A bit off topic. Your favorite websites?

[mrtravel123]

Ok, this is a bit off topic... but what are your top 3 - 5 favorite websites that you like to visit or that you think others need to know/hear about? Doesn't need to be travel related necessarily. But, since we are all travel-minded, those are very welcome!

 

It seems like there are a lot of good websites out there... but sometimes we just don't know they're there until someone tells us about them.

 

Here are my contributions. A mixed blend.

 

1) National do not call registry to stop telemarketer calls!

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/donotcall/index.html

 

2) Your credit reports are now available to you for free. Quick and easy.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

 

3) California coastline photos (very clear). Go to "look up a location" as a starting point. This is the website Barbara Streisand sued because it shows her coastal home more clearly than she'd like. Great site for those who are bored & like photos of the coast.

www1.californiacoastline.org

 

4) Bid on hotels, cruises, etc. I sometimes see great hotel rooms for $35 - 45 a night. Do a search for the city you'll be visiting.

http://www.skyauction.com

 

5) User review website. I use it whenever I am researching a product or checking a travel location out. Amazon has great reviews too. But, this site is lesser-known.

http://www.epinions.com

 

.

[bahamapapa]

Here are mine...

 

1. about.com--a great site for general information about just anything, e.g. money, electronics, entertainment.

 

2. travelzoo.com--great travel specials

 

3. webmd.com--medical information and links to research sites.

 

4. smarter.com--very good product review and price comparisons.

 

5. biddingfortravel.com--great intelligence on priceline bids. this site has saved me hundreds of $$.

 

By the way, I agree on Skyauction. You can really save, especially on hotel/air packages.

 

BP

[Cruiser Forever]

For news and current events I like http://www.nytimes.com or http://www.bayarea.com . For entertainment gossip I like http://www.tvguide.com . And for finding out the ratings info to my favorite shows, I like http://www.mediaweek.com and for boxoffice news it's http://www.boxofficemojo.com :D

[flagger]

Well the ones that I mostly visit cannot be posted on a family oriented website. :D

 

But for time wasters:

 

Bookworm - http://www.popcap.com/gamepopup.php?theGame=bookworm

 

Spaced Penguin - http://www.bigideafun.com/penguins/arcade/spaced_penguin/info.htm

 

 

When I need some crossword help - http://us.imdb.com/search

 

To find out info about my favourite television programmes - http://forums.televisionwithoutpity.com/

 

For the Star Wars geek inside - http://theforce.net/

 

For the latest Harry Potter news - http://the-leaky-cauldron.org/

OR - http://www.jkrowling.com

 

When dreaming about our next great adventure:

 

Africam - http://www.africam.com

 

Our planned lodging - http://www.djuma.com

[Cruiser Forever]

Well the ones that I mostly visit cannot be posted on a family oriented website. :D

 

 

 

 

OMG!!! :eek: :eek:

[dianelevene]

I have a few that I like:

 

1. orbitz.com to get vacation info

 

2. ebay.com to buy everything that I don't need

 

3. mousesavers.com to find out how to get to Disney cheaply

 

4. insuremytrip.com to get prices on travel insurance

 

5. washingtonpost.com to read up on current events

 

 

Of course I also love cruisecritic.com too!

[vossjemi]

www.frommers.com

www.smarterliving.com but soon to be www.smartertravel.com

www.bookingbuddy.com

http://www.cdc.gov/

http://travel.state.gov/travel/warnings.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/

[shelbylook]

Oh, let's see..... (not in any particular order)

 

1. Cruisecritic

2. CNN & MSNBC

3. Local newspaper

4. NOAA weather for our county

5. Michigan.gov

6. Jayski.com

7. Storm Prediction Center

8. RCCL.com

9. My employer's website to check my email

 

Cathy

[lschrage]

biddingfortravel.com - invaluable for making informed bids through priceline, and has saved me hundreds of dollars in hotel expenses (not only for pre/post cruise in Miami and San Juan, but for hotels in Vegas, Hawaii, and Chicago)

 

tripadvisor.com - a fairly comprehensive list of objective reviews of any particular hotel in any given market

 

fodors.com - The "board" section of Fodors.com has a very active community and is the best "cruise critic" type resource for planning land-based vacations. I found a ton of great information when I was planning our trip to Hawaii last year

 

Chowhound.com - a great forum for "foodies". It is a great place to look for restuarant recommendations in a given city, and the recommendations are generally right on. I used it quite a bit for planning last year's trip to Hawaii as well.

 

Yahoo finance - to see if RCCLs stock ever goes down in price enough for me to buy 100 shares so that I can always get the additional shipboard credit!

