Trip Planning Online

I have been in Europe for more then half a year. During this time I've done a fair amount of traveling, with trips to England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, and Portugal in addition to road-trips throughout Germany. The problem is, the more places I go, the more I want to see. When I'm not on the road, I am researching future trips.

Today I thought I'd share some of my favorite online trip planning tools.

• I love the travel section of the New York Times. Here I find interesting article about place to visit and things to see that are not often written up in travel guides. I especially love the "36 Hours in..." pieces.
• Flying around Europe can be relatively inexpensive since there are a number of discount airlines. Go to each airline's individual Web site to get the best rates. In Germany, the discount carriers include German Wings, Ryanair, Tui Fly, Air Berlin, and Easy Jet. For other European desitnations, check out Euroflights.info.
• MapQuest offers maps and route-planning serives throughout Europe. Even if I don't plan to drive from one city to the next, I like to find out exactly how far apart things are.
• Before making hotel reservations (no matter where I find them) I check Trip Advisor to see what kind of comments other travelers have given them
  

And even though this isn't an online tip, I thought I'd include it because the deal sounds awesome. In yesterday's Times there was an article about making the most of your dollars while traveling in Europe. Worldhotels is offering a deal where American travelers can pay in dollars instead of Euros. In order to get this deal, you must call (800) 223-5652 from within the U.S.

Hope you find these sites useful. If you have any trick of your own, please let me know.