#adioso

My lovely Franzi sent this thing to me, and I probably misunderstood this, buuut I have to do 5 facts:

1: This is the daily routine of my brain: Phan, Tv Shows, bands, Youtube, Food.

2: I love Jumpers or tank Tops. Eww T-Shirts

3: I still wear T-Shirts tho

4: I got "mentioned" by Troye and Tyler because both like the word "Yas" Which happens to be my nickname.

OMG. I thought Kayak was already an awesome tool to find the best flight deals. >>Check out Adioso. I just compared the populated fares for a search from KUL to PUJ (for work) and there was a $1000 difference!

I just stumbled across this website, adioso.com - and it is AMAZING! Great search engine for flights.

The aim of the game with this one, is that you can put into the search bar something pretty vague and it will work it out for you. As an example, you can say you want to go from your hometown to China. You might not know what city in China you want to go to, but it will find the cheapest flights between your hometown and China.

You could also add into your search "Melbourne to china during March or April", and it will find you the best fares for this time. Very very good search engine.

It will really suit you if you are flexible or unsure what you are doing on a trip. It might also hep you to find out what cities are cheapest to fly to in terms of taxes.

One of the things I am passionate about is travel and I try to travel overseas at least once a year to experience new cultures, absorb new visual influences and break out of the comfort zone we so easily slip into. When I talk to people back home about travelling one of the common things that crops up is that they would love to travel more but say they can't afford it or think it will cost them lots of money. I try to encourage them by saying that they don't need that much money these days to get away and it is quite easy to have an amazing trip on a very small budget by using travel services online as opposed to going through agents. 

These days the internet is changing the face of travel and is making it easier and easier to travel on a budget. Next week I am travelling to Japan for 3 weeks to attend Tokyo Design Week, do some travel and to work from some coworking spaces over there. As I had a bit of break between projects I only decided last week to book it and within an hour I was able to jump online and get some great deals on flights, accomodation, rail passes and travel insurance. 

I would love more people to travel and to have the opportunity to broaden their horizons and experience the world so I thought I would share some of the great links that I have found online that make it easy to travel on a budget and satisfy your wanderlust. 

Booking Flights:

Travel agents are obsolete! I book all my flights online now which give me full control over the date and iteneiry and I can get some super cheap deals on flights. Recently I have come across some great sites that let you search and find the best deals for flights online: 

Adioso - Great Australian startup making it easier to find cheap flights anywhere. They let you type in what every you want in natural language (e.g 'find a flight somewhere warm in January for 3 weeks') and they find the best flights for that search. You can also subscribe by email to your search so if a special deal crops up you can jump on and book it in a flash. http://adioso.com

Flight Fox - Flight Fox is a site that lets Crowdsource the cheapest flights with real experts sourcing you the cheapest flights for your itinerary. You set out where you want to go and name a prize amount and people around the world compete to find you the cheapest and best flights. http://flightfox.com

Kayak - My favourite site for searching for flights (especially domestic flights) across many airlines is Kayak. Their super easy to use interface lets you search +/-3 days on any date to find the cheapest days to fly. It also has a great iPhone and iPad app that I use alot when travelling to book my flights on the go. http://www.kayak.com

Make sure you signup for frequent flyer programs with all the airlines you travel with. I often get enough points from my international travel to get free domestic flights back in Australia so it is worth registering for! 

Accommodation:

I HATE staying in hotels. Personally I think they are a waste of money and all you end up with is sterile, boring matchbox rooms where there is little opportunity to meet people which for me is the best part of travelling. 

For accommodation on a budget I normally stay in Hostels which I find and book using Hostel World. If you sort by review you can find great hostels that are clean, friendly and you have the opportunity to meet and travel with lots of interesting people from around the world.

Here are my favourite site for booking cheap accommodation:

Couchsurfing - Couchsurfing is an an amazing community of travellers around the world that let you crash on their couches or spare rooms for free. I have couchsurfed in Tokyo Japan, Quito Ecuador as well as hosting couchsurfers at our place in Melbourne. Its a great way to get a local perspective on a place and I have made some great friends around the world through it. As long as you you stay and host people that have good references it is generally a positive and safe experience and is a great way to travel on a budget.

Hostel World - Best site in my opinion for searching and booking hostels. All the hostels on there have reviews by people that have stayed there so you can be sure you know what you are getting when you book it. http://www.hostelworld.com

AirBNB - For those who want something a little more up market than a hostel, want some more privacy or want a more local experience you can't go past AirBNB which lets you rent private rooms, vacation rentals and apartments in cities all around the world. https://www.airbnb.com

Other Awesome Travel Links

Travel insurance Direct - I book all my travel insurance online with TID and it works out much cheaper than getting travel insurance through an agent. http://www.travelinsurancedirect.com.au

TripIt - TripIt is a great website and iPhone app that automatically manages all your iteneraries and accomodation and lets you sync them to your calendar. All you do is forward it your booking confirmation emails and it auto-magically gets all the date, info and times and puts them in your calendars! its like a personal secretary! https://www.tripit.com

Thorntree - Not sure of the best places to visit in a country? Looking for somewhere off the beaten track? Not sure what to pack? Then the lonely planet Thorn Tree forums have the answers. Great community of travellers that will answer your travel questions and help recommend places to go that you might not have thought of. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree

Perfect for:

Flexible travellers and flashpackers

Vegabonds with no direction or end in sight 

Finding destination inspiration for spontaneous getaways

http://adioso.com/

What is it?

Adioso is a "travel search engine for spontaneous and adventurous travellers." Simply, it's a free trip planning tool you can use to find cheap flights using broad natural language search terms such as "San Francisco to Germany mid October under $700." This gives you more control compared to other travel comparison websites (such as Kayak) which have less flexible options for dates and destination searches.

Why use it?

 To save money and travel to cool new places! This website is awesome at finding the cheapest domestic and international flights from a specified starting city. If you don't have a schedule or fixed plan, this is a must check website for finding a range of potential destinations and dates.  

One of the best features is the ability to search over a large and/or specific date range. For example you can search for flights from "San Francisco to New York in November" and book the cheapest date after seeing the exact price fluctuations over a date range. 

Problems 

The site is brand new and in "Beta" which means it's still a work in progress. Unfortunately, Adioso can be quite buggy at the moment and only searches a limited range of low cost airlines. Therefore, depending on where you want to fly, this site can be brilliant or completely ineffective. Don't worry, it's got some serious VC investor funding and is going to get much better.  

My experience with it

I've used Adioso several times in the past few months. It's definitely become my "go to" website for finding cheap flights to random destinations. Last month I flew to Thessaloniki in Greece using the search term "Berlin to anywhere next week". This ended up being 200 Euro cheaper than flying to any of the major cities in the Balkan region. So yes, this site has already saved me money and had a major impact on my travel. 

Verdict

Spontaneous travellers really should check Adioso (and Kayak Explore) when planning destinations and looking for cheap flights. Let us know in the comments if you've come across any better sites.

Similar services:

Kayak.com (Kayak Explore shows the cheapest destinations on a map)

Momondo

Skyscanner 

Hip Munk