Airlines

  • BravoFly is good search engine for great prices; mostly on inter-European travel
  • Cheapo Air offers the same flight on the major carriers but for less money
  • Star Alliance offers a really good and relatively inexpensive around the world fare. It’s a secret they don’t like to advertise. Asian partners include Sinagapore Air, AirChina, Asiana, ANA and Thai Airlines. All of them are excellent
  • Cathay Pacific Airlines is a Oneworld Alliance partner
  • JetStar – low cost flights from Honolulu Hawaii to many places in Asia. If you are traveling from Australia to from Asian Countries use the Jetstar Australia Site
  • Fly China – Find the best price from multiple airlines to China and many other Asian destinations
  • FlyAsia.com – Flights from the US to many places in Asia on major airlines. Good prices but you’ll have to call the airlines for upgrades
  • Air Asia – low cost flights throughout Asian Countries and Australia
  • Seat Guru – type in your airline and flight number and they will tell you the flight configuration. Great site for choosing your seats

Car Rental

  • Argus Car hire – auto rentals will give ou good prices on car rental in most places around the world.

Trains

  • The Rail Dude – This is a small German company that does a great job in train travel throughout Europe
  • The Man in seat 61 – Mark Smith has traveled around the world by train and boat and keeps a really good and informative blog. If you’re into train travel, you’ve got to look at this site.

Apartment Rentals

  • VRBO is the motherlode of apartment rentals all over the world
  • Home Away is another good site (the parent company to VRBO)
  • AirBnb – rooms and apartments worldwide

Hotels

  • HRS – Hotel Reservation Service is a great site for discounts on all classes of hotels and resorts
  • Raffles is the classic Colonial hotel in Singapore. Even if you don’t stay there, go to the Long bar and have a Singapore sling. It was invented here.
  • Four Seasons Hotel -$$$-$$$$. This is the standard of a fine Hotel chain
  • Tablet Hotels – $$$ A very good collection of interesting hotels in many destinations
  • Luxique.com – $$-$$$$ has a good selection of small beautiful hotels all over the world
  • Relais & Chateaux – $$-$$$$ Usually good for hotels and restaurants but they occasionally miss the mark
  • Design Hotels – $$$-$$$$ Progressive and state of the art design hotels throughout the world
  • Great Small Hotels – $$-$$$ Boutique hotels around the world
  • Eurobookings – $-$$$ This Dutch run hotel booking agency offers very good prices at good hotels
  • Small Luxury Hotels – $$-$$$ Usually they have good choices but we’ve had some clunkers here as well
  • WorldBy.com – $-$$$ Mostly European hotels in Italy, France, England, Ireland, Spain, Amsterdam and more
  • Epoque Hotels – $$-$$$ Good small luxury hotel group
  • JDB – $$$ Fine hotels and resorts
  • JP Moser – $$$ Deluxe hotel group

Trip Insurance

Touring Information

Restaurants and Food

  • Zagat.com Yes, Zagat has an international restaurant guide
  • The Wine Enthusiast – Wine buying guide
  • Eat a Durian. The taste might not be for everyone. The smell has been compared to turpentine, skunk spray, sewage and civet. The author Anthony Burgess famously said that munching on a durian was like eating a magnificent raspberry blancmange in a foul public toilet. Some believe it has great medicinal properties. The Javanese believe it to be an aphrodisiac. These things can grow up to a foot long and weigh up to 7 pound. It could do a lot of damamge if one bonked you on the head.

Phones and Internet Cards

  • TEP Wireless rental – rates for one country or multiple countries for very good rates
  • Cellular Abroad – good rates for MiFi rentals for good rates per country. It’s been a bit difficult to have them configure the mobile hotspot for multiple countries
  • XCOM Global – mobile hotspots for around $15/day

On line Magazines and Travel sites