If you are a looking for cheap flights from the UK, hotel reservations anywhere in the world, worldwide car rentals, holidays, or want to buy travel insurance online - try one of the following recommended sites where you can compare airfares to find the cheapest flight, book a hotel or car hire online and much more!

General [Airline Tickets, Hotels, Car Hire and Holidays]:
• Opodo UK - Flights, Hotel Reservations and Car Hire.
  Opodo is an online travel service backed by nine of the world’s leading airlines offering flights, hotels, car rental and holidays. Opodo provides access to flights from over 400 airlines, as well as an extensive range of worldwide hotel properties and car rental companies, as well as travel insurance. Opodo is backed by: Aer Lingus, Air France, Alitalia, Austrian Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, KLM and Lufthansa and gives access to over 400 airlines, over 54,000 hotel properties and over 23,000 car rental locations worldwide.

• OneTravel - Flights, Hotel Bookings and Car Rentals.
  Hotels, Flights, and Car Rental Bookings. Voted "best bargain booker" by Yahoo Internet Life; this is a well established site offering some good deals. Prices are quoted in US dollars, as the site is US based, but you can book flights from the UK too. Hotel reservations are available for over 53,000 hotels worldwide.

• TravelSelect UK - Flights, Hotels, Car Rentals and Eurostar.
  Search and compare airfares online at this UK travel site. Also offers hotel reservations, car rental and Eurostar tickets. Whether you are looking for a cheap flight to Australia or a hotel in Amsterdam, this is a good place to start. Click on 'special offers' for bargain flights and late deals.

• Sky Deals - Flights, Hotels and Car Rentals.
  With thousands of flights live on one site, Sky Deals is one of the UK's leading flight specialists. As part of the Thomson travel group it offers specially negotiated airfares on hundreds of scheduled and charter airlines.

• Expedia UK - Flights, Hotel Reservations and Car Rentals.
  This large and very popular travel site offers a wide range of flights from uk airports, and hotels, as well as late deals on package holidays, Last Minute Flight and Hotel deals and city breaks. Expeedia UK is a good place to search for a cheap flight to Spain in bargain flights or a holiday in Malaga, in the holiday shop. Recently rated the best site on test for flight and hotel packages by the Sunday Times who said that for short break packages the site had "...the best range of destinations and hotels by far, excellent flight options and an imaginative range of extras." See the best deals section for offers on flight tickets and hotels.

• Ebookers UK - Flights, Hotel Reservations and Car Rental.
  Flights, Holidays, Hotels and Car Hire. Another popular site, (previously known as flightbookers.com) offering discounted flights and holidays online. A good place to look for that cheap flight to Amsterdam or New York, this site offers flights from all UK airports and specialises in discount fares.

• Lunn Polly.
  Lunn Polly, the UK's number one travel agent, offers over 3 million holidays, including over 60,000 late deals, provided by top UK tour operators. Lun Polly is part of TUI UK, previously the Thomson Travel Group. The website promotes deals and brochure content from top UK tour operators, including Thomson, JMC, First Choice, Airtours, Kuoni, Cosmos, Unijet and Virgin. Users have access to comprehensive resort and destination information to help them book their ideal holiday online. Regularly updated selection of over 60,000 late deals, offering a superb range of last minute holidays.

• Priceline UK - Airline Tickets, Hotel Rooms and Car Hire.
  If you are flexible about when you travel or where you stay; you can use Priceline to name the price they want to pay for airline tickets, hotel rooms, and car hire and see if your offer is accepted! Priceline UK works with one of the travel industry’s largest collections of travel suppliers, including 34 airlines; over 7,000 hotel properties in Europe, the U.S., Mexico, the Caribbean and Canada, and several of the world’s largest car hire companies. Through its supplier relationships, many of them being exclusive, Priceline is able to secure special savings for its customers. Also, Priceline does not publish its prices, which means suppliers can privately sell their products on priceline.com at even deeper discounts knowing that it won’t affect their retail prices or sales.

  With Priceline airline tickets, customers name their price, and agree to fly on a major airline at the times when the airline has empty seats. With Priceline hotel rooms, customers select the dates of their stay and the price, and agree to stay in any major-brand hotel, as long as it has the quality rating they want and it is in the area of town they want. With Priceline car hire, customers choose the dates and specific type of car they fancy, and agree to use whatever major car hire company accepts their offer.

