Plan your holiday with help from the internet

The internet is a valuable tool when it comes to planning a holiday, making it easy to see what is available and find the best deal.

But just as when finding a plumber or an electrician, personal recommendations can be particularly useful when planning where to spend your time away.

In this short feature we will show you how to tap in to valuable opinions about holiday destinations from people who have actually been there.

By speaking to someone who has already visited a place you are planning on heading to you can easily get an idea of whether it is a suitable destination and plan a few excursions in advance. This is how Trip Advisor can help.

The site enables holidaymakers from around the world to post reviews of places they have visited, as well as providing recommendations for sites of interest, good restaurants and other extras that can help to make a good holiday a great one.

Perhaps more importantly, the site makes it easy to discover which destinations are best avoided and which hotels don’t live up to the brochure hype.

Take off
Open your web browser and visit Trip Advisor. The search box at the top of the Trip Advisor site should be your first post of call when planning any trip.

Type in the name of a city and a list of matching suggestions will be displayed; click the city name and general information about the destination will be displayed, although it is also possible to jump straight to relevant user reviews, holiday deals and forum posts.

There are also links to photos and videos from other users which can be a useful way to get a feel for a place before setting off.

The ‘Before you go’ section of each destination contains invaluable advice for potential visitors. From links to news stories about the location to details of vaccinations you will need, a great deal of essential information is available in this section.

When looking at hotel reviews, dropdown menus can be used to order the list alphabetically to make it easy to home in on reviews of a particular hotel, while selecting the option to order by popularity will display the list so that those with the best reviews are shown first.