Issue 151

Web Around The World

29th January 2007

In recent years the web has become a vital tool for the independent traveller, providing all the essential info on flights, coach, rail, activities and hostels.

When planning any trip, be it a weekend away in Paris or an around the world extravaganza, the internet should be your first port of call. In light of these developments, Front presents a 'best of the web' guide to help save money and time for the student traveller.

First up: transportation. Budget airlines have revolutionised short haul flying and the best place to sift through them all is Kayak.co.uk, a site that allows you to find the cheapest flights to any European destination on any given day. This site saves you hours of searching around individual sites, and more often than not, saving you a penny or two. For destinations further afield Cheapflights.co.uk will point you in the right direction, though you do have to book directly through the airline's website.

If the thought of jetting through the skies upsets your eco-conscience then Climatecare.org.uk is the best way to reconcile yourself with the environment. The site allows you to plant trees for every mile you travel, thereby reducing your carbon footprint, and with just £5 to offset a return trip to Spain it doesn't cost the earth.

If you want to avoid flying altogether then coach travel can be the cheapest option of all. At Eurolines.com you can find single fares to Paris from £12. Once on the continent easy and cheap travel can be found on this site between over 500 destinations. Coach travel may save you money but it's costly in terms of time out of your trip.

Having once spent a eleven hour journey pressed against a very fat, very sweaty, very drunk Russian man watching a dubbed version of the very bad Daredevil, I cant unequivocally recommend the experience - but hey, cheap is cheap!

Inter rail cards are always popular for convenience and flexibility, but you can check out other rail options at Raileurope.co.uk (best for southern Europe) and Deutschebahn. co.uk (for the north). Very often for the ultimate flexibility and money retention, a combination of flying, coach and rail is best – depending on your trip.

With the transport sorted you can start looking around for somewhere to bed down. Hostels are the obvious option for the independent traveller not just as a cheap sleep, but also as somewhere to meet other travellers (though they are often Australian). The best place to look is Hostelworld.com, this site allows you to find and book hostels around the world and it has a useful rating and review system meaning you can avoid the most flea-ridden of hovels. Alternatively for the more discerning holidaymaker hotels can be found for very reasonable prices at Laterooms.com.

The great thing about using these sites is that you can find rooms a few days before, or even on the day of, your arrival in a new destination. This means you can plan your trip from one day to the next with only a credit card and an internet café, which even the most far flung parts of the globe have in abundance, giving you total travel freedom. So if for instance you tire of Viennese café culture, all it takes is half an hour on the net to arrange an impromptu detour and you can be dining on goulash in Budapest or swigging a beer in Munich the very next day. It's in situations such as these that the flexibility these sites offer becomes invaluable.

With this flexibility, money saving and ease of use, it's no surprise that more people are turning to the web when planning their holiday, and with new sites cropping up everyday this trend is set to continue.

Jack Yuille