Photo by Ajari on Flickr

Summer is finally here and we are busily researching our favorite travel destinations and making travel plans for the rest of the year. Luckily, I stumbled on a gem of a site called Travelgrove a few months ago that has facilitated the process. (Travelgrove would be a GREAT option for you, Dad!)

Travelgrove uses a powerful search engine to search major travel search engines like Priceline, Kayak, and Travelocity for deals on cheap flights, hotels, cars, vacation packages, cruises, and even theme vacations. A basic search shows results from Hotwire and C-Trip. By checking the boxes underneath the search box, users are able to add additional search engines like Travelocity, Priceline, and Kayak. Results from each search engine open in separate windows, which easily allow you to compare prices.

There’s also a section for Recently Found Flight Deals, which lists the best deals of the day. Last week, I found a cheap flight to Honolulu from Los Angeles for $262US. These tickets are usually $600US and up! John and I decided against getting married in Hawaii because it wasn’t within our budget. I wish I’d found this deal before we got hitched.

Travelgrove also offers World Travel Guides which can help you get acquainted with your next travel destination. These are also a great source of information if you’re looking for hot deals and vacations.

I mentioned earlier that Travelgrove offers cool social networking features to registered users. Users can become part of a unique online travel community by joining. You can make new friends; ask questions, share travel experiences, and exchange information with other travelers. You can even upload photos, stories and handy travel tips. Don’t forget to add me when you register. You can find me under globetrotteri at Travelgrove.

]]> http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2009/06/30/travel-with-travelgrove/feed/ 6 http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/01/26/planning-journeys/ http://www.myseveralworlds.com/2007/01/26/planning-journeys/#comments Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:05:41 +0000 Carrie http://myseveralworlds.com/blog/2007/01/26/planning-journeys/

Violet Flower in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. 

We’re bundled up in hats and scarves in our apartment tonight. Winter weather is sketchy here. It was glorious just the other day and we wished we could have hopped on the bike for a long ride. Unfortunately, the bike is in the shop right now. John has been down at the shop for the last few days playing ‘grease monkey’ with the guys. He swears it’s because he doesn’t trust them, but I think he’s actually enjoying himself. In any case, we’ve been out of the loop lately without wheels, so we’ve stayed in and battened down against the new cold snap coming in.

No matter. We’ve got lots to think about right now.  Our year is coming to an end here in Shu-lin. Our last day at work is coming up quickly and we are really starting to think about what we are going to do next year. We’re in the midst of planning two upcoming trips. The first of which occurs next month. We have some time off for Chinese New Year and we’ve decided to travel by motorbike around Taiwan for five days.

We’ve spent the better part of this week searching for available hotels or hostels in or around Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan, which is about seven hours away in Nantou. Our search has taken ages because apparently we aren’t the only ones venturing out over the holidays. Scores of people will be traveling to see their families or vacationing with their families during the biggest Asian holiday of the year. We’re about to join the ranks. Every hotel and hostel we’ve called has been booked and just today, our reservations were confirmed with a somewhat ‘questionable’ hostel in Puli. I don’t care really. We’ve stayed in some pretty scary places.  To be honest, I’m going to give John the credit, because I had given up hope of finding a place.  It won’t matter where we stay because it’s only for a few nights and we want to make the most of our time off.

We plan on spending two nights in the area before heading to Toroko Gorge on the east coast. Toroko Gorge is one of Taiwan’s biggest attractions with towering cliffs, a whitewater river and numerous hiking trails within a marble canyon. Then we’re traveling up the coastline to Ilan, to Honeymoon Bay, where we’ll enjoy a black sand beach and some relaxing hot springs in Chiaosi. I have to say, I’m pretty excited.

In the midst of all this planning for next month, we are still trying to sort out the details of our three month trip at the beginning of April. We have just recieved word that John’s mom will be meeting us in Bangkok, Thailand. She’s going to join us on our travels through Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. We’re quite thrilled to have her join us and it will be a first for us. We’re anxious to show her our part of the world and share some traveling experiences with her. Following six weeks in Asia, we are heading home to North America for a long overdue visit home. It’s been 18 months since the last time I saw my family and I really miss them. I can’t wait to see them again and find out first-hand how everyone is doing.

We’re still negotiating with our bosses and are uncertain about our return to Gram. We are definitely coming back to Taiwan but we’re thinking of taking on new jobs and finding a new place to live that’s closer to Taipei. Baby steps though. We take each day one at a time.

If you are a traveler then you know that there is always one common denominator throughout all your travels. Planning. It is the single most important way to discover what kind of traveler you are. Some people, including myself, like the thrill of freedom and wild romanticism that comes from traveling without a pre-determined destination in mind. Others, like my partner, get a thrill in finding the perfect places to spend our time most happily. Both ways work beautifully together and have resulted in some unforgettable voyages for us. We always try to combine a little of both our travel philosophies to the planning of our journeys.

In China, we’ve had plenty of occasion to travel, and we have some tried and true links that can help you book your accomodations and cheap airline tickets without hassle. Plus, you can do it with as many nomadic wanderings or good old-fashioned tried and true favorites as your heart desires.

China Trip Advisor is an all-purpose site that allows visitors to book hotels, hostels, tours, flights, cruises and trains. I especially like their Recent Posts Forum, which allows travelers to post questions and answers about travel in China. We booked our e-tickets to Guangzhou with C Trip while we were at the Canaan International Hotel/Hostel in downtown Xi’an and were thoroughly impressed with their speedy delivery of tickets right to our hotel room later that evening.

We’ve been lucky enough to travel cheaply and in style throughout the past four years. With China in mind, I’ve stayed at super posh hotels like The Grand Hyatt in Beijing and The Shangri-La, which are the ultimate travel luxury when you feel you need to elevate yourself from the real world for a little while. In particular, I liked spending time in the lobby of the The Shangri-La in Changchun. It has always been the ultimate place for relaxation and was especially nice to visit when I wanted a taste of home during the holiday season.

www.sinohotels.com has been more than helpful on several occasions when we wanted weekend getaways to Beijing. We like to use Sinohotels because they usually filled our requests for accommodations in the hutongs in Beijing with quite a bit of flair. I could always count on getting a cheap, clean, decent room that was always centrally located amongst the night markets and street vendors of Beijing and within walking distance of Tiananmen, The Forbidden City, and Wang Fu Jing.

We really enjoyed using the services of eLong Travel while traveling through China. It’s a great discount website that hosts a variety of hotels situated throughout China. We found some pretty cool little hotels in Changchun, Beijing, Xian, Shenzhen and Guangzhou with eLong and have been so impressed with their services that we have passed their information on while we’ve been on the road.

E-long has recently added to their website, and it’s even easier now to find nice and inexpensive accommodations conveniently located in the areas you want to visit. We were centrally located each time and always had a wide variety of shopping arcades, clubs, bars, restaurants and galleries to choose from. Travelers can also book internationally with eLong.

For terrific tours of the Great Wall of China, you’ll want to check in with the experts at Great Wall Tours.

Traveling in China will definitely have its ups and downs, whether you want to plan every last detail in the comfort of your own home or whether you want to plan on the road. These websites will get you where you need to go with minimal cost and friendly service guaranteed!