Favourite Booking Links

As booking your own vacations, trips and travels has become so much easier due to all the possibilities on the internet, it is essential to know where to go online when booking.

This will save you a lot of time as there is a lot to find out there! And of course very important is to know that the site you are booking at is bonafide and trustworthy!

From my travel experiences of the last 20 years hereby some tips and booking links of the best travel sites:

Authentic, nice and unique accommodations without flights

A wonderful site for finding authentic vacation rentals and villa bookings, where we have booked many chic private accomodations is :

Homeaway

You get in touch with the owners directly and it is great value for money as most houses are totally private for your own travelling company. Especially interesting when travelling with a small group.

Borrowing someone’s own appartment or house:

AIRBNB

For a luxurious stay in different, but all authentic chic hotels around the world:

Or better yet book directly on the website of your preferred accommodation for the best deals!

You can find more than 110 authentic chic hotels, private villa's and other unique accommodations I've experienced myself all around the world on this page of my website: Unique Hotels

Package deals, hotels including flights and country info

For comparing and finding the best flights including hotel offers on other booking sites and for other useful information go to:

Tripadvisor

I find this site especially usefull for checking reviews from others, as I think that is always very important before finally booking the hotel and keep you from getting disappointed.

Do filter on date to make sure their review is recent. And try to look at the kind of person which wrote the review, as an opinion is always relative, depending on the specific kind of traveller:)

Booking.com

I love them because I can look for hotels based on:

Location, for example; distance to city centre,
Property type; I prefer smaller quaint hotels, also known as boutique hotels, as these have much more charactre and are of course more authentic and less crowded.
Swimmingpool/airconditioning/WIFI, definitely necessary to keep it chic.
Star rating and rate per night.
Review rating, always check the most recent experiences of fellow travellers, this is very helpfull and gives a realistic picture. Do look at the target group which wrote the review though, as an opinion is always relative, depending on age, couple or single, etc…

Similar to booking.com, but really a great site for package deals of flight + hotel + car or separately:

Ebookers.com

Booking links for day trips

As I am curious by nature I have become quite the explorer during my travels. I am always looking for things to do and sights to see as I love to soak in the authenticity of each country I am visiting.

I love to be spontaneous and take a taxi or rent a car to explore the country myself. But as time is sometimes limited during a vacation it is also very practical to book some excursions already before you go, so you don’t have to worry about this when you arrive.

From my exploring and wander experiences of the last 20 years here are my tips and links of the best sites:

Find travel guides, travel tips and day tours all around the world on:

Visitacity

I have very good experiences with day trips in different countries through:

Viator

Trustworthy site with travel activities and tours through travel agents all around the world.

A great cause with very low priced and very authentic activities is:

I-likelocal

They focus on offering unique, local activities organized by local people in developing countries, mostly in Asia. By booking these local activities you empower and stimulate locals directly. 100% of the money asked by the locals for their activities is directly paid to them; I Like Local doesn’t charge them anything. Besides this I Like Local is looking for more ways than just financially support them.

They offer a great variaty of local activities:

Homestay or farmstay,
Trek & Tour and volunteering,
Several food experiences and cooking courses.

And for comparing and finding nice places to eat, things to do and the best travel agents for day excursions again go to:

Tripadvisor

Find a lot of things to do in the area you are travelling and tour operators and travel agents for day trips and excursions on this site. Be carefull though as there is so much too choose from and most travel agents which are offered are local, so not necessarily trustworthy.

In order to find the best travel agent, look at reviews from others, always filter on date to make sure their experience is recent. And try to look at the kind of person which wrote the review, as an opinion is always relative, depending on the specific kind of traveller:)

Great tips, shopping guides and maps for city trips can be found on:

Superfuture

Happy wanderlusting!