• 
  Carrying more than 17 million passengers each year KLM is the 4th largest airline in Europe. They offer flights from the UK to 500 destinations worldwide (via Amsterdam) departing from 15 UK airports. Special fares are available when you book directly with KLM online.

• Virgin Atlantic Airlines
  Virgin Atlantic is the second largest long haul airline in the UK and the third largest European carrier over the North Atlantic. Their route network has grown rapidly to include destinations in the US, Caribbean, Far East, India and Africa. Current online deals include flights to New York from £197 return; flights to Hong Kong from only £292 return; fly to Johannesburg, South Africa from £488 return or Cape Town from £538 return.

• Air France - Flights from 8 UK Airports
  Air France, the third biggest worldwide airline, offers more than 35 daily scheduled flights out of the UK, serving 8 Airports (Manchester, Heathrow, Gatwick, Newcastle, Glasgow, Birmingham, Southampton and London City Airport). See the special offers section for low prices on flights to Paris, good deals on long haul flights from the UK to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa; as well as to a number of USA airports including New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.

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  Online Hotel Reservations:

• Active Hotels - UK Hotel Reservations.
  Special offers on a wide range of hotels in the UK and France. Active Hotels represents major hotel chains, unique independent hotels, guesthouses and bed & breakfast accommodation in popular destinations and all with real-time, confirmed online reservations. Top UK Destinations include Alton Towers; Brighton; Birmingham; Cambridge; Cardiff; Edinburgh; Glasgow; the Lake District; Liverpool; London; Manchester; Newcastle; Norwich; Oxford; Stratford and York.

• OneClickTravel.com - Online Hotel Reservations.
  Hotel Reservations. A user-friendly site offering online hotel reservations in the UK, Europe and worldwide. Special internet rates are available with discounts of up to 70% on offer.

• Hotelopia UK - Online Hotel Reservations
  Part of First Choice Holidays PLC; Hotelopia offers both business and leisure travellers accommodation from budget to five star at reduced rates at over 9,000 properties in more than 500 destinations in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia. Popular choices include hotels in Spain, Turkey, Portugal, Malta, Mexico, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.
  

• Accommodation Line - Online Hotel Bookings.
  Accommodation Line was founded in 1993, with the aim of enabling travellers to find and book hotels as closely suited to their requirements as possible. Accommodation Line now has contracts with over a thousand hoteliers, ranging from small family run and budget accommodation to international chains running five star hotels. All of the hotels featured have been individually chosen and undergo regular quality control inspections; Accommodation Line is a member of ETOA (European Tour Operators Association) and BITOA (British Incoming Tour Operators Association). The fact that they are an independent company also enables them to provide unbiased and honest advice on accommodation. Special offers include 3 nights for the price of 2, 4 nights for the price of 5 or 5 nights for the price of 6 - on selected hotels worldwide.

• CnG Hotel Reservations is the largest online hotel booking service in Europe and provides realtime online hotel reservations. CnG negotiates discounted room rates that are cheaper than the normal hotel rack rates charged to direct customers. This means that you can benefit from hotel room prices at up to 60% less than normal. To book online, just read the hotel descriptions and prices, view the photos and then choose the hotel that interests you most.

• Venere Hotels - this site has a user-friendly online hotel directory and booking engine for hotels in all major European destinations. The site features a variety of accommodations - from 1 star to 5 star hotels, B&Bs, villas and apartments. Registered users can make book hotels online via the Internet or a WAP-enabled mobile phone, receive up-to-date room information, pricing and availability, and gain access to Venere's database of over 26,000 hotel properties. Particularly good for hotels in Italy.

• All Hotels - Online Hotel Reservations.
  Based in Edinburgh, this attractive and easy to use hotel reservations site offers over 60,000 hotels worldwide to choose from.

• Corus and Regal Hotels - UK Hotel Chain
  UK Hotels. With over 80 hotels in the UK, ranging from Scotland to the West Country, Corus and Regal hotels are one of Britains largest hotel groups. Whether it’s a weekend break or romantic getaway you're looking for, there's bound to be a Corus and Regal hotel somewhere nearby to fit the bill. Hotels range from historic coaching inns and manor houses to modern city centre hotels and secure online reservations are available. They also now have hotels in Australia and hotels in Malaysia.

