Frommer's Scotland 8th Edition - To Parent Directory

THE 21ST-CENTURY TRAVELER 39Frommers.com: The Complete Travel ResourceFor an excellent travel-planning resource, we highly recommendFrommers.com (www.frommers.com). We’re a little biased, of course,but we guarantee that you’ll find the travel tips, reviews, monthlyvacation giveaways, and online-booking capabilities thoroughly indispensable.Among the special features are our popular MessageBoards, where Frommer’s readers post queries and share advice (sometimeseven our authors show up to answer questions); Frommers.comNewsletter, for the latest travel bargains and insider travel secrets; andFrommer’s Destinations Section, where you’ll get expert travel tips,hotel and dining recommendations, and advice on the sights to see formore than 3,000 destinations around the globe. When your research isdone, the Online Reservations System (www.frommers.com/book_a_trip) takes you to Frommer’s preferred online partners for bookingyour vacation at affordable prices.For much more about airfares andsavvy air-travel tips and advice, pickup a copy of Frommer’s Fly Safe, FlySmart (Wiley Publishing, Inc.).SURFING FOR HOTELSShopping online for hotels in Scotlandis fairly easy, although many of thesmaller hotels and B&Bs—especially inthe more rural areas—don’t show up onwebsites at all. Of the “big three” sites,Expedia may be the best choice, thanksto its long list of special deals. Travelocityruns a close second. Hotel specialistsites hotels.com and hoteldiscounts.com are also reliable. An excellent freeprogram, TravelAxe (www.travelaxe.net), can help you search multiple hotelsites at once, even ones you may neverhave heard of.Priceline and Hotwire are evenbetter for hotels than for airfares;with both, you’re allowed to pick theneighborhood and quality level ofyour hotel before offering up yourmoney. Priceline’s hotel product evencovers Europe and Asia, though it’smuch better at getting five-star lodgingfor three-star prices than at findinganything at the bottom of the scale.Note: Hotwire overrates its hotels byone star—what Hotwire calls a fourstaris a three-star anywhere else.SURFING FOR RENTAL CARSFor booking rental cars online, thebest deals are usually found at rentalcarcompany websites, although all themajor online travel agencies also offerrental-car reservations services. Pricelineand Hotwire work well for rentalcars, too; the only “mystery” is whichmajor rental company you get, and formost travelers the difference betweenHertz, Avis, and Budget is negligible.x 10 The 21st-Century TravelerINTERNET ACCESS AWAYFROM HOMETravelers have any number of ways tocheck their e-mail and access theInternet on the road. Of course, usingyour own laptop—or even a PDA(personal digital assistant) or electronicorganizer with a modem—givesyou the most flexibility. But even ifyou don’t have a computer, you canstill access your e-mail and even youroffice computer from cybercafes.