travel guide that gives you, the international traveller the opportunity to take a look at where you want to go.

Site users have access to information on over 200,000 travel destinations all over the world. Users of www.tripwolf.co.uk can search for destinations, find tips from friends and pro gurus, and even create and print out their own travel itineraries. A nice neat feature is that users can also browse galleries of pictures posted by other users who have visited the locations and get a really good idea of what to do and see when they get there. For the next budding travel writer you also have the ability to write a journal online so friends, family or fellow travels can read all about your experiences.

Although www.tripwold.co.uk is not fully operational yet it gives you a good idea of what is going on and we are sure in the fure it will become as popular as WAYN.

We’re giving this two stars at the moment but we will definetly check back in the future to see how it goes.