Accommodations
A great place to rent out your extra space or book that accommodation for a fraction of what you would be paying if you stayed at a hotel. You have your choice of 190 countries and 34,000+ cities to choose from with Airbnb.
Another great place to check out when searching for hotels, apartments and villas. Booking.com has over 536,980 properties in 207 countries so you can’t go wrong in trying to find a place to sleep.
The best hostel booking site with no booking fees. You can search from campsites, guesthouses, apartments, hotels and hostels. You can narrow your search to include room type, breakfast (some properties do not include breakfast in the price of their rooms), facilities and which district the property may be located. I use Hostebookers for all my hostel accommodations when overseas.
A great place to rent out your extra space or book that accommodation for a fraction of what you would be paying if you stayed at a hotel. You have your choice of more than 100 countries and over 300,000 properties to choose from with Wimdu.
Airfare
Another site I use when booking flights is through Expedia. They aren’t as great as Kayak when searching for the best deals on airline flights but sometimes they can save you money but only if you sign up for their credit card through Expedia. You can save anywhere from $50 – $100 towards your flight. On top of this, they do have a great rewards program.
One of the best search engines for hotels, cars and flights that depart from the United States. I have found some of the best prices for international flights departing from San Francisco when I have needed to book a flight.
Another great travel search engine for flights, car rentals and hotels. Skyscanner’s search options give you the flexibility to browse prices from one month to a year before you book. They help find the cheapest flights, rentals and hotels with no added fees that other travel sites may charge.
A great site when needing unbiased reviews of hotels, restaurants and destinations. This is my go-to site when needing unbiased opinions/reviews on destinations I am thinking of visiting. It helps me plan my next vacation when I am having trouble narrowing down my search on where I want to go.
Flexible Travel/Tours
Geared towards 18-35s. Specializes in tours for students and young professionals. When planning my backpacking trip through Europe, I used AESU for booking my flight. They were accommodating when I needed to make changes to my flight; no charges for moving the departure date up three months. PLEASE NOTE: airline changes were done many years ago so the policy may have changed since booking a flight through them.
Andy Steeves Weekend Student Adventures
Enhance your semester abroad with 9 cities to choose from. Weekend destinations from Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Dublin, Krakow, Paris, Prague and Rome. Great cities to add to your study abroad experience in another country.
Great for the independent traveler and friends traveling together since Busabout is geared towards the hop-on hop-off experience. Another thing they are focused on besides the hop-on hop-off options for the countries they go through are the tours they have set up. With their tours, they give you the choice on what you want to see since they have many tours to choose from. They are the best option out there for the independent traveler since I traveled on my own in 2001 and used them during my travels.
A good company for escorted tours and independent travel. Escorted tour options include Ireland and Scotland. Independent travel includes self-drive options and staying anywhere from bed and breakfast to hotels. CIE Tours was the company I went through for renting a car and staying in bed and breakfasts while in Ireland.
Rail Europe is a great alternative if you would like the option of taking trains throughout Europe in lieu of busses. All you have to do is buy a pass for any of the European countries that are on the Rail Europe network. One of the options I have loved is the Rail Europe Pass Finder that helps you find the right rail pass for you. In using the pass finder, you add in the country you want to visit, how many days you will be visiting and then add the next country etc. until you have included all the countries you want to visit. Rail Europe Pass Finder does all the work and finds the pass that is perfect for you. Think about taking the train(s) on your next adventure throughout Europe.
Let Viator be the place you go to in booking these type of tours; sightseeing, day, city, and helicopter tours. Besides these types of tours, you can book tour guides and private guided tours. Before booking any tour, check out the reviews for that tour that Viator has listed on the given page for the tour.
Work and Volunteer Overseas
Volunteer work in exchange for free room and board in Australia, New Zealand, Europe, Canada and United States. You can choose to work on organic, non-organic farm stays, homestays, hostels, or boats.
World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms whereas you volunteer to help out with the daily chores (activities and/or tasks at hand) in exchange for free room and board.