5 Travel Websites You Might Not Know About

With hundreds of travel websites available on the internet, how do you know which ones offer the best advice? Sure, there's always the "go-to" websites like TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Orbitz but what other websites should you be checking? Travel+Leisure magazine put travel websites to the test and came up with their list of 45 "must" bookmark websites. Here we take a closer look at five.

Travel websites - www.airfarewatchdog.com
Airfare Watchdog is a great travel website to find the lowest airfares on the market. Some of the ways they do this include: 1) checking seat availability; many websites promote low airfares but limited seats are left on the flight. If inventory is extremely low, Airfare Watchdog doesn't list it. 2) They list Southwest and Allegiant airlines, known for their low airfares, but other travel websites don't list them. 3) They only list fares that are reasonably priced. That's just a few of the reasons why Airfare Watchdog can provide low rates. Before purchasing your next airline ticket, check www.airfarewatchdog.com first. Your pocketbook will be glad you did.

Travel websites - www.tripkick.com
Similar to www.seatguru.com, TripKick directs travelers to the best guest rooms available at a number of hotels and resorts. Features of the website include: rooms to request; traveler reviews; room comparisons for quietness, views, bathroom features and corner rooms; room categories; and hotel features. This is a great website for first time visitors to hotels and resorts ensuring that you have a pleasant trip with a hotel room that meets your specifications.

Travel websites - www.cruisecritic.com
I'm happy that T+L recognized this awesome travel website. When we were preparing to go on our first cruise, I perused the Cruise Critic website practically every day. You'll find thousands upon thousands of cruise reviews, tips, advice and news. The interactive community is a great place to see who else will be traveling on your particular itinerary, what port excursions are best to book and why. Another great feature on Cruise Critic is the Cruise Deals channel. Here you'll find travel deals for various regions and departure dates. If you're in the market for a cruise, or if you've recently booked a cruise, visit Cruise Critic to stay abreast of what's new in the cruising world.

Travel websites - www.thebathroomdiaries.com
The Bathroom Diaries is the world's largest database of restroom locations available online. The website has rated and reviewed over 12,000 public bathrooms. This is valuable information when traveling to new destinations. The website covers over 120 countries which is perfect for the international traveler. How does the website grade public bathrooms? For example, Disneyland is listed under bathrooms in Anaheim. The website gave Disneyland an Excellent overall rating. Things considered in determining the rating were cleanliness, safety, handicap accessible, changing table, aesthetically special as well as celebrity sightings. They also list the world's best bathrooms on the Golden Plunger channel. A fun travel website to check out even when you're not in a desperate search for a clean bathroom.

Travel websites - www.oanda.com
Oanda is the best currency converter website around. Rates are filtered daily and based on information available by leading market data suppliers. Besides currency converters, the website also includes travel exchange rates; currency table; currency cross rates; and a currency rates comparison table. Also found on the website are downloadable apps for Blackberry and iPhones.

For a complete list of Travel+Leisure's best travel websites, click here.