I must state at the outset that this blog post IS NOT AIMED AT MY DAUGHTER--the away-at-college, now-all-grown-up one who can figure things out herself and, besides, if she doesn't know how to do something it must be because her mother did not do a good job teaching her while she was young 
.
No, this is aimed at someone who might happen to be needing to make travel arrangements to fly somewhere, say home for Christmas 
or something like that. For those people, here are a few of my favorite travel sites.
Be sure to remember to book holiday flights early. They fill up quickly, and prices may go up the closer we get to the holidays. But you already knew that.
It used to be I'd check prices on each of the reservation sites --Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, etc. And then I would go to the airlines' sites directly. Then when I was done with all of that, the prices would change and I'd have to start all over.
No longer, thanks to kayak.com. They search all of those sites and display the flight options and prices in one place. The only pricing that I have noticed that they do not provide is from Southwest Airlines. So be sure to check their site before you make a decision.
One more thing to keep in mind is the extra charges the airlines
have for such luxuries as checked baggage, refreshments, and some seat assignments.
Kayak has those fees posted as well at http://www.kayak.com/airline-fees.
Now, once you have your flight selected, it's time to go to my second-favorite travel site, seatguru.com. This site gives the dimensions and characteristics for individual seats on the airplane. They tell you which seats have limited recline, misaligned windows, and reduced legroom. If only they could tell you which seats have the screaming babies!
There's no question that your assigned seat has a lot to do with how tolerable a flight is. I admit to having resorted to some underhanded tricks in selecting seats to try to sit next to the ever-elusive empty seat.
- Never pay to reserve a seat. Can you imagine paying extra for an emergency exit row seat and then having a kid in the row behind you using your seatback for soccer practice? Unless I can assign the seats for everyone in close proximity to me, I'm not paying for it!
- When booking two seats on a flight, I'll select seats in a row that are three across and reserve the window and the aisle seat. (No hate mail, please!) If some poor soul ends up in the middle seat between my partner and me, I may have an attack of conscience and offer to take the middle seat myself. Sometimes.
- Select seats toward the back of the plane. Usually, seats fill up in the front first. This appears to be especially true for those dreaded middle seats.
- And finally, check the seating chart online the night before the flight and see if you want to change the seating assignment.
If you need a hotel for your stay (which you probably won't if you're visiting someone near and dear who will be thrilled to have you 
and will have your old room all ready for you), check hotels.com or some of the other sites. But you are likely to find the best deals by going directly to the hotel's site. I like to use Trip Advisor to get recommendations and ratings for the hotels.
And, finally, TravelZoo has a newsletter and web site with some excellent information about travel deals. If you subscribe to their newsletter, they'll alert you when an usually good deal is to be had. Maybe if the deal is good enough you'll decide to schedule a spur of the moment trip and, say, surprise someone for their birthday 
or Mother's Day, or something.
See you soon, honey.