• Jarvis UK Hotels - UK Hotel Chain
  UK Hotels. This well known UK hotel chain offers online bookings for all their hotels. They have hotels in Brighton, Edinburgh, Leeds, London, Manchester, York and other popular UK cities.

• Jurys Doyle Hotels - Hotel Chain
  The Jurys Doyle Hotel Group operate, 3, 4 and 5 star hotels throughout the UK, Ireland and in Washington DC, USA. Their Ireland hotels include nine Jury Hotel Dublin properties, as well as Jury's Inn hotels in Galway, Limerick and Cork. Their UK hotels are the Jurys Glasgow Hotel, Jury's Inn Edinburgh, Jury Inn Manchester, as well as hotels in Newcastle, Cardiff, Bristol and London.

• London Hotels
  London Hotel Reservations. A guide to hotels in London, with secure online reservations. Recommends London Hotels in every price range - from budget accommodation to London's best luxury and hip boutique hotels.

• Planet Holiday - Hotels in Asia
  Offers good discounts on hotels and resorts in Thailand; Hong Kong; Singapore; Malaysia; Bali; China; The Maldives; Laos, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia. A good place to save money on Maldives hotels and resorts, as well as hotels in the big cities across Asia.

• CityBreakaways
  European city breaks by Eurostar to Paris, Disneyland, Lille, Brugges, Brussels, Antwerp and Amsterdam, with a range of hotels from 2 to 5 star. All hotels have been individually inspected for charm, location, value and quality. Thanks to Eurostar, London has never been closer, with Paris, Brussels, Lille and onward destinations all within 3 hours travel time.

• The Good Bed and Breakfast Guide (Book)
  An excellent guidebook from Which? (Consumers Association). Recommends bed and breakfast accommodation throughout England, Wales, Scotland, the Scillies and the Channel Islands.

  Travel Insurance:

• Columbus Direct Travel Insurance
  Columbus Direct UK is a leading travel insurance specialist, established in 1988. By selling direct to the public, they cut out the middle man and save their customers up to 60% in commissions charged by other providers.

• Go Sure - Travel Insurance Online
  Travel Insurance. An entirely Internet based UK travel insurance company aiming to offer excellent online products at highly competitive prices. Offers cover from one day to annual travel insurance policies, with single trip; multi trip and backpacker travel insurance also available. A great way to save money with cheap travel insurance.

• 24DrTravel.com Travel Insurance
  24DrTravel provides travel health news and alerts with a full range of travel insurance for the well prepared traveller.

• Essential Travel UK - Travel Insurance
  Offers a quick and easy 5 step process to buy travel insurance online.

• Lloyds TSB Travel Insurance
  Book online to save 9% off normal premiums with annual and single cover available, as well as a Winter Sports option.

  
  Car Rentals > Where to hire a car on the web:

• Car Rentals
  A new car rental booking portal, designed for both leisure and business travellers. Through agreements with service partners including Alamo, Hertz, Budget, Thrifty, Europcar and others; they offer a choice of over 4,000 rental locations worldwide. Visitors to the website can use the online booking facility to instantly check and compare rental prices from all of the featured service partners, before progressing to online booking of your preferred car and rate.

• Holiday Autos
  The world’s largest online car rental broker with fully inclusive car rental in over 4000 locations in the UK and worldwide. Being a broker, holiday autos is able to select the best suppliers in each of its 4,000 locations worldwide, ensuring its quality of service, standards of safety, and value for money remain consistent.

• Travel4Less
  (part of lastminute.com plc) offers internet users access to great value deals on flights and car rentals. User friendly and secure online booking with competitive prices for flights and car hire rentals worldwide. travel4less is a fully bonded tour operator and airline consolidator offering car hire, tailor made holidays, discounted flights and independent travel arrangements to Europe, the USA, Canada, The Far East, Australia, New Zealand, The South Pacific, The Caribbean, Dubai and Round the World. Discounted worldwide car hire with suppliers such as Hertz, Alamo, Budget and Europecar.