 

rccl.com - to monitor the price of my next cruise!

[sherry7]

I've got to check some of these suggestions out.

 

Besides CruiseCritic.com of course, I like http://www.fatwallet.com (especially the Hot Deals Forum & the Financial Forum).

 

For online shopping and printable coupons, I like http://www.wow-coupons.com

[mrtravel123]

RE: Yahoo Finance for RCL stock

 

Too bad we all didn't buy 100 shares of RCL stock right after 9/11. It went to below $10 per share I believe. Today it closed at over $53 a share. Yahoo Finance is great. I don't think many people know how many features Yahoo provides. I've programmed my Yahoo account to send text messages to my cell phone for drops in airfares, increases/decreases in stocks prices, etc. I also securely store photos and documents w/ Yahoo that I can convenienty access when I'm away from home. Yahoo is great.

 

.

[sherry7]

RE: Yahoo Finance for RCL stock

 

Too bad we all didn't buy 100 shares of RCL stock right after 9/11. It went to below $10 per share I believe. Today it closed at over $53 a share. Yahoo Finance is great. I don't think many people know how many features Yahoo provides. I've programmed my Yahoo account to send text messages to my cell phone for drops in airfares, increases/decreases in stocks prices, etc. I also securely store photos and documents w/ Yahoo that I can convenienty access when I'm away from home. Yahoo is great.

 

.

 

 

Interesting...I didn't know Yahoo could do all of that.

 

That's amazing that RCL stock dipped THAT low after 9/11. I wouldn't mind being the owner of several thousand shares. :D

[mrtravel123]

sherry7,

 

i looked at the two websites you posted. those are really cool. i'm a sucker for really good deals, etc. i noticed on the fatwallet that you can tell the post office to hold your mail via online now & there's a lot of other good info.

 

if you ever wanted to set up alerts with yahoo it takes a little extra effort. but, it's pretty cool once it's up and running.

[TPKeller]

I suppose everyone already uses it, but nobody mentioned it, so I will... :)

 

http://www.google.com/ is probably the most all around useful web site out there. Google seems to know everything, if you can figure out the right way to ask.

 

On a less well traveled note, not as many people know about Google News. That is at http://news.google.com/ This site uses the Google search engine to scan hundreds of news sources across the internet. This is a very good way to get the absolute latest information on big breaking news stories, if you sort the results by "date" rather than "relevance".

 

And even better, Google News Alerts. That can be found at http://www.google.com/alerts

 

You set up a search, entering your criteria, how often you want to search, and they will send you an e-mail when new stories or web pages are discovered. I use this for some fairly specific searches on some medical issues, and have found it to be very helpful. Saved me from having to do manual searches every few days when it was very important for me to be aware of any new stories or developments on certain things.

 

It was briefly mentioned before, but I've seen no better source of information for movie fans than http://www.imdb.com (the Internet Movie Data Base). Everything you'd ever want to know and more about any movie or TV show.

 

Theron

[TERRY223]

Cruisemates.com & Cruiseclues.com:p cruisecritic is begining to slip, too bad too:(

[bs_kc]

ebay.com to buy everything that I don't needQUOTE]

 

There is also:

http://www.deal.com/dailydeal.aspx

http://www.woot.com/

 

I use http://www.imdb.com/ all the time while watching TV. It drives my family crazy!

[darchibald]

http://www.doodie.com

 

http://www.emotioneric.com

 

http://www.droodles.com

[Marysunshine]

http://www.talkvegas.com

http://www.Flyertalk.com

[lanabanana]

Seems like this should be revived. I find this VERY informative!

[EggDropErin]

1. Cruisecritic (obviously!) :)

2. aaa.com (excellent driving directions WITH the latest road construction!)

3. ebay.com (I love looking at the weird stuff on there)

 

 

As for the other two, I'm not at home to consult my bookmarks. LOL

[TxShipShape]

I use most of the ones listed. I also go to one called

www.kellylanemall.com

Its laid out like a shopping mall and has several travel clothes and luggage sites listed on it. Watch the little man change color when every you go into a store.

[QuitMyDayJob]

www.refdesk.com

 

Great source for all kinds of information.

[nfused2cruze]

I just posted this on another thread!

 

Reading is fine but sometimes you just want to see pictures.

I recommend this website with pictures by a person who takes good pictures.

The pictures on this website are of different ships. Very, very few if any,

pictures of people, ports, excursions, etc. – just all around the ship.

Check it out, then read.

 

http://public.fotki.com/bdb36/