Hundreds of travel sites online, which ones do you pick from? It can be harder than you think, since all of the travel sites sell the same flights, rental cars, cruises, and hotel rooms. Certain travel websites are excellent places to purchase flights, but may have a limited or expensive selection of hotels to choose from. Other sites will offer myriad destinations, but everything must be booked separately, which is time consuming and a bit confusing.

Eco-friendly travel websites to exotic travel specialists can be found on the internet, it all depends on what sort of vacation you are interested in. Below, we'll list some of the top travel websites that we use online. But remember, using a travel website all depends on your own personal tastes, a site that we may enjoy, you may not, so choose carefully and happy travelling.

	Expedia.com One of the best open-ended sites on the internet, Expedia.com is one of the largest North American travel websites. We have used Expedia.com a number of times to book flights and accommodations in the Caribbean and North America, and have found some great deals. While at times it can be a bit cumbersome to use due to the vast number of features on the site, we find that you usually will always find what you are searching for. In terms of trip options and customizations, Expedia.com is ranked one of the best. Whether you are looking for a four-star ice hotel in Quebec City, Canada, to an adventurous safari in Africa, Expedia.com includes vacations from all around the globe. The user generated reviews are extremely helpful for extra information on hotels and what to do and see when you get there. A good majority of the hotels and destinations have numerous reviews, including a scale of 0 to 5 in different categories, such as affordability, cleanliness, and overall satisfaction. If you know that you want to take a trip, but haven't researched or thought about the details of your upcoming vacation, you can easily spend an entire afternoon on Expedia.com finding out what you need to know.
	Flightcentre.com We are sure that a lot of you know about the many Flightcentre retail locations across North America, but the online website is an excellent place to compare flights, and the fares within North America are some of the best that you will find. An extremely simple search feature makes finding airfare results quick and painless. After submitting your search, the website will show at the top of the search results page, a comparison chart of all the airlines, with their prices, that offer flights for the destination that you choose. It is a very effective method of getting information quickly. We discovered that after entering identical flight selections on Flightcentre and at the major airlines websites, the price after taxes was virtually identical. If you have to travel somewhere domestically and do not have a lot of time to research prices, Flightcentre.com is a great choice for ensuring that you are getting a solid deal on airfare.
	Travelocity.com A lawn gnome might not be the most effective television advertising campaign for Travelocity.com, but their website has a lot to offer. Here you will find a wide range of flights, hotels, holiday packages, and car rentals, along with other details you may not have thought of for your trip. A fantastic review section is very helpful, but at times the site can be a bit slow to load in search results, so patience is required. One standout feature is the consistantly low airfares between Canada and the United States. Flights are organized by the number of stops and the overall price, along with showing comparisons from all the airlines on one single page. The feature we like the most is that the search page doesn't prompt you to make any decisions for add-ons to your trip, such as car rental or insurance, so if you are just looking for a flight, the search feature is super easy to use.
	Tripadvisor.com With more than 10 million reviews and opinions, and nearly 30 million unique visitors a month, TripAdvisor claims to be the largest travel community on the web. The site itself is a free travel guide, complete with reviews and information on over 270,000 hotels and attractions, in over 30,000 destinations worldwide. Reviews on restaurants, bed and breakfast locations, and off the beaten path ideas, makes for a more detailed look into your destination of choice. A few drawbacks though, some destinations, especially those outside of North America and Europe, do not have a lot of detailed information on attractions or hotels, leaving large gaps of information that you will have to research elsewhere. Overall though, Tripadvisor.com is a great resource of travel information, and with fantastic features such as interactive maps based on the Google Maps engine, and TripAdvisor Forums, there is plenty of ideas and traveller reviews here to plan a vacation.

Other Helpful Travel Websites

Selloffvacations.com - For our fellow Canadians online, if you're looking for sun, surf, and sand, this is the site for you. A standout selection of package holidays and cruises to pick from. Not the largest list of destinations, but this site offers a solid affordable price for your next vacation.

SideStep.com - Compare airfares with SideStep, the traveler's search engine. Find cheap airfares, discount hotels, car rentals and cruise deals to popular travel destinations.

Kayak.com - Find and book cheap airline tickets, hotel rooms and rental cars. Search hundreds of travel sites, compare results, and buy direct.