• Auto Europe
  An excellent site, particularly for car hire - you can rent a car from over 4,000 car rental locations worldwide. The site also offers chauffeur and transfer services; prestige and sports car rentals; and motorhome rentals.

• Avis Car Hire - the second largest car hire company in the world with more than 5000 locations around the globe. Get a quote and book online in four easy steps. Readers of the Daily Telegraph newspaper recently voted Avis Car Rentals as the "Best Car Hire Company 2003".

• Sun Cars - Online Car Hire
  Part of the First Choice Holidays group of companies, Suncars is one of Europe's leading car rental brokers, providing quality, low cost car hire throughout the world at major cities, airports and holiday resorts. Customers receive an instant £5 discount when booking online.

• Car Hire and Van Rental - USA and worldwide
  Car Hire and Van Rentals. Compare prices from all major car rental companies at this site, including budget car rental; national; avis; alamo; hertz and others. Offers car rentals in almost every country - just type in the city or airport name.

  Self Catering Holiday Cottages and Apartments:

• Cottages 4 You - Holiday Cottages in the UK, France and Ireland
  Self catering holiday accommodation. Offers over 9,000 inspected holiday cottages for rental throughout the United Kingdom, France and Ireland. Whether you are looking for a holiday cottage in Cornwall; Devon; the Lake District; Scotland; France or Ireland [and other popular destinations], you can check availability and book online at this site. Short break (weekend bookings) and weekly stays are available for most holiday cottages.

• Next 6 Weeks - Last Minute Holiday Cottages, UK and Ireland
  next6weeks.com sells last-minute availability for cottage holidays in the UK and Ireland. Ideal for short breaks at short notice – plus all properties featured are privately owned, so prices are lower and much more competitive.

• 
  Offers a large choice of holiday homes, with more than 20,000 different accommodation options. The holiday homes are situated from Austria to the Algarve and from Catalonia to Corfu. The site checks the availability of the accommodation on-line and customers can either pay online or offline.

  
  

  

  
  Free Holiday Brochures:

• Bales Holidays
  Bales offer tailor made holidays and tours from Alaska to Zimbabwe, from Canada to the Galapagos, and Tibet to the Taj Mahal, offering a mix of the popular and unusual. Free brochures are sent out by 1st class post, next day if requested before 4pm.

• Brochure Bank
  Brochurebank is the UK's leading distributor of online holiday brochures and you can order up to 5 brochures free of charge. Free brochures from most of the popular travel companies; including: Club Med; Brittany Ferries; Eurostar Timetable and Fares 2004; Crystal Holidays; Explore Worldwide; Italian Cookery Holidays 2004; Fred Olsen Cruises; Mark Warners Summer 2004; Kuoni Holidays and Virgin.

  Currency Converter:

• Currency Converter
  Online Currency Converter. A very useful free online tool for travellers. Instantly convert any currency - online.

  Train Timetables and Rail Tickets:

• Eurostar
  The high-speed train service linking London, Ashford, Paris, Brussels, Lille, Avignon, Calais, Disneyland Resort Paris and the French Alps. You can also reach over 100 more destinations across France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany with Eurostar Connections. A fast and efficient way to travel - particularly from London to Paris or Brussels. Plan your journey and book Eurostar tickets online

• Q Jump - UK Rail Tickets
  Book train tickets online for any UK destination at Qjump UK. You can reserve seats on-line and the train tickets will be posted to your door.

• Railtrack - Train Timetables
  Check train timetables, journey duration and related information at this site.

• TravelSelect -EuroStar Tickets
  Online booking for Eurostar tickets from London to Paris; Brussels; Lille; Disneyland Paris or Calais.

  Coach Tickets:

• National Express
  With services to over 1200 destinations, this scheduled coach network offers the best value way for those on a budget to travel throughout the UK, to airports and to Continental Europe. The National Express site offers a journey planner with coach times and fares, online bookings and printable e-tickets. If you're aged 16-25, a full time student or over 50 then you can enjoy the benefits of a Discount Coachcard, giving you savings of up to 30% on many National Express coach journeys.

  Other Sites:

• Worldwide Destination Guides
  Online guides to hundreds of cities worldwide with information on restaurants and bars, museums and galleries, tourist attractions and sightseeing, sports and recreation, shopping, local events and festivals.

• Edinburgh Hotel Guide - Online Reservations
  Voted favourite UK city by readers of the Guardian and Observer newspapers in 1999/2000/2001/2002/2003 and best UK city 2001 by Conde Naste Traveller readers, Edinburgh is a popular year round destination. This guide to hotels in Edinburgh also offers links to information on Hogmanay celebrations, restaurants and things to see and do.

• BBC Travel Website - offers lots of useful information and articles, including information on time zones, tips for avoiding jet lag, comfortable flight tips, solo travellers info, travel message boards and an A-Z of destinations.

• CompetitionsCafe.co.uk: Win a free holiday!
  A guide to UK online competitions and free prize draws. Prizes on offer include a number of holidays and flights.

• Sherpa Holidays
  Specialists in walking and cycling holidays, in Europe, Africa, South America, and the Himalayas. Tours to suit all levels of ability from a gentle ramble to a Himalayan expedition.

• Realworld Travel
  Whether it is a safari on the plains of Africa, or a trek in the mountains of Nepal, whether you enjoy archaeology or whale watching, whether you want comfort or don´t mind roughing it a bit - try this site. You can choose from one of their private tours holidays for your own private group of two or more offered in conjunction with specialist tour operators from around the world. Otherwise they can tailor-make your an itinerary to exactly suit your requirements.

• GolfBreaks.com : Golf breaks in the UK and Europe.
  Golf Breaks at over 100 top golfing venues around the UK and Europe with tailor-made golf breaks at discounted prices and last minute special offers.

• amazon.co.uk : Travel and Holiday Books.
  A huge selection of travel writing, travel guidebooks and fiction for holiday reading - with savings of up to 50% and fast delivery.

• Maps - Mapquest UK
  Probably the best of the sites offering online maps and driving directions. Or try the excellent streetmap.co.uk which also offers aerial photographs.

• Weather - Met Office
  Get the latest weather forecast for the UK as well as forecasts for the rest of the world.

• Travel Advice - UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office
  Excellent advice for UK citizens on safety, visas, health, local laws and customs, etc - for individual countries around the world.

• UK Public Transport Information
  A very useful resource, covering all travel by rail, air, coach, bus, ferry, metro and tram within the UK, (including the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Northern Ireland) and between the UK and Ireland. Plus all rail, ferry and coach travel between the UK and mainland Europe.

• Magellan's Travel Gear and Accessories
  Magellan's Travel features luggage, travel accessories and clothing to buy online.

• TimeOut European Breaks by Budget Airlines [Book]
  A brilliant idea and a bargain at just under five quid - this new guide from Time Out features mini-guides to all 80 destinations flown to by the budget airlines: Easyjet, Ryanair, bmibaby, Buzz, Go and Virgin Express. It covers well-known cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, Paris and Rome alongside some places you've never heard of but turn out to be well worth a discount ticket: Aarhus and Esbjerg in Denmark, Murcia and Jerez in Spain, Brescia and Alghero in Italy, Limoges and Caen in France.

  Each destination includes an overview with the most interesting sights/areas picked out; selected hotel, restaurant and bar recommendations (and clubs, if there's a scene); shopping tips, flea markets, the best/strangest/wildest festivals and events plus some basic contacts (tourist offices, net points, taxis, police stations), and features on the best beaches and modern architecture. There are thumbnail maps, star ratings and a quick-reference Q&A on the high and low points, along with an information box of flight and airport information. Highly recommended. A similar book, the more detailed Fly Europe: The Complete Guide to Budget Airline Destinations is also recommended for information on dozens of budget airline destinations.

• Linguaphone - Language courses
  Linguaphone is a world leader in self study language learning and offers over 500 courses in every format (CD, cassette, CD ROM, book and now online etc) including the world's first online French and Spanish courses.

• Essential travel tips and advice
  On how to book a holiday, what to take and how to protect your home while you are away.

1. Multimap.com
   
2. easyJet
   
3. Expedia UK
   
4. Streetmap.co.uk
   
5. lastminute.com
   
6. RyanAir
   
7. Opodo UK
   
8. The Automobile Association UK (AA)
   
9. British Airways
   
10. National Rail

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