It’s very rare I end up writing posts about travel sites I hear about through my contact form. This is one part because I’m too busy, but fifteen parts because the sites I hear about just aren’t that interesting. (Read: The world doesn’t need another TripAdvisor or Virtual Tourist)

However, the stars aligned when I was recently contacted by InBed.me regarding their service. InBed is one of those rare original, non-shitty new travel websites that I’m convinced offers a true value proposition to travelers… especially to the single, solo, independent budget traveler.. like myself.

Click through and spend a few minutes on the site, and you’ll get why I’m excited about it. InBed is AirBnB, but with hostels, and a little more social twist. Rather than only finding a bed like AirBnB, you’re finding travel buddies and a social circle. The little corny video on the landing page hits the nail on the head - cool hostels aren’t cool if you’re alone after arriving. I couldn’t agree more.

InBed.me simply solves the problem. Why hostels.com or hostelworld didn’t think of this first, I don’t know. Maybe because they’re lazy. But going forward, there’s hardly a reason to book hostels ahead without using InBed.me.

I realize I’m fanboy-ing hard on this one, but it’s for good reason. It’s refreshing to see techcrunch buzzworthy disruption come back to the travelsphere and challenge the AirBnB’s and Couchsurfings of the world. This will only lead to good things. I’m excited. There aren’t many travel startups I’d love to really work for, but this might be one of them. So check it out, and if you’re a travel geek, be sure to keep InBed on your radar. This could get big.

Bus travel is coming back. After the industry has declined for numerous years, the past few have seen a slight resurgence in bus travel which might be offering budget travelers a decent domestic travel option. But when it comes to booking buses, who honestly knows where to start when booking tickets? Neither Kayak, Vayama, nor Expedia tell me about buses.  And call me naive, but I have honestly only heard of Megabus and Greyhound. Compare that to our knowledge of airline carriers, and you get what I’m saying.

So, obviously, I’m going to give you the solution to the problem and tell you how to find low bus fares (and even compare prices!)

BusJunction.com

BusJunction is a bus fare aggregator that’s a self explanatory bus fare search brought to my attention by its founder in a buried email half a year ago which I just rediscovered. Like Kayak, it’s an aggregator, which is an important clarification because this means it is independent of the bus operators, thus offering you unbiased fares and information.

So, naturally, I’m partial to BusJunction (not even having used the service) and would recommend it. If my word doesn’t mean anything, Frommer himself hearts BusJunction in the HuffingtonPost, one of several high profile coverages the site received. The final kicker of BusJunction is its integration of Yelp, another site i’m a fan of.

GoToBus.com

GoToBus.com is the other, bigger and older bus fare search tool. The site features just Chinatown bus routes zig zagging across the US. While also super helpful, it engages in ticket partnerships with the bus companies for profit, thus potentially resulting in worse bus route and fare searches.

As a capitalist at heart, I love to see BusJunction’s emergence on the scene to give GoToBus a run for its money and help out the lowly bus travelers out there. Let’s hope that this increased bus travel trend continues so budget travelers aren’t left out to dry when attempting to travel on the cheap, and so I can feature fewer rants in posts on US budget travel.

New Year is here. Let’s face it, 2008 sucked, and optimism seems to be ringing everywhere right now.  In the travel publishing and news sector, nearly everyone’s been making ‘Top Places to Travel in 2009‘ or the ‘Top Travel destinations in 2009′ types of lists.  It’s easy to get caught up in the listmania and finding what different publishers or experts or recommending.

So I thought I’d compile a list of top lists for the best 2009 Travel destinations based on a variety of factors.  I’d love to make this the comprehensive list of lists, so if you run across another list or make one on your own travel blog, Comment and contact me, so I may put it in the post.

Kayak Trip Ideas: Best Cities for 2009 (via email newsletter)

1. Washington DC - Barack put DC on several lists.  Check out what  Obama’s effects be on travel for the rest of the nation though. (more…)

My personal favorite travel network, BootsnAll.com, is a comprehensive community and network of travel tips, blogs, articles for prospective travelers seeking travel info for literally any location. The forums are the best on the net for travel topics and questions and seem to make the backbone of the network in my opinion. So when I was contacted to review their online booking site CheapTicketLinks.org, I agreed because of my high regard for the network. Much like the title suggests, the site offers a good search option when looking for Cheap airline tickets.

As for the site, it just offers a simple, easy to use search for flights, hotels, or combinations for your packages. Somewhat like other cheap airfare searches popping up online, the search returns a link list of other airline ticket providers (Kayak, CheapoAir, etc.) and transfers you to their sites with your dates and what not. The site doesn’t actually have it’s own fares, but instead just refers you to other providers in a simple easy to use fashion.

While the site is not revolutionary nor completely original, I think it fits in nicely with the rest of the Bootsnall network and is functional, one stop search tool that many BnA members and visitors will enjoy using. BnA is KISSing and it should work well, so check out CheapTeicketLinks.org when you need to find some flights or hotels, fast.

Here’s another travel search engine review that’s been bought…

LowFares.com is another comparison flight search engine promising cheap airline tickets to travelers planning their next trip wherever. I had my own assumptions about the site at first before I gave it a test drive and I was kind of expecting something a bit different than what I experienced. (more…)

I was paid for this advertisement by Expedia.com.au

Expedia is an online booking giant and has long been one of my personal favorites above the likes of Travelocity and Orbitz, and Expedia’s Australia site delivers the same great service that we are familiar with in the US.

The Expedia booking engine is intuitive as expected and allows travelers to mix and match flights, hotels, and cars to satisfy your vacation needs and get a slight discount in the process. I’ve always been a fan of the Expedia search results pages as well because of it’s easy to navigate design and plethora of info like ratings, location, photos, and whatever else.

Expedia is often overlooked when it comes to flights though because of all the new, flight only search engines now operating and growing online. But, they probably shouldn’t be, because Expedia continues to offer competitive fares and cheap flights around the world. And by combining good, cheap flights with hotels, the discount by Expedia may make it one of the cheapest options when it comes to booking entire vacations online.

Finally, Expedia offers pretty neat holiday packages that take some of the guess work out of booking a custom vacation all by your lonesome. Whether you have constraints on your time or your confidence online is a bit low, holiday packages are a quick, simple and affordable solution to your needs.

So when it comes to booking entire vacations or just flights online when in in the Australia/Oceanic region, give Expedia.com.au a look or